Okay so…not after this one, but the chapter after it I'm taking 2 weeks off. The first week is replacing the chapters for 'My Hollow Siblings', and the week after that is a break. After that, I'll have another update for this fanfic, and the week after that is the fanfic 'Our Shinigami Brother'.
I believe I said enough here. On to the chapter! :)
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Harry, Fawkes, and Zeref were looking for Makarov with Juvia floating behind them. Zeref looked back at the girl thoughtfully and then turned to Harry.
"Maybe we should put her somewhere safe, before continuing our search. If she wakes up while I'm still here, your lie isn't going to work," he said.
{Not unless Harry says that the pink-haired girl confused you with someone else,} said Fawkes.
"I think we should keep to the plan, but we'll use that as back up if need be," Harry said, and then pointed in a direction. "There is a campsite just that way. We can place her there before we resume looking for the master."
Zeref nodded his agreement. "Sounds like a plan to me. Let's go."
It took them half an hour to get to the campsite, but when Harry placed Juvia down in front of Mira they heard a voice saying, "Harry, there you are. You had us all worried when you didn't come back."
Harry turned to find the voice belonged to Makarov. "Master! I was looking for you," said Harry. "Do you know where the others are?" he asked when he noticed that a few of their members were not around.
"Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Happy, Panther Lily, and Carla have all left to fight Hades, who used to be one of the founders of Fairy Tail, going by the name Precht Gaebolg. I hate to say this, Harry, but after they return we're going to have to leave the island. No one is able to continue the trial," said Makarov.
Harry shook his head. "That is fine. I was going to tell you that we needed to leave like now, but we don't have much of a choice. We'll have to wait for them." He turned to Zeref. "Do we have time?" he asked.
Zeref's eyebrows were scrunched up together in thought. After a minute, he turned to Harry and said, "We do… but an hour at best, a half-hour at worse," he said. "I hope they can finish their fight long before he gets here."
"Hmm," Harry heard Makarov hum. "Harry, who is the young man you're with?" the little, old man asked. Harry could have sworn he sounded like he already had an idea what his answer was going to be.
Harry scratched the back of his head nervously. "Can we talk somewhere more private?" he asked.
Makarov looked thoughtful for just a moment and then nodded. He signaled Harry and Zeref to follow him, so they did, for about five minutes until they reached a waterfall.
"Alright Harry, now do you mind telling me what is going on?" Makarov asked.
Harry looked to Zeref for approval. Once Zeref nodded his head to tell him it was alright, Harry turned back to the master. "Well, you see, sir… This man with me is…Zeref…"
Makarov breathed in deep, and let the breath go before saying, "Why am I not surprised to hear this?" He looked Harry in the eyes with a stern expression. "You have some explaining to do, young man."
"R-right… Well…I think we should start from the beginning." Harry looked to Zeref. "Do you want to go first, or should I?" he asked.
"It might be best if I go first," said Zeref, who turned to Makarov right after. "As Harry said, I'm Zeref. I was born 400 years ago during the wars of dragons and mages.
"The war between mages wasn't big enough to make it into history, but it is where my story starts. My parents were in this war with a crazy mage with red, cat-like eyes."
Harry stiffened when he heard this new bit of information. The only person he knew with red, cat-like eyes was Voldemort.
Zeref continued on with his story, "They fought the man himself three times; the last one was within our very house. I was told by my mom and dad to take my brother and run. I tried, but the man killed both my parents with this green light, and when he turned to my brother and me, I told Na- my brother to run while I tried to hold the man off. The man pushed me away, seeing me suffer such loss was something he seemed to enjoy because he killed my brother first before turning his wand on me.
"I ran to my brother's side just as he fell when the man turned his wand to me. He laughed at the sight I made. I was upset and crying, but I was also filled with such rage. While holding onto my brother I glared as hard as I could at the monster that killed my family.
"He cast the green spell again. I thought it would hit me, but just before it did it wrapped around my body and sank into my skin. The glow of the spell didn't leave my skin right away. It turned black after a moment, however. When this happened, I felt a rush of magic flow through me and expand all around me. This was the beginning of my long, cursed life," Zeref paused in his story while rubbing a hand over his arm.
"Years have passed, and while they did, I tried to find a way to bring my brother back to life. I have created blueprints for the R-System – or the Tower of Heaven as some call it – and the Eclipse Gate. The R-System I had learned would have taken too much magic energy and life to bring just one life back, so I got rid of that idea and started focusing on the gate. The Eclipse Gate was for time traveling, but without it existing in the past I couldn't go and save my brother.
"I have also learned during this time that I have stopped aging; I believe my curse is connected to this as well." Zeref shook his head sadly. "Not being able to die of old age and with the power to kill all those around me without my consent was – and is – too much for me. I started to create powerful demons, hoping that they would be strong enough to kill me. I made sure to connect them to my life so that when I died they will die with me; alas, this didn't work.
"I sealed my demons away in books and returned my focus onto bringing my brother back to life. I had found a way to do it, but it was unsafe for him to stay with me.
"During this time, a dragon slayer went crazy and turned into a dragon. He needed to die, and everyone knew it. I needed my brother to be strong enough to kill me and Acnologia. He would never be stronger than me if I had given him his power, so I gave him to a dragon.
"With the help of a stellar mage, we found a few more children that had no one to take care of them and also gave them to dragons to be trained and raised. While they trained, I worked on building the Eclipse Gate. It took a few years for the project to be ready for us to move forward. Anna, the stellar mage, opened the gate for her and the five, young dragon slayers. At this time, the dragons that raised them entered their children's bodies so they can make sure that they too didn't become dragons or lose their minds.
"I have waited for 400 years for their return. They are here and getting stronger, but they are not ready to take on Acnologia. Three of the five are on this island now, and one punched me, so I would know if they were ready or not.
"Just as I was about to lose my value of life, Harry here showed up. We spoke for a little bit and he helped me hold on to my humanity. He may have been the only one who could have brought me back from the dark though since he is the Master of Death. He is immune to my curse." Zeref turned to Harry, telling him it is his turn to finish the story.
"When we learned that Grimoire Heart was here, we tried to keep them away from Zeref, thinking they could be after him or trying to get revenge on us for taking out one of their allies. We walked for a bit and saw that the Magic Council was also near the island. Shortly after finding out about this, one of Grimoire Heart, Ultear, found us. She wanted to take Zeref, and then later me when she realized that I was immune to death magic. We fought her, but we didn't defeat her. Natsu came and held her off while we escaped. He told us to," Harry added when he saw the look on Makarov's face. The old man thought that Harry just left Natsu to fight on his own while Harry got a dangerous mage away. "Natsu also knows about Zeref, but he doesn't know as much as you do now.
"Anyway, the next person we ran into was Voldemort. Apparently he is working with Grimoire Heart, but I'm wondering for how long. Anyway, we fought Voldemort when the tree fell. I lost a lot of magic energy, making it where I couldn't defend myself. Zeref protected me from Voldemort, keeping to his promise he made to Natsu a little earlier. Voldemort turned into a basilisk making it hard for any one of us to fight him. Zeref could have killed him, but he doesn't like killing, even if the world would be better off without someone like Voldemort running around. Fawkes fought for a little bit, and then our powers started to come back. I blinded Voldemort, and he left shortly after, not wanting to take a chance with Zeref most likely.
"After that, another member of Grimoire Heart and Juvia showed up. Zeref knocked out the enemy, and Juvia tried to drown Zeref. Not wanting to hurt her, Zeref didn't do anything to stop her, so I had to knock her out before his curse showed itself again and killed her. That is when we learned something was coming to the island that we do not want to be here when it shows up," explained Harry.
Silence fell over them as Harry, Fawkes, and Zeref waited for Makarov to say something. After a while, he finally said, "That is quite the story, but too detailed to be fake. Not only that but when you, Zeref, spoke of your family, you could not have faked those emotions. They were far too deep. I see that you are telling the truth, and I thank you for protecting one of my children when he couldn't defend himself; however, this doesn't mean I trust you yet."
"I understand," said Zeref. "All I ask is that you don't tell anyone else about who I am."
"Gray and Erza would throw a fit if they learned about him," Harry added.
"Hmm…" Makarov rubbed his chin in thought. "I see what you mean. I won't tell the others about this, but I hope you know that they may find out at some point, right?" he asked.
"Yes, but I'm planning on leaving the island after making sure you all do as well," said Zeref.
"Why do we need to leave the island so urgently?"
Before either Harry or Zeref could explain, Mira came running up to them. "Master, Erza and the others have returned. They also brought Laxus with them."
"WHAT?!" Makarov shouted in rage at the news. He turned back to the two younger males. "Hold off on that. I need to have a word with a certain grandson of mine. How dare he show himself around here," the little old man muttered the last sentence to himself as he walked back to camp, followed by Harry, Fawkes, Zeref, and Mira.
"So who are you? If you're with Harry, you must be a good guy," asked Mira.
Zeref was surprised that Mira spoke to him, but he doesn't know what to say since he didn't want her to know who he really is. 'Wait, why don't I just give her a different name. I can't use Spriggan, so I'll use something closer to my real name,' he thought. "My name is Zeff."
"How did you get on Tenrou Island?"
"I found myself washed up on the shore of this island after my ship sunk."
Harry was impressed that Zeref made up a cover story so quickly. He didn't even miss a beat after Mira asked how he got on the island.
They made it back to camp to find everyone there. This reminds Harry and Zeref why they needed to find Makarov so fast. They were about to tell him, but they got side-tracked.
"Excuse me, Master Makarov," said Zeref, "but we really need to tell you something important. You can scold your grandson later." He caught the old man just in time because he had just opened his mouth to start yelling at the bigger, younger, blond man.
"Oh right, you did sound urgent," Makarov said softly, turning to both Harry and Zeref. "Now why do we have to leave so soon?"
"We need to leave because Acnologia is on his way here right now," said Zeref, and Harry nodded to confirm his words.
"Did you just say, Acnologia?!" Gildarts said anxiously, walking up to them.
"Yes, he did," said Harry, seeing fear form in Gildarts' eyes. "That is why we need to leave."
"Who is Acnologia?" Mira asked.
{An evil dragon that most likely wants to kill us,} said Fawkes. Harry repeated his words to Mira.
"That doesn't sound good…" she said.
"Mira, go help Wendy heal up the others. Fawkes, can you give them a hand in that?" Makarov asked.
Mira and Fawkes nod in reply before taking off to heal their members faster.
"We can't leave yet with our members in such a state. How much time do we have?" the old man asked Zeref.
"Not much… It could be ten to twenty minutes at the rate he is flying," said Zeref a little nervously.
Harry turned to the dark mage. "You don't have to stay. You're not a member of Fairy Tail," he said.
Zeref shook his head. "No, I'm not leaving any of you behind. You said it yourself. If I could control my power I would use it to protect those I care about. I also made a promise to Natsu that I would protect you. I want to prove that I'm not evil, but leaving now would damage any progress I have made so far." After he was done speaking, Zeref felt his death magic start up again. His body tensed – the only warning sign to Harry what was about to happen.
On instinct, Harry grabbed Zeref and teleported away – or rather he Disapparated. When they reappeared again, neither felt pain, so they didn't lose any part of their bodies, but Zeref did lose control of his magic.
The dark mage felt dizzy and a little unbalanced. He shook himself and looked around to see the dead trees and some dead animals, but luckily he didn't see any humans lying on the ground. He realized that he is not even at the campsite anymore. He turned to Harry for an explanation.
"I…kind of did what Voldemort did to leave. I think it's called Apparition?" Harry said unsure.
"Oh, like teleporting. Maybe I should teach you how to do it right because there shouldn't have been a side effect. It felt unstable," Zeref said. "This did give me an idea, though." He grabbed Harry this time, and they teleport back to camp.
"Where did you two go?!" Makarov asked in worry.
"I was about to lose control of my curse again. Harry acted quick enough to get us out of there," Zeref explained. "Speaking of which: do you think we could teleport the injured to the ship and finish healing them there?"
"That's not a bad idea, but it would depend on how bad their injuries are." The master of Fairy Tail wandered over to Mira to see how everyone is.
"I'm sorry sir, but Natsu is in the worst shape. His injuries would start up again if we teleported him. He is okay to move though," said Mira.
Makarov nodded. "Alright, let's get out of here before Acnologia is…" He was cut off by a loud roar.
Everyone stopped what they were doing, surprised, and wondering what made that sound, but Harry froze. He had heard that sound before, in a dream. 'That was the same roar. Does that mean the dragon in my dream was Acnologia?' Harry wondered.
"That sounded like a dragon's roar," said Wendy.
"No way," said Lucy. "I thought they were all dead."
"Oh no…" Harry turned to Zeref, the one who spoke. "We're too late," he said with his eyes wide in fear, but Harry can see the sadness in there too.
Harry laid his hand on Zeref's shoulder. "We'll get out of this. This isn't the first time I fought a dragon," he said softly and confidently, even if he doesn't feel all that brave on the inside, but he does have a method on how to fight Acnologia.
"When have you fought…?" Zeref couldn't finish his question, because a huge gust of wind nearly blew them off their feet. They all looked up to see a giant, black dragon flying overhead.
TBC
Next chapter we'll be seeing Harry's animal form! Yay! :D
Harry: FINALLY! I want to know what it is you're turning me into.
Voldy: I would like to know that myself.
Natsu: Well, she said we'll be seeing it in the next chapter! ;)
Zeref: I almost forgot that the story-me doesn't know that Harry is from 500 years ago. :(
Enj/Dark: I know, I forgot too, but I looked back to double-check that.
Natsu: Your face is going to be so funny when you find out. :)
Enj/Dark: Voldemort, it is your turn.
Voldemort: *sigh* Please review. *whispers: I wonder what the readers think Potter's animal form is going to be.*
