The next morning, Lucy had made a decision. She was going to tell Natsu that he should allow himself to be locked up by Zeref. If he didn't comply, she would have no choice but to stop seeing him. She knew that Natsu would never intentionally harm her but his aggression last night had been too terrifying and she didn't want to be put in that situation again.

She waited nervously for Natsu to visit her but her only person to drop by that morning was a servant bringing her breakfast. Frustrated, she decided to go for a walk around the castle's courtyard. She had been cooped up for several days and the fresh air would make her feel better anyways.

Zeref's second castle was even more beautiful than his first. Two hummingbirds were drinking from purple flowers growing along the castle's walls. Lucy was so enthralled by them, she almost bumped into Zeref.

"Oops, excuse me," she said as she stopped right in front of him.

Zeref had been reading a book while walked. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there." He closed the book and looked up at her.

They stared at each other for an awkward moment.

Thoughts of confiding in Zeref about Natsu's abhorrent behavior flashed across her mind but Lucy bit her tongue. She wanted to give Natsu the chance to do the honorable thing and agree to confinement first. Besides, she didn't think Zeref would be pleased to know the details about what had happened last night.

"I see you're out of bed. Are you sure you're feeling strong enough?" he asked.

She blinked. "Oh… yeah, I'm feeling a little better."

"Well, that's good to hear." He gave her a small smile. "I've been reading up techniques for creating massive amounts of energy. I haven't found anything that is promising yet unless you'd like to sacrifice a couple humans."

Lucy's shoulders slumped. "Oh, that's not helpful."

"Yeah, I know. But I'll keep looking."

They stood for another moment.

"So, how's your brother doing?" she asked.

He sighed and frowned. "Well, he's eating now—I suppose that's something. It was two days before he would even take a sip of water. It's actually taken a toll on his health—he's losing a lot of weight."

Lucy wrung her hands together nervously. "So, how much do you think his transformation into a Dragon King affected his mind?"

Zeref touched her arm. "I know you're worried about Natsu and to be honest, I am too. But trust me, I don't want to spend another 400 years chasing another Dragon King." He gave her a reassuring smile. "There's a few things working in our favor. For one, Natsu is much more stable than my brother was. For another, we already know how to undo the curse. We just need to get you trained up and then we'll have this whole thing straightened out. Try not to worry too much, okay?"

"Okay," said Lucy.

"Master! Master!" One of the servants was shouting as he ran across the courtyard.

Zeref rolled his eyes. "Yes," he said as the man approached.

"We found someone snooping around outside the castle walls. We tried to stop him but he's too powerful, he's taken out six of our strongest mages."

"Did he say what he wanted?"

"No, but he's breached the front gate. He sounded drunk."

Zeref shook his head. "He's drunk and he took out six of my strongest servants? I am very disappointed in all of you." He turned to Lucy. "I'm sorry, but we'll have to continue our conversation later. I'd like to take care of this." He gave her a slight bow and began heading towards the front gate.

Lucy watched him leave. As he walked away she heard the servant speak to him. "But Master, we think he's a dragon slayer!"

The last statement piqued her curiosity. Had one of her friends made a drunken attempt to rescue her? She jogged to catch up. "Wait, I'm coming!"

"I'd prefer if you didn't, it may be dangerous."

"But I just heard your servant mention that the attacker may be a dragon slayer. I don't want you killing any of my friends."

He sighed. "I won't kill any of your friends. You'd be surprised by how often this happens. I'll just scare the crap out of this guy and send him on his way."

A loud boom interrupted them. Smoke was rising from the direction of the front gate.

Zeref began to jog. "Damn, it looks like I need to hurry before I become homeless again. This really is bothersome. If you come, stay out of my way. I don't want you getting mixed up in this."

She nodded.

When they turned the corner, Lucy realized that she didn't need to be worried about any of her friends getting hurt.

The intruder was Cobra.

He was standing in a pile of rubble, panting. The bodies of six servants were lying on the ground near him.

"Zeref!" he screamed when he saw the man approaching him.

Zeref paused briefly, and then continued walking towards him.

"I know what you did. Did you think I would just let you go?" said Cobra. He swayed slightly.

"You can't win this fight. You know that."

Cobra turned and looked at Lucy. "No, but I can get revenge. You took someone I care about away from me, now I'm going to take someone away from you!"

"Poison Dragon's Roar!" He opened his mouth and a stream of poison came rushing out towards Lucy.