Whoop whoop, another chapter is here! This one is a bit serious but bear with me: it's all in good intentions. Hope you enjoy! Don't forget to review any opinions and ideas J

~I do not own Fairy Tail ~

Being heaved around town like a rag doll was not exactly my most appealing way to be introduced to the area, especially since Zeref refused to explain, or even talk, about where we were going. Concerned looks were given to me by shopkeepers and browsers as Zeref persisted on dragging me halfway around Magnolia, ignoring my hesitation.

As we began to pass more and more discreet and rundown areas, I began to worry.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked furiously, it wasn't nice parading around town in just my bikini and beach shorts; he didn't even allow me to grab my shirt. Suddenly, he swung me into an alleyway and trapped me between his hands and leaned closer towards me. His glaring eyes glowed red and his face crunched up in an intimidating fashion.

"Zeref..." I whimpered.

"Shh..." he snapped, still closing in on me. I noticed that the comforting light around us was dimming until we were plunged into a complete darkness. "Just be quiet for a second." He whispered so softly that I could barely hear him, then he placed his slim hands around my mouth. My heart leapt out of my body as I breathed in without being able to breathe out.

I've only met this guy a few hours ago and now... oh god, what is he going to do? I'm so stupid for trusting him this easily!

The heavenly light came back and he walked backwards away from me, his eyes were back to their normal darkness but his body still looked tense.

"He's gone." He announced simply.

I fell to the floor and began crying, soon pathetically shrivelled to the floor and placed all my weight on the brick wall.

"What's wrong, Lucy?" He placed his hands around my shoulders and crouched down near me, I wanted to yell at him but my body was set on crying. When I looked up to him, his eyes were dazed.

Does he not realise what he just did?

"You can't just do that, Zeref!" I cried, swatting his hand off my shoulder.

"Do what? I was helping you."

"It looked like you were helping yourself." I grumbled, he began to understand and he sighed.

"I'm not like that but now I realise that it must've shocked you quite a bit." He contemplated. "Trust me if I didn't do what I just did, you would be entwined in an affair I wouldn't want you to be involved in."

"Which is?" I sniffed and looked back up at him. He shook his head and reached his hand out to me; I grabbed it and stood up with his guidance.

"Just mentioning it would get you involved. Come on, let's go." He pulled me forwards, but I wouldn't budge. I felt so embarrassed just being in my beach clothing, which leaves nothing to the imagination, and that the warm ball of light was already fading behind the horizon. He walked up to me and slid his long, black coat around me and then he straightened out his black v-neck and shuffled into it.

"Thanks." I smiled gratefully and held the coat around me; it smelled of him and was still warm from his bare body, which just thinking about made me blush again.

"Let's go and get your shirt."

When we arrived to the beach, the blue skies were now pitch black with specks of glittering stars and the calm sea reflected its melancholy. We were looking for almost 20 minutes without any luck before Zeref decided that we should go back before curfew (which was in 10 minutes).

"How about I buy you a new one tomorrow? Some of the shops will be open." He asked, which I considered for a moment but refused him to spend money on me. "Oh no, I insist." He smiled at me.

"Thanks, Zeref. What an eventful first day, huh?" I scoffed as I looked back at what happened today... I forgive Zeref too easily.

Abruptly, he froze to the spot with his eyes wide open and he seemed to be observing something in front of us. I couldn't see anything through the darkness but I guess a Shadow Walker, like Zeref, could. He violently pushed me into a shrubbery, leaves and thorns began scratching and tearing at my skin. The sudden pain was unbearable but I felt like Zeref was trying to hide me from something so I decided to swallow my scream.

"I told you to give up already, scum." His bitter voice spat out those words as soon as the echoing footsteps stopped only a few meters away. I desperately wanted to move to look up at their faces however, I realised that the shuffling would create too much noise and movement.

"Charming as ever, Shadow Walker." A deep voice boomed smugly, with mumbles of agreement in the background, they all sounded quite old maybe thrice my age.

"I'm not in any mood talk to the likes of you; now leave Magnolia for good this time!" Zeref demanded angrily.

Who are these people? What do they want with Zeref? Why does Zeref want me to hide from them?

"Ohh, so now he's starting to make the commands?" The deep voice laughed heartily, I'm assuming he must be the leader since he talks the most.

"Hey, who's this?" A worryingly close voice called out, to which I then felt a meaty hand around my exposed ankles and was dragged out from the bush. I grabbed onto the long coat Zeref gave me for dear life so it'd cover me from unwanted eyes and began to scream. Dirt and pebbles were rubbing and scratching my back until he fully exposed me from my hiding spot, leaving me on the side of the road whilst the bulky silhouettes surrounded me. Zeref looked like he spotted death in the face, shocked to his core and full of mental seething.

"Got yourself a nice looking girl." The leader, who was the tallest out of the four men, snickered. It seemed like I couldn't move, I just laid there completely paralyzed.

"Leave her alone, she has nothing to do with this." Now Zeref was pissed off, I could see his eyes glowering bright red.

"But how could I just ignore such a pretty face?" The man forcefully snatched me from the ground and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me nearer to him, and then slid the other slowly up to my neck and began lightly choking me.

"Zeref..." I choked out from my constricting throat.

"Let go of her, you fiend!" Zeref infuriatingly growled as his face suddenly developed into a catatonic, demonic state with his sharp teeth gleaming in the moonlight. The men cowered a bit as a sonic boom emitted from his body.

"Yes! Show us your true power Shadow Walker!" The man who held me shouted eagerly. Wisps of ink-like smoke shrouded Zeref, who began to levitate off the ground, increased into a threatening sphere.

"Take your hands off of her." A very deep voice replaced Zeref's normally cool and collected articulation. The man stubbornly refused which made the demon even angrier, the black wisps exploded into a thousand darts and sank through the skin of the men, completely avoiding me, creating sickening sounds of flesh being sliced and punctured.

The grip around me loosened and I fell to the floor, panting for more air to satisfy my once deprived lungs. Despite the fact that all of the victims were surrendering, as they tossed and turned on the floor in complete agony, Zeref began to release a black, ominous smoke, blacker than the night sky, which slowly approached the unsuspecting men. They began choking as it invaded their bodies and replaced their oxygen and energy with poison.

I looked up at Zeref, he was smiling sardonically as he observed the torture he was inflicting upon the others, whose deafening screams seemed harmonious to his ears. I couldn't just stand and watch him take away their lives, even if they are horrible people; he was going to kill them unless I try stopping him.

"Stop it!" I screamed at him with my utmost strength. "Look at what you're doing, it's wrong!" He didn't seem to notice my plead for sanity. The shadow around his body stretched out and whatever was unlucky enough to fall victim to its grasp began to shrivel up and crumble into an arid brown, even affecting the concrete around him. I crawled away from it, trying to avoid its deadly grip, but failed and it surrounded my body. To my surprise, it had no effect on me.

"ZEREF!" I shrieked. Suddenly, his head was knocked out of his catatonic state and quickly realised what he was doing. He reeled in all the darkness he created and smashed to the floor, failing to move. Speculating that the deadly shadows had gone, I ran up to his lifeless body and rolled him over, his eyes were eerily peaceful. Carefully, I checked to see if he was breathing by holding my breath and placing my cheek near his mouth, I felt a light breeze brush against my skin.

"Come on, wake up!" I delicately patted his face to try wake him up but his limp body wouldn't move. To check whether the men were still alive I glanced over at them, they weren't moving either, however, I also think they weren't breathing.

Shit, shit, shit! How did I get myself involved in this? All I know is that I need to get to the dorms to find help and fast.

Struggling to move his limp body, I eventually managed to throw his arm over my shoulder and wrapped mine around his waist to support some of his weight. Thankfully, he was not as heavy as I thought, despite his staggering height, so I stumbled forwards as his legs dragged along the road, eventually passing the lifeless bodies.

After collapsing a few times from complete exhaustion, I finally made it to the Fairy Tail Academy's dormitory; however I came face to face to the locked, golden gates.

"Someone help." I croaked feebly, falling hopelessly to the floor, collecting my energy as I tried to relax.

"There's... another way to enter." A pitiful voice arrived from Zeref, who lay still next to me.

"Are you okay? Hold on a few more minutes, I'll get you some help, j-just stay there." I aimlessly walked away from him. He swiftly seized my hand; I looked at his pale, solemn face and his onyx eyes began pouring out tears.

"Lucy... did I kill those people?" He began sobbing hopelessly. Just the sight of this strong, independent boy breaking down in front of me broke my sombre heart apart.

"No, they killed themselves. Please don't cry." I returned to his side and placed my arm around him, deciding that the best decision was to comfort this unbalanced teenager. He rested his head on my bulbous chest, which I almost resisted but it wasn't the time for being self conscious.

"Oh God, I'm a murderer!" He voice broke as he cried out. I didn't know what to say anymore so I just cradled my arms around his shaken body and held him closely, and then he wrapped his arms around me tightly and continued to uncontrollably sob until I couldn't contain the disheartening scene anymore.

"I need to get you help, show me how we can get in." I placed my hand on his head and stroked his silken, black hair. Slowly, he removed his hand from my body and raised it above the ground and stopped sobbing to concentrate. Familiar dark shadows surrounded our bodies and we gently rose above the ground. He cried out in pain as his magic hurriedly brought us over the gate to the other side until we vigorously dropped to the floor after he fell unconscious again. The wind was knocked out of me as his limp body landed straight onto my body, his closed eyes only a few millimetres from mine.

"Well, well, well, a bit of an unorthodox place to do it." I jolted my head to find Loke cheekily grinning at us with his arms crossed and raised eyebrows.

"Please, help him." I begged desperately, unable to move. Loke's face looked disgusted.

"What do you mean?" he looked absolutely horrified at my request. "I don't roll like that."

"Dammit, Loke, get him to an infirmary now!" I screamed irritably at the teenage boy, who now looked embarrassed as he soon realised the problem when I managed to roll Zeref off of me (lacking any help from Loke) and witnessed the boys' unconsciousness. Sense slapped him in the face and he hastily decided.

"We'll take him to Gramps."

When we finally arrived at Makarov's room, Loke carrying Zeref, we knocked on the door. Unfortunately, no one answered and therefore we decided to open the door, which surprisingly was unlocked. The room was very small to suit the Master's stature, with generous splashes of orange and blue furniture, brightening the room with a cosy, relaxing feel.

As we reached a door, which was most likely to be the master bedroom since a low humming voice could be heard from the other side, Loke gently opened it. Our eyes widened in horror to see what the headmaster of our school was doing. He was comfortably dressed in light blue pyjamas with a bobble hat night-cap which just covered his receding hair line, singing while he tucked a fuzzy, teddy bear in his bed.

I couldn't believe that this man, the superior master of this amazing school, was acting like I once did when I was five with my soft toys, and he still didn't feel our presence. Loke cleared his throat to disrupt this disturbing scene of unusual affection.

"Gramps?" He almost cracked out in laughter but held it back. Makarov jumped at the voice and turned around to look at us, clutching where his heart was for dear life. "We have a bit of a problem. Lucy, can you explain?"

And so I did, it took me an excruciating ten minutes to tell Makarov today's events (excluding Zeref and I's embrace at the gate, the alleyway and the probability that Zeref killed the men) but I thought leaving out those unnecessary details was for the best. Makarov began nursing Zeref, who lay next to the teddy bear on Makarov's bed, with this strange machine which looked like a vacuum cleaner but it was attached to his mouth and began flowing a strong magical aura to him.

"This isn't the first time Zeref has had difficult confrontations with the likes of those men, they hunt him down relentlessly and haven't stopped."

"Who are they?" I impatiently asked, disrupting the Master's explanation.

"They are a squad of rogue wizards called the Ultimanious Force, created seven years ago, who develop their powers by killing a wizard and absorbing the aura their body temporarily left, the more aura they steal, the stronger they get.

However, they especially want Zeref's power Shadow Walker for a specific reason, one which I still have yet to learn, but every time they send their men after him they always get beaten, but they seem to persist nonetheless. The only reason I've come up for their motive is that he's the only one in the world to possess it, we think anyways, and it is incredibly powerful when controlled correctly, which Zeref cannot achieve yet.

Some of the parents here are presumed to be a part of the Ultimanious Force, however there is no evidence to prove that. All I can say is that after every attack they launch on him, he always seems to be wrecked of magical energy and constantly faints."

Everything seems to make more sense, but I was still very shocked to find out about the possibility of a parent being a part of this evil organisation and especially that Zeref is considered that strong.

I looked at his slumberous body, so peaceful and beautiful. I didn't want to admit it, but deep down inside of me, a voice proclaimed that the evil men who harassed this angelic boy deserved what had come to them.

Only now did I realise that entering this school might've put me in more danger than I previously was situated in.

Ideas and opinions are openly welcomed! Hope you enjoyed this, despite the serious atmosphere! Love xox