"Hey ginger, where's Levy?" was the only greeting I received as I walked into the dusty old shack, taking my seat between Quentin and Dylan.

"She told me to go on ahead today, and for the last time, quit calling me ginger, Dylan!" I groaned tiredly. As much as I wanted to give that dweeb a taste of his own medicine, I'd decided long ago not to sink to his level of name-calling.

And as usual, he ignored me.
"Oi hippy, have I got her colours right yet?" he addressed the other boy before adorning a focused expression. His hair gradually darkened into an orange colour from the roots upwards, while an emerald green colour started enveloping the brown in his eyes.

Before I knew it, Quentin's hands had gripped onto my shoulders to keep me still as he compared my colours to Dylan's magic.
He smirked as I rolled my eyes at the colour mage's futile weekly mission.
"No chance peacock, you'll never get it right." Quentin teased the other boy, earning a punch in the face.

I had to steady both him and myself seeing as he was still holding my arms. Honestly, I think I was the one who was prone to the most danger when I got in the middle of their fights.

"No way! I've totally got it now!" Dylan announced, confusing me when he stood up straight, shooting me a cheeky smile before clearing his throat and talking in an oddly high voice, "Hey, look at me! I'm Alice and my idea of company is a weird snowman!"

My jaw fell in exasperation when I realised what he was doing. Meanwhile, Quentin had released a roar of laughter.

"I have a short attention span but if you state the fact I'm ginger, I'll manage to spend the next three hours lecturing you on how rude you- HEY! OUCH!" he finally stopped his crude imitation of me when I grabbed his ear. To my relief, his hair and eye colour instantly switched back to normal.

"Holy shit, now that was spot on!" Quentin commented once he'd stopped chuckling.
I wasted no time in grabbing his ear as well.
"Hey, I didn't do anything, it was the chameleon!" he argued, putting his hands up.

"Don't throw me under the bus, tree hugger, you found it funny!" Dylan retorted, pulling out of my grip.
"You wanna call me tree hugger to my face, you dumb blonde?" Quentin taunted, also pulling out of my grip.

Predicting what was to come, I took a few steps back.

"Oh please, ever since you dyed your hair blonde you have no right to call me that, copy-cat!"

"Pssht, that's rich coming from someone intent on copying other people's colours!"

"Yeah, well, you also copy animals and plants!"

"Which comes in handy when I'm beating your colourful ass!"

"You wanna go?"

"Bring it on!"

And with that, Dylan vanished before my very eyes. This was the most interesting part of his magic; he was able to adopt the colours of any background he was against, no matter which direction you looked at him from. The result; he became invisible.

Quentin cursed when he received an unexpected kick to the shins, before large, black, pointed ears replaced his normal ones.
I smiled when I remembered the animal he'd gotten those from.

Levy had just introduced us to each other, and while I was quiet, reserved and unused to human interaction, the boys I'd just met were lively and talkative.
Oh, and they fought a lot.

To be honest, I was a tad scared of them at first. Not that I thought they would fight me; I guess I was just a little intimidated by them.
I sat alone of the grass while they sparred, undisturbed until I heard a pained peeping noise. I crawled towards it, only to find a small, black creature.

There were no feathers, so I knew it wasn't a bird. It had wings though – thin bones draped in fragile-looking black skin. One of them was bent at an odd angle.

"Guys! I found an injured bat!" I called out, afraid to touch the creature in case I caused it further pain.
I guess the fact that I'd actually spoken up startled them, and they ran towards me.
Okay. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to call the rowdy boys over. What if they started poking it or something?

But to my surprise, upon seeing it, the small, dark-skinned boy named Quentin approached the animal rather timidly.
"You've taken a fall there, haven't you, buddy?" His voice was a lot friendlier than it was when he was shouting insults at Dylan.

I watched as he slid his hand delicately under the poor bat, making sure not to move it too much.
"You, ginger girl, Could you get a stick I could use as a splint?" he asked me, grinning.
I didn't bother to correct my name; after all, we'd just met. How was I supposed to know he would end up calling me that years later?

I nodded, searching the ground.
"Rainbow boy, you can find some string to attach the splint. I'm going to bring Mary inside where it's warm."

I frowned, still looking for a suitably sized stick. Who was Mary? It didn't take long for me to get an answer.
"Jheez, he always gives his pets the most boring names" Dylan muttered.

I while later, I was watching in awe as Quentin tied the splint almost professionally. I mean, the boy was only 10, like me! How did he know what he was doing?

"You do this often, don't you?" I asked.
"Yeah. This is my first time with a bat, though. I'm used to saving plants and insects, not mammals." He smiled at me, continuing when he noticed my questioning expression.

"It's to do with my magic. When I create a strong bond with a living thing by helping it out significantly, as long as it's not human, I'm able to take on one of its features myself. It's a win-win situation if you ask me." he grinned proudly.

I perked up when I heard this.
"That's sort of like my spirit magic! It relies on the strength of my bond with the celestial spirits I have a contract with." I gushed excitedly.

"Celestial what now?" Dylan asked.
I was ecstatic when I realised both boys were looking at me, seeming genuinely interested in my magic. And that conversation in which we all learnt about each other's magic was the start of our friendship.

I looked over at Quentin feeding Mary.
"So what feature will you get from her, then?" I asked.

"No idea. But don't bats have really sensitive hearing?" he pondered.

Quentin's speedy jump across the room to punch a solid object I couldn't see, stunned me out of my flashback.
"I can hear you." The nature mage taunted his invisible rival.

"What did I say about fighting before class?" an irritated voice called from the doorway.
Ah, our dear teacher had finally arrived.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Quentin and Dylan, good job. You guys are getting really good at researching. But Dylan, for the last time, there's really no need to change the colour of every letter…" Levy commented, handing the guys' papers back.

"Alice, I have to say I'm disappointed. What happened to the multiple sources you were supposed to use?" she turned to me, her eyebrow raised.

After Aquarius' freak out last night, my brain was too confuddled to carry on with the assignment. I mean, it's not every day that you manage to summon one of the 12 zodiac keys, only for the whole ordeal to end up with a forced gate closure.

I'd decided not to call out the mourning spirit for a while. It was unfair, really; if I left her alone for an entire 3 months, she would only have one day in the spirit world to deal with her grief.

All I know is that if I told Levy about the spirit who may have had a connection to the celestial mage who was killed by E.N.D., she would want me to summon her. And I don't think Aquarius was ready for that.

"I figured since you would tell us the truth today, there was no point in copying stuff down from dodgy textbooks." I lied smoothly, mentally preparing myself for a lecture about how I should have been practising my writing skills anyway.

Instead, the teacher surprised me with a simple question.
"Have you brought your keys with you today?"

I nodded, paranoid that she knew about Aquarius' key. When she adopted her signature serious teaching face, though, I breathed a sigh of relief at her lack of further questions.

"I'm now going to tell you my account of the true events. I would appreciate if you kids would not interrupt."

I ignored the fact that she called us kids. Hell, I even ignored the frolicking squirrels outside that always managed to draw my attention away from Levy's classes. Finally, some answers.

"It was indeed the day of the dragon king festival; the text books got that right. I was not present for Zeref's defeat of Acnologia, however I know what transpired between Zeref and E.N.D."

She paused before continuing.

"First of all, I need to explain a bit about my past. I was in the guild, Fairy Tail, as you may have already guessed. There's the first mistake with the text book; not every member of the guild died. In that guild, I had many friends, two of whom are essential to the events that transpired that day. The first was a fire dragon slayer named Natsu Dragneel, whilst the other… was the celestial mage mentioned in the text book. Her name was Lucy Heartfilia."

I didn't have to ask to know that she was close to that Lucy girl. Her eyes spoke the emotions she was bottling up inside her.

I continued to watch her eyes as she told us the background behind her friends; her revelation that Natsu was Zeref's resurrected brother was astonishing. Who knew magic could actually be used for something like that?
The tragedy was evident when she explained how this boy she'd known since childhood ended up as the demon that now terrorised the whole world.

I noticed though, that she spoke as if she was defending him. She was still defending the demon that killed all her friends before her very eyes.

"The most sickening lie in the textbook, though, is the accusation that Natsu killed Lucy."

She didn't call him E.N.D.

"The truth is that Natsu loved Lucy. They loved each other, really. And Zeref used this knowledge against his own brother to get what he wanted."

This sudden humanisation of that demon was almost too much for me to take in. I'd expected a lot from Levy's full explanation, but what I hadn't at all been expecting was a love story.

"You see, Zeref wanted to die, and was aware that the demon he put inside Natsu was the only one who could grant his wish. And to release E.N.D., he had to get rid of the person who meant the most in the world to his brother."

I gasped before she even finished the story.

"Zeref killed Lucy, and Natsu lost control. He lost… himself."

There was an elongated silence as Levy turned around to hide her face, leaving the three of us to gawk disbelievingly at her back.

"You kids can recall where the safe places on Earthland are, right?" She asked rhetorically. "funnily enough, those are the places where Natsu and Lucy met and visited on their adventures."

She then turned to us, a sad smile set on her face.

"I believe that's because Natsu is still in there, mourning."

A/N: I'm actually having some trouble writing this story. I definitely know what the last scene is going to be, but I'm still debating how it's going to lead to that.

Anyway, I hope this sort of filler chapter in which I developed the characters a bit more was enough for now.

Compucles – yep, I really do give you guys too little credit. There's actually a bit more to it than that, but that'll be revealed in later chapters. And thanks for doing the maths, I hope it's pretty much accurate because I may be mentioning those figures in the story!
I feel like if Levy saved the keys, she would have given them to Alice, so I'll have to think of another place they are (I haven't actually decided yet)

Shadow lance123 – a new Aquarius key was made, and there's a new Aquarius. Sorry if my writing is a little confusing, feel free to ask any more questions you have!

Thank you guys so much for the reviews, I'm glad you're liking it so far!

-usnoozulose