Chapter 6

Liana extended her hand out to Natsu, who after tightening his backpack around his waist, smiled and shook it happily.

"Thank you. After the removal of that eye, I feel better." He whispered, in the fear that Erza might hear. He still hadn't told her that he had come to the temple of One to have his demon eye removed–she didn't even know he had a lingering demon eye. All that he had told her was that Liana wanted Natsu to get the blessings of One after everything that had very recently happened to him, including the possession.

After the procedure had ended, Natsu had tried saying 'xych' multiple times, but the demon eye hadn't surfaced at all. It was as if it was truly gone. Ever since Liana had revealed to him that it still lingered within him and could be called forth by saying a Zerefian word, he had been a little tense as it was just another sign that the demon could still physically manifest within him. He now wondered if he was weakened after the removal of an eye and an arm. That thought brought joy and relief to him. One thing was still unclear though. Where did his new eye come from? He had asked this many times to Liana and the other temple priests but none had relegated to him the information that they apparently wanted to keep a deep secret.

Erza switched into her heavenly armour, and Natsu burst out long and wide dragon wings from his back. Both took flight into the skies, waved a last goodbye to the priests that had come to see them off, and started heading towards the mainland over the ocean.

Liana kept her hand up, still waving at Natsu even though she knew he was faced away and couldn't see her anymore.

"Goodbye, Natsu. I hope that once this all is over, we will see each other again." She muttered to herself. A gust of gentle wind flew past her, blowing away the hair that fell down the left side of her face, revealing a white eyepatch where her left eye was supposed to be.

Zeref headed down the road filled with debris and rubble, thinking about the recent happenings. His armies had made quick advances on the island nation of Fiorre, taking down allied mage checkpoints like castles of cards. He definitely had heard of the great power that the mage alliance was amassing, with the priests of Ankhseram joining their cause and the king lending his best knights, but this outcome was inevitable, as his armies were far too numerous to handle even with a tactical and defensive viewpoint. He had only brought along a fraction of his net forces, and it had only taken him less than a week to overwhelm the mage alliance. August and Irene had fallen in the battle, but that didn't matter. They had served their purpose. His personal army, the Zerefian Guard, and his demons of Tartaros that he had brought along would do fine in the times ahead, he thought. The war had ended anyways. Victorious, he had sent a chunk of his armada back home.

He came to a halt as he saw a burning horse cart left on the road unattended, amongst many other structures that had caught on fire after the unrelenting days long fighting. Watching the flames dancing on the wood in the dark of the dawn was strangely hypnotic, and he stood there for a while, gauging his feelings and thoughts. Amongst the many feelings and thoughts that troubled his mind, one was peculiar. He couldn't describe it properly, but he knew it was something akin to "guilt", as a human would say. What caused his immortal mind this very mortal affliction, he couldn't say. Was it the lives lost and the properties destroyed in this recent war? He never thought he had much of a conscience left in him after his centuries long lifespan to feel this way. This was, on top of that, a war that he had been eagerly looking forward to. He had spent countless nights staying up and preparing for this very moment. Why did he, after all that, falter now? Was the cost of this war too great to have been assumed beforehand, and only an experience of it firsthand would garner a near accurate measure of the travesty that it brought along? One thing he was grateful for was that he had given Fiorre enough time to clear out his non combatant civilian forces before he would march with his armies. If it hadn't been for that, he would probably have had to deal with a heavier set of whatever jumble of emotions he was going through right now.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard a beeping sound from within his robes. He fished inside his heavy clothing and brought out a crystal ball that was the source of the sound. He peered inside carefully and cautiously, looking at a red blinking dot in the depths of the blackness of the glass of the ball. For a moment, his troubled thoughts seemed to leave his dark lifeless eyes, and a smile sat upon his dry lips.

"Natsu…" he muttered. "Wait for me."

Putting away the ball back inside his cloak, he walked on ahead, only later realising that a horde of his demons from Tartaros had started to trail behind him. He stopped for a moment and looked back at them, causing the demons right behind him to get startled and take a few steps back. After a while, he continued his trek down the desolate trail to where the crystal was pointing to, followed by the massive horde. He realised that the Tartaros needed to see their master just as much as he wanted to see his brother after all these years.

He reached the outskirts of the town, and halted before a large building. He looked up at the tallest towers of the building and realised that a chunk of the major fighting had probably taken place here, as some towers had collapsed on themselves, and others had been put out of fire using a hurried water spell. He trailed his eyes down to the gate of the courtyard of the massive castle-like building, and glared at the insignia overhead the main entrance.

"Fairy Tail…" he mumbled as a shockwave of repressed memories shook him to his feet. Mavis Vermillion was amongst those bittersweet memories, and he later spent a chunk of effort trying to suppress these memories back to where they had come from. He didn't have time to relive old wounds right now.

He realised that mumbling had started to take effect amongst the crowd of demons that had followed him. He knew that Natsu was inside this building from his crystal ball just as much as the Tartaros knew it from their innate connection with their master. He turned around and spoke a few sentences in Etherean, ordering the demons to wait outside. He knew they wouldn't be glad to do so, as after all they wanted to see END just as much as he did, but the last thing Zeref wanted was for the members of the mage alliance that were holed up inside the building after ceasefire to think that Zeref had restarted the struggle, and him entering the building with a horde of demons that he commanded would do exactly that.

He turned around again, and making sure that no one was following him, he walked into the building through one of the walls that had collapsed. Passing through a couple of dark hallways, he reached the main hall of the guild building. Inside he was met with a sight that he had expected. All the members of the alliance that were inside the building, not just from Fairy Tail, had congregated to one side of the massive hall opposite to where he had entered from, all combatively looking at him. He saw a few priests of Ankhseram inside as well, reciting prayers and pointing their spears towards him. He sighed. The last thing he wanted was to alarm them, and that's exactly what he had ended up doing.

"My apologies. I have not come bearing malice–" he quickly flicked his fingers and nullified an energy ball that was thrown at him. He didn't know where it came from, but he took care not to be offended or counter attack.

"Please. Hold your fire." he urged.

"SHUT UP!" Someone cried from the crowd. "After all that you have done, you think you can peace talk your way out of this? Don't assume that we have lost yet. We are still ready to fight and die." Zeref looked at them. It was a member of one of the other guilds that were inside the hall, not Fairy Tail. But Zeref could sense that all mages and other fighters and soldiers present inside the hall reflected this one mage's opinion. Soon, the others chimed in as well.

"You're not getting out of Fiorre alive."

"The neighbouring nations and kingdoms will soon send us reinforcements. We aren't done yet, Spriggan Prince!"

"That's right!"

Amongst the gaggle of angry voices that were coming at him, Zeref felt that his own voice begging for a momentary time of peace wouldn't be heard. He dropped his hands down by his side that he had raised up in order to appeal to the fighters before him, to look benign.

Amongst the shouts and curses being thrown at him, he finally heard a voice that was ready to reason.

"Quiet, everyone. His armies are standing right outside, numbering in thousands." Makarov stepped up from behind the group of young fiery mages that were hurling warnings and curses at Zeref. "He may be trying to trick us, but we have no choice but to listen to him. Unfortunate as it is, he is in power here."

He looked at Zeref with a determined look on his face. "But that doesn't mean that we have dropped our guard."

Zeref gave Makarov a dry but thankful smile. "Thank you, Makarov-sama. I have just come to exchange words. The fighting on my end is over, I can assure you that. What I have come for may not be achieved with any more violence."

Makarov stared at him cautiously. "And what have you come for, son?"

Zeref breathed a deep sigh, trying to keep in his excitement. The moment had finally arrived. The moment he had waited for for centuries. Now that the voices of angry mages directed towards him had come down, he could calmly look at the group of them and find familiar looking faces. But he found none. Only angry strangers.

"I have come looking for Natsu Dragneel."

Makarov's expressions didn't change much. He had already been expecting Zeref to come looking for Natsu. He turned around and looked at Polyurischia, who gave him a concerned look back. Amongst everyone present there, Makarov knew that she was the only one who had been expecting the same. The other mages, though, had less than no idea why Zeref wanted Natsu. They had been expecting him to want to talk to someone senior amongst their ranks.

Makarov turned around and looked at the mages behind him.

"Natsu."

The mages that stood in Natsu's way parted as he walked up ahead. Erza walked up behind him, looking slightly concerned. Natsu looked at Makarov for a moment as he took his position beside him, finding no salvageable expressions on his face. Makarov faced Zeref again, looking blank. Natsu, a slightly concerned expression logging his face, looked at Zeref who stood in the other corner of the hall, a bit far away. In that distance, Natsu couldn't make out the minute details of Zeref's face, but he could look at him properly. So this was Zeref Dragneel. His brother, according to the demon that was locked up inside Natsu. Was that why Zeref wanted to see Natsu?

"What do you want with him?" Erza asked, concern leaking from her voice.

Natsu fished his fingers into hers, holding her hand reassuringly. He looked back at Zeref.

"Here I am. Natsu Dragneel."

Zeref smiled, finally getting to have a look at his brother after so long. "Natsu…"

"Why are you here?" Natsu asked

"You already know that, Natsu." Zeref replied.

"Know what?" Erza urged, looking at Natsu. "What do you know, Natsu? Is it about the demon that had possessed you? That demon belonged to Zeref right? Is that why he's here?"

Natsu looked at the floor, lacking an answer. Erza shook him slightly, but that didn't budge him. He knew that the time for the great revelation was finally upon him. He had no idea how Erza and his friends would react, but there was no other way. Slowly, he managed to find enough courage to speak up.

"You see Erza, I…I wasn't possessed. I was never possessed."

Erza stared at him dumbfounded. She couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying. It was right in front of her that he was possessed by a beast. He had attacked her in that form, which she knew he would never do if he was himself. He had attacked others in the guild. He had to cut his own arm off for the possession to come to a halt. She knew she remembered everything properly.

"What do you mean, Natsu? We all saw it with our own eyes." Erza said. Why was Natsu saying he wasn't possessed? Did he mean that he himself was the one that attacked her and his friends? That was impossible. Natsu would never do that.

"My full name…" Zeref spoke up again, and Erza turned her eyes from Natsu to look at him. "Is Zeref Dragneel. Natsu here is my brother."

Erza's lips parted as her ears took in what was said. She felt like her brain would stop working when the message was finally relayed to her. That was a sentence she had never thought she would hear. She shook her head which felt like it was getting heavier.

"But… but Zeref had no siblings…" she muttered, before the realisation came hitting her like a truck. "Except…"

"Yes." Zeref confirmed what she was thinking out loud. "Natsu is Etherious."

A loud mumbling started from the crowd that stood behind them. Many hundreds of words and sentences were heard at once from the massive crowd, but they were so haphazard and jumbled that none made sense all together.

"Natsu… is Etherious?" Mirajane asked no one in particular. "That's… impossible."

"Natsu…?" Gray mumbled.

"Oi, flamebrian. What is he saying?" Gajeel asked Natsu from the crowd of mages.

Every mention of his name together with the word "Etherious" hit Natsu like a train in his face. He squeezed his fists tight until they went pale, and stared at the floor clenching his teeth. He knew that it should have been him that had told his friends this. They would have been shocked to hear it, but it would have been a lot better than hearing it from Zeref.

"Natsu…" Erza shook his hand. "What is he talking about?" she asked in a voice that was unnaturally calm for the amount of severe shock that she was in.

"It's true." Natsu replied, not daring to look at her. He couldn't see her in tears because of something that he did, which he knew she was in right now. "I… I didn't know myself until a few days back. That demon that we all thought had just taken over me was my true self. Etherious."

Erza couldn't believe her ears. Or eyes, as she looked at Natsu and knew from his expressions and his eyes that he wasn't lying. Every information that she had heard about etherious flashed before her eyes. All the people he had killed, the millions of war crimes he had committed. The thousands of villages and cities that he had burnt to ground. That was all Natsu? Was he actually Etherious this whole time, since he joined Fairy Tail? Was he spying on them for Zeref? Did she… fall in love with a monster?

"But…" Erza mumbled as a streak of tears collected under her eyes and fell to the floor. Her body shivered as she took a few steps back from Natsu. Was she looking at the man that she loved more than life itself, or was she looking at a monster right now?

"Natsu is not to be blamed." Zeref spoke up in a voice which he had obviously loudened with magic. "Whatever came to be was not under his control. He is innocent from the start to the end. That is why I have come here. To tell you all the story of myself and Natsu and how fate dragged us all the way here."

Bet you none of you thought i would continue this story. i didnt think i would continue this myself. but i did somehow. thanks.