All Rights to Hiro Mashima

This chapter is dedicated to Nanami B, I hope your stress level is more manageable now and I hope that your last couple of days have been smooth sailing.

To all those with stress in their lives, whether school or work, family or friends, or money…you're doing great! Keep at it and have faith. And read this story…if that helps.

BEWARE THE FLUFF! BEWARE THE AMNESIAC GHOST!

Chapter 15: Turquoise

The talisman of Kings, Shamans, and Warriors; Stone of protection, a symbol of immortality for the Ancient Egyptians, Persians, Aztecs and Incas when used in conjunction with gold; Native Americans use it as a booster for power, luck and protection, used to guard their burial sites.

Rufus Lore clapped his hands together when everyone was situated properly, seated around END in a ragged circle. "Let's begin, shall we? Mest will go first seeing as he can suppress or bring forward memories. Then I will go if we have found anything of interest." Without a second thought, the Direct Line mage slapped a single hand, palm down, onto a startled Demon's forehead. "Relax END, this will only take longer and possibly hurt if you tense up."

"…Alright." END decided to close his eyes, it was hard for him to do so in a room full of his former enemies, but he trusted that Lucy would stop anything before it happened. She had done so before, so he was sure she would do it again.

For several tense minutes, nothing happened until Rufus heaved a great sigh, pulling his hand away from END. "There is a very strong block in your mind, and it isn't man-made. It's organic, made by yourself. There are only two reasons for the loss of your memories. One, you received permanent brain damage from the accident you mentioned, or two, your body is protecting you from a trauma so severe that your mind literally cut all ties to that part of your brain to save you from the pain."

"I was never told I had brain damage or even a wound. Spriggan told me that there was an accident and that it was the Star Kingdom's fault, and left it at that."

Lucy bristled and fumed. "Why the hell would it be my people's fault that you hurt yourself? We weren't even invested in the war! We were a peaceful place that didn't support either side until your bastard of a leader came in a razed my Kingdom to the ground. Are you telling me that the genocide that I witnessed was because the Black Wizard was pissed you got hurt?"

END looked at her with so much sorrow in his eyes that her anger died out. "Yes. That is what he told me. When I awoke, I was filled with so much…confusion and hate. I begged him to let me head up the excursion to Astralis, but he refused, sending The Seis and Tartaros instead."

"No wonder there were craters everywhere, of course, Jackal would have been there…"

Ashen hair ruffled as END blew out a great sigh. He knew better than everyone the deranged nature of the Demon Jackal and his bomb curse. Lucy looked so pained, he wished he could do so something, so he followed his instincts and shuffled forward on his knees, his wings dragging on the ground behind him, until he was settled directly in front of her seated form. "It took me a long time to let go of everything, then I started to question everything the Emperor had ever said, including his reasons for going to war. Strategically, Astralis was a very small Kingdom compared to Domus, it neither opposed nor was in favour of Alvarez, but Spriggan wanted it decimated because his experimental mistake forgot some memories? No, there had to be another reason. I think the whole reason they sent so many high-level mages to your castle was to get those."

They all watched as END pointed directly at the twelve golden keys in Lucy's hands. Leo – still standing stoically behind his Princess – narrowed his gaze at the Demon. "Pray tell, why would the Black Wizard need the Zodiacs? I can only assume it's something terrible…"

"You didn't tell him?"

Lucy shook her head. "I didn't want him to worry. I will protect them just as they protect me. Simple as that."

END had no reservations, though. The Celestial Spirits that she summoned had a right to know that Spriggan wanted to use them in his experiments. "He wants to use the R-system to combine your keys with the mages that make up his Shield. I'm pretty sure he would combine you with the Winter Emperor." His tone is bland and tired.

Stunned, Leo said nothing but looked at Lucy. Seeing as she radiated pain and fear, he assumed that what END said was true.

"Excuse me, I have to inform the rest of the twelve and the Spirit King." He grabbed one of Lucy's hands and placed a single kiss on the back of her golden gauntlet. "Until next time, my Princess."

A clawed hand reached out and grasped Lucy's hand that Leo had released before he shimmered back to the Celestial Plain. He wanted…no needed to try to convey his feelings to Lucy before a wedge was driven in between them before they even started working together.

Movement in the room stopped when they all noticed the intimate way that END had encroached on Nova's space, and the fact that Lucy hadn't kicked him through the nearest wall for the familiar way he held her hand intrigued everyone greatly.

Especially a certain Thunder God who couldn't wait to interrogate his little sister later that night.

"I have never been so thankful that the Emperor had told me to stay in the Black Fortress. If I had been the one to kill your people…That would be too much guilt for me." END watched as Lucy raised her head to meet his eyes, her gaze was so questioning and sad that he just couldn't help himself but try to bring back the glimmer in her eyes. He saw in her eyes a young girl full of vulnerability and loss, losing her entire Kingdom and being the only person left to keep those memories alive would be a terrible burden. He didn't blame her for her outward coldness towards other people, but END was thankful for the fact that she seemed to show a different side of herself when they were with each other.

He hoped never to be on the wrong side of her sword again.

END tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, just as he had done earlier. "Make no mistake, I have massive amounts of guilt, and many things to pay for that will take me multiple lifetimes to put right, but I am grateful that one of those things was not the Purge of Astralis." He lowered his voice to dissuade the curious onlookers from eavesdropping so that only the blonde woman could hear him. "You should smile again, Luce, you look so much better with a smile."

Lucy's heart skipped a single beat at his words. She hadn't heard something so…sweet for many, many years. It made her heart ache something terrible for the pink-haired boy that she had lost. He had always said things like that in such an off-handed way like he was stating a fact instead of giving her a massive compliment.

A small smile crept onto her lips without her knowledge. Lowly, so only END would hear, she whispered her thanks.

He nodded and moved back to the centre of the circle and waited for Rufus to come forward and begin is an attempt as if the last several minutes hadn't happened. All the other Generals took Nova's lead and decided to question her at a later time, or possibly poke and prod Titania to get the latest scoop when the memory recovery was all done.

As Lieutenant Lore stood next to END and placed his palm on the Demon's head, Lucy felt like she needed more comfort than mere words could convey. So she searched quickly for the single silver key that was a part of her heart, just as the sword was.

The key to the Little Dog, her shaky white companion that had been her last gift from Natsu. She summoned him into her arms and held him close while he expressed his hello in a way she couldn't understand. But it did wonders for her frayed nerves and aching heart.

A surge of magic was felt in the room, but nothing happened for the longest time.

Rufus shook his head slowly.

"I can't feel anything coming from the block. It most likely means that you, END, will have to break your memories out of their prison by yourself."

The Demon in question looks towards Lucy who gives him a small, encouraging smile. So his hopes didn't fall away into nothing. Lucy gave him his word, and she would follow through with it until she succeeded.

Makarov stroked his moustache in a contemplative way. "I see only one course of action for the recovery of your memories. First, you must seek out the necessary stimulus that could trigger a memory or even a flashback. To do this, it seems that you END will have to search the Black Fortress for clues to your own life before you were created. Second, we will continue to research and look for new ideas here in Domus. I know that our Tactician will find this puzzle most intriguing. This actually coincides very nicely for us. With you searching for your identity…you will most likely find yourself in places you know to be off-limits. Anything and everything you find will help us in our war efforts."

END nodded slowly. The King's logic was sound, but he couldn't help squirm at the fact that he would have to undermine and sneak around the Black Wizard. Being who he was, a Demon who used black fire and hand to hand combat, he didn't have much use for sneaking or spying. The fact that he had overheard anything, to begin with was dumb luck on his part. Maybe he should ask Lucy for some tips…

"I have your first assignment for you then END, if you are truly sincere and want to stop Emperor Spriggan, I want you to find everything you can about where the Etherious Army will go next and any information about who will be sent and when. We must have an idea about all the major players so that the Tactician, and Mavis Vermillion who will now be aiding Levy, can come up with the proper strategies for victory."

Ivory claws gripped ashen hair in a tight embrace as END tipped forward. The pain, awful hot searing pain shot through his head. Unlike the time before, instead of an image, he heard a man's voice.

"I have only one Natsu. She is a few years younger than me but has a wonderful mind. She challenges me in ways that I have never thought of. She keeps me on my toes. Her name is Mavis Vermillion."

Suddenly, the pain was gone and was replaced with a light pressure on his shoulder. "END? Did you see anything? Was it a memory?"

Big amber eyes greeted him, the worry clear as day. All he wanted was to erase her unease, so he answered quickly. "No. I didn't see anything, not like the last time. I just heard a voice…talking about a woman named Mavis."

The woman in question, as if she could hear and see all, materialised beside the King. She bowed low to Makarov who nodded and gestured towards END with his thumb. "Mavis, did you hear all of that?"

"Yes, I did." She looked at the Demon with her calculating eyes and pondered the significance of END's admission. "END…what did they say? What was the whole message the voice said to you? Did you recognise the voice?"

"No, I didn't know the voice. It was distorted, but I know it was male. They said…they talked about knowing you. About you being a few years younger than the man, that you…challenged him?"

The apparition sighed briefly. "When I was alive I was enrolled at the University that was housed in the Capital City of Ignis, or what is now Alvarez. Unfortunately,…that description could be many of my peers as I was much younger than most of them, something that they hated about me. However, there was one boy, his name was Zeref Dragneel."

Mavis turned to Lucy as she heard the Celestial Mage suck in a breath. "You were Zeref's best friend…weren't you?"

"Yes. I was. He was a good man, with a good heart. He had one of the most brilliant minds I had ever met, the mind of a true scientist. There wasn't a puzzle that was created that he couldn't solve, even if he needed my help sometimes." Her misty eyes turned to look at the King again. "I lost most of my memories about myself after I succumbed to a sickness. I knew that I didn't have much time left, I had made peace with that fact. I fear Zeref had not. I can't know for sure until I regain my memories but I believe that this cursed half-life that I am living, caught between worlds…is Zeref's doing. He just couldn't let things go."

"He loved you. Didn't he?" The King's insight must have shocked Mavis, for she jolted out of the memories of her past.

Her voice was small, childlike, and innocent. "I believe so."

"Did you love him?"

Mavis only nodded, and that seemed like enough of an answer Makarov.

"Who was this Zeref person?" END's ignorance was brought to light, so Lucy quietly whispered what she knew. He was the Crown Prince of Ignis turned King when Igneel disappeared. He was the older brother of her best friend, but she had never met him. He was a great scholar that dabbled in things that were steeped in controversy. Like life and death…like…demons.

As if Laxus' lightning coursed through her veins, a very absurd and obscure idea came to Lucy. It was only based on speculation and rumours that she had heard over the years from the ladies and gentlemen of the court. Zeref had been obsessed with the afterlife and whether or not living beings could be brought back to life after they had died. The maids had once twittered that he was dabbling in the occult and tried to raise a demon or a God, or some such nonsense. But something tickled her brain, in the very corner like an itch she just couldn't help but scratch.

Something about the fact that they had never heard what had happened to the King of Ignis. There wasn't a formal statement, nor did the Demons or Etherious Army brag about the killing like they did with Natsu. His body was never shown to the world so that they would lose heart. Granted Natsu's wasn't either, but they heard enough about how he was murdered to last a lifetime.

No, Zeref was different. He was a scientist, a scholar, a genius.

An experimenter.

"Mavis…what does the Black Wizard look like?"

The ghost shook her head as she phased through a shocked Freed to stand before the blonde. "I don't know. There are wards placed around the Black Fortress that prevent me from ever stepping a metaphorical foot inside. It displaces unwanted magical energy I think, or something to that effect, and seeing as I am not a true body, just an image made of pure energy…"

"How do you know all of this if you've never been inside the castle?"

Mavis looked down at her see through toes. She whispered sheepishly, her eyes not meeting the curious onlookers. "I can hear him talk to me. In my mind. Before you ask, he doesn't say anything about his plans or things like that…he mostly just tells me he's sorry and that he'll bring me back again. That's why I need someone to find my body and destroy it. I don't want to come back. I want to move on."

Lucy turned to Natsu. "What about you END? What does the Black Wizard look like?"

He shrugged nonchalantly and picked at his talons in a way that showed he was either anxious with the proceedings, or extremely bored. "Dunno. He wears a full dress…toga thing and a cloak with a hood that never comes off. At least with me, it doesn't. Probably doesn't trust me enough." END's eyes caught hers. "He might lower it when he is with his Shield, Invel is one of his most trusted advisors."

Erza knew the look on Lucy's face for she had seen it many times before just before her friend had a major breakthrough in a problem or came up with a foolproof strategy. "General Nova…tell us your theory."

The blonde flashed her partner a quick smile, Titania knew her all too well sometimes. "Fine. I don't know if it is truly a theory, perhaps it's more of an idea cobbled together from rumours and the like from the time I was still at home in Astralis after Alvarez had invaded and started its decimation of the other Kingdoms." She straightened her form and addressed both King Makarov and Mavis. "I believe that the Black Wizard is not someone who came from somewhere else and just happened upon Ignis by accident. I think that Emperor Spriggan is actually Zeref Dragneel."

Instead of outright denying her claim, Mavis waved her hand in a circular fashion. "Explain your thought process please." Ever the scientist, like her best friend, Mavis would never reject a hypothesis before hearing the proof.

"The Black Wizard is an experimenter. He made the Demons. He made END. He wants to fuse my keys into his Shield because he can. He created the R-system." Lucy was pacing now at the front of the room, they could almost see the gears turning in her mind.

END was transfixed on her form, his eyes watching her every move, her every turn. He had never seen her brainy side but he really really enjoyed the way she was chewing on her bottom lip in thought.

He wondered what other sides Lucy had and if he would ever see them.

"When Natsu was alive, we talked about everything, including Zeref. How he became distant in his later years, how he was always in his lab that he had created in the catacombs of the castle, how he was absolutely enamoured with the thought of being immortal. He had been thrown out of the University only weeks before he became King because he had been trying to start experiments dealing with life and death. Bringing people back from the dead. Apparently, according to the rumours that circulated for months after…he was trying to halt the natural process of death so that someone close to him wouldn't die."

She stopped in front of the little apparition, brown eyes full of fever and passion. "I believe that the person he was trying to stop from dying was you…Mavis."

-ooo-

Small pale hands gripped the sides of an ornate hood, slowly lowering it so that The Black Wizard's face could be seen. He lays a single palm on a glowing light blue lacrima holds the love of his life in a solid embrace. She looks almost like an insect, trapped in amber, waiting to be cracked open and brought back into the world.

He smiles sadly and tells his Mavis about his day, about the state of the world, how much he misses her.

How much he wants to see her smile again.

Oh, how he loves her.

He's so sorry. He never meant to kill her. He never wanted her to leave him, not ever.

Just like every day and every other time he's ever been down to his old laboratory, he hopes beyond what is reasonable that she will magically answer him back.

But she never does.