Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail
Levy lost track of how much time she spent, doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and researching living magic. Zeref had stopped interrogating her, and likely, his curiosity in her was gone now that he had his answers. She didn't mind right now; she had work to get done anyway. She even kept herself hidden away from the Twelve. August tried to stop by on occasion, asking if she needed anything, but she felt guilty even seeing him. In a way, she'd stolen away some of Zeref's closest allies by doing this. She'd hurt Zeref too, along with her guild. That was what made her so certain that there really was no future for her, either in Alvarez or Fairy Tail.
Rather than considering that, though, she was focused on her latest breakthrough. She'd finished reading nearly all of the journals. Now, she had her own notes, sorted and organized how she wanted them to be, to work from. It was difficult and painstaking work; Zeref had scattered all of the information vastly, and without all of the journals together, she realized that discovering the key to living magic wouldn't be possible. You'd get a few impossible variations, sure, but not the true one that had been utilized. It took some of the layout of the activation circle from the R-System, a tiny portion of the runes from the Eclipse Gate to find the living mind of someone in the past, bits of healing magic to restore any injuries that might form from the magic instantly being dumped into someone, added circles for transforming an object into a human-like shape, and so much more. Yet, it was all here and she was almost certain she'd placed together the spell Zeref had created ages ago.
Already, she'd tried a few variants. Those ended up being fairly strange. One had lacked the transformation aspect, and resulted in just a chair that rattled and fell over on its own, as if haunted. Another had just done absolutely nothing, lacking the runes from Eclipse. After that, she'd tried other variations, some transforming properly, but not waking up, others transforming and just obliterating the body with excessive magic. All of those failures had led her to this version and she hoped she'd finally managed to piece it together properly for a change.
Before each practice run, she did the same thing. She'd call August into the room, because of what little she remembered from reviving Igneel. If done properly, living magic should be poisonous to the user. That much she was certain of. August was able to counteract it, which meant she needed him near for when she finished. Like usual, he was here right now, watching as she began her next attempt.
Magic surged through her, and circles formed this time hovering over a desk that they'd been meaning to throw away from another room. The transformation happened first, shifting it into the proper form. This one, she decided, would be inspired by Zera first. Making one that looked like Zeref would be disturbing, at least for the challenge he'd given her. Yet, she'd need to do that later anyway, if she was promising to give them back to Mavis. So, with the figure of a young girl on the ground, the next stage began. The empty book in front of her glowed with a dark light, writing starting to pour out of the pages in a familiar fashion. This was the start of the tethering process which required reaching back through time to find a point in which the desired conscious was still in existence, in some form.
In the meantime, another circle formed, preventing further damage to the body while the tether was forming. It was almost like a preservation spell, if she watched it carefully. Studying that had made her realize that likely, the preservation spell was what had made the burned magic circle on Edo-Zeref's body vanish before. She hadn't let herself linger on that particular memory for long.
Her arms began to burn, and Levy inhaled slowly, seeing black markings, snaking their way along her hands. It was working, it seemed. She glanced at August, nodding at the elderly man. He moved closer, touching her arm and gradually freezing away the tainted magic with his copied devil slayer abilities. In sync, they worked until the spell was finished. Then, Levy waited, gazing at the girl on the ground.
Slowly, she sat up, blinking around with a frown. Then, her gaze locked on Levy with a faint grin. "Master, the one who granted me life, I will forever serve you." That was not what she expected. Yet, it was what she needed.
"It appears as if you've finished it, Levy." August paused, glancing towards her. "Within only four months, you seem to have found the answer that took his majesty years to find."
"I did have his notes, too. It wasn't like him, who started from nothing." August nodded, while the girl just watched them. Not wanting to really interact much with her, Levy hesitated. "Could you sleep for now or something? I'm, uh, not in need of anything at the moment."
"As you wish." With that, the girl seemed to lie down, her eyes closing. Levy didn't know if the demon really could sleep on command or not, but she wasn't about to verify either. While she hadn't planned on making her violent, there was no telling what the demon could actually do, given that this was her first successful creation.
August still stared at her, smiling faintly and shaking his head. "No, this is still impressive on its own. Perhaps you did not invent something new, but you did learn swiftly, and it is a magic that is not so simple to comprehend."
Laughing, Levy shook her head. "What, you can't understand it just by watching it?"
He smiled, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. "Well, I suppose I would not say that, either. If that were the case, then I'd be concerned if there was an issue with my own abilities, after all."
Still, he'd almost made a joke. For August, that was uncommon, to say the least. It left a small smile on her face, even though she knew that this would represent the end of a chapter here in her life and begin the start of a new one elsewhere. Levy questioned if she'd try to return to Era, perhaps. They'd be rather angry for her disappearance, but she could explain the time rift anomaly to them. It wasn't completely out of the realm of something they'd investigate, but abandoning her previous assignment for it would still be fairly bad for her reputation. If she wasn't fired for that, she'd at the very least be demoted heavily. Starting again from the bottom wasn't terrible, but also didn't sound ideal to her.
Wherever she went, she at least wanted to ensure she could move on and forget about all of this. Ever since she'd been in Edolas, Zeref had been somewhere on her mind. Whether it was in trying to pretend to be him, or trying to show him a brighter side of life, he'd become more involved in her life than she'd realized. So, taking a step back was not going to be an easy transition. It was clear that in his current mindset, Zeref did not want her and she wasn't going to push for something that'd just make both of them miserable. Much like with Gajeel before him, she'd rather let her feelings fade than try to start something that'd just be uncomfortable, to put it lightly.
"Shall I get his majesty?" When Levy stayed silent, August spoke. She really wasn't expecting him to hold true to his agreement with her, not anymore. However, she wanted to show him that she was able to meet his challenge, anyway. So, she nodded, stepping back.
"Then we make the other one. I'll contact Jellal, while you're away."
August raised his eyebrows. "Are you not concerned about the laws?"
This time, it was her turn to raise her eyebrows at him. "And did I not just break them to make this demon?"
"I suppose you have." He smiled faintly, before nodding and walking to the door. "Given the challenge he set forth, I do not believe his majesty will punish you for such a thing."
"That's kinda what I was hoping for. If he does want to…well, we have to be ready to run, even if we don't have all of the team together."
"I have the lacrima prepared already." August paused. "And I intend to remain here, in the event that something goes wrong and retrieval is required once more."
"That might be better. Giving Edo-Mavis a heart-attack about her son won't exactly make things easier to deal with."
The elderly wizard chuckled slightly, before shaking his head and ducking out the door. Levy was going to miss him, too. It was strange, how easy it was to bond with any of the Twelve once she knew them. Maybe Irene hadn't been living up to that standard, but the rest surely were. Part of her wondered what the rest of them were like. She'd only seen them briefly originally, and hadn't gotten the chance to really know them at all. It seemed like that just wasn't meant to be, she supposed.
She let out a slow breath, pulling out the lacrima. It connected, revealing Jellal on the other end. Natsu had returned, after a bit of a struggle. Whenever Igneel was concerned, he got especially unreasonable, but Levy had already seen that there'd just be no convincing Zeref to become his future self. She didn't want to force change either. Her hand drifted to her locket, closing around it as her thoughts drifted already. "Levy? Is something wrong?"
She blinked, shaking her head. "No, sorry. Just lost in thought." Jellal nodded, frowning. "I've finished learning what I need to here. By the end of the day, we'll have everything we need to leave."
"Are we coming to Alvarez then?"
"No." That wouldn't be kind, to Zeref's already frazzled mindset about the time travel mess. "We'll head to you, at least to start all of this. It'll be faster, taking August's airship."
He nodded. "Everyone is set here as well. Natsu finally arrived, as did Nab long before him."
"Yeah, Natsu took some convincing to get over there." Levy smiled faintly, shaking her head. "Either way, I just wanted to give you a heads up. You haven't been to Edolas yet, so it isn't quite so familiar to you, but if you really insist on coming, you should be prepared for it. Like, make sure you have something to hide your face and hair. The other you is a king right now, you know."
"So I've gathered." He paused, glancing behind it. "I think this may be best to leave it to those of you who already know this world. While I will see you off, the dangers of influencing this other world are too great, and I'd rather not be responsible for this plan failing. Whatever it is you seek to eliminate, that alone will be problematic enough."
"Well, I do have lacrimas to bring with me, already stored with energy for the body swap, and we'll be bringing two demons to tag along. I think we're all set to make that deal with Mavis, when we find her."
Jellal nodded. "Then it seems as if success is inevitable after all."
"With Fairy Tail, we don't usually stop until that's the case." She smiled faintly, and he nodded, cutting off the communication. That'd likely be one of the last times she called herself one of their own wizards. She didn't want to lose her friends so quickly like that. Maybe she'd just try to go to a different guild. They didn't normally take excommunicated wizards for good reason, but she hoped she'd be able to find one that'd make an exception. Maybe Sabertooth, who's bond with Fairy Tail had grown stronger recently, or Lamia Scale like Wendy had chosen during the year the guild had been disbanded.
Either way, it was a thought for another time. Levy sighed, rising to her feet and shaking her head. The door opened again, and August stood there, with Zeref behind him. The black wizard had narrowed eyes, focusing on her immediately. It was close to the first time they'd really seen each other, since she became so invested in her work. "I was informed you had managed a successful use of living magic."
She nodded, holding out the book. The name Zera was printed on there, likely because of how focused she'd been on the girl when making the demon. "It took a while, and this probably isn't the same exact variation as yours, but I did piece together something that worked." He frowned, not commenting. Pulling the demon's book back, she moved instead to her desk, holding out her notes instead. "You can see what I actually did use here, if you'd like."
Walking briskly forward, he grabbed the journal and pulled it away. He stood back near August afterwords, skimming through it with furrowed brows. "And these are…previous attempts?" She nodded, and he kept going. "I see. It took you some time to realize the connection between the journals, it seems."
"Yeah, well, you didn't exactly make it easy to see that connection." She rolled her eyes, seeing him nod. "And, as promised, I'll also be demonstrating the absence of the Curse of Contradictions."
She got up, walking over to the desk. August had gotten the dagger for her, when she thought she was getting close. It brought back some…interesting memories. Really, even what she was doing now was even closer to that moment than before. She held it in her hand, recalling what she'd done to stop him then. It had been the first time she'd been willing to go quite so far, to stop someone. Turning back towards him, she held out her wrist, moving to hold the dagger over it.
"That will not be necessary." Zeref spoke swiftly, walking over to her and grabbing the knife. He looked pale, almost. Something in his gaze was strange, and Levy couldn't quite figure out what it was. "I…you are a Fairy Tail wizard. Obviously, if you were cursed, you'd be surrounded by the death predation as we spoke. No further evidence is required."
She didn't resist at all, when he took the knife away. Yet…Levy was almost certain that she'd frightened him, somehow, with what she'd been about to do."Zeref? Are you…okay?"
He avoided her gaze. "I'm fine." The man paused, seeming to stand stiffly in her room for a moment. "So…I imagine this means you'll be…leaving for your plans soon?" She nodded. "Then I wish you luck. A plan that sacrifices so much to come to fruition…it is not one even I'd wish to see come to failure, even if perhaps it does interfere with my own plans."
"Th-thank you." She didn't expect him to say anything. Already, just seeing him brought back the same conflicted feelings—the desire to be closer to him and to get rid of his curse so that'd even be possible.
He still remained, and even August was frowning at him as well. Zeref looked away, and after a moment he let out a sigh. "You…you still miss him, don't you?" Levy wasn't certain what he meant, frowning. "My…future self. The version of me I cannot quite imagine, who…gave you that locket."
Oh. He'd figured that out. She felt her chest ache, and her cheeks grew warm, turning away as well. "I…yes, but I'm realizing that it was wrong of me, to think you could be him. The two of you remember different things, and are at different points in your lives, I guess."
He nodded. "I…am glad you understand, I suppose." Levy didn't know where to go from here. She glanced at him, biting her lower lip. Yet, something in that answer…he seemed to be more relaxed, at least. "Perhaps when you return…perhaps then, things may be different. With Neo Eclipse no longer available to me, I have begun to move forward on other plans, after all."
"Your majesty?" August frowned at him. "You did not inform me of another plan to assist with."
"Worry not, August. It…does not require assistance from Alvarez. The plan itself is simple, really." He smiled, patting the elderly man's arm. "You've been by my side for so long, and while I would grant you information if I could, circumstances require you elsewhere, it appears. The four of you who came with her…you have my permission to leave, and assist her with this for the time being. When you return, I expect your loyalty to be back where it belongs…with Alvarez."
Had something happened? Levy stared at him, her eyes wide. This was how he acted, when he first started to change. She recognized the hesitant kindness, the slight moments of wanting to trust, but not quite willing to go so far. Maybe she'd been too impatient, giving up on him. "Zeref?" She spoke, seeing him turn around. "Maybe you can't be like him. However, that doesn't mean you can't find your own path to being happy. I won't force you into anything, if you don't want it, but when I come back, if you decide you want to listen to what I had in mind to handle your curse…I'd be glad to talk with you about it. As you can already see, it isn't like it doesn't work."
He nodded, frowning at her. "You'd return? Despite the…pain it must cause you, seeing a reminder of that which you have lost?"
"I would." She met his gaze. "Because despite what I've lost, I know that the Zeref I remember was once just like you. I accepted that when I let myself love him and I accept it now, as I choose to still care for you, even if that is a care that you cannot return as he did."
"Thank you, Levy." He smiled, nodding his head. "It is…nice, I think…to be the one cared for, for a change." Zeref stayed there for a moment, before nodding and taking a deep breath. "Goodbye…and good luck. Perhaps when you return, you'll find a path that will give you the future you deserve."
Even now, he still knew her thoughts rather well. She nodded, watching him leave. August frowned at him, slowly shaking his head. "That was odd. Yet, it always is, when he is resisting growing feelings for another."
She nodded in agreement. "Well, at least he sees that it isn't entirely closed off to him, if he wants to move in that direction." It wouldn't be forced, if she gave him space and time to think. Then, he'd make the choice of if she belonged here or not. Either way, Levy would be moving forward, giving Alvarez one last chance to take her in towards the future she'd once worked so hard to obtain.
We are definitely nearing the end now. I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!