Year X686

In a forest, a 13-year-old girl was looking at her reflection in a pond and was thinking about the events that had just occurred to her and her friends and was blaming herself for it. She had very long wavy, pastel yellow-blonde hair that reached all the way down to her ankles as well as a small ahoge at the top of her head. She also had large emerald green eyes without any pupils and peachy, almost pale, skin. She was wearing a pink robe with a red ribbon tied in a bow around her neck and three blue diamond patterns with two blue triangles above around the chest. Finally, she had wing-like adornments in her hair above and around her ears but was barefoot. Her name was Mavis Vermillion.

'It's all my fault, I was careless.' she thought guiltily, berating herself. 'All of our opponents were wizards, united in a single guild. I should have thought of them as an entity, realized they were powerful foes. But I miscalculated and because of my mistake, not only did we lose but my friends were wounded. If only I were stronger…'. Before she could dwell on these thoughts, she was startled by the sound of water splashing and looked up to see a naked black-haired young man bursting out of the pond. While he looked completely unfazed at the situation he found himself in, Mavis wasn't nearly as cool with it. She quickly turned her back at him, developed a deep blush and covered her face with her hands.

"S-Sorry! I didn't think anyone would be there." she vigorously apologized. Before either of them got time to say or do anything else, a third figure emerged from the trees. This one had spiky pink hair and a scaly white scarf.

"Well big brother, I searched everywhere around here and I didn't find anything worthwhile so unless you want to eat squirrels tonight, we gotta move…" he trailed off as he became aware of the current predicament. Then his eyes trailed back and forth between his brother and the young girl who were both staring oddly at him. "What the hell am I seeing?" and that was enough to make Mavis blush and freak out even more.

"I-It's not what you think. I was just getting some water and…" she tried to explain while waving her hands in denial.

"Don't worry about it." Zeref reassured her as he was moving towards his clothes at the end of the opposite edge of the pond than the one Mavis was on. "No harm was done and as for my brother, he is mostly messing with you." he added as he started dressing up.

This made Mavis' gaze move to the younger man of the two who now had a cheeky grin plastered on his face. Seeing this made Mavis sigh in relief. However her relief was soon replaced with shock as realization hit her and her eyes widened. She missed it first because of her embarrassment but she when the pink-haired man appeared she had felt tremendous magic power coming from him, probably more magic power than she had ever felt. Yet now, no matter how hard she concentrated, she couldn't sense anything.

Little did she know, Natsu's thoughts were on the exact same line and behind his confident grin, he was really berating himself for his own carelessness. Thanks to practice, Natsu had learned to easily conceal his magic power even from very experienced wizards. So there was no way this young girl who had very little magic power could sense anything from him if he even remotely tried to hide it. The problem was he hadn't. Since there was no point in trying to hide his magic power from Zeref and the two had basically been living in exile, he didn't usually bother to conceal it. Well today his laziness came back to bite him.

By the time these two were done with their respective thoughts, Zeref was fully dressed and was waving his hand to get his sibling's attention which he did.

"It's time to go." he declared and Natsu nodded in confirmation. His gaze turned to the blonde girl. "It was nice meeting you." he said and then turned around and started walking away.

"Goodbye." Natsu said with a warm smile and a small wave of the right hand while catching up to his brother and thinking hopefully 'Maybe she didn't notice anything.'

"Wait!" Mavis called out and both brothers, who were now side by side, turned around to look at her. "You two are really powerful wizards, aren't you?"

'OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!' the dragon…thought loudly? 'I jinxed it, didn't I?' he internally sighed. Natsu and Zeref briefly gazed at each other.

"What about it?" Zeref asked cautiously.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you but we need you help. So please. Please teach us magic. There's an enemy that we have to fight and defeat." Mavis requested. There were a few seconds of silence before Zeref broke it.

"I don't think that's such a good-" he started denying, only to be cut off by his brother.

"Sure!" the pinkette answered with a kind smile that earned him different reactions from each of the two people present.

"Very well, lead the way." Zeref agreed with a sigh.

"Thank you both." Mavis thanked sincerely and happily before turning around to lead them to her and her friends' camp. The two brothers started following her but kept a distance for various reasons to the point where they could whisper without risking her hearing them.

"What are you doing?" the Black Wizard asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" Natsu replied innocently.

"You know what I mean. There are a million ways this could go wrong." Zeref supplied not really angry but mostly irked.

"Don't worry. I'll stick to you like glue and we'll tell them to stay away from you."

"Even then, how do you know we didn't just agree to help horrible people, appearances can be deceiving." Zeref warned but his brother simply chuckled.

"You spend too much time worrying about your curse. It makes you miss out on a lot of important stuff." he joked.

"Such as?" the elder questioned with a raised eyebrow, to which Natsu turned serious.

"The look in this girl's eyes as she was asking for our help. I can't speak for her friends but I can tell you that she is very kind, caring and honest person. I would never have agreed to it otherwise." he explained which was enough to convince Zeref. His little brother was a much better judge of character than he could ever hope to be. "Besides, this shouldn't take very long: you're a great teacher…well, a great magic teacher." he added and slightly shivering at some unpleasant memories. In the decades they had spent together, Zeref had taken his role as a big brother pretty seriously, making sure to educate and teach Natsu in various areas. Magically speaking, he had taught Natsu how to use Requip Magic for convenience as well as a Black Magic spell called Law in case of an emergency. He didn't believe Natsu would ever need it but better safe than sorry. Additionally, the two had made the discovery that Natsu had motion sickness. They agreed that he should get rid of it but while Natsu simply wanted to create a curse to protect him from it, Zeref insisted that he be cured the "traditional way", which was staying on a boat until his body got rid of the motion sickness. It lasted for days and when it was finally over…well let's just say it wasn't pretty.

"Me? You're the one who accepted to help them so you better assist me in this whole ordeal." he declared with a small smile.

"Here we are." Mavis told them, bringing their attention back towards her.

"Hey Mavis, you're back." a very well-built young man called out before spotting the two newcomers. He had a rectangular head with messy dark green hair and was dressed in a sleeveless top with a belt and trousers. "Who's that?" he asked with a little bit of mistrust which caused two other men to stand up and eye the Dragneels carefully.

"They are two strong mage who kindly agreed to teach us magic so that we could make our stand against Blue Skull." she explained happily which got her friends to relax a little. Then they started to introduce themselves.

The man who spoke earlier was named Warrod Sequen.

Next was a tall teenage young man with medium-length, wavy and spiked dark-blond hair; he had thick eyebrows and very prominent eyelashes. He was wearing a black turtleneck, over the top of which he wore a leather jacket with a folded, fur-trimmed collar and breast pockets on either side as well as simple pants with frayed hems and plain black shoes. His name was Yuri Dreyar.

Finally, the last man was tall with slicked back blond hair and was wearing a gray blouse and cape, dark shoulder pads, black trousers and boots as well as a black eye-patch on his right eye. He was called Precht Gaebolg.

Zeref decided it would be better not to reveal his or Natsu's name because he had sort of a bad reputation and didn't want that to get in the way. "I only have two rules. First, don't come too close to me. Second, don't you try to hurt my brother." he explained with a neutral expression that turned into a dark look at his last sentence to which they nodded frantically with a bit of fear.

Since it was already night time, Zeref decided they would only meditate tonight, much to Yuri's annoyance. All the while, Natsu wasn't paying much attention to anything that was going on as he was distracted by something he had felt. It was an abnormal concentration of Ethernano that was roughly the same size as Mavis. Yet, when he looked at it, he couldn't see anything. Even his nose and ears were telling him there was nothing there. He ultimately dismissed it as a magical flux that would dissipate soon enough. Little did he know at the time, it wasn't going to.

When the group was meditating, or at least trying to, Zeref and Natsu agreed that the former would be in charge of theoretical teaching and the latter would take care of practical training.

The next morning, the Dragneels were standing next to each other and Mavis and her friends were facing them and standing…some distance away as requested by Zeref and much to Warrod's chagrin. When he was sure they were all listening, Zeref started his lesson.

"To use magic, it takes more than just transforming the magic in your body. Unless you have strong feelings in your heart and draw upon them, it won't be easy to employ any magic." he explained. "Theoretically, anyone has the potential to learn and use any type of magic. However, everyone also has natural affinity with certain types of magics depending on their personality, which means these types of magics will be easier for them to learn and wield."

Once again, Natsu wasn't listening to a word his brother was saying. Well, he already knew all of this stuff anyway. But more significantly, he was too focused on the exact same anomaly he had felt the day before. Not only was it still there, but it was just as strong as it was yesterday. He had also noticed that it always seemed to stay close to Mavis. He was brought out of his thoughts when Zeref poked him repeatedly on his arm and his gaze instinctively turned towards him.

"Could you give us a demonstration?" Zeref requested. Natsu simply nodded and raised his right hand by bending his elbow and it suddenly got surrounded by water. Seeing this made the three men take a step back with a startled look while Mavis got stars in her eyes, literally.

After Natsu deactivated his magic, the group went back to meditating with Warrod, Precht and Yuri at the back and Mavis at the front and between Precht and Yuri. What Natsu was now referring to as "the abnormality" was located next to Mavis between Warrod and Precht. He had not voiced his concern to his brother because by this point, either Zeref had noticed it and paid it no mind or hadn't noticed altogether. Either way, this was his problem to deal with and his alone. And boy, was he determined to deal with it.

Since his traditional senses were useless, Natsu closed his eyes and concentrated trying to make out the shape it was in. After some time, he managed to visualize in his mind that the abnormality was indeed as tall as Mavis but it also had a human's shape. More specifically, the shape of a girl in her early teens. When he reopened his eyes, Natsu honestly thought he was going insane. Right where the abnormality used to be now stood a young girl with brown hair tied up in twin tails and a set of bangs over her forehead. She was wearing a short orange dress with a halter neck and lace worn over dark tights, long sleeves that wrap around just below her shoulders and flare down into large, embroidered cuffs and light brown boots. Moreover, Natsu's ears had decided to join in on the fun as well, now allowing him to hear her breathing but he still couldn't get any scent from her. Natsu now felt thoroughly confused.

'What the hell is going on?' he wondered but wasn't given much time to study the situation as Precht was surrounded by dark gray energy, effectively catching everyone's attention.

"Are those…" Mavis began.

"Ethernanos?!" Yuri finished. At this point, the same thing started happening to Warrod except the color was green instead.

"Good. You have completed the first step by awakening your magic. Keep practicing until you can summon it at will and my brother will show you how to use it tomorrow." the Black Wizard instructed.

It was now late in the evening. Warrod and Precht had made much progress throughout the day and could now do what their teacher had requested. But Yuri, much to his frustration, had not been able to reach the same level as his friends. As a result, while everyone else was already in their sleeping bag, Yuri was still meditating. When she noticed this, Mavis sat up.

"You should probably just try again tomorrow." she advised.

"Don't talk to me! I'm meditating." he answered.

"That's what you've been doing all day." Mavis countered.

"You're right." he admitted with a sigh and then stood up and began flexing. Mavis didn't really know what to make of this.

"Th-That won't…" she tried to say but Yuri started to glow of a yellow/golden color.

"Here it comes!" he declared as he continued flexing. He then rushed towards his two male friends and exclaimed.

"Look! It came to me, too!"

"Really?" Warrod asked with one eye open.

A little further into the woods could be found the Dragneel brothers. The elder had been asleep for some time but the younger was still awake as he always was since he had lost the ability to sleep. That being said, even if he had fallen, he would have woken up by now because his sensitive ears easily picked up the incredibly annoying ruckus going on next door.

'I hope when this is all set and done, I'll never have to deal with a Dreyar again.' he thought with exasperation. However, his thoughts quickly returned to their previous subject: the young girl that he used to call abnormality.

He really wasn't sure what to make of her. Once he was able to see and hear her, he began to observe her and what he noticed didn't make much sense. First, she could be seen and heard by him but not smelt. The only things Natsu knew that fitted this description were illusions and thought projections. But neither of those would explain why he couldn't see or hear her before. Even stranger, the only person he had seen pay any attention to her was Mavis who had called her Zera. Everyone else was completely ignoring her existence. Meaning they were all extremely rude or they suffered the same problem he used to.

Finally, he came to the conclusion that he did not have enough information to come up with a satisfying explanation so he would keep observing her and, if he needed to, confront her. Besides, he had other concerns.

'How am I supposed to teach them anything tomorrow?'

The next morning, everyone was standing in front of Natsu except Zeref who was watching carefully from afar, sitting on a tree log.

"Now that you know how to invoke your magic, you must learn how to make use of it. First and foremost, you should know that not all types of magics can do anything and everything. And since neither my brother nor I have the same type of magic as any of you, we won't be able to directly tell you what to do specifically. As a result, you'll all have to come up with your own techniques. The good news is that as my brother mentioned your magic type is in accordance with your personality so you should naturally be able to imagine ways to use your magic. To do so, you first need to imagine the technique as a whole, then you must focus on what you want your magic to do in that technique and finally you put it to the test. Don't be surprised or demoralized if you don't encounter much success at first. In magic, only practice provides improvement." And with that they all went to work.

Once again, Precht was the first to succeed. His first attack consisted in holding out his hand in a gun-like position and concentrate his magic in his fingers then shoot it out like a bullet. Granted, his attack merely bounced off the tree he was aiming at without causing any damage, but it was still a success nonetheless.

Then, much to Natsu's interest, Zera managed to summon fireballs in her hands.

Warrod then tried to concentrate his magic in his foot and kick a boulder but it did next to no damage.

At one point, Yuri was standing under a waterfall and when a rock fell on him, he gathered lightning in his right fist swung it at the rock, destroying it. Although Natsu was glad Yuri was making progress, he really wasn't a fan of the way he liked showing off so much.

Later in the day, Natsu overheard Warrod getting upset at falling behind his two friend and Mavis telling him that he didn't need to be as strong as them because they were his comrades. So Natsu wasn't all that surprised when he was talking with his brother and Warrod showed up stating that intense attacks weren't for him and asked to be taught support magic. The two brothers didn't even need to glance at each other to know that they both agreed it was a good idea. And so, Warrod started learning Tree Magic.

A few days later, Natsu walked in on Mavis and Zera facing each other and decided now would be a good time to try to get to the bottom of the whole "Zera affair".

"Here I go, Mavis!" Zera exclaimed as she formed one fireball in each of her hands.

"I'm ready when you are!" the blonde girl enthusiastically replied. And with that, Zera threw her two fireballs at Mavis who prepared to dodge. In the end though, she didn't need to for the fireballs suddenly changed trajectory and landed their pink-haired mentor's mouth. As Natsu was expecting, eating Zera's fire didn't refill his magic container as usual fire does which indicated her fire was fake, an illusion.

Both girls turned towards the pinkette with wide eyes but Mavis' rapidly filled with stars again when realization hit her.

"You're a Dragon Slayer, aren't you?" she stated more than she asked. Although Natsu merely raised an eyebrow at that, deep down he was tremendously shocked. He didn't think any normal human knew about Dragon Slayers nowadays.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"I read about Dragon Slayers back on Tenrou Island. It was said that they were the only wizards who had the ability to eat their own element to replenish their magic." she explained.

"But his element is water." Zera stated, confused.

"Yes and no. I have multiple elements." Natsu clarified.

"Can you show us?" Mavis requested with hopeful eyes which earned a chuckle from Natsu. Truth be told, Natsu had grown quite fond of Mavis. Her kindness, innocence and determination had gotten to him to the point where he saw her as a friend. After raising his hand, Natsu ignited it with his basic orange flames, then it was surrounded by swirling, then by thousands of ice particles and finally it emitted a bright purple energy. All the while, both girls couldn't do anything but stare in awe.

"I wish I could do that. The only magic I can use is Illusion Magic." Mavis complained with a bit of sadness. Upon hearing the word "illusion", Natsu discretely turned his gaze towards Zera and saw her flinch ever so slightly. He then held his chin in a thinking manner.

"Well, there is one thing my brother could teach you that would help. But it is pretty risky so I'm not sure it's such a good idea." he elaborated.

"Please tell him to teach me. Whatever it is, I can handle it." the fairy pleaded.

"Well, you might as well go and ask him yourself. He's over this way but remember to keep your distance." the pinkette indicated as he pointed to a direction in the woods which Mavis immediately ran towards.

"Got it! Thank you!" she called out and Natsu smiled and shook his head in amusement. He then turned towards Zera who was still there and stared at him with a knowing look.

"Since you can see me, I suppose you have figured it out by now." she stated.

"You're an illusion, aren't you" he theorized which earned him a nod of confirmation.

"Yes, I was with Mavis on Tenrou Island but I died 7 years ago during an attack by the Blue Skull guild. It didn't sit well with Mavis so she created an illusion of me to keep her company." the brunette explained.

"Okay, but there's still one thing I don't get though. If you're an illusion, how come only Mavis and I can see you? Even my brother is unaware of your existence." the Triple Hybrid questioned.

"That's because unconsciously created me. She herself doesn't know that I don't really exist. An illusion its creator does not consider as such is not visible to anyone else. I'm not really sure how you can see me though." Zera clarified then wondered.

"Well, I couldn't at first, you were just an abnormal concentration of magic. It's only thanks to my stubbornness that I was able to see you." Natsu supplied then stayed quiet for a few seconds. "You do know you'll have to tell her eventually, right?"

"I know, but I want to wait until this mess with Blue Skull is over." she confirmed but then she grew a mischievous smirk. "And don't worry, I'll be sure to tell her you were in on this." And before Natsu could react, she had vanished.

Another few days later, both Dragneel siblings were standing on a hill overlooking the city of Magnolia. Zeref was sitting on the grass while Natsu was leaning up against a nearby tree trunk.

Mavis' team had already left on their mission to "free the town" from the Blue Skull guild. At first, Zeref wanted to leave as soon as they were done with the teaching but Natsu talked/harassed him into staying a little longer.

"Why did you want to stay anyway?" the Black Wizard asked.

"We spent so much time teaching and training them. I wanted to witness what our efforts would result in." the Triple Hybrid answered. Zeref simply chuckled while standing up.

"Well, you can enjoy the show all you want but I'm not interested in seeing humans fight each other again." he declared which brought a small smile to Natsu's face. "You'll join me when it's over?"

"Yeah, I'll just use my nose to find you again." Natsu confirmed to which Zeref nodded and started walking away.

A few minutes later, a dragon skeleton that had been laying in the middle of Magnolia was struck by a blue lightning bolt and when the lightning faded was a darker shade and started moving around.

'Why do I have a funny feeling this is Yuri's doing?' the dragon wondered with an exasperated sigh. As a Dragon Slayer, it would have been easy for him to destroy this creature but it was their fight, they needed to fight it themselves.

After some time of the metallic dragon ravaging around the city, a giant blinding golden light appeared in front of its head and Natsu knew full well what it was.

'So she decided to use it to save her friends. Technically, it could work but she is nowhere near mastering it so something is bound to go wrong.' Natsu concluded.

When the light died down, the skeleton was motionless again but quickly fell apart. However, at the same time, Natsu also felt something very dark and sinister, something that reminded him of death.

For several minutes, Natsu just stood there, completely still, trying to identify what it was that he had felt. He was eventually broken out of his own trance by the sound of frenetic footsteps. As he glanced towards the source of said noise, he saw none other than Warrod running up the hill he was on. Warrod stopped in front of him, panting slightly.

"We need your help!" he declared which made Natsu raise an eyebrow.

"I already told you, I can't defeat Blue Skull for you."

"No, no, we've already beaten them. It's Mavis!"

"What about her?" the pink-haired mage asked, worried even though it didn't show.

"We…don't really know. She used a spell and then she lost consciousness. No one knows how to help her or even what she has. Please, you have to do something." the green-haired man explained then pleaded.

"All right, lead the way." Natsu consented and not a second later Warrod was running back towards Magnolia with Natsu in tow.

Inside a house in Magnolia, an unconscious Mavis was laying down in a bed that was surrounded by a dozen people including various doctors and Precht. Then Warrod came bursting through the door, getting everyone's attention.

"How's Mavis?!" he instantly asked.

"Still unconscious…" the oldest of the doctors trailed off as Natsu calmly entered the room.

"Who is this?" another doctor asked.

"He is one of the two people who taught us magic." Warrod explained which surprised all those who didn't already know. If the ones who saved their city were so powerful, how strong was this guy?

Natsu turned his attention towards Mavis and brought his right hand above her face and closed his eyes in concentration, his hand then started to glow a soft blue.

"Can you help her?" Precht asked in concern.

"Depends on what her condition is. I know some healing magic but it isn't exactly my strong point." Natsu responded.

"What about your brother?"

"He is even worse at it than I am. Besides, he has left some time ago. And even if he hadn't, he'd never venture into an enclosed space like this with so many people." After a moment of silence, Natsu's hand stopped glowing and went back to his side and his eyes opened.

"I see." he said, mostly to himself, in reflection.

"What is it?" Warrod questioned eagerly.

"At first, I thought she had spent all of her magic power on that last spell of hers thus giving her the Magic Deficiency Disease. But now I realize that it is something else altogether. See, when she used her spell, she was still far from mastering it which lead to two undesirable side-effects. The first is that it drained all of her energy, rendering her unconscious. The second is that it made her body unable to grow or mature." That last statement made everyone freeze.

"Y-You mean…" a random person asked.

"I mean, she will remain in her 13-year-old body for the rest of her life." This made many people in the room take a sharp intake of breath.

"C-Can you help her?" Precht asked for the second time.

"I can use my healing magic to help restore her energy, she'll wake up a lot sooner this way, but I can't do anything about her body. And I don't think anyone can." At this point, some people were relieved, others were depressed and Natsu just wanted to know if they wanted his help or not. Since it didn't look like an answer was coming, he just placed both his hands were the right one used to be, focused and after a few seconds the healing process was complete. Mavis would wake up in an hour tops. As he began to leave, Natsu was stopped by Warrod.

"I think Mavis would like it if she could have a word with you after she's awake." he sort of requested on her behalf. With a sigh, Natsu consented.

"Fine. There's a small lake near this city. If she wants to talk to me, this is where I will be."

About an hour later, Natsu was indeed sitting on the ground, in front the lake he had mentioned. Naturally, Zeref was going to be upset that it took Natsu so long to join him but after hearing his explanation, he would return to normal…probably.

His attention was, once again, caught by the sound of footsteps behind him so he stood up, turned around and saw a small blonde girl walk in his direction. But, much to his surprise, she didn't look upset or sad but instead grew the brightest smile he had ever seen as soon as she noticed him.

She then ran towards him at full speed and threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist, mainly because she couldn't really reach anything further up, and closed her eyes, hugging him.

As for Natsu, he was just stunned. He didn't understand this girl one bit. Eventually, he managed to recompose himself and hugged her back.

"It's thanks to you and your brother I was able to save my friends. We managed to win today, all thanks to you two." she gratefully thanked, breaking the silence that was comfortable for her but kind of awkward for Natsu. They then let go of each other and step back a bit.

"Did they not tell you what happened to you?" he asked the question he just couldn't hold any longer at this point.

"That my body is stuck the way it is now? Yes, they did." she answered, not the least bit troubled about it.

"And…you're okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be? It is a small price to pay for saving Yuri's life." she declared with a kind smile. Natsu just stared at her in astonishment for a few seconds before chuckling softly and patting her on the head lightly.

"You really are exceptional Mavis." he admired. "Anyways, I should get going now. Don't want to make my brother worry." he told her with a bit of melancholy.

"Before you go, can I ask you a question or two?" Mavis requested.

"Sure, why not?" he shrugged

"Do you know if fairies have tails?" Natsu blinked a few times, never in a million years would he have imagine anyone asking him that.

"Do they even exist? I suppose not knowing makes it an eternal mystery, a never ending adventure." he philosophically said which earned him a giggle from Mavis.

"And one last thing. Can you tell me your name?" she asked, her eyes full of hope. With a sigh, Natsu relented.

"Fine, but I can only tell you mine, not my brother's and you must promise never to reveal it to anybody." she vigorously nodded. "My name is Natsu."

After saying their goodbyes, Natsu left in the direction Zeref was, according to his nose, while Mavis stayed near the lake for a bit. A few days later, Mavis and her friends founded a guild called Fairy Tail.