Homeward Hours
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Five – Making Enemies
"You could always call him, you know," Levy suggested, on the morning of the fifth day.
"W-What?" Lucy stammered.
"Those communication lacrima work both ways. If it bothers you so much that Zeref isn't calling you, you could always call him."
"No!"
"Why not?"
"Because… he might be asleep," Lucy answered lamely.
Her friend gave her an unimpressed look. "If he's still asleep after five days, I think he could do with being woken up."
"I know, it's just…" When that look didn't relent, Lucy spread her hands helplessly across the table. "I don't want to annoy him."
"So kidnapping is fine, but conversations are a no?" Levy prodded. "Honestly, Lucy – sometimes you act as though he's a fawn who'll flee back into the forest at the first sign of danger, and sometimes you act as though he's a murdering psychopath."
"Yes, and until I know which it is, I'm going to keep hedging my bets."
Levy blew out a long breath, flipping a strand of periwinkle hair back where it belonged. "Alright, then. I'll call him."
"No!" Lucy yelped, cradling the lacrima to her chest. "I've told you, I'm not exposing anyone else to him until I know how he's going to behave." There was a very judgemental pause. "Alright, alright. Stop looking at me like that; I'll call him. He won't answer, though."
She wasn't sure whether that would be better or worse, as she dolefully prodded the lacrima with her magic. It began to glow faintly, projecting its mental call out to its twin, which now lived in the house in the woods. It rang and it rang in the emptiness of space… and there was no answer.
Part-exasperated, part-relieved, Lucy sighed. "I told you he wouldn't-"
And she felt… something.
She wasn't quite sure what it was, at first. No words, no thoughts, no feelings. Nothing as simple as plain magical communication.
But there was something. It was ancient and powerful, vast but somehow steadying, a galaxy full of stars. In all her adventures, she had never encountered a presence like it – it was inhuman, alien, and yet it belonged on this earth more than she did. She beheld it and it beheld her, each aware of the other, two strangers who had locked eyes from opposite sides of the battlefield.
She didn't want to scare him off. She didn't want to provoke him. They regarded each other in silence, wary, hostile, predator and prey, though she wasn't entirely sure which was which. She hardly dared to breathe lest it break the stalemate, and yet she desperately wanted for it to be broken, for him to say something, anything…
And just like that, the presence was gone.
As the light of the lacrima faded, she projected, desperately, I need to talk to you, wait, let me explain-
But without the magic of the crystal, her thoughts were just thoughts.
"Did you talk to him?" Levy was asking curiously, as Lucy set the lacrima back down on the table.
"No. He didn't say anything. But… I felt him." A shiver ran down her spine. "He knew I was trying to contact him." Then, realizing the implications, her eyes widened. "And he still ignored me! That does it. I'm going to talk to him in person."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Levy demanded, not so much taken aback by her sudden change of heart as by the fact that, after five days of painstaking indecision, Lucy was already halfway out the door. She called after her: "Do you want some moral support?"
"No, I have to do this alone," Lucy called back. Then she added ruefully: "I'll probably need some afterwards, though, so don't go anywhere."
With a fond sigh, Levy sank back onto the bench and wondered how Lucy could demand such patience from her friends when her own patience was so very temperamental.
Fairy Villa, Lucy had called it, when they'd been brainstorming names, and Loke had overruled it on the grounds that it sounded like a holiday resort. Now, seeing Zeref's prison properly for the first time since they'd thrown it together, she had to wonder if that was really adequate grounds for rejecting the name. It certainly looked like a holiday home. A few more cottages, maybe an outdoor pool, and they could charge a premium during Fiore's long summers.
The house was a prefabricated bungalow, built elsewhere and transported to the site with a great deal of magic on the part of the manufacturers. There hadn't been time to design one from scratch, but the manufacturers had been wanting to update their show home to the newest model, and they'd been persuaded to sell the fully equipped old one to the guild at short notice.
Blue and white and airy, it had been painted with a sea view in mind, but the guild had taken what they could get. Besides, it wasn't going to suit its resident no matter what they did, as they couldn't afford a palace and it was surprisingly hard to find architects with experience of designing evil lairs these days.
It was nothing short of a miracle that they'd managed to get it hooked up to the town's utilities in two weeks, especially considering that they hadn't been able to explain what the house was for or the reason for the urgency. As far as the town was aware, it really was a private holiday home, built to offer a brief respite to their members who had suffered the most during the Alvarez War. Whether it was out of gratitude for the guild's defence of the town during the war, or fear of how much more damage a stressed and traumatized Fairy Tail mage could do than normal, the civic authorities had fortunately fast-tracked the request in spite of the non-existent paperwork. When Lucy thought about it, the prison break had been by far the easiest part of the whole endeavour.
No matter what it said on the town planning documents, though, there was one clear indication that the quaint cottage in the forest clearing wasn't quite the holiday home that it appeared: the gold-glowing dome of Fairy Sphere enclosing the property.
They had adapted the spell further since Lucy had used it to trap Acnologia, this time with everyone from the guild chipping in. If they had done it correctly, no living creature would be able to pass through the barrier unless they were part of the guild. Neither Zeref's curse nor any other magic he might try to wield could pierce it. Inanimate objects could pass through, as long as – and this had taken Master Makarov, Freed, and Levy the best part of a week to code into the spell – they weren't imbued with Zeref's magic, lest he tried creating any magical artefacts to circumvent the barrier.
Considering their short notice and limited funds, Lucy was proud of what they had managed to create. It was a cage that gave its inhabitant a measure of privacy while keeping him contained; one that let him retain access to his magic without being able to do anything dangerous with it. It may not have shared the aesthetic of an industrial prison, but he was no ordinary prisoner. Allowing him some independence and giving him the tools with which to look after himself meant that no one had to go anywhere near him, letting them get on with their lives and removing the risk of anyone being exposed to his death magic. Unlike the Magic Council, they had prioritized preventing him from being a danger ever again over punishing him.
That was the theory, anyway. How long it would hold up against a four-hundred-year-old genius of magic was another matter.
Still, both barrier and cabin appeared intact as Lucy approached, and that was a good sign.
Beyond the translucent barrier, all the curtains were drawn. There were no signs of life. She could have walked right up to the front door and knocked if she'd wished, as the Fairy Sphere would not block someone with the guild mark, but that meant there would be nothing between her and the man who had tried to destroy her guild once already, so she stopped behind that glowing wall.
"Zeref!" she shouted, before her nerve could fail her.
There was no response. Just as there hadn't been when she had tried to speak to him in the Council's prison.
She shook her head at the comparison, knowing that this time he was awake and conscious and choosing to ignore her.
"Zeref, come on, I know you're listening!" she tried again. "We need to talk about all this; I'm sure you want to find out what's going on. Come outside!"
Nothing stirred within the dome of light.
Instead, an answer came from the trees behind her: "Well, well, well. If it isn't Miss Heartfilia."
Heart dropping into a spiked pit, Lucy wheeled around, one hand going straight to her keys. She'd left that hellish prison far behind, but that voice still swept like spiders across her skin, still invoked memories of that horrid white glare.
Captain Brennam was emerging from the forest, no fewer than ten Rune Knights flanking him in silent solidarity. "I hope you made the most of your five days of freedom," he smiled. "You're never going to see sunlight again."
"Is that so?" she retorted.
"Quite so. The Council have authorized the immediate termination of the Fairy Tail guild. My colleagues are rounding up your friends as we speak. It won't be long before we dismantle the pretty little barrier you've got there, and take our prisoner back into proper custody. And as for you… for your audacity, and your foolish belief that the Magic Council's rules don't apply to you, you are going to face the greatest punishment it is within the Council's power to inflict. And unlike your friend the Black Mage, you are mortal."
The threat came out as a hiss. Lucy did not run from it. Did not so much as shiver. For five days she had doubted her own decision, and now here he was, the impetus for her treasonous actions, to remind her of exactly why she fought. Her way forward was clear.
"Oh?" she challenged. "On what grounds, exactly, are you arresting me?"
The Captain's eyebrow twitched. "Why, for aiding and abetting a known criminal, of course."
"You're right, I did do that," Lucy agreed. "At the behest of the law."
"What?" he snarled.
"Do you know what this is, Captain?" She held up the scroll she had convinced Queen Hisui to sign, and he snatched it from her. As his eyes skimmed the contents, narrowing further with every convoluted legal clause, she explained, "It's the first claim for secular asylum that has been made and accepted in over twenty years. You know what that means, don't you?"
A vein bulged in his temple.
"Well, I'm sure that you at least understand the political structure of your own kingdom, no? All citizens of Fiore are subjects of Queen Hisui, but practising mages have another source of authority: the multi-national Magic Council, which governs magical society all across Ishgar. The hierarchy is clear – mages answer to the Council before they answer to the laws of their respective kingdoms. Any mage who commits a crime is tried by the Council first and foremost, in accordance with Council laws and punishments."
"Obviously, but I fail to see what-"
As patronizingly as he had justified the Black Mage's punishment to her, she overrode him with her own explanation. "Over time, the laws of the Crown and the laws of the Council have become almost identical. In fact, I believe the Magical Equality Act of X750 enforces it in Fiore. Thus, at least in our kingdom, there is no conflict between the two sources of authority to whom a Fiorean mage must answer. But this wasn't always true. And, before any kingdom would agree to the formation of a multilateral Magic Council, one clause had to be embedded into its charter from the very beginning: the concept of secular asylum. In other words, the idea that, if a mage believes he or she is being unfairly treated by the Magic Council, they can apply to be tried and punished as a citizen of Fiore rather than as a mage."
Lucy tapped the scroll he was holding. "Zeref holds Fiorean citizenship as a result of his birth, and Queen Hisui has accepted his request for secular asylum. She deems his treatment at the hands of the Council to be unfair and inhumane. The Crown has therefore commissioned Fairy Tail to rectify the problem – including delegating responsibility for Zeref's imprisonment to us in perpetuity."
She let a smile spread across her face. "So, as you can see, Captain – not only have we not done anything illegal, but we've been acting at the behest of the Queen of Fiore all along. The Council no longer has a say in the Black Mage's future. You have no grounds under which to close down the guild, let alone arrest us."
The Captain staggered back. His hand flew to the hilt of his sword, as if it were somehow powerful enough to cleave legislation in two, to smash apart the cultural foundation of the kingdom. "Even if you have found some clever loophole," he spat, "your guild is still finished. Once everyone finds out who you're sheltering, no one will ever hire a Fairy Tail mage again!"
"But they're not going to find out," Lucy shrugged. "We won't tell, and the Council will order their people to do the same. They can't risk word getting out that Zeref is still alive. What do you think would happen if the Alvarez Empire learns about this? Don't forget, Ishgar only won the first war because of Fairy Tail."
"So, you're powerful," Brennam spat. "And you believe that makes you above the law- that it gives you the right to do whatever you want-"
"No, Captain!" she snapped. "What gives us the right to do this is your own actions! The blind eye of those in charge! The willingness of the Council to choose the easy option and stoop as low as their enemies, rather than upholding the human rights they claim to want to protect!"
With a jarring scrape, the sword slid into the Captain's hand. "You dare-"
"Get out of here, Captain. Now. And be grateful that we have decided to let the Council handle your punishment."
Malevolence flashed in his eyes. For one wild moment, Lucy wanted him to attack – wanted nothing more than to have an excuse to fight this man, for Loke clearly hadn't punched him hard enough as they'd escaped the Council's facility. She was almost disappointed when he turned on his heel and disappeared into the undergrowth, taking his silent Rune Knights with him.
Only when he had gone did the adrenaline drain from her system. She would have collapsed back against the shimmering Fairy Sphere, if not for the fact that she would have fallen right through it. No, that was enough playing with fire for one day. Time to go back to the guildhall, get a gin or three from Mira, and see if Zeref was more willing to communicate tomorrow-
"Clever move, that."
She started. With the Fairy Sphere at her back, she had assumed herself safe, but she had forgotten the man who now called that forest clearing his home.
Slowly, fearfully, having expended all her righteous courage driving off the Rune Knights, she turned.
He was stood only a few feet away from her, the Black Mage Zeref, on the other side of that translucent barrier. Despite the assortment of clothes with which they'd filled the wardrobe of the cabin, he was still wearing the ragged black and white robes in which he'd been imprisoned – and although they looked cleaner, they still showed the damage from the battle he'd fought against Natsu nearly three months ago. His feet were bare; his hands rested unmoving at his sides.
Merely the fact that he was standing displayed a strength he had lacked during their last encounter. However, it wasn't the sign of physical recovery, of physical danger, that drew her attention. His bearing was not that of a defeated man, not any more. This was the person who had come so close to destroying her guild, and the entire world in the process.
She knew where she stood with the Rune Knights. He was an unknown variable.
His eyes were sharp enough to cut, but his words were cool, even melodic. "You realize, I assume, that the claim for secular asylum is entirely invalid."
"What do you mean, invalid?" she demanded, without thinking, because they had triple-checked that the rules were watertight before committing to the plan, and what did a dark mage know about an obscure piece of Fiorean legislation anyway?
Enough, it seemed, to respond with that same easy confidence. "You do not have the authority to make a claim on my behalf until you have official custody of me, and your custody of me is not official without the approved claim. Whether it would hold up in a court of law is entirely dependent on whether I chose to ratify it."
"But you would if anyone asked, right? Surely you don't want to go back to that place!"
He blinked, once, slowly. "I believe I told you I had to stay there."
"You couldn't have stayed! Not with what they were doing to you; it was barbaric!"
He took a step towards her, sudden, aggressive. Darkness crackled around him. Next to it, the shimmer of the Fairy Sphere seemed very insubstantial.
"And what are you going to do to me?" he hissed.
"I'll tell you," she responded, feeling a little braver now that they were back on a topic she knew inside-out. "You're still in prison. You can't leave the Fairy Sphere. But, your house is your own. You can do whatever you want inside it, and conversely, you'll be responsible for keeping it clean and sorting out your own meals. I'll deliver groceries to you once a week. You've got the lacrima that connects to mine – if you want anything in particular, within reason, then I will bring it to you. Obviously, we're working on a bit of a budget, here. The Crown is subsidizing your incarceration, but we blew the entire first five years' worth of funds on your accommodation. If you want anything expensive, you'll have to pay for it; I'm sure you've got some gold hidden away somewhere. But," she stressed, looking him dead in the eye, "whatever you need to live, you can have it. If you want me to leave you alone other than bringing you weekly supplies, I will do. But if you want to talk occasionally, to me or someone else in the guild, that's fine too."
He stared.
She could not read him. Not at all. Not like the Rune Knight Captain who had been so open in his hatred of her; not like Natsu, who wouldn't tell her what was bothering him but couldn't pretend it was nothing. A galaxy full of stars, she had described his presence, but seeing him in person, she realized that not one of them took the form of a constellation she recognized. It was the sky seen from the surface of an entirely different planet.
And then those unknown galaxies collapsed in on themselves, a reverse Big Bang, condensing all the universe into one fiery ball of hate.
"So," he sneered. "You're just going to… keep me? An animal in a cage, for all the world to laugh at?"
"Of course not. Only Fairy Tail and the Magic Council know you're here, and that's not going to change. You are not on display. You don't have to interact with me, or anyone else, beyond requesting supplies." Something about the sheer derision in his eyes stoked a flame of rebellion in her chest, and she stepped up to the wall of light, holding his gaze fiercely. "I mean, if you want to starve in there, then you don't have to interact with anyone. But the point is, you have the choice here. The Council would never have given you that."
His fist slammed into the barrier next to her head. Black lightning crackled across the surface, but it held. "I was safe there!" he snarled. "I couldn't hurt anyone!"
"No one except yourself," she retorted. "And you're safe here. No one is going to let you out, after what you tried to do to us."
"Do you really think this will hold me?" he hissed. The red fires of hell danced and crackled in the pits of his eyes. "It is only a matter of time before I work out how to break your Fairy Sphere." Another step, until the humming barrier was the only thing separating them. "And when I do, you will be the first to die."
"Fine by me," she responded steadily. "Freeing you was my choice. If it turns out to be a mistake, it will be my mistake." And the fire with which she stared him down was all gold, all spirit, all her own. "I would ask you to spare the rest of my guild after you've taken your revenge on me, but if you kill me, you will be the one begging for mercy from the guild."
With that, she turned her back and strode off, pausing only once she reached the edge of the clearing. "When you've worked out what it is that you want, food or books or whatever, call me on that lacrima," she ordered. "Until then, you can stay here in peace and bloody well recover from what they did to you."
Only when the clearing was far behind her and she was back in the familiar streets of Magnolia did the shaking start.
What the hell had she just done?
Yelled at the Council and then yelled at the Black Mage, too. It didn't matter that she could (probably) have fought off the Rune Knights with her Spirits' help, or that the Fairy Sphere would (probably) have shielded her from anything Zeref tried. What mattered was that it had been absolutely, unequivocally stupid.
But her heart had been thumping and her limbs had buzzed with energy and her blood had run hot, a hundred times faster than her rational mind, and between all of them, the common sense upon which she usually prided herself hadn't got a look in.
So it had been ever since she had first visited the Magic Council's prison.
She wasn't sure she liked this. Usually, it was Natsu bringing the recklessness and her holding him back. Now that he'd walked away from their team, it seemed she'd been drawn in to fill that void… and that was a frightening thought.
Not least because of what it meant for once Natsu was back.
She was still trembling as she slipped into the seat in the guildhall that had become unofficially hers over the past few days. There was no way she could have fetched a drink right now without spilling it, so she was relieved – if surprised – when Mira set a nice soothing cup of tea on the table in front of her.
At Lucy's quizzical look, the barmaid smiled. "You looked like you needed it. Don't worry about the cost – the Magic Council came by to very begrudgingly tell us that we were off the hook thanks to your plan, so I can guarantee that all your drinks are going to be on the house for the foreseeable future."
"I was also the one who provoked the Council in the first place," pointed out a bemused Lucy.
"Eh, that's an occupational hazard of being in Fairy Tail," Mira brushed it off with a smile. "What isn't usual is having everything go to plan, so kudos."
Lucy tried to return the smile, but it faltered.
Something about the memory of the Black Mage promising that she would be the first to die had a rather sobering effect on her demeanour.
"What's wrong?" Mira inquired.
"I'd quite like to stop making powerful enemies now," Lucy admitted.
"Then this might be a good time to duck out of the guildhall, given the argument you got into the other day," came Mira's cheerful response.
Lucy glanced over her shoulder to see Natsu shuffling towards her table, trying to make it look unintentional and failing miserably. It seemed he finally wanted to talk. Given the way Lucy's luck – or, rather, her temperament – had been serving her recently, maybe Mira had a point… but the rather-selectively-supportive barmaid had already taken the opportunity to slink away.
Happy landed on the table beside her teacup, and she resigned herself to this encounter, looking up at Natsu with the best smile she could muster. "Hey, Natsu. You okay?"
"Yeah. Uh, Luce…" He tugged at his scarf. "Sorry 'bout the other day. It's kinda scary, actually, how you can be so wrong about some things and so right about others."
Lucy frowned at him, not sure if that was supposed to be an insult or a compliment.
Natsu added, "I guess what I'm trying to say is… do you wanna do a job with me?"
He held out a crumpled flyer, which she took with growing puzzlement. After nearly three months of forsaking the rest of Team Natsu for the most difficult solo jobs the Master would let him take, what was it about a trivial D-ranked job in Hargeon Port that suddenly required the assistance of a Celestial Spirit mage?
"The reward is a silver key," Natsu explained. "I know it's not much to someone who already has ten gold keys, and to be honest, we can both do D-ranked jobs in our sleep, but… Hargeon's where we met, and… I thought it would be kinda like old times, you know?"
Slowly, a smile began to dawn upon Lucy's face. "I do know," she murmured softly. "Thank you, Natsu. It means a lot to me."
She looked at him and he looked at her, properly, for the first time since the Alvarez War had ended. There were sleepless nights in the shadows under his eyes and a nervousness so familiar to her – though so uncharacteristic for him! – in the way his hand kept twitching at his scarf, and she-
"They're in loooooove," Happy sniggered.
"Shut it, cat!" Lucy snapped automatically, not realizing until that moment how much she'd missed it, missed them, missed the very normality they had fought that war to protect. "Or you won't be invited."
"Oooooh." Happy sounded even more delighted by this prospect – probably because of all the gossiping he and Mira would get to do while they were away – and it was all she could do not to roll her eyes.
"Whaddya think, Luce?" Natsu asked.
"Honestly, Natsu? After the calibre of enemies I've managed to make in the last week, I think a nice, easy D-ranked job sounds perfect."