Chapter 7


NOTE: This Chapter was rewritten for a third time. I am truly apologetic for this. Schizophrenia makes it so that i am cut off from my usual way of thinking for extended periods of time. When I suddenly come about, I realise that the chapter isnt upto how i want it to be. This causes me to scrap it completely and write the thing again. Sorry. I will take care that this happens as less as possible.


Dawn had started to strike over the war-ridden land of Magnolia, smoke from the still smouldering buildings and houses covering up the sky. A cool breeze swept down from the mountains and did its best to carry the smoke away. Birds chirped in the distance, and silence prevailed.

Zeref stood facing his enemies, that he had assured he wouldn't harm as he only wanted to speak to them. He still could feel the tension in the air, and tried his best to appear as docile as possible.

"Mine and Natsu's story starts in the forest of Tenrou, 700 years ago. That's when we were born to the Dragneel tribe that lived on the island. Our lives were peaceful and simple. We were a community of fishermen, living cut off from the rest of the world, which didn't even know we existed."

Mirajane narrowed her eyes as she caught something in that statement that piqued her curiosity.

"Tenrou?" She asked Zeref, a bit anxiously as she still hadn't gotten used to the dark mage being there, one of their greatest enemies. "Our guild owns that island, and we have been to every corner of it. We have never seen a settlement there. Not even the ruins of one."

Zeref looked at her plainly as he answered. "The settlement was wiped off 700 years ago, shortly after mine and Natsu's birth. Only a forest now grows where we once lived."

Mirajane stared at him, confusion planted on her face as what he was telling was unbelievable at the least. There was a certain aspect to the fact that Natsu and Zeref were born on the island that was personally owned by Fairy Tail that shocked her, and the other listeners. But they had no choice but to believe Zeref, as no other source probably existed in the world that could tell them what he knew.

He walked over to a window and looked outside as a gentle gust of wind caused his long robes to flutter.

"The Vermilion tribe lived alongside us on that same island. Your first master, Mavis, was born to them at around the same time as me and Natsu. She and I used to be close friends… Until that changed… That island being the home of Mavis Vermilion is also the reason for Fairy Tail's possession of the island in the first place."

Erza watched Zeref's back as the information she had read about what he was telling them resurged in her memory. Mavis and Zeref did know each other personally, so what he was saying could be true. Although, it was a very shocking revelation that Mavis herself was born on Tenrou as well which she had never read about nor heard. Maybe the world didn't know as much about Mavis either as it claimed to, just like Zeref.

She moved her eyes to look at Natsu–her best friend, her lover. The man she had hoped to spend the rest of her life with. But he had turned out to be someone entirely else, someone she could have never guessed that he was. Natsu stood facing Zeref's back with as much surprise and confusion planted on his face as the others, but it was his own story, so the amount of confusion and shock must have been much higher in him. Erza somewhere felt bad that Natsu was having to go through this, and she wanted nothing but to move to his side and hold his hand and let him know that everything would be alright. But she really wasn't sure if that was the truth. Her view of that man had completely changed in only a few minutes. That warm, silly and kind mage had suddenly turned into a ferocious, merciless and ruthless creature of darkness in a matter of seconds within her mind. And he appeared so opposite to his true identity that it made Erza wonder if he was somehow unaware of it as he and Zeref claimed, or was aware and just played a great role of not being so.

Zeref continued after the pause. "The Vermilions and Dragneels were non-magic folk. We had no inherent ability to use magic, and neither did we need it. Our elders believed magic to be the cause of strife and violence in the world outside of the island. We were happy for the fact that we didn't have the ability to hold such personal powers that we could easily exploit."

Some mages started muttering amongst themselves at that revelation as it didn't make much sense to them. As far as they knew, non magic folk didn't exist in their timeline. Even civilians that didn't take part in combat knew magic to some extent, and only the strongest ones would join a guild or a military.

Levy let the confusion from that matter turn into a question. "I have read that non magic folk are stuff of legends. That no such people ever actually existed in the history of the known world. And also, you and Natsu both can use magic. And Mavis was the first master of Fairy Tail, so she must have had great skill in magic too."

Zeref turned his face partly sideways, such that he was facing the mages behind him but not completely. A small smile crept up his lips, more sardonic than happy. It was clear that something about Levy's statement regarding Mavis struck him as bitterly amusing. Was it because of his complicated past with her?

"Mavis never could use magic." He replied. "She only established the guild, never taking a personal part in any of its activities. She always preferred to keep that aspect of her life hidden. She was never fond of undue attention, and her identity as a non-mage, a group of people that were only talked about in fiction, would bring her just that… As for me,"

He turned his face towards the window again.

"Ankhseram's curse brings me pain and grief every single moment that I am alive, yes. But it also brings with it certain… capabilities. My magic is as a result. It's pseudo-magic."

Erza's narrowed eyes widened as she heard that. It was striking to know that the magic of the greatest dark wizard of their time was not real magic, but borne out of the curse that was laid on him by the God Ankhseram. Zeref had always been a mostly mysterious and cryptic figure in their time, and him telling about his life didn't help untangle the strings of mystery attached to him. It only deepened them further. Mavis's real identity as a non mage baffled her even further for good measure.

She was reminded of Natsu suddenly, and how this story was meant to be his as well and not just Zeref's.

"What about Natsu? How come he can use magic?" She asked, then proceeded to tread carefully as the next part of her question was perhaps liable to anger the dark mage. "Is… is it because you resurrected him as a demon?"

Zeref turned his face partly towards the side again, it being very clear that the question did strike at his more personal chords. But he kept his cool about it, and turned his face back towards the window.

"Not exactly. Natsu was… different." He clasped his hands behind his back and slowly started walking away from the group of mages, looking at the floor. "The midwives that attended to my mother during his birth could swear that his body temperature was higher than the other infants that were born at the time. They tried everything to quell the fever, but it never was a fever. It was just his normal self. Soon we realised that Natsu–in the entire thousands of years that our tribes had existed, was the first to be born with the ability of magic. The ability to create fire and control it, while also being immune to it."

The mages inside the hall gasped softly as that information shocked them somewhat. It would have been a much easier explanation to them to say that Natsu's magic came from him being a powerful fire demon created by Zeref, which was what most if not all had expected. It had instead turned out that Natsu was inherently different, even 700 years ago, even amongst his own people–which were expected to be like him, which obviously wasn't the case. Everyone knew that Natsu had always been somehow different, a league apart from the rest, being a dragon slayer already putting him amongst an extremely rare group of magicians, but none could have guessed that him being inherently different was a pattern.

"But.. why? What caused him to be born that way in a tribe of non-magic people?" Erza asked, letting her confusion and shock be very obvious in her voice.

Zeref lifted his head to face the ceiling, as apparently some deep thoughts ran amok in his mind.

"No one knows." He said after a while. He turned around and faced the mages again. "The elders of our two tribes said that he was afflicted with the 'curse' because he was born in the hour of fire, when the red stars had aligned themselves perfectly. Some said he had come from outside the island. But that wasn't true. He was born to my parents just as I was."

Behind his back, he clenched his fists as the memories from here on out filled him with anger. "They disregarded Natsu. Said he was a monster. A demon of prophecy that was set on them to destroy their two tribes. Even our mother believed that she had given birth to a demon."

The mages remained silent as Zeref let some of that anger out in his voice. He put his hand to his forehead and his face was obscured by his long black hair. Some were involved deeply in the story, while some others felt a bit scared as Zeref's voice was clearly riddled with anger, and the risk that he would suddenly lose his very uncharacteristic cool was high. But he sighed and let that pressure go.

He sighed, appearing apologetic for almost losing his temper, before walking to the same window again and holding the side of the window with one of his hands. His eyes wandered to find something to focus on, but all he could see was the scenery of war and destruction that he had brought along to that peaceful and beautiful town.

"Although that demon that was foretold to destroy the two tribes was never Natsu. It was Acnologia." He revealed.

Some gasped audibly, and others let silent shock run through their minds. Acnologia's mention always brought a tinge of fright and fear in the listeners' hearts. Also the fact that he was involved in the story somehow was baffling. What strings was fate playing with, such that the three strongest dark mages of all time–Zeref, Etherious and Acnologia–had their lives intertwined with each other's?

Zeref continued. "He descended upon the two tribes one day, out of the blue. He burnt everything to the ground. Wiped off everything and everyone from the face of the island in a matter of seconds. I saw the destruction with my own eyes. It was… hell on earth."

His fingers tightened around the window grills that he was holding.

Erza's mind played see-saw as she couldn't come to a decision on whether she wanted to ask Zeref the next question or not. It was again impacting into the realm of subjects that were touchy to him. In the end, she decided to do it. His unnerving and almost frightening politeness maybe gave her the go.

"Is… is that where Natsu died?"

She had expected another jolt of radical reaction from Zeref, like the last time she had mentioned Natsu's death, but this time, he didn't so much as flinch. Maybe his mind was already deep in the vicinity of darkness and grief, that some more added to it didn't make a difference to his demeanour.

"No. What he died to was much closer to him than that."

He looked at his feet again as he crushed a piece of stone to pieces with his boots.

"Natsu was always alone. His reputation as the demon of prophecy kept him distant from the others, but that's what kept him safe as well. He played by himself by the river. Sometimes with me and Mavis when we had the time, but mostly alone. Until one day…"

He shuffled his feet anxiously, and it became clear that he was treading into the climax of the story, the most impactful and probably the saddest bit of it all. Natsu felt his heart thump with morbid exhilaration as he waited for what came next.

"One day, some kids from the village found him alone. Started tormenting him. I fathom that at that moment, their fear of Natsu was outweighed by their disdain for him. Natsu didn't want an altercation, and ran to a fishing hut to hide. But they found him. His magic flared up, and he burnt the hut to the ground with the kids inside."

Erza's pressed lips gave way as she engulfed her mind with what was being said. Someone gasped behind her, and some mutterings started somewhere nearby.

Zeref's voice shook, but other than that he did his best to hide the pain that he was in. "An angry mob showed up to our house. They beat our father to death when he tried defending Natsu. I had to flee the village with Natsu and my mother. Mavis came along with us. A hunt for us started, and if it wasn't for Acnologia burning the villages to the ground and killing everyone else, we would have been found out and slaughtered."

Zeref slowly straightened his body, letting free of the window grill, and looked straight outside the window.

"Our mother, grief stricken at the death of our father, slaughtered Natsu."

A silence befell the hall.

Erza's eyes widened as they stuck to Zeref's back. That was the only thing she could look at as the severe shock from the last statement left her incapable of moving her gazes even slightly. Her fingers must have quivered, but she couldn't pay attention to anything in her surroundings but Zeref's back, which acted as a blank canvas for her to picture everything that was being said.

Mirajane cupped her mouth with her hands, while Gray and Gajeel narrowed their eyes in bewilderment. Levy looked at Natsu, as did some other mages.

None could have guessed that this was where the story would climax to. When it was revealed to them that Natsu was Etherious, everyone had already connected the dots and attached with their friend everything that they had read about Etherious and Zeref. They then knew that Natsu was the unnamed and mysterious brother that Zeref was said to have had at one point. They knew then that Natsu was the one that had committed all those war crimes that were committed by Etherious. They knew that Natsu was the leader of the Tartaros. They knew that he was stated by some scholars and historians to be the 'Anti-Life', a ferocious and unstoppable force that stood against life itself.

They had also attached the fact with Natsu that he must have had to die at some point, for Zeref to have revived him. And during everything that had happened lasting from the revelation about his true identity until now, many had wondered what it was that killed Natsu in the first place. Some assumed it must have been a disease. Others thought that it was a war. Maybe an unfortunate accident.

None could, however, have assumed that after all was said and done, it was his own mother that had done it.

While the shock ringing from the last secret about Natsu's life that Zeref had divulged into rang loud in the hall, so loud that silence was the absolute in the surroundings as none could express their thoughts with their voices, Zeref continued with the tale. What last bit was left.

"I… got rid of our mother after that. She deserved it." His voice sounded flat, but somehow, was riddled with the pain that a loving brother must feel when his sibling was even so much as viewed in a malicious way by someone. And if one thing was clear, it was that Zeref loved his brother more than anything else.

"Mavis suggested that we bury Natsu, provide him a proper send off. But I wasn't letting my brother go. I decided that no matter what it took, I would bring him back. I mummified him, and researched for ten years. I broke the laws of nature, of life and death as we know it. Gained knowledge that one couldn't have even in thousands of their lifespans. Finally, I had the secret to revive my brother within grasp. And I did so. My next plan was to teach the world the true meaning of pain, the world that had taken so much from me… Mavis, horrified at what I had done with Natsu, and my intentions for the world, gave me an ultimatum. Either I stop what I was upto, or lose her. In the end, I chose hatred over love. She left me, swearing that she would stop me one day. And I, cursed by Ankhseram for breaking the barrier between life and death, roamed the earth for 700 years, setting my plan into motion. Thus were born Alvarez and Fairy Tail… Thus, we have come here."