Fairytale of Doom
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Five – Not Such A Charming Prince
Elsewhere, Natsu was engaged in a vicious battle.
A thin manservant and a maid who would have given Gorilla-form Virgo a run for her money in an arm-wrestling contest were trying to force him into a frilly shirt – and to make matters worse, they appeared to be succeeding.
"Get off me!" Natsu shouted indignantly. "What do you think you're- gah!"
"Please stop struggling, Your Highness," the manservant twittered anxiously, wringing his hands. "The ball is almost upon us, and if your dress shirt doesn't fit, we will need to call the royal tailor…"
"I'm not wearing these ridiculous lacy clothes!" Natsu exclaimed.
"If you'd thought about this earlier, you wouldn't have had to," grunted the burly maid. "You could have commissioned a new outfit from the royal tailor. But no, you left it to the last minute, as usual, sire, and so you'll have to make do with what you've got in the wardrobe."
"Since when have my clothes been your business? Who the hell are you people- hey!"
The maid had grasped one of his forearms in each hand and lifted him clean into the air, splayed out like a starfish, his feet dangling above the ground. "Stop struggling, sire. How do you intend to win yourself a wife at the ball if you do not look your best?"
"A wife?" Natsu choked. For a moment, he even forgot to fight back, and the man took the opportunity to dart forwards and begin fastening the buttons up the front of Natsu's shirt.
"Naturally, sire," drawled the maid. "All the servants have been talking about it. But perhaps you really are as stupid as you look, if you haven't yet realized that the king has invited all the marriageable girls in the Glass Kingdom to the upcoming ball with the sole intention of marrying you off. Some think he hopes that you will produce a male heir to secure the future of the kingdom, but personally, I have the impression that His Majesty just wants to get you out from under his feet. A good wife might be able to teach you to dress yourself, for one."
"But- you- WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Natsu bellowed, with enough force to send stone dust cascading down from the ceiling, though the burly maid barely trembled. "What happened to Zeref and Alvarez? Is this a freaking castle? And WHERE THE HELL ARE MY REAL CLOTHES?"
"Now, now, sire," the manservant tried to assure him. "There's nothing to worry about. No one is going to force you to get married on the night. The important thing is that you show willing. Go to the ball, look your best, dance with a few women – that's all, just to keep His Majesty happy."
"And feigning madness isn't going to get you out of your duties to this kingdom," the maid added blandly. "His Majesty has already considered everything you might try to get yourself out of it. You will be dancing at the upcoming ball, and unless you want to be doing so naked, I suggest you stop struggling and let us check that your old clothes still fit."
The thin man tried optimistically to fasten a ruff around Natsu's neck. This was one step too far for the misplaced Dragon Slayer. His toe dug in just below the manservant's ribs, and he backed off with a yelp. Driving his heel up into the huge maid's midriff was met with less success: she exhaled a heavier grunt than usual, and reflexively doubled the pull on Natsu's arms, until he thought he was going to split down the middle. He kicked upwards again, with more force this time, and she finally dropped him.
Bent over in pain, she wheezed, "Honestly, Your Highness, it's for your own good."
"Look," Natsu began irritably, with all the patience he could muster. "I dunno what's going on here, or who you lot seem to think I am, but I've gotta get out of this place and back to the guild."
"But the king himself said-" squeaked the thin man.
"I'm gonna give this stupid king a piece of my mind!" Natsu declared. This drew a sharp gasp from the servant and a huff from the maid, but he ignored them both, wheeling around and towards the door.
As he had suspected, he was indeed in a castle. The corridor had an unnecessarily high stone ceiling, ostentatious ornamentation, and an assortment of rich tapestries and twirling candelabras and far more luxurious objects that he could not name, for the Fairy Tail guildhall didn't really go in for decoration, given the tendency of the building to immolate itself and be reborn from the ashes every few months like a huge wooden phoenix. It didn't look much like Mercurius, though; he'd destroyed enough of it in the aftermath of the Grand Magic Games to know. In fact, he'd been inside a few wealthy residences in his time – sometimes to steal, sometimes to protect, but somehow never invited back to the same one more than once – and it didn't appear to be built in the Fiorean style at all.
Which wasn't that surprising, when he thought about it. If he'd been abducted from the battlefield and sent to this weird castle, there had to be some kind of magic involved. He could be anywhere. It might not even be a real place, but some insidious maze in his mind.
Getting to the bottom of this was more important than attending any stupid balls. It was even, though only barely, more important than finding out what had happened to his clothes. He ripped off the ruff as he marched, though the chill of the air on his neck reminded him painfully of his missing scarf.
He knew when he'd found the throne room. They were the grandest doors in this place, with a spear-wielding soldier standing guard at each side. Their eyes did not leave him as he approached, but nor did they try to stop him from throwing those great doors open.
The plush ruby carpets muffled the stomping of his feet, although the pleasant crash of the doors against the wall made up for it.
"Oi!" he snapped, by way of an introduction, just in case his treatment of the doors hadn't been enough. "I dunno who you think you are, with these stupid clothes and your fancy fake castle, but-"
All of a sudden, the words stopped coming. His mouth still fumbled through complaints about ruffs and ballroom dancing, but they no longer seemed important enough to warrant sound.
For the man idly rearranging the cushions on the throne behind him, surely too short to be a king, surely too young-looking to be respected, surely dressed too much like an airy philosopher of old to actually command men, was turning to face him, and he was smiling.
"Hello, Natsu," Zeref said.
"Zeref!"
And then Natsu was throwing himself forward, fist drawn back, the wardrum of his heart drowning out the roar from his throat.
All thoughts of this weird castle vanished from his mind. This was it, here, now, his final enemy right in front of him, and if he could take him out, this whole goddamn war would end.
He hadn't taken more than a step when someone tackled him from behind. Natsu tried to kick them off and keep running, but his foot hit a solid breastplate with a clang that likely hurt him more than his opponent. A second body landed on him, knocking the wind straight out of his lungs. Light flashed on steel. The tip of a spear hovered millimetres from his throat.
Growling, Natsu slammed both fists into the ground and unleashed his magic.
Nothing happened.
Not a flicker of flame, not a lone tendril of smoke.
When he raised his head from the carpet, he could see Zeref smirking.
A snarl tore from his lips. He tried to stand, and felt the weight of guards he could defeat with a flick of his finger if he had his dragon's strength pressing him back into the ground. The steel of the spear brushed his neck – a spear that the latent heat of his body should have simply turned to goo. Without the scarf Igneel had given him, the exposed skin felt so very vulnerable.
"Sorry to do this, Your Highness," muttered one of the guards kneeling on him. "But I don't know what's come over you. You can't just threaten His Majesty like that."
It wasn't the humiliation of being pinned down so easily that bothered Natsu. It was the amusement glinting in those black eyes as Zeref looked on. On the wall behind him, a huge banner bearing the emblem of the Alvarez Empire fluttered mockingly.
"I should have known you were behind this," Natsu snarled.
"Me?" Zeref laughed. "What would I stand to gain from this state of affairs? No, it is your own First Master you have to thank for our current predicament."
"I don't believe you," Natsu hissed.
The accusation didn't seem to faze Zeref at all. "I suppose it was too much to hope that you may have gained a sliver of common sense since our last meeting," he hummed.
Recalling how their confrontation in the pass had gone – and the secrets Zeref had revealed to a man who had not wanted to hear them – only made Natsu struggle more ferally. The soldiers holding him down redoubled their grip.
Zeref continued, calmly, "I have rather a lot on my hands right now, Natsu, so if you are determined to be unreasonable, you can do it somewhere else." His gaze flicked to somewhere over Natsu's prone form, and he ordered, "A spell in the castle dungeons should suffice to cool my hot-headed brother down a little."
"You can't do that!" Natsu exploded. "You-"
"Oh, I hardly think that is necessary, Your Majesty."
Natsu's shout was derived from his physical strength, and from his new position of weakness, it rang hollow in the hall of royal power. By contrast, the new voice was clipped and austere. It cut through the room like it belonged there, reinforced by the stately atmosphere, strengthened rather than absorbed by the thick stone walls.
Struggling to turn his head, Natsu could just about make out a woman approaching through the doors he had wrecked. Although her hair bore the bold grey of age, she held herself with a grace and composure that the fully trained soldiers would have envied. In her long, mahogany gown, bedecked with a large jade brooch below her neck, she looked more like a person in charge than Zeref ever would.
She smiled like a woman unaccustomed to the gesture. "It seems clear to me that the boy is merely overexcited at the thought of the upcoming festivities," she continued, every word so falsely sweet that Natsu could almost feel his throat clogging up at the sound of it. "Passions always run high before a royal ball. And with good reason – our dear prince is likely to be engaged before this one is done. So, I believe it would be in our kingdom's best interests for you to overlook the prince's impudent and, I am sure, misinterpreted actions, and allow him to continue making his preparations for the ball."
She may have been defending him, but Natsu wanted her help even less than he wanted Zeref's in that moment. Something about her set his dragon instincts ablaze. "Who the hell are you?" he spat.
"My name is Lady Tremaine, His Majesty's Royal Advisor," she sniffed. "Something you would know if you took any kind of interest in the affairs of your own kingdom, sire."
"Like I would care-" Natsu began hotly, because even if Zeref being the Emperor of Alvarez did technically make Natsu some kind of prince, he didn't think they were in Alvarez right now any more than he did Fiore.
But Tremaine had turned her back on him. The disdain hit like the smash of a dragon's tail, knocking the words right out of him.
The unthawed icebergs of her eyes fixed entirely on Zeref. "May I therefore suggest, Your Majesty-"
"You may not." Zeref cut across her just as coldly. "I wish for him to spend some time in the dungeons, and therefore he will do so."
There was silence. Tremaine's expression was marble, immutable. But for that pause, she showed no sign of irritation at being overruled, and when she made a slight inclination of her head, it was as if she was the gracious one for capitulating. "As you wish, Your Majesty. Please forgive me for speaking out of turn."
Zeref addressed his guards. "To the dungeons, then. I shall let him out when I see fit."
There was a blade at Natsu's neck all the way down to the depths of the castle.
Natsu had assumed Zeref would leave him there to stew in his own powerlessness for quite some time, but it seemed he had underestimated the villain's propensity to gloat. His silent rage had barely given way to the determination to break out of the dungeons when he heard footsteps approaching. The soldier lounging outside Natsu's cell seemed equally surprised, drawing himself up into a stumbling salute.
"Leave," Zeref ordered.
With a hasty bow, the soldier shuffled back up the stairs, leaving the two of them alone.
There were only a handful of cells under the palace. Unlike the ones beneath Mercurius, they weren't equipped for long-term habitation, without so much as a cot to make his stay more comfortable. Straw was the most savoury substance scattered across the floor. Torches spluttered in their brackets; captive shadows danced. Behind floor-to-ceiling bars, Natsu's hands were chained to the wall. Without his magic, even iron was capable of holding the son of a dragon.
Zeref did not speak, at first. Last time they'd met, back in the real world, Zeref had been almost friendly. He'd told Natsu that he was his younger brother brought back to life as the demon END; he'd fought back only half-heartedly, and seemed pleased as Natsu had approached to deal the killing blow.
Then Happy had dragged Natsu away, and they'd returned to the guildhall.
And Natsu had told himself that nothing had changed. He was still Zeref's enemy, willing to kill him to save his friends even knowing it would cost him his own life. What did it matter that they might be related when Natsu remembered none of it? What did this depiction of a once-happy family mean compared to the devastation Zeref was so gladly wreaking upon Natsu's home, his friends?
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
He was still Natsu of Fairy Tail. He was still going to defeat Zeref and save his real family. Telling his friends what Zeref had told him would only give it a validation it didn't deserve; grant it a weight and a meaning it simply did not have.
So he had not done so. He was the only person who knew the truth, other than Happy, and Happy wouldn't tell a soul if Natsu asked him not to. So if he didn't think about it, didn't talk about it, it would all just go away. Soon, Zeref would be dead, the war would be over, and everything would carry on as before. Natsu would try and survive it to see that future with them, but if he didn't, he was prepared to die a hero, saving everything that mattered to him. Either way, that hateful truth would go with him to his grave.
That had been the plan, anyway. But then he'd found himself here. And wherever here was seemed determined to rub his connection to Zeref in his face with this stupid prince nonsense.
Natsu raised his chin in challenge. "Let me out," he spat.
"I'm afraid I am not quite foolish enough for that, Natsu," Zeref told him mildly. "There is no magic here. Without it, I would be no match for you."
Natsu's surprise must have shown on his face, because Zeref added, eyebrows raised, "Do you still think that us ending up in this world was part of my master plan?"
If Zeref was willing to talk, Natsu might as well get what he could out of him. "How did we end up here, then?" he growled. "Where the hell even is here?"
"A fair question," Zeref shrugged, not bothered in the least by Natsu's hostility, nor of the fact that the prison bars were probably the only reason why he was still breathing. "And not one to which I am certain I know the answer. It is not our world; that is for sure. I suspect it does not really exist at all, and was created by the power of Fairy Heart when we were cast into it. That explains how no one seems to have noticed that we have replaced their king and prince."
His gaze sharped upon Natsu again. "As to how we got here, I believe I told you earlier that Mavis was the one responsible. She accidentally unleashed a magic she couldn't control, and what you see is the result."
"Huh," Natsu remarked. "Gotta hand it to the First Master. She sure knows how to shake up a battle."
"Oh, I don't intend to fight here, Natsu. There are things I want to achieve, reasons why I am waging this war, and I cannot accomplish any of them from here. And nor can you – separated from your guild, your friends, the very things you are trying to protect. Being stuck in this world is an inconvenience to us both. I intend to break Mavis's spell, and I see no merit in resuming our conflict until we are back in a place where victory will have meaning."
"Oh, really?" For the first time since he had awoken here, a grin crept across Natsu's face. "Because I can see one big reason for continuing this conflict: if you're in this made-up world, you're not out there hurting my friends. I'll happily spend the rest of my life here if it means you do too."
A shadow crossed Zeref's face. "Don't be ridiculous."
Natsu just laughed, leaning forward, the fire that he couldn't summon at his wrists burning nonetheless in his eyes. "I'm not. I was willing to die to kill you, remember?" Learning that he was END hadn't stopped his burning fist, his righteous heart. A life sacrificed to save his guild was a glorious thing. "Compared to that, having to live in an alternate world is nothing."
"You are a fool, Natsu," Zeref said coldly. "Do you honestly believe the two of us were the only ones dragged into this world?"
Natsu's heart gave an uncomfortable lurch.
"I was the target of Mavis's spell, but as I told you, Fairy Heart's magic was entirely out of control. I do not know how it determined its victims – perhaps through proximity, perhaps through resonance with your guild marks, or perhaps through a more arcane mechanism. All I know is that many of your friends are trapped here with us, while all of mine remain in the real world."
"How many?" Natsu demanded.
"Hard to say. About ten, give or take."
"You're lying."
Natsu had no proof it was a lie – and, though he loathed having to think about it, Zeref had been honest with him about the Book of END and its consequences the last time they'd met. Sure enough, the accusation didn't bother Zeref at all. He looked as calm in this alien world as he had at the head of an army. "I am sure you will run into your friends here soon enough. If this world was indeed created for us, I think it will be inevitable."
Natsu's glare intensified, but he said nothing. His mind was already spinning through to the conclusion without any need for Zeref to spell it out, although of course he did so, and with evident glee.
"So, Natsu, with ten of your most powerful friends trapped in this fictitious world, how well do you think the war is going for Fairy Tail right about now?"
"We've defeated plenty of your henchmen already," he spat.
"Quite so," came the unperturbed response. "The weakest of them, the most desperate to win recognition. It is the strongest who remain. And all the while, you expect your own allies, exhausted and leaderless and reeling from the sudden disappearance of their closest friends, to somehow rally and stand against them? No, it will be a slaughter, Natsu. My empire will conquer Fiore and obliterate what remains of your guild. Indeed, if they suspect Fairy Tail is responsible for my disappearance, they will not leave a single one of your friends alive."
The torches flickered in their otherworldly way. Around them, the shadows swayed and cackled, but those in Zeref's eyes were steady. "So you see, Natsu, we are at something of a stalemate. It is true that by remaining in this world, you are keeping me from my goal, but it will cost you everything you are trying to protect. If we stay here, we both lose. If we go back, at least one of us has a chance of winning."
As much as Natsu hated to admit it, Zeref had a point. If he managed to escape this world with his friends and set the playing field level again, he had no doubt that they could turn the tables on Alvarez, just as he hadn't doubted their eventual victory from the moment he had first learned of the invasion.
But if things were allowed to carry on as they were… it wasn't just that he would never see Fairy Tail again. Fairy Tail would cease to exist, period.
If Zeref was telling the truth.
Natsu hated that this was happening after Zeref had revealed all his secrets, when he, Natsu, could no longer even pretend to live in ignorance.
Worst of all, if he helped Zeref and Zeref turned out to be lying, they ended up back in the same position they were in before they got trapped here. But if he refused to help, and Zeref turned out to be telling the truth… he didn't know how he would be able to bear it.
"I suppose," he ground out, "that you want me to help you find a way out of this world."
At this, Zeref laughed out loud. "Help?" he scoffed. "Natsu, I am the one who is going to break this spell. I got a good look at it as it activated; if I only had my magic, I would have found a way to reverse it by now. Magic must exist in a world like this – it is simply a case of obtaining it. No, Natsu, what I want from you is a guarantee that you will not get in my way. Can I trust you to act like a civil human being whilst we are in this world, and play out your role unobtrusively for the greater goal of getting us all back to Fiore? Or is keeping you in this cell the only way to ensure that you don't ruin everything for your friends?"
Natsu leaned back against the wall, trying to emulate the other's confidence. "I don't think that Tremaine lady and the others would be very happy if you kept me down here for too long. They seem to think I'm a prince, you see."
To his dismay, Zeref didn't seem bothered at all by this counterattack. "Quite so. It seems I have been cast as the king in this fictional world, and therefore you, as my younger brother, are a prince." His coal-black gaze became sly. "Tell me, have you shared what I told you with your guild yet?"
Absolute silence fell. Even Natsu's heart seemed to have stopped beating. No matter how much his fist shook, the chains refused to make a sound.
Zeref answered his own question with an emperor's smugness. "No, I didn't think you had. And there I thought you shared everything important with those you supposedly love."
"I do." Natsu tried to snarl, but it came out as a hiss, a desperate absence of conviction. "That's just how unimportant this was to me."
"Mm, is that so?" Zeref said lightly. "It seems to me that it would be advantageous for you to get out of here before your friends start asking too many questions as to why the spell has cast us in these roles."
Natsu ground his teeth.
Still Zeref waited, black eyes glittering expectantly. He didn't even want an alliance, Natsu thought. He just wanted to be proven right.
"I want my clothes back," Natsu stated.
"…I'm sorry?"
"They took my clothes off me."
"I did think you looked rather underdressed," Zeref remarked, prompting Natsu to fold his arms automatically across his half-buttoned-up shirt. It was a bad move; it only drew attention to the ridiculous lacy frills at his wrists.
"Well," Natsu scowled, "I want my clothes back."
"…Natsu, I have no idea what the servants have done with your clothes, and to be quite frank, I don't care."
"Igneel gave me that scarf," Natsu stated, as if it explained everything. Which, to him, it did. "And you're supposed to be the king, aren't you? Go and find out."
"I have more important things to be dealing with than your sense of fashion, Natsu."
"Fine, be like that." Natsu sat with his back to the wall and affected a shrug.
The exasperated shake of Zeref's head as he left the dungeons was the most genuinely human thing Natsu had seen from him all day.
How long he was left alone, Natsu wasn't sure. The holding cells were fully underground, and although his draconic hearing could pick up the bustle of activity from the floors above, the habits of servants and the frantic yet perfectly ordered pace of a royal residence was unfamiliar to him. Even the chaos of the guildhall was his chaos; its ebb and spiral was as natural to him as the arc of the sun or the metamorphosis of winter into spring. This organization was just plain weird.
None of it, though, was as weird as the sight of Fairy Tail's mortal enemy descending those shadowed stairs, clutching a familiar black and white scarf in his hands.
"The servants burned your clothes," Zeref informed him frankly. "I believe they took your sense of style as a personal offence. It is a good job, therefore, that a dragon's scales do not burn so easily."
He passed the bundle through the bars of the cage. Natsu's desire to have it back overrode his mistrust, and he snatched it up. A tension he had not even realized had gripped him eased at the familiar feel of it sliding over his hands. No longer did he feel so wary, so exposed. Not caring who was watching, he buried his face in it and inhaled the old but undying scent of Igneel, that latent heat, that sense of home… and an odd tang of metal.
Curious, Natsu unwrapped the scarf fully to reveal a ring of rusty iron keys.
Zeref said, "I know you are not stupid, Natsu. For the first and last time, we both want the same thing, and it would be beyond foolish to pretend otherwise. You will play along with this story, I will undo the spell that traps us here, and then we can both go back to trying to destroy everything the other holds dear. Do you understand?"
There was a lot he didn't understand about why Zeref was doing this, but one thing he knew all too well: if he wanted to make any difference to this story, he needed to get out of this cell. Everything else he could work out as he went.
"Just to make it clear," Natsu growled, "I ain't gonna be your friend."
"Fine by me. All I want is for you to stay out of trouble until we can go home."
A wicked grin spread across Natsu's face as he wrapped his beloved scarf around his neck and began unlocking his cuffs. "No problem at all. Staying out of trouble's my specialty, you know."
A/N: Enter two characters who don't know the first thing about fairytales, largely thanks to being born several centuries before Earthland's Walt Disney popularized them... but also because, let's face it, Zeref spent his childhood attending academic lectures rather than paying attention to stories, and Natsu remembers basically nothing from his actual childhood except the odd flashback of Igneel. Not to worry, though, because they've brought all the drama with them.
Zeref and Natsu are the king and prince from Cinderella, though obviously they're older and younger brother here rather than father and son. Natsu was always going to be Prince Charming because Lucy is Cinderella, but I was quite happy that it offered a role for Zeref too. A political role seemed particularly fitting given that we're technically within the Alvarez arc. Honestly, there is SO much I want to say about these two, but this is just the very start of their story, so I will refrain. It's been more of a serious chapter this week, but I hope you still enjoyed it! ~CS