Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail
Warning: This story contains spoilers for the Alvarez Empire arc of Fairy Tail (it takes place during the middle of a slightly altered version of the war, as you will see in this chapter).
Summary: Nab has refused to take a job for years, and always lingers in the guild hall. So, when the Alvarez War comes, that is where he still remains. Out of practice with his magic and mostly written off by other members, no one expects Nab to participate at all in the war. Yet, desperation drives him to act, and somehow, he manages to send Zeref away just before he could obtain Fairy Heart. Still, his out of control magic takes away more than just Zeref. Lucy, Natsu, and Levy have all fallen into the spell with the Black Wizard, and not even Nab knows where they have gone or how to get them back. With the war still raging on outside of the guild, will they be able to rescue their lost guild members before it is too late?
The war itself was becoming a disaster quickly. When Alvarez began attacking Fiore from all directions, Fairy Tail and their allies thought it would be simple to handle. Members split up, making teams to face each of the Spriggan Twelve as they arrived. Erza did well against her foes, taking down almost two members back to back. Lucy seemed to at least begin to take down another by sheer luck. However, no one expected Zeref himself to move on ahead of his army and infiltrate the guild while everyone was distracted. Once Fairy Tail members had spread throughout the country to counter the incoming forces of the empire, Zeref arrived for Fairy Heart and left his generals behind to approach from the west, not long after facing down Natsu in battle.
With Zeref inside of Fairy Tail's guild hall, things got tense fast. Warren saw him first, cutting off his telepathic connection between guild members to try and scramble away from the black wizard. Master Makarov rushed in front of the members, activating his magic and taking on his titan form in the guild hall. The roof broke as his body grew to enormous heights, crashing through walls and destroying the tables in the hall with ease. However, Zeref had simply smiled and batted him away in an instant, lashing out with dark strands of magic that threw the massive guild master into one of the remaining undamaged walls. The wood gave away from Makarov's weight, collapsing in a pile of dust and debris as his injuries started to weaken him to the point of losing his grip on his magic with his old age.
Max moved to try and aid him, sand sweeping into the room and trying to block their view. However, Zeref still looked prepared to stop it with ease. Just as Zeref raised his hand against Max, a clear voice cut across the battlefield. "Stop! This isn't going to defeat him." Mavis spoke calmly, biting her lip as she stood tensely before him. At her command, Max's magic faded away and he grimaced, looking at her with a scowl.
"Then what are we supposed to do? We can't just do nothing and let him take—"
"It is my body." Mavis spoke quietly, looking up and meeting Max's gaze calmly. "Despite our best efforts, I knew the probability of us defeating him were slim. I'd rather surrender now while my family still lives than know that I was at fault for the plan that ended their lives."
"I take it Mavis is still leading efforts to halt me?" Zeref chuckled, shaking his head at the remaining members inside. "That will not do. No, I'd prefer for my victory to remain uninterrupted by tedious wizards such as you. Leave now, and I promise to not end your feeble existences for resisting my efforts."
Mavis nodded at the others who hesitated for another moment, and with that, their heads hung low and they began to walk away. "We'll come back for you…" Laki looked determined, giving Mavis one last look. "No matter what it takes, we won't let this be the end."
"I assure you, this was never meant to be an end in the first place." Zeref smiled darkly, meeting the girl's steady glare. "No, consider this a new beginning…one which will give way to a better world for all of us."
Still, as everyone cleared out of the guild, there was one member watching the entire event that was too frozen to move. Already aware of his own weaknesses, Nab remained, uncertain of how he could possibly be useful to anyone in this situation. Natsu had failed, and despite stopping multiple members of the Spriggan Twelve, Zeref still arrived and decimated their last line of defense at the guild hall. Even Mavis had given up, and her strategies had won them every battle since the Grand Magic Games began years ago. If she couldn't plan out a path to victory, no one could. However, Nab also knew that he was the most useless member of the guild, just as he had always been. Why did he deserve to run away and survive when his own inability to act was part of the reason they were failing now?
He was crying from his hiding spot behind one of the shattered pillars of the guild. The lingering support beam was just barely tall enough to hide his form from Zeref's line of view, and he slumped over to the ground in dejection at his own lack of ability. Why had he not acted? He supposed it came down to his personality as a whole. Always, he was waiting for the right job to come his way. Really, he knew such a job did not exist. Ever since he was a child, he was prone to accidents in everything he did. His first jobs of guarding cargo, even with no attacks on the cargo, always brought him before Porlyusica for assistance. He would trip over the objects he was guarding, fall off of cliffs and break bones, accidentally slip on something on the ground and fall out of a moving train, and one time, he even had the misfortune to fall off of a bridge and into a speedily moving river, the current sweeping him away to a waterfall which subsequently proceeded to throw him off into a deep lake and almost drowned him. Even taking mundane jobs like serving or acting that occasionally arose, he found ways to injure himself and give him a concussion from falls or collisions with objects in the street. So, he had decided to wait for the perfect job, one which couldn't possibly injure him in any form. No such job seemed to exist, however.
Sitting in the guild now, Nab wondered if he had been too hesitant. Really, he had managed one job without injury to his person. That had been the only one he took as part of a team, working side by side with Loke before everyone knew he was a celestial spirit. Still, he shied away from the memory, blushing slightly at the thought as heat filled his body at the recollection. That job had really been the push he needed to remain in the guild. Yet, no one ever seemed to pay attention to such minor details, to the details of why Nab even remained as a guild wizard despite never actually working in the first place.
Zeref walked towards the bar counter, which stood in front of the back room that contained the stairway to the hidden basement. Even now, Nab trembled with fear, knowing he couldn't possibly stand against an immortal wizard with powerful death magic. No one could, really. All they could hope for was for Zeref to just go away at some point and leave them alone. Nab knew it wouldn't happen, but it was still his last lingering hope out of desperation for a way out.
Then, the doors of the guild hall burst open. "Oi, Zeref! Get the hell back here. I wasn't finished with you when you ran off, you coward!" Natsu flew in, with Happy carrying him into the room. Just behind him, Lucy followed, standing faithfully by his side just like partners always did. Nab had always hoped that job he took with Loke would end up forming such a reliable team, but it never did. He was always alone, and as such, he never could manage to find proper work for himself.
"Happy, stay back. Zeref is dangerous, and we don't want you getting hurt." Lucy was being oddly kind to Happy, but the cat did as asked and backed away nervously, eyeing Natsu and Zeref warily.
The black wizard turned around, smiling faintly in amusement at the two that had barged into the guild hall. "Did you think adding a second wizard would make my defeat any simpler? You've lost your chance and Igneel's lingering power is gone. Nothing can stop me now, not even you, Natsu."
"Oh yeah? Well, I'd say it's about time I showed you the error of your ways." Natsu grinned and pounded a fist into his palm. "We're Fairy Tail, and there's nothing that can stand in our way of protecting our family." There seemed to be a fire in Natsu's gaze with those words, as if daring Zeref to challenge his claim.
Meanwhile, Lucy grabbed a key in preparation for the battle. "And I'm not as weak as I look. Open, gate of the lion, Leo! Star Dress: Leo Form!" With a flash of golden light, Nab's favorite celestial spirit appeared in the room, elegantly dressed as always. He smiled flirtatiously at Lucy, a pang hitting Nab's heart just like usual at the sight. Lucy, meanwhile, had transformed and taken on the elegant black dress that complimented Loke's suit so well.
"A pleasure to serve you, Lucy. I'm glad I could be of service." His gaze moved towards Zeref, smirking confidently. "This time, I'll make sure we defeat this enemy before it is too late. I won't let you down."
Yet again, the doors to the guild opened and revealed another ally rushing to their aid. "And I'm not giving up yet either!" With light blue hair and a bright orange dress, Levy moved to stand by her friends' sides. "Gajeel is taking care of Bloodman and told me to go ahead. We're going to need as much backup as we can get against this one."
Yet, why couldn't Nab move? He wanted to shout, to tell them to back down. No one could win against the black wizard, not in a battle of pure strength. Even Zeref looked irritated, his amused smile fading into a scowl. "I see." He paused, gazing over them and moving to face the opposing wizards. "Then I will offer you the same deal I gave your friends from before. Leave now, and I will allow you this chance to survive this war."
"Please, just do as he asks!" Mavis moved towards the group, her green eyes wide and pleading as she moved to cling to Lucy's arm. The celestial wizard was pulled back by the thought projection's actions, startled by her words. "I don't want to watch this…to watch him kill all of you. Zeref has to still have some part of him that is good…but watching this…it'll only prove that it's gone…it'll force me to lose everyone again…" She sniffled, her head hanging low as Lucy bit her lip in hesitation.
Looking at her seemed to make Natsu's scowl deepen, shaking his head and narrowing his gaze at Zeref. "No." Mavis froze, her eyes wide. "Sorry, but for making our first master cry, I need to teach this idiot a lesson. He's gonna pay for thinking he could beat Fairy Tail like this, Mavis. I'll prove to you that we really can beat him, just like I promised I would."
"And I'll be backing you up." Loke moved closer, standing by Natsu's side and preparing to attack with golden light illuminating his hands. Zeref stepped forward, a black orb of dark magic forming and solidifying in his palm as he prepared to counter their attacks. Meanwhile, Nab couldn't tear his eyes away from Loke. That death magic was about to hit the lion spirit, the only man that had shown Nab what it was like to know the joy of a successful job. Loke was the only one who ever seemed to notice Nab, the only one who cared when Nab spoke of leaving the guild entirely years ago.
That was what finally made him move, the thing that finally motivated Nab to try and do something. For once, he had to try, even if he was injured to the brink of death for doing so. He charged out from his hiding place, shoving Loke aside as he called upon his magic. Within Nab existed the spirits of countless numbers of animals, and when Nab drew upon their spirits, one would come to possess his body and illuminate his form with its energy. That energy usually took on the shape of the animal it originally came from, but Nab was out of practice. Despite knowing it was his magic, and despite the energy taking on a red glow and growing to a massive size, he had no control. The spirit's urge to access his magic even further built up within him, and something tore free from his body. An unknown magic filled the room, opening a massive spiraling portal pitch black in color just in front of where Nab stood. He held onto Loke tightly, keeping the lion spirit from falling within, but the strength of the portal dragged anyone else nearby into its depths. As a spirit, Mavis remained unaffected, butZeref, Natsu, Lucy, and Levy all vanished before his eyes. The portal vanished as Nab's energy depleted to nearly nothing, and as he collapsed on the ground, all he could think was that he had finally managed to be useful. Finally, Nab had managed to make the enemy of Fairy Tail go away, which was all they really could have hoped for in this devastating war against an impossible enemy in the first place.
This is going to be a very strange story, just a warning. A friend and I were talking about what would be the strangest pairing we could come up with...and Nab/Loke was the result. It became a challenge for one of us to write about the pairing, and this is the result of my attempt. It was definitely interesting to try, and there will be far more going on than just that pairing...however, it is still the end-goal to make it happen. At the very least, this story will be strange since Nab will actually be a main character...and he hardly ever shows up in the actual show, so I can't say if I've written him properly or not. Either way, I do hope you all enjoy the story (despite the strange pairing) and are looking forward to seeing something a bit different and unusual within this fandom. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!