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Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL Prologue: Dragneel

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The Magic Council: The Rune Knights Headquarters

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“CODE DRGNL?” Lahar repeated, “What does that mean? D R G N.. Dragon? What's the L for?”

His superior, who he had never been given a name- he had only been notified this man was his superior 20 minutes ago!- for, stood stone faced in front of him, despite the events of just the day previous. The entirety of Tenrou island, Fairy Tail’s sacred grounds, had been wiped off the face of Earthland. Everyone on it was missing and assumed dead- though searches were being organized and carried out. 

“No, Lahar, it stands for Dragneel.” Dragneel? That sounds familia- Natsu Dragneel! What does he have to do with this? He was missing, and was most definitely not the most important of the missing ones- no offense to the dragon slayer but there was a missing wizard saint and guild master . “I can see that face you're pulling,” He had barely frowned, “What I am about to tell you is highly classified information, and you are not to repeat it to any besides Doranbolt. Understand, Lahar?”

“I understand. If I may ask, why is Doranbolt going to be allowed in on this?” It made him happy to know someone close to him would be in on it, but it made no sense logically. Doranbolt was not of the same rank as him, so if he was only just being notified now, then why was Doranbolt going to be allowed in on it as well?

His superior sighed, “Despite our usual procedure, which would have only had you notified, we have noted that it would be best for you to be able to tell someone both close to you and working with you. It will help with the stress of this knowledge.” Now that confused Lahar, they went directly against procedure because of the stress that comes with this knowledge?

The man continued, “Now that I’ve answered your question, I will continue on with this debriefing.” Lahar nodded his understanding, “To start off with, as you will be seeing me multiple times a month from now on, my code name is Spider, I won’t be giving out my real name.”

Lahar could understand that, codenames were important to use, even amongst allies. After all, Doranbolt had used a codename to infiltrate Fairy Tail. The ethernano in the air laughed at that. For how close Mest and Lahar were, one of them had a huge secret that he himself didn’t even know about . 

“I will be heading CODE DRGNL, also known as Code Dragneel. This code has existed since just after Zeref’s main rule.” Lahar shivered involuntarily at the mention of the black wizard. Doranbolt had mentioned that Zeref had supposedly been on the island, but that he had only heard it from someone else who had been on the island, making it unconfirmable. “The code was created as a safeguard, to keep any possible relatives to the wizard under a watchful eye.”

Lahar raised an eyebrow, “But, as far as my intel access could tell me, Zeref was said to have no last name, or relatives, besides his demons- if you could call them that- so how did this code intend to watch relatives of Zeref?”

Spider lowered his head but kept his eyes trained on Lahar, though his silver hair covered them partially, “That information was alway kept under strict lock and key, however you are one of few who will know it.” That intrigued Lahar, despite his captain position he was rarely told such high up information, let alone be allowed to share it with a comrade, “Zeref’s last name has always been known, and to add onto that it we have, ahem, also had some of his blood on record.”

Lahar had to keep himself from exclaiming questions. ‘How in all of Earthland did we manage to get his blood- let alone keep it safe for four hundred years?!?’ 

“Throughout the centuries we had,” had? “Never encountered anyone sharing the last name, because of this we had never thought we would need his blood to test anyone. Besides, if anyone were to carry the name they would have to be distantly related.” Of course, this code had probably been made when that blood line would still need to be heavily watched in case they worked with Zeref or Zeref worshippers. “However, just about seven years ago someone came into our radar, bearing the same last name.”

Lahar quietly gasped, sure Spider had used past tense, but it was still shocking to hear him utter those words.

“Natsu Dragneel,” Spider paused, “was put into our records when he joined the guild Fairy Tail. He had no records prior to then.”

“What, he just appeared into existence?” He questioned. ‘ Natsu shares the same last name as Zeref?’

“We are unsure, however it is believed that he had been hidden from the world, likely due to the last name.”

Maybe.

“When we became aware of his shared last name, we put a mage up to the task of tailing him everywhere. That is how we ended up learning he was a dragonslayer, an ancient magic thought gone- when not lacrima implanted- centuries ago. We learned long before he hit any newspapers, he was still not even a teen when we found out.”

Spider dragged his hand down his face, “We found it suspicious, but not suspicious enough to warrant a blood check, especially since it has been 400+ years since anyone of that last name had been seen, so it was unlikely- and still is unlikely- that he is very closely related to the man. But we kept an eye on him, noting his destructive capabilities.”

Natsu was certainly destructive. He had seen the aftermath of multiple of his fights- unfortunately.

“And until yesterday we were unconcerned with him having any real connection to Zeref.”

“Are you talking about the rumors of Zeref being there?”

Gold colored eyes intensified their stare on him, “Perceptive, yes, however we have reason to believe that isn’t just a rumor.”

“But Zeref died 400 years ago!” He knew he should talk to a superior in such a manner, but this information was overwhelmingly bad.

“No body was ever found.” Spider replied calmly, unfazed at the outburst- in fact it seemed like he may have been impressed that Lahar would let himself speak that way to a superior- “That, and before Acnologia bared his claws upon Tenrou island a large amount of dark magic was detected quickly fleeing the island.”

“I see, yeah, that is concerning.” Lahar looked down at his feet, “Too many coincidences to truly stay a coincidence.”

“Right, so we have reason to believe that Zeref had been on the island, making Grimoire Heart's goal of getting him more likely to be true. If most of these events hadn’t happened, I would’ve thought they were going after the high levels of magic stored on that island.” Spider sighed, “Because of these events CODE DRGNL has been put into full effect. Which means that the second part of the code is in effect.”

“Second part?” Lahar questioned, finally raising his gaze back to the man in front of him.

“Yes, second part. The first part was the watching of possible relatives. The second was a manhunt for Zeref himself.” So he meant for the Rune Knights to join on this search? Without knowledge of who they were trying to find?

“So the Rune Knights are going to be sent in pursuit?” He cautiously asked, “Shouldn’t mages from guilds do that? They are more likely to detain the man.”

“We will also be having guilds keep on the lookout for dark magic, do not worry about that.” Amusement danced in his superiors eyes for a brief moment, before returning to their hardened stare, “However that will not be the only assignment placed on the Rune Knights, as there is another far more important one. One that will be far less dangerous to your men. The Rune Knights will be sent out on every scouting mission to try to find the missing members of Fairy Tail, along with Tenrou island itself.”

Lahar nodded. Finding the missing Tenrou members, especially Natsu Dragneel, may lead them to finding and detaining Zeref in a quick and efficient manner. 

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On a hill just outside of Magnolia

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“So you mean to tell me that those rumors of Zeref being back are probably true?!?” Doranbolt exclaimed, “And that NATSU of all people could be related to him?!?”

“Yes, yes, calm down Doranbolt,” Lahar would’ve chuckled if this wasn't so important, “This is top secret information and you yelling it out could make someone hear.”

Doranbolt froze at that before sighing and looking down at his feet, “You’re right, sorry, this is just such a big thing to dump on me. I can hardly comprehend it.”

He definitely understood that, he was still comprehending it himself. It was hard to believe that Zeref was likely still alive, but it seemed to be the most probable truth. It was even harder to believe that Natsu Dragneel, known for his happy yet eccentric and destructive personality, could possibly be related to the man. Natsu had always seemed to have a strong justice code, so him possibly even knowing Zeref as a relative seemed out of place. Like a piece of the puzzle was missing. Yet, it was still very possible that his strong sense of justice meant nothing when it came to Zeref. 

‘Afterall, some of the worst people have a strong moral sense, they just interpreted it wrong.’

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CODE DRGNL Prologue: Dragneel End

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Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL Chapter 1: Crows love shiny things

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Lucy’s apartment

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It had been a whole two days since the missing members of Fairy Tail had returned and Lucy was exhausted. The whole guild had been celebrating, and honestly while she had enjoyed the chaos from it, she was unprepared to feel the exhaustion from both the partying, and the aftermath of being in essentially a stasis state for seven full years. 

She was glad that she at least had a bed to sleep on, though. She had never expected for her apartment to still be hers, or for her stuff to still be there, or for it to be cleaned. She honestly wanted- no- needed- to find a way to repay her landlord. Though she knew her landlord wouldn’t accept any Jewel as a thank you- she had already tried that- so trying to find a proper way to thank her would be hard. But she was determined. Afterall, she was a member of Fairy Tail, and nothing would stop her from finding a way to thank her landlord. (a/n, figured I should put in a authors note here, I know that she did repay the rent money using money her father had sent to her apartment, she just wanted to repay the landlady's kindness on never moving everything out/selling it, never putting up the apartment for rent, and even for the cleaning. The landlady only accepted the rent money, refusing not even a Jewel more for all the stuff she didn’t have to do. Also why the hell does she (Landlady) not have an official name?!? The FT wiki literally has her as just ‘Landlady’)

Until then, she planned to get back into the routine of being a guild member- doing missions and all that. Though she wondered how hard it would be to get some of the funner jobs. After all, Fairy Tail was no longer at the top. Guilds deemed weaker, often got the more tedious jobs, stuff that while important, were not often fun. Such as, sweeping a mansion- no joke, missions like that exist- or finding a missing cat. Simple things that don’t usually require magic. Things that honestly shouldn’t be posted as jobs for mages. ‘Oh well, if I end up having to do missions like that then I’ll deal with it. Though I don’t know how Natsu or Happy- or really anyone who was on Tenrou- will feel about that… They live for the chaos.’ The Ethernano knew that she did as well.

She shivered at the thought. They would most definitely complain every time they go on a mission. Maybe she would have to go on extra solo missions just to account for the likely destruction they would bring.

Lucy sighed. That would be annoying… But would (probably) allow her extra time to herself, without worrying that someone would interrupt her thoughts. She couldn’t decide whether that someone would be Happy or Natsu- wait no- it would be both .

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The Fairy Tail Guild Hall

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“Natsu! Lucy!” Happy’s called out as he flew towards them both with a job held in his paw. The job was simple, but had a ridiculously high pay, so he had taken it to see if Natsu or Lucy wanted to do it- whether together as a team or if one of them wanted to do it semi-solo, Happy planned to go with whoever went.

“Is that a mission, Happy?” Lucy asked, curiosity shining through her voice.

“Aye!” Happy grinned, “It’s a job to act as scarecrows,” he giggled as Natsu gained a look of brief confusion, “A farmer just outside of Magnolia had been having problems with crows eating all his crop.”

“So we’d be scaring them off?” The celestial mage tilted her head, “That sounds kind of fun, scaring off a murder of crows.”

“Murder?” Natsu questioned, a look of confusion and misunderstanding still evident on his face, “Alright! I’m all fired up! Let's do this job!”

“Not that kind of murder, Natsu.” Natsu made a noise of confusion before a new voice joined the conversation.

“A group of crows,” Levy replied. She had been listening in on the group for a while, and had ended up wandering over to them, “A group of crows is called a murder, because they are often symbols of death.”

“Death?!?” The blue exceed cried out, he had not expected such danger from a simple job.

The blue haired girl sighed, “They are symbols of death, they do not cause death.”

“Awww,” Natsu lowered his head, “I wanted to kick their asses.” 

Levy and Lucy both shook their heads in disappointment before Levy ended up wandering away, towards a tall stack of books that she had probably been reading.

Happy smiled before remembering the high pay, “Oh! I forgot to tell you about the ridiculously high pay!”

Lucy raised her eyebrow, “Do you mean high pay as in high for a simple job like this one?”

He shook his head vehemently. No this job had a high pay for any job, let alone a small job about scaring crows off. It’s pay was a full million Jewel! He could get so much fish with that much money!

“Wait, you mean it has a high pay for normal jobs?” She questioned, somehow managing to raise her eyebrow further. ‘She always makes the most impossible facial expressions…’

Happy nodded, “Aye! It’s actually high for any job.”

“Really?” The dragon slayer- who had been silent for a surprisingly long time- asked, “Well don’t leave us hangin’! Tell us how much! Is it 400,000 Jewel? 500,000?” Lucy looked as interested in knowing the pay as Natsu did.

“A Million Jewel!” He exclaimed in excitement, both of the mages in front of him had their mouths dropped, “Think about how many fish could be bought with that!” His tail twitched behind him happily, if he were with anyone else they would have made a comment stating how dog-like it was.

“Are you serious?!?” Natsu finally yelled out, “Let me see!” he snatched the quest paper out of Happy’s paws. The exceed felt amusement watching his friend’s eyes widen comically. “Holy crap! It really does say a million! Look, Luce!”

The pink haired boy pushed the paper in Lucy’s face, letting the celestial mage read it too.

“Great find, Happy!” Of course it was a great find! It would allow him to stuff his face with fish for days!

“Yeah!” Lucy agreed before pausing for a moment, “Though doesn’t the high price seem fishy to you?” 

“Aye! It could pay for so much fish!” He got a fist to the head for that reply.

“Not that kind of fishy, cat!” Lucy sighed before elaborating, “I meant that, doesn’t it seem strange that a simple job has such a high pay?”

Happy paused, she wasn’t wrong . It does seem weird that it has a ridiculously high pay.

“Aww, who cares!” Natsu yelled out, “The farmer probably couldn’t find anyone who would do the job, so they probably had to raise the pay to get people's attention!”

That- was actually a very reasonable answer to have come from Natsu. Afterall, he was far from wrong. Very few people would want to pick up that job, so of course the pay would have to get raised to ensure someone would actually do it.

Lucy hummed, “Maybe,” a small smile graced her lips, “Either way, we are Fairy Tail mages, and we can easily do this job!”

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Just outside of Magnolia, at the farmer’s house

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“The farmer said to be careful of his crop, but other than that he doesn’t care too much if some ground is destroyed.” Lucy spoke with a smile, restating what the farmer had been saying as she knew Natsu had not been listening, “Because, as he said, ‘It’ll end up being uprooted by my machinery later this year anyways.’”

“Hell yeah!” The pink haired dragon slayer yelled with excitement, “That will make it easier for us to not make Gramps mad!”

“Aye sir!” 

Lucy giggled at the two, “Crops are very flammable, you know?”

Natsu froze for a moment before screeching, “I forgot they were flammable!”

The celestial mage just shook her head, letting out a sigh, “At least all we have to do is scare off those crows, so you don't have to use your magic anyways, your yelling could probably help scare them off plenty.”

He pouted, “but I wanted to pummel them.”

“They are just birds, you’d kill the poor things!”

Natsu just cackled maniacally, a large smile visible on his face. Though the smile returned to a pout as he seemed to remember that he shouldn’t use his magic for a small mission, not when it could burn the crops.

Happy giggled, “Seemed to remember something, didn’tcha.”

“Oh shush, Happy.” Natsu continued to pout.

Happy and Lucy both just looked at each other with smiles on their faces. That was Natsu all right, always directly wanting to use his magic and destroy things. Though she couldn’t deny that destruction could be fun sometimes. Only sometimes though.

‘HAHA’ the ethernano cackled. She was just like her whole guild, she liked destruction just as much as Natsu did. She just had the sense to acknowledge the consequences more often than not. 

Natsu stopped before cautiously sniffing the air, “The magic in the air changed suddenly, its scent has slightly changed.”

Lucy sweatdropped, “Does that mean we may have to fight? Instead of just scare off?”

Natsu shook his head, “I don’t smell anyone else,” he paused to sniff the air again, “Nor do I smell any beasts, it may just be the magic in the air doing its own thing.”

She raised an eyebrow at the idea, ethernano couldn’t do that, could it? It probably could, so it shifting is likely nothing dangerous- er- well likely nothing catastrophic. It could probably affect those who have conditions that cause magical issues. Sudden changes in magic flow could do that.

Lucy shook herself out of her thoughts and continued walking along the path, towards where the farmer had stated the crows had been nesting. The crows were nesting in a tiny patch of forest that just so happened to be next to the farm. Which explained the large amount of them. According to the farmer there were more crows in this murder than in any he had seen before, and apparently he had seen many different murders of crows over the years.

When they made it to the forest's edge Lucy couldn’t help but be shocked at the amount of crows sitting amongst the trees. There were so many there that you could hardly see the very trees they had perched upon . It was mildly terrifying. Sure they weren’t a threat , but it was alarming to see so many sitting there. 

It got worse when all the crows turned to look at the three. That was horrifying, and it only got worse from there as all the crows started cawing loudly. Too loudly. Natsu grumbled something about their cawing hurting his ears and then all hell broke loose.

A large mass of the crows suddenly began flying, circling around above them. 

“What the hell are they doing?!?” Lucy cried out. This was not normal crow behavior. Not at all. 

“Like I’d know?!?” The dragon slayer growled, “But whatever it is, it doesn't look good!”

“Aye!” Their exceed companion whimpered, “Let’s just hurry and use some magic! They are in the air, it can’t hit the crops and can scare them off!”

“Good idea, buddy!” Natsu narrowed his eyes at the circling crows before jumping up with a “Fire Dragon’s Iron-Fist!”

Natsu, along with his attack, hit nothing as the crows dove out of the way before spiraling down at their true target, Lucy. 

Lucy screamed as the crows came at her and Happy. The blue exceed himself was also screaming, but he wasn’t just doing that, he was also using her as a meat shield. 

“Open! Gate of the Bull! Taurus!” she called out. He appeared in a quick flash and he quickly swung swung his axe upwards at the murder of crows, causing them to fly in different directions while continuing to squawk.

“Yoouu are all bad for trying to hurt my beauuutiful Lucy!” Taurus mooed. Lucy nearly facepalmed at that, but she didn’t because at this point, it was expected for Taurus to act this way, and she knew that she didn’t quite hate it anymore.

Natsu landed back down beside the group, “Yeah! Lucy is a part of our guild! I won’t let you just attack her!” 

Lucy raised a subtle eyebrow, ‘I can handle crows on my own- well with Taurus- thank you very much, Natsu! Besides, it's a job! We fight all the time on jobs! We get attacked all the time on jobs! It's to be expected!’ She kept her thoughts to herself though as she changed her stance and held her whip, she was prepared to fight.

She heard a little giggle from Happy, who was still behind her, “He’s like this because he liii-” he was not able to finish his sentence as Lucy elbowed him with an “oops!” Happy continued to giggle though.

Taurus charged as the crows came swarming back down, Natsu was at his side. Lucy was using her whip to keep the crows away from her. There were a hell lot of these crows, and their incessant cawing was irritating her.

Happy flew upwards and did his best to distract the crows, and help keep them off course. Who knows why they kept going at Lucy, but it probably wasn’t good.

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Natsu cackled madly. They had finally managed to scare off the crows 40 minutes ago and Happy just now came up with a reason on why they were targeting Lucy.

“It’s not funny!” Lucy pouted.

“Hell yeah it is!” He grinned, “They like bright, shiny, things and your hair is both of those!”

“Aye! I agree, Natsu! It’s funny! They thought she was gold!” Happy giggled with a grin. He was floating besides them as they started heading back to the guild, jewel in hand (and pockets).

“Stoooppppp,” The celestial mage whined, clearly not enjoying the teasing coming from the two.

“Hehe, I am going to tell the whole guild about this!” Natsu said playfully.

“Noooooooooooooooo,” Lucy was embarrassed, that was for sure, and she very much did not want the guild to have more teasing material on her.

“Yeessssss~” The blue cat singsonged. his tail was twitching behind him happily.

“Noooooooooooooooooooooooo,” she cried again.

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A dark figure watched from a distance. Their judging glare was directed at the members of Fairy Tail that were walking towards Magnolia. They hadn’t planned attacking Fairy Tail guild members, afterall their guild were weaklings now! However with them right there they couldn’t help but feel themself grin. They had been wanting to attack an official guild’s members for a while, but they hadn’t felt any moment was right, not until now. Their shadow intensified, turning a much darker shade then it should have been.

‘I’ll crush them.’ 

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CODE DRGNL Chapter 1: Crows love shiny things End

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Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL Chapter 2: Nothing like making your attacker laugh like a friend

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Just outside Magnolia

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“Luuuuuuucy!” Happy yelled with a smile as he realized just how close they were to Magnolia, “The whole guild is so close to being able hear about the crows,” he paused with chuckle, “and how they looooveeed your hair.”

The past hour had been mostly a peaceful silence after the initial teasing, but apparently Happy had a death wish- “They sure did, they each wanted to take it for themselves! That is how much they looooveeed it.” - and so did Natsu.

She was not a shiny trinket dammit! Sure, an hour ago she was whining in embarrassment, but now she was going to make sure the guild didn’t know. 

“Oh ho ho,” She turned to them both with an expression that screamed ‘I am thiiissss close to committing murder,’ “But they won’t be finding out, now will they?” 

Both of them visibly shivered, huh maybe her glare’s were scarier than she thought. ‘Good.’ The Ethernano particles around them chuckled at her unawareness. She was just like the rest of her guild. Just like them.

“Aye!” The both replied, gaining a small, lighter, laugh from Lucy. ‘Natsu still begins to act like Happy when scared.’

The Ethernano shifted around. Anyone would act like Happy if they saw that glare. It was Erza level- if not worse. At least Erza couldn’t get rid of the amusement in her eyes- if the situation was a friendly fight- unlike Lucy, who could. It was terrifying. Like looking into the eyes of a dragon who is about to eat you.

Natsu paused, his face changing to a more serious expression, “It’s moved again!”

Both Lucy and Happy looked briefly confused before the exceed shouted, “You mean the Ethernano?!?”

Lucy’s face drained of color, “Before today you had never detected random shifts in it, but today you’ve noticed it twice?!? Is that bad?”

Natsu sniffed the air, “It seems fine, though. It usually moves when magic is about to be cast, or is being cast, or just around anything that is using magic, but none of us are doing spells. So it has to be shifting on its own-” the dragon slayer was cut off as a wave of black colored magic suddenly hit him and his partners, knocking them all backwards, Happy being the only one not knocked to the ground as he had been flying.

“Shifting on its own, huh?” Someone he didn’t know spoke from behind the three of them, “You’ll wish that was the case.”

Natsu rapidly stood up and flipped around, raring for a fight, “And you’ll wish you didn’t attack me and my friends!” 

Lucy quickly joined him in standing up and was ready for a fight too, maybe it would help her get rid of any frustration of being just a shiny trinket to ‘some’ crows, “Yeah!”

The mage laughed darkly, “Your guild really doesn’t know when to accept that you are far from being the strongest guild anymore! You are all weaklings.” 

Natsu growled as he leapt at the mage, “Fire Dragon’s Iron-Fist!” 

The mage dodged his fist with a side step, before quickly grabbing the dragon slayer’s still flaming fist and flinging him a few meters away. Though, he managed to land on his feet- when does he ever not?- and he quickly used it to his advantage, as the mage threw him in a direction where his roar wouldn’t hit Lucy or Happy.

“Fire Dragon's Roar!”  

Natsu’s roar rushed to the mage and knocked them back a few feet, and it seemed like the attack only affected the mages clothing, as their white and red robes got lightly charred around the front.

The mage barked out a laugh, “Is that really all you got?!? You’re like a cat! You can land on your feet, but ultimately, as I said before,” They paused, “you are,”

A large magic circle appeared before the mage as they yelled, “Weak!” before quickly finishing the casting, “Black Ribbon Dance!” Thousands of tiny ribbon like strips of magic exited the ground around all three of the Fairy Tail mages.

“Wh-what?” Lucy managed to stammer out before all the ‘ribbons’ flew at them, creating tiny cuts on all three of them. 

“Damn you! Paper cuts hurt!” Natsu yelled as he went at the mage with flaming fists.

“It’s not paper!” The mage yelled back while fighting off the fists, “If you can’t tell the difference then it's not just your magic that is weak!” They managed to land a hit to Natsu’s face, sending him back a few feet.

“Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!” Lucy summoned Virgo, who quickly appeared next to her.

“Is it punishment time, Princess?” Virgo asked, as if that were just a casual question you’d ask anyone. Which, apparently to the spirit, it was. But of course, it wasn’t for literally anyone else.

“No!” Lucy flustered before thinking for a moment, “Wait actually, it is, but for that unknown mage!” she pointed to the brown haired mage who was still fighting Natsu in hand to hand combat.

Virgo smiled a smile no one would ever want to see. Unfortunately, Lucy saw that smile. So did the Ethernano in the air, they saw it too and they stilled. Even tiny magical particles could get scared. 

“I’ll get right on it, Princess,” The maiden said before digging down and very quickly reappearing under the mage and dragging them down. Natsu stared as if lost on why his opponent started being pulled down.

“What the hell?!?” They screamed before casting, “Ribbon Pull”

Four large black ribbons appeared from a magic circle in the sky, before shooting down and wrapping around their torso, preventing them from being completely submerged in the ground- but not quite strong enough to get away from Virgo’s grip.

“AHAHAHA!” Natsu laughed as he leaned down to taunt the mage, “You're trapped!”

The dragon slayer did not get the last laugh, as when he leaned down to taunt them he got in range of their head . So of course, they headbutted him. Hard. Like sure- dragon slayers had hard heads, but damn that hurt! 

Lucy sighed at Natsu getting headbutted- because, of course, Natsu would manage to get himself headbutted by a trapped enemy. Of course.

Happy floated next to her, the small cuts covering his body being much more prominent than those on her or Natsu’s body. Due to him receiving as many attacks, but on his tiny form.

“Lusheeee, these cuts huuurrrrt.” Wow, way to state the obvious, Happy, good job. Though she couldn’t blame him for complaining about it. Ribbon cuts felt similar to paper cuts, they are very painful, but not very damaging in the long run.

“When we get back we can see if Wendy is willing to heal you,” She said calmly. Wendy would probably heal Happy, though Carla would probably state how it was a waste for Wendy to use her magic for something so trivial.

Happy’s face brightened, “Aye! That's a good idea! And then I’d get to speak to Carla ~”

Lucy mentally facepalmed. At least he had cheered up at the idea.

She refocused on the trapped mage, who was clearly very unhappy, especially now that Natsu was still taunting them, just at a safer distance. Quickly it was like an idea snapped into the mages head and before she could say anything, they were already casting.  

“Ribbon Burial” What in the everliving-

When the spell was cast a hidden shadow came out of the mage. It went through Virgo’s tunnel and speedily exited the entrance of the tunnel. Once out it sped away from the scene.

Natsu was pulled into the ground by black ribbons, leaving only his head above ground.

“HAHAHA! Now it’s my turn to laugh!” Huh . That could’ve been worse. Especially from that name.

“Agh! No! I’m further in the ground than you!” Natsu whined, “Wait, Gorilla, pull harder to make us even!”

Virgo manages to do just that. So both Natsu and the mage were now evenly underground. 

You know what? This was not as surprising as it should be. Somehow. Despite it starting out with the mysterious mage attacking and mocking them, it was now a- not really friendly, but not really harmful- rivalry. If that is what you could call it. The only shocking part was how quickly that change set in. “Natsu has that effect on others,” An ethernano particle giggled. “If he put his mind to it, he could befriend a rock .” Another particle muttered that it wasn't the reason for the change.

The mage pouted at no longer having the last laugh, because of course, the person who was fighting them not even five minutes ago, was now pouting over not being less buried in the ground.

Okay. That's normal. Totally normal. ‘This mage is almost like Gray, in a weird way, one minute he is attacking Natsu full force, the next he is pouting. If Natsu won the fight, anyways.’

“What’s going on???” Happy whispered in her ear, “Their moods just switched aft-” He paused as a look of amusement and realization crossed his face, “After they headbutted.” He covered his mouth with his paw and giggled.

Lucy blinked, “They must have hit their heads really hard.”

“Aye.”

The mages ribbon magic pulling them upwards dissipated, either from magic drain, or from them stopping their spell, either way it didn’t really matter.

Virgo popped up beside them, “Princess, I no longer detect hostility from the mage.”

“Yeah, I don't think you even need to detect that their hostility is gone.” Lucy smiled, though it didn’t hide the question in her head. ‘Why though. I’m not upset it’s gone, but it sure is confusing for it to have gone.’

“Oh, punish me then!” 

“No!”

Happy giggled before floating in front of the two partially buried mages, “Having fun being stuck in the ground?”

Both mages grumbled about how it was cold and wet, and then of course began to make it a competition on getting out. Today sure was strange.

----

“So you had planned to attack members of a guild, and we just so happened to be who you chose?” The mage flushed.

“Y-yeah…” They looked ashamed to admit it, “Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright!” Natsu proclaimed, “We’re cool now!” 

The mage gave a small smile. What a difference compared to earlier. Earlier they were snarky as all hell, and they definitely had considered themselves superior, but now they seemed ashamed. Definitely was something.

“Honestly, I probably would have continued with my original plan if I hadn’t been taunted in such a manner.” the mage said quietly.

“So it was Natsu’s taunting that made you change what you were going to do?” Lucy asked, kinda confused at someone becoming nicer after being taunted.

The mage lightly chuckled, “Yeaahhhh. Honestly he didn’t taunt in a way you typically would an enemy? His taunting was just making fun of me being stuck, most would taunt their enemy in- a much different way… Like I was earlier…”

“Huh, so his nicer taunting made you change what you were going to do. Honestly, that was probably a good idea.” ‘Especially considering how nice they seem to be now that we’ve been having a peaceful conversation. I wonder what made them want to attack an official guild?’  

“So what made you want to attack an official guild’s members?” Happy asked, completely unaware that Lucy was just barely wondering that.

The mage sighed before hesitantly explaining, “I used to be in an official guild, but because of one member's actions we were all cast as a dark guild, and were put on wanted lists.”

“That sounds unfair.”

“Yeah, it was. Anyways I left soon after, but became jealous, and still am slightly jealous, of official guilds. I guess that made me wish to attack members of one. In hindsight, that was not the best wish to have…”

“Most definitely,” Lucy replied, “But you were hurt, and still are hurt, over being ruled unfairly. You’re just lucky that you ran into us rather than any other guild, who would’ve not been so- well so Natsu like.”

“Aye!” Happy agreed, “If it weren’t for us you may have ran into someone that could’ve made you be stuck in jail forever!”

“More like would’ve executed me for being on the run for so long…” They looked down before realizing something, “Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you all my name, I’m Kiharu.”

----

Hours later they all finally parted ways from each other. Kiharu promising to find a way to clear their name, that way they don’t ever have to fall to the same dark path. 

Natsu truly hoped they could find a way to clear their name, along with the names of the innocent guild members. He could definitely understand being unhappy with actions done by the council. Afterall they would threaten his own guild all the time- err, well they used to. He didn’t actually know if they still did. But they would always judge his guild for the destruction they did while trying to help and protect civilians. Which was weird considering other guilds always did the same thing. 

The dragon slayer had actually not been surprised with their switch in tone. Despite handling the initial fighting seriously he had actually noted that they seemed not completely into it, no matter how they actually thought they had felt. Their scent had given it off rather quickly, which is why he wasn’t upset over the ordeal.

Well- he was upset, but only because he now had a headache from the headbutt, the ribbon cuts hurt, and his nose hurt- alot . Granted- unknown to the others as he had wiped it away- it had actually bled a bit from the hit, so of course it was going to hurt, but now it hurt worse than earlier. But overall, the injuries were superficial, and are something to expect from a fight.

Overall he was happy to have met them.

----

A figure walked up to the ground where the dragon slayer had been when he had gotten headbutted. He looked down and used his magic to enhance his eyesight. “Falcon Insight”

Now he could easily see the small drops of blood that had dropped from Natsu earlier. They were tiny, hardly visible to the naked eye, but with his magic he could see them as if they were puddles. 

He crouched and quickly collected samples of the blood. The sooner he got back to the council, the better. It would take a long time for the DNA to be tested, roughly three months, so getting started on the testing sooner, would get them done sooner. 

Once he was done collecting he turned away from the scene and placed his hood back over his head, covering his light green hair. Once it was covered he started up another spell, “Falcon’s Flight” and took off to the sky with his pair of magical wings.

The council would love to hear the good news. CODE DRGNL was getting its first piece of blood evidence for a possible relative of Zeref.

----

CODE DRGNL Chapter 2: Nothing like making your attacker laugh like a friend End

----

Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL chapter 3: Cloaked Figures

----

The Magic Council: The Rune Knights Headquarters

----

Lahar sighed as someone knocked at the door to his office. It was the fifth knock on his door within the past hour. The council has been busy, buzzing like bees, ever since Tenrou’s disappearance, and it had gotten worse once the Tenrou crew reappeared. The council had most people constantly going around to help out in the searches for both Zeref and the Tenrou team. In fact, he would’ve been commanding one of those searches for Zeref today if it weren't for him having to do the paperwork of the ones within the past week.

“Come in,” he called in a tired voice. 

The large form of Spider entered the room, making Lahar immediately straighten his back. Spider being here unannounced could only mean one thing, new information for CODE DRGNL. Not just possible information, such as a sighting, this means they had something more than eyewitness testimony.

“Sir.”

“I’ve told you many times to just call me Spider,” his superior sighed as he stopped in front of Lahar’s desk, “What happened to the you from when we first met, I don’t believe you called me sir once during that meeting. You really need to loosen up.”

“Sorry, Si- Spider, the council has gotten stricter and stricter over using honorifics these past few years.” 

Spider grumbled, “No kidding,” he put a hand in his silver hair briefly, before returning it back down to his side, “Anyways, news just came in.”

Lahar nodded to let the other know he was listening.

“Falcon-” ‘The one watching Natsu Dragneel?’ “- returned just 30 minutes ago. He has acquired it. Some of Natsu Dragneel’s blood.”

“Wait, seriously?!?” He stood up in shock, “That means we will finally be able to see if he’s distantly related to Zeref!”

“Serious as serious can be. Apparently Natsu, and his teammates, got into a fight with a wanted mage. The fight ended with the team befriending the mage.”

“If I had not met Natsu Dragneel before, I would be shocked hearing that. However he fought a lot for Jellal Fernandez to not get arrested, despite what Jellal did to him and his guild members.”

“That was never written in your reports of the event.”

“It was unnecessary to mention. How did Falcon manage to get his blood? Wait, and what happened to the wanted mage?” Lahar replied nonchalantly. He did in fact, leave out Fairy Tail trying to stop Jellal’s arrest in his original report. He did not see any reason to have Fairy Tail punished if they ended up allowing the arrest.

Spider smirked, “From a bloody nose Natsu got after being headbutted by said mage. The wanted mage is not in custody, and- don’t let the council hear this- but that is probably for the best. I looked into their past and the reason they are wanted is not even for any crimes committed by them.”

Lahar hummed, “Yeah, it is probably for the best. Do we know how long it will take for the blood results?”

“Yeah, our mage we use for blood testing states it will likely take about three months, due to the age of Zeref’s blood. Which is better than we were expecting, as what they do typically takes two and a half months. With the age of the blood, we thought it could take up to four or five months.”

“Hmm, at least we will know if there is relation or not.” 

“Yeah. Though, even if there was no blood relation, Natsu could still have connection to Zeref. Natsu having the ‘Dragneel’ name could point to that. However there is less of a worry if it turns out he has no blood relation.” Spider replied, “Now, you should prepare for the next three months, because the council will most definitely give everyone more paperwork because of this.”

Lahar groaned. Paperwork .

----

~3 months later, just before the Grand Magic Games

----

“This must be the broken suspension bridge.” Erza stated as they reached the bridge, if you could even call it a bridge anymore. It was broken, leaving absolutely no way of crossing.

Natsu hit his fist to his palm, “Cowards must’ve taken off.”

“Why are you always looking for a fight?” Wendy asked him.

“Maybe it was just a prank.”

“Well! Now that that’s settled, let’s get back to the beach!” Lucy spoke up, clearly not wanting to be there. 

Right as she finished saying that the ground began shaking around them.

“What the-” Jet said as the bridge began rebuilding itself.

“That’s a first,” Gray commented. He wasn’t wrong, bridges that had been broken do not normally rebuild themselves.

“The bridge, it fixed itself.” Yup, it sure did. That is far from normal. What would Fairy Tail know about normal?

“Alright,” the ice mage began speaking again, “what do we do now?”

“Obviously, we are supposed to cross it.” Erza deadpanned.

“I still say this is a trap,” Levy said warily.

“I wanna go home.”

The fire dragon slayer punched his palm again, “Whoever we’re dealing with is on the other side! Let’s get crossing!”

“Is he volunteering?” Lucy smirked.

“Sure is!” Gray replied with amusement as he lifted his arm to push Natsu onto the bridge, “See ya!”

The dragon slayer stumbled onto the wobbly bridge, “Woah- Woah- Woah-” he latched onto the side rope, “Hey! Don’t just shove a guy when he’s not ready yet! I could’ve fallen!”

Right as he finished saying that he started to feel sick from the motion.

“Are you really getting sick from a freakin’ bridge?”

“Oi you give it a try!” Natsu mumbled as he held his hand over his mouth, “-You’re not beating me that easily!” He began running to try to cross the bridge. 

Somehow, he made it across rather easily. Maybe he was getting better at managing his motion sickness? Nah, this is just his competitiveness.

“What do you know?” The celestial mage spoke up, “I thought for sure it’d collapse the moment someone stepped on it.”

“We all thought that.”

They both spoke quietly, however Natsu heard it, “You all used me as a lab rat!”

His voice drowned out as Erza began speaking, “Now that we know it’s safe to cross, let’s stop wasting time! Move it people!”

----

They all quickly, and safely, crossed the bridge. Somehow. Anyone would’ve thought someone would’ve fallen in. After all, the Fairy Tail guild is built on chaos.

“I hope they attack us soon!” Natsu growled.

“Indeed,” Their warrior princess responded, “a tough opponent will make for great training!”

“You know, you're the only ones obsessed with that, right?” ‘Lies!’

Erza suddenly stopped everyone in their tracks as three- no, four - shadows could be seen in the distance. All of them were cloaked.

“Someones there!” Lucy noted in alarm.

“Keep your guard up!”

The cloaked mages began approaching and quickly everyone was beginning to identify who those mages were.

The mages all took off their hoods revealing Meredy, Jellal, Ultear, Kiharu. 

The Ethernano giggled in delight.

----

CODE DRGNL Chapter 3: Cloaked Figures End

----

Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL chapter 4: Crime Sorciere

----

Near the “broken” bridge

----

Gasps of shock rang out, and the Fairy Tail mages lowered their guards, no longer worried about being attacked. They knew these mages, and while they had been bad in the past, they probably weren’t now.

“Jellal…” Erza whispered.

“You haven’t changed at all, Erza,” the blue haired mage stated fondly, “Perhaps… perhaps, you have already heard about my escape.” he looked away, seemingly ashamed.

Erza narrowed her eyes, “yes...”

“I didn’t want to escape being imprisoned.” 

“Meredy and I broke him out long ago,” Ultear spoke with a small sad smile. He really should care more for his personal being. 

“Ultear did most of the work with that,” Meredy piped up. She had still been really young when they helped Jellal escape, so she hadn’t been able to help him escape- not really anyways. She was more like moral support, with minimal combative support.

“Meredy!” Juvia said happily, excited to see that the young girl she had known was now a kind young woman.

“Juvia!” Meredy replied, a large smile on her face, “It’s been a long time!”

“Jellal escaped?” “Those two were from grimoire.” “They aren’t our enemies now...” 

“... You aren’t, are you?” Gray quickly clarified. He felt that he knew the answer already, but he wanted to hear their answer. Just to make absolutely sure .

“Right, we aren’t.” Ultear smiled ruefully before continuing.

“I may not be able to truly pay for my crimes, but I do wish to at least save the people who my past self tainted.”

The time mage nodded towards Jellal, “Jellal, for example.”

Jellal spoke up, “Do not worry about that, both of us were possessed by the darkness,” he paused, “That is in the past now,” he looked to the side.

“Jellal… Your memories?...”

“Fully returned,” He lowered his head, “Every single one of them.”

Erza’s eyes widened as she realized the implication. Them being back meant he now knew every last thing he had done. 

“They started to return just six years ago, when I was still imprisoned,” Jellal spoke softly, “Erza, I don’t know what to say to you…” He was very clearly upset over what he had done in the past.

Ultear interjected, “I was responsible for all that, I was the one with him under my control. I hope you don’t hold it against him.”

“I was supposed to stay in jail for life. I had accepted that, at least until these two broke me out,” Jellal spoke softly.

“Did that moment help you find something to live for?” Wendy asked.

“”That reminds me… Wendy, that Jellal you knew was… Someone else entirely…”

“Oh! Yeah we found that out a long time ago.” The sky dragon slayer replied, briefly thinking about Mystogan and Edolas.

“‘Something to live for’...” Jellal paused, “No. my goal is not that…”

“The four of us are a guild. We aren’t official, but we aren’t a dark guild. We are an independent guild under the name, ‘Crime Sorciere’.”

“Independent guild?...” Levy quietly asked. Independent guilds were almost unheard of.

“What does that mean?” “You're not a part of the official guilds?” “Crime Sorciere? I believe I have heard that name before…” “A guild that's been going around destroying dark guilds…”

“We have but just one goal,” Ultear started.

Jellal continued for her, “We have the singular goal to root out evil. Whether related to Zeref, dark guilds, or anything else that’ll taint this earth,” he paused, “We wish for no other wizard to be possessed by evil like we were.”

“Ohh!” “That's truly amazing!”

“It’d be really nice if the council recognized you as an official guild.” Gray stated. What they were doing was something very few were willing to do. It was noble.

“I’m an escaped prisoner…”

“And Ultear and I were a part of Grimoire Heart…”

“I’m a wanted mage…” Kiharu added, “All of us are hated by the council…”

“Besides, publicly, official guilds are not allowed to be aggressive against other guilds, even dark ones,” Jellal added, “Being independent is more advantageous.”

“Now we didn’t call you here to introduce ourselves to you, you all know us,” Ultear spoke up, “We hear you are participating in the grand magic games.”

“Y-yeah…”

“We can’t go near the stadium, so we have a favor to ask.” the time mage continued.

“You want an autograph?” Natsu asked curiously. “ Of course Natsu thought that first.” the ethernano giggled. The dragon slayer twitched in reaction to the change in the ethernano but didn’t say anything.

“No, not quite…” Ultear frowned while thinking, ‘Where did he even get that idea?’

“Every year, since the games have started, we have been sensing odd magic coming from the place the games are held.”

“What do you mean?” “It’s a gathering of all the official guilds? Surely it's just from one of the mages there?”

“We thought that too, but the magic is dark. Similar to Zeref’s…” Jellal continued, “Maybe we only noticed it due to our proximity to Zeref in the past, but it’s unmistakable.”

“Zeref…” Natsu growled. “So unaware~”

“We want to know the cause of the magic,” Ultear added, “It might even help us track down Zeref himself.”

“This request has nothing to do with the games themselves, but we’ll be rooting for you from the shadows,” Meredy smiled softly, “We’re hoping you can investigate when you aren’t competing with the other guilds.”

“It sounds as difficult as tying down a cloud, but we’ll do our best,” Erza nodded at them resolutely.

“We’d appreciate it.” Ultear smiled earnestly.

“Are you sure, Erza?” Gray asked. He wasn’t questioning her decision, he was fine with helping them. He was questioning if she would be okay with working with them, because despite the hostility being gone now, old wounds would most certainly still be hurting.

“If all the guilds are gathered there, and there is strange magic, then it affects us as well.” the warrioress responded. 

Gray nodded at her. 

“We will pay for your reward in advance.”

“Food money!” “Rent money!”

“No, something much more useful to you than money,” Ultear lifted her hand, showing off her orb, “I’ve improved my arc of time magic, I can use it to help your abilities.”

“Whaaaaa?” A few of the Fairy Tail members said in confusion.

“I could call it a power up, but it’s not really that.” The Fairy Tail members only got more confused at that.

What the hell did that mean? A power up that's not a power up? That made no sense.

“Uhh, Ultear, I think you may have confused them…” Kiharu said quietly.

The time mage sighed before continuing, “Mages have what is called a ‘vessel’ within them. It limits the magic output of a mage. Even if you use all of your magic, the ethernano in the air will move and replace it, given time,” the ethernano buzzed , “Recently, research has shown that a large portion of the magic vessel goes completely unused. A sort of potential everyone has, the second origin.”

“My arc of time speeds up the development of the second origin. Making it so that you may use the second origin, along with the magic it contains,” she paused, “In other words, it’ll allow you to use more magic, for longer periods of time, and even potentially will allow you to learn entirely new magics you didn’t have before.”

“Ooooh!” Many of the Fairy Tail mages yelled in excitement.

“I don’t get it at all!” Natsu yelled alongside his guild mates.

“There is,” she looked away with a  grimace, “a downfall, however. The process is rather… painful.”

“No joke,” Kiharu shivered, clearly having experienced it themself, “It is horrifically painful…”

“Scary!”

“Fine by me! Thank you!” Natsu yelled in excitement, “I’m slowly to actually believe that you are a woman!” 

“I am a woman,” Ultear sighed with amusement.

“You’re still on about that?!?” Gray was astonished.

Everyone began to excitedly hang out with each other. Well, everyone but Erza and Jellal, who were both at the edge of where everyone was. 

Jellal had a small smile on his face as he watched everyone be happy.

Erza watched him, somewhat conflicted.

The ethernano chattered. Buzzing with excitement for what was to come.

----

CODE DRGNL chapter 4: Crime Sorciere End

----

Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL chapter 5: Bloody History

----

Lahar’s Office, the day before the games

----

Lahar sat surrounded by his paperwork. It had been piling up for a while now- not for the lack of doing it, but rather his work load being increased- and he knew it would only continue to get worse, especially since the blood test results would be coming back any day now.

‘For Natsu’s sake, I hope he doesn’t have any blood relation to Zeref. Because while the Council’s procedure for someone only being partially related to Zeref is leaving them be, the fact is Natsu disappeared at the same time and place as Zeref appeared. That will make them quickly act, no matter how minute the relation.’  

Footsteps walk up to his office’s door and he’s about to call “Come in!” , but the person on the other side is already opening it. Unsurprisingly, it was Doranbolt- Mest- He had been asked to call him that not too long ago . He was the only one that would ever walk through that door without being “welcomed” in. Not that the man coming in on his own was a big deal, Lahar actually didn’t care if Mest came in without permission. 

Mest was not the only one to enter the room, though, as one of the messengers for the Council came in behind him.

“We have the results,” Mest stated with wide eyes, “They will be reading them off to us in the meeting rooms.”

Lahar jumped from his seat, “Then let’s go, we don’t need to anger the Council for being slow.”

“Right.”

--

“Nice for you to finally arrive,” Gran Doma spoke as they entered, “I’ll be reading off the results we were given. Only the DNA tester, and those working with them, know the results right now, so we will all be learning this at the same time.”

Everyone in the meeting room nodded. Only those who knew about project CODE DRGNL were at the meeting, so everyone knew exactly why the DNA was being tested. 

“Okay, I shall begin reading now,” He continued, “‘Natsu Dragneel’s blood is unique in many ways, more than I,’ the researcher ‘ever thought possible.’”

Someone whispered, “The hell does that mean?”

“‘To start with what I was asked to find, Mr. Dragneel is, in fact, related to Zeref Dragneel’-”

Several gasps rang around the room. Everyone there knew it to be possible, but they had still thought it unlikely. Lahar could see Mest put a hand over his mouth from the corner of his eye, and he instantly felt bad for Mest. He knew his friend had some attachment to the members of Fairy Tail, so knowing that one of them was related to Zeref probably hurt, especially knowing the Council would most certainly be asking for Natsu to be brought in. 

Lahar himself was upset over the news two, but he didn’t let it show. He knew Natsu wasn’t a bad person, albeit a little obnoxious and destructive, so he didn’t particularly want the boy to be brought in. However he knew it was necessary for him to be brought in, at least for questioning.

Gran Doma continued reading, “‘More shocking than that, however, is just how related the boy is to Zeref.’ Just how related? He must be just a few generations down then, maybe a grandchild, or great-grandchild.” 

Lahar caught Mest’s gaze just as his friend grimaced. This situation looked like it was going to lead to Natsu being heavily questioned, and possibly even imprisoned for a while.

“‘When the results came in, I had to do a double take. Natsu Dragneel isn’t a descendant of Zeref.’ What the hell does that mean?” Mest shifted closer to Lahar, “‘He is in the exact same familial generation. He shares enough DNA with Zeref Dragneel that it can be conclusively theorized that he is the direct brother of Zeref.’”

The room delved into chaos. Shouts rang out as people realized exactly what that meant. Both Lahar and Mest stepped back to get away from the shocked people. Spider quickly joined the both of them, not wanting to be in the middle of that .

“Calm down!” Gran Doma’s voice called out above the noise. Quickly people quieted down, “There’s more to read, so you need to listen. ‘This is an absolutely revolutionary find . However it isn’t the only. Despite his human body and appearance, it seems that he has just a bit of dragon DNA. Now the reason behind the dragon blood can be logically assumed to be due to his dragon slayer magic, but this brings up the case on if all dragon slayers have dragon blood. The only true way to properly figure that out is to test every single dragon slayer. If it can be found that dragon slayer magic changes a human into part-human, then what does that mean for other slayers? Do god slayers have god blood? What about demon slayers? What about non-slayers who use animal based magic? Are they now part animal? These are all great questions I hope we can one day get answers for.’”

The room was silent, none were all too surprised about that one. It had a logical reason behind it, but it certainly did change things. Especially since it meant that not all humans were human . Which meant the whole definition of human may have to be changed.

“There's still more to read,” Gran Doma grumbled, “‘Now, there was one more thing I found. I found it through an accident , so to say. When I first opened the container that had Mr. Dragneel’s blood, something felt wrong . But I couldn’t place what. Last night, the night before me writing this now, is when the results first came back, and I noticed a particular discrepancy in the ether reading from the blood. I figured the discrepancy was nothing, that was, until the ether suddenly shifted and I got that feeling again. It felt really wrong to be near it. Instead of ignoring it, and sending word that I got the results, I decided to check the ether against the database. I wasn’t expecting it to match anything, but it did.’ This boy sure seems to be a pain in our backside, much like the rest of his guild, ‘Now I would like to preface that not all of his ether is this way. In fact only about ~30% of his ether is like this. The rest of his ether is human- as in molded by the human body. Now what was the 30%? You may think it could be the dragon DNA molding it, however that is not the case. If you guessed it could be changed due to dark magic, then you are partly correct. Though not in any way I could have ever predicted from an albeit mostly human boy.’”

“‘It would seem that young Natsu Dragneel isn’t just related to Zeref in one way, but rather two. This other ether matched directly with the Etherious Demons, or as most have come to know them, the demons of the book of Zeref. Meaning that Mr. Dragneel is technically a demon created by Zeref, but not built from scratch like the others, as he has a human body. Though it is unnerving that Zeref would turn a human- especially one that is his brother- into a demon.’”

Lahar felt sick. To the right of him Mest looked just as sick- if not worse. There were too many different implications that could come with that. Too many .

----

Just a few minutes before midnight

----

“We’re gonna win this for sure!”

“Aye, sir! There is no way we’ll lose!”

The Ethernano laughed.

----

CODE DRGNL chapter 5: Bloody History

----

Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL Chapter 6: The GMG

----

Midnight, when the games officially begin

----

The loud noise of a bell rang throughout the capital city. Wendy had yet to return to the inn room and it was worrying. They had all been told to be awake and in their room at midnight, but she hadn’t returned to it. 

“Good morning to all the guilds gathered here for our Grand Magic Games- Kabo!” A large 3D projected pumpkin-mascot spoke from the center of the town, briefly startling the Fairy Tail members, “We will now narrow down the one-hundred and thirteen competing teams to just eight, and to do that we will start our preliminary round- Kabo!”

“Preliminary?!?” “That's the first I have heard of it!” “WHAT IS THAT THING? IT’S HUGE!!!!” “A 3D projection, huh?” “A Pumpkin!”

‘A hundred and thirteen? That’s way more than the number of guilds to have come from Fiore…’ Lucy thought nervously.

‘I have a bad feeling about these preliminaries, we weren’t warned of them beforehand.’ Erza’s gaze hardened as she continued to look at the mascot’s projection, ‘Too many guilds… An odd magical presence… Are there hidden sponsors we are unaware about?’

“There are more and more guilds participating every year! And we don’t want to spread the fun too thin- Kabo!” The mascot continued with joy, “So this year, the competition will be between eight teams only!”

“The rules are simple!” The entire city began rumbling and shaking, knocking a few people off their feet, “We wish to engage you all in a little race! Your goal? The stadium, Doms Frau!” (A/n, this is one of the spellings for the stadium, though you may know it as the ‘Domus Flau’)

“OUR INN IS CHANGING SHAPE!!!” “WHOAAAA!”

“The first eight teams there will enter the official tournament- Kabo!” 

“Look, the other inns are doing it too!” “Transforming is a MANLY dream!” “So the inn is the starting line?!?”

A wooden pathway built away from their inn's ledge and towards a labyrinth of paths. The Labyrinth itself as only just beginning to form, but it was clearly going to be huge.

“So this is the way we go?” Erza asked with a thoughtful look.

“They’re making a path!!” Gray shouted in shock.

“You may use whatever magic you wish, there are no limits. The first eight teams to make it to the goal pass the preliminaries!” A smile played on the mascot's face, “But if all five members are not present, you shall be eliminated- Kabo!”

Shock flashed through the Fairy Tail members. Wendy wasn’t at the inn yet! They were missing a member!

“Oh, one more thing! If any of you lose your lives here in the labyrinth… The organizers bear no responsibility- Kabo!”  

Natsu growled out, “Labyrinth?!?” He completely ignored the possibility of dying in the labyrinth, as mages come to expect the possibility of death.

“Let the preliminaries to the Grand Magic Games, The Sky Labyrinth, Begin!”

“What’s that supposed to be?!?” The fire dragonslayer scowled. Not understanding that the finished labyrinth was that amalgamation of paths ahead of him.

“We have to head through that to get to the goal, right?” Lucy asked with hesitancy. She did not like the idea of going through a labyrinth. Not one bit. They were notoriously hard to get through, as their paths randomly change the longer people are in them.

“Since it’s a race, we better hurry!” Gray narrowed his eyes, preparing to run immediately.

“Wait!” Erza yelled to catch his attention, “We need to get to the goal with all five members! Wendy is missing!”

“Wendy!!!!!” 

“Even if Wendy isn’t here,” Elfman began with a large grin, “A MAN is here!!”

Grabbing the other Fairy Tail members Elfman jumped to the path that would bring them to the Labyrinth. He was not going to let their team fail!

“It’s a member substitution!” “HUHHHHH?!?!?” “Elfm-!!!”

“I don’t see any other choice, we don’t have time to sit and wait for Wendy…” The ice mage frowned. Time was of the essence, and waiting for Wendy would cost them passing the preliminaries. They couldn’t deal with that, not while their guild is still in its current state.

“We’re counting on you, Elfman!” Natsu grinned wildly while thinking, ‘This will be fun!!!’

“LEAVE IT TO ME!” The manly man roared.

Erza turned her head and looked at Lisanna and Happy, who would be staying at the inn, “Go search for Wendy and Carla! I hope they aren’t caught up in any kind of trouble, but…”

“I will!” Lisanna called, “I’ll call in a bunch of our guild members to help!”

“Aye! I’ll help too!” The blue cat was flying and flailing his arms, “Give it your best!”

The Grand Magic games had officially begun.

The Ethernano watched in piqued interest.

----

Somewhere else in town another Fairy Tail team finished the race. Leaving those who saw them finish-- which was just the organizers-- in shock. Perhaps these games would be more interesting than they thought. Especially with the mysterious Mystogan , someone rarely seen by his own guild was there. 

“This will be fun- Kabo!”

“It’ll be interesting, for sure, but I remember what Fairy Tail was like seven years ago. This may end up being more chaotic-- in the destructive kind-- than previous years.”

“That’ll make it fun!”

--

“Lahar? If Natsu teams make it through the preliminary round, the council has agreed to let them have Natsu until at least the third day.” Mest stated calmly, though there was clear worry in the man's eyes.

“Good…” He responded with a frown, “They really should wait until after the games though.”

“I know,” his friend sighed, “But this was the only option they would willingly go with. We can just hope the questioning is short and quick…”

“Yeah…”

----

“All gold keys are present in crocus now.”

‘Even the thirteenth!’ The Ether cackled.

“Good, now we should be able to prevent the dragons from destroying our city.”

“Yeah, all we have to do is get each key, which shouldn’t be too hard.”

The Ethernano fell silent before dispersing.

----

Chapter 6: The GMG End

----

Chapter Text

CODE DRGNL Chapter 7: Let the Games Begin!

----

Minutes after the preliminaries have been started

----

“You’re in our way!” Natsu, Gray, and Elfman yell as they knock the members of Twilight Ogre out of the games. That guild didn’t deserve to be in the games. How the hell were they even an official guild?

A metallic sound began enveloping the labyrinth, and the ground that the Fairy Tail mages stood upon began to move.

“Woaah—” Natsu nearly hurled as he just barely managed to stop himself from falling out of the labyrinth.

“What!?” Erza exclaimed at the same time Lucy screeched, “The floor—It’s moving!”

The labyrinth was doing as any labyrinth does, it changed itself. Or… Well, the person controlling it changed it. The labyrinth itself was not sentient. Or it shouldn’t be, anyways.

The ground shifted onto its side and suddenly neither Lucy or Natsu had a place to stand, luckily Elfman grabbed them both just as the ground stopped moving. Additionally, a map seemed to fall beside them, along with a now knocked out member from another guild. It seemed like other guilds were probably making maps as well.

Too bad that this is a labyrinth, so the new map and their own map shouldn’t be too useful. While most of the pieces of the labyrinth seemed to stick with the surrounding pieces, many of those pieces were now on their side and would be difficult to navigate.

That didn’t matter to the Fairy Tail members however—or rather, four of them—as everyone but Lucy grinned madly.

“Guys, you all have a scary look in your eyes…” Lucy hesitated. 

“This makes sense! I think I am beginning to see the meaning behind these preliminaries!” Erza seemed to not get the actual point of the preliminaries.

“Let’s get the maps of all the other guys!” Natsu exclaimed as he, and consequently the rest of their team—as they had to stick together—began to one by one take out many of the other guilds.

Soon enough they found themselves at the exit into the Doms Frau, where the mascot, Mato, greeted them.

“Congratulations, you have passed the preliminaries!” Mato exclaimed as he clapped.

“Yeah!” “Do you think we came in first?”

“No, you’ve barely made it,” Mato informed them, “You all are in eighth place.”

“Huh?” The team froze. They had only just barely made it??? 

----

The Grand Magic Games Day 1: Doms Frau

----

“It’s that time of year again! The Grand Magic Games are beginning!” The announcer, Lola Chapati, yelled into his mic, “I’ll be your announcer, Chapati Lola! I have the greatest of honors of being joined by our analyst and former Magic Council member, Mr. Yajima! Thank you for being here with us!”

“It’s great to be here.”

“And today’s guest commentator is the star of the Miss Fiore Pageant, Blue Pegasus’ Jenny Realite!”

“We’re going to win this year!” Jenny exclaimed proudly.

“Now let’s meet our lovely competitors,” Chapati grinned as Yajima began to test his mic, “Mr. Yajima! I assure you that your microphone is working just fine!”

“First, this team ranked eighth in the preliminaries, will they be able to reclaim their former glory,” Chapita started, “Don’t let their guild fool you, they kept the Council on their toes, it’s Fairy Tail!”

The crowd began to boo, they clearly did not care for Fairy Tail. 

“Fairy Tail has come in last every year, but now they have cleared the preliminaries! This year they have a guaranteed spot in the top guilds!” The man continued undeterred, “The whole continent is absolutely buzzing about the return of those lost on Tenroujima! Will this team make Fairy Tail the number one guild once again?!?”

“I am so happy for you, Fairy Tail.” Yajima smiled. He had missed the presence of Fairy Tail.

The Fairy Tail guild began cheering for their team, before taking a brief pause of confusion as they seemed to stare at an empty spot on the edge of where they stand. Who knows what had them confused.

“In seventh we have the hellhounds Quatro Cerberus!”

“In sixth we have the all girl guild! Mermaid Heel!”

“In fifth we have the wonderful Blue Pegasus!” Jenny took a moment to uplift her guild.

“In fourth we have the team with a Wizard Saint, Lamia Scale!”

The guilds in the arena were beginning to socialize with each other.

“Moving on to third place—Woah! Who could have seen this! It’s this guild's first time in the games, who could have predicted they would have snatched third place from all the others, it’s Raven Tail!”

“Official information tells us that Raven Tail has been around for many years now, but they have only become an official guild!”

“If they are recognized officially, then they are no longer a dark guild,” Mr. Yajima explained to the crowd—but mostly to Fairy Tail.

“We’re down to the two final teams!” Chapati yelled, “In second place we have—Oh now this is another shocker! Will they be the keys to those that fell from the skies—I never would have seen this coming! It’s Fairy Tail Team B!!!”

The crowd all let out similar exclamations. Before now, the Grand Magic Games had never had two teams from the same guild!

“I see that the crowd is confused! This year the rules of the games have changed!”

“Yes. This year, each guild is allowed to enter one or two teams. ” Yajima supplemented.

“The two teams will be pitted against each other!” Chapati added, “Will Fairy Tail be able to fight members of their own guild!”

“I don’t think we will have to worry about them.” Yajima frowned. He had seen the competitiveness between Fairy Tail members before. They could certainly fight each other easily.

“But… Isn’t that cheating? If each team sends out a member during one of the games, then they can help each other, right?” Jenny grimaced. That would put all the other guilds at a disadvantage, including her own.

“That’s the advantage you get when you have two teams advance past the preliminaries!”

“Macky, you’ve gained quite an upper hand!”

“Macky?” Chapati wondered if Makarov approved of his apparent nickname being brought in front of such a crowd.

The Fairy Tail teams A and B seemed to already be showing their competitiveness against each other.

“Now for the final team! The first who made it to the finish! You all know who it is!” The announcer was grinning, “It’s the undefeated champions! Sabertooth!”

The crowd roared for the first team to pass the prelims. There was no doubt that they were insanely popular compared to how they had been before the first ever Grand Magic Games.

“Now that you have seen this year’s lineup, what you think of it, Mr. Yajima?” 

“It must be nice to be so young.”

“That’s…” Chapati hesitated, “Not what I meant.”

Continuing more excitedly, Chapati began to announce again, “And now for the moment you all have waited for! It’s time to announce how the games this year will work!”

“Each day there will be a contest, or game if you will, and the teams will be ranked from 1st to 8th place, with first place winners getting 10 points and last place getting 0 points! The teams will be allowed to choose which member of their team will participate in each game! After the game will be the battle segment! One member of each team will be pitted against another team’s chosen member. These are chosen by the sponsors! If you win you gain 10 points, a draw 5 points, and a loss is 0 points!”

“And now! For the opening game, Hidden! Teams, choose who you are sending out!”

Each team began to send out their members. Mermaid Heel’s Beth, Quatro Cerberus’s Yeager, Blue Pegasus’ Eve, Raven Tail’s Nullpudding, Sabertooth’s Rufus, Lamia Scale’s Lyon, Fairy Tail’s Gray, and Fairy Tail’s Juvia.

--

The game of Hidden was quite a simple one. A faux town filled with faux copies of the wizards sent out. Hit the real ones to gain points, hit the fakes to lose them. And just as simple as the game is, the game’s results came simply. Sabertooth in first, Raven Tail in second, and so on and so forth with the two Fairy Tail teams in 7th and 8th place. 

----

“There are a lot more Rune Knights and Council Members in attendance today,” Meredy commented with a frown, “Do you think it’s because of Fairy Tail’s return? Or do they suspect Jellal already?”

“It could also be because of this ‘Zeref’ presence you have been detecting the past few years,” Kiharu added as a possibility.

Ultear shook her head, “I don’t think it’s because of Fairy Tail’s return. They hated Fairy Tail, why would they be here to watch them?” She paused, “I don’t think they suspect Jellal, either. They couldn’t have known he was to be entering.”

“And it can’t be the dark magic we have been feeling,” Meredy nodded to Kiharu, “We haven’t sensed it yet. Besides, they would have started with this large of a presence in previous years if that had been the case.”

“Right,” Ultear lowered her head, “It seems like there may be a bigger reason as to their presence…”

“Any idea as to what it could be?” Kiharu frowned.

“No,” Ultear’s eyes narrowed as she looked to the arena of the Doms Frau, “But whatever reason has brought them here, it probably isn’t good. We need to be careful.”

The other two nodded. With so many Rune Knights there, they could truly be in danger of being arrested.

----

Chapter 7: Let the Games Begin! End

----

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Noticing the Watchers

----

The Grand Magic Games Day 1: Doms Frau

----

The second day’s game was… Interesting to say the least. It turned out that Natsu was not the only dragon slayer that felt motion sickness. Both of the Fairy Tail teams had dragon slayers on the field and Sabertooth also had a dragon slayer out there. It was an amusing turn of events. Surprisingly, neither of the two Fairy Tail dragon slayers ended up in last, it was the Sting from Sabertooth. 

However, during the battle segment of the day, Natsu found people claiming to be of Raven Tail attempting to kidnap Wendy—and Carla and Porlyusica, but their target was Wendy, or atleast the kidnappers had thought it to be Wendy. Though, it had become more obvious that it may have been Lucy, who had been in the same room not too long beforehand, who may have been their real target.

And if that alone wasn’t alarming enough, Natsu had noticed that throughout the entire ordeal, or more accurately, while he was chasing the group down, the many Rune Knights in the stands seemed to tense. Additionally, the Rune Knights closest seemed to have been watching him closely. Perhaps they were just making sure the law was followed? He didn’t know, but he didn’t like it. And neither did the Ethernano in the air. He had sensed it shifting—not from magic use—around in a manner that seemed uneasy . 

It made him uneasy.

What he also didn’t like was that one Rune Knight—or rather, he assumed they were a Rune Knight—who had stood up in the stands and had seemed prepared to stop him entirely if need be. Like, what the hell? 

He was just saving his friends! 

If they could pay that much attention to him then why can’t they pay attention to those from Raven Tail! They were the ones who attempted kidnapping .

The Rune Knights did all calm down once he saved his friends and he was quite glad about that. He didn’t want to end up fighting them in front of so many.

----

“What do you mean they are keeping a close eye on Natsu?” Jellal questioned Ultear. He hadn’t paid any attention to the stands. 

“It’s exactly as I said.” Ultear frowned, “Natsu had to save Wendy, Carla, and their pharmacist from a group that was kidnapping them, and the entire time the Rune Knights around the stadium were tense, and many of them were watching. There was even one of them, with green hair, that had stood up as if they were going to intervene.”

“Couldn’t the Rune Knights have just tensed up in case a large-scale fight was to start up?” The blue-haired mage pointed out, “They may have just been trying to ensure the safety of all the civilians.”

“That’s the thing, Jellal,” Meredy spoke up, “This is not the first time we caught them looking at Natsu. They were all far more focused on Natsu during the Chariot race than any other participant.”

“Right,” Kiharu nodded, their eyebrows furrowed, “Most of them had their gaze constantly on him whenever he was visible, and many of them seemed to ‘vanish’ when Natsu was brought to the infirmary.”

Ultear nodded, “I believe they went to stay near the infirmary, but I couldn’t go with them to check.”

Jellal hummed and looked out to the arena, “I am going to be meeting with Erza later. I’ll have her follow Natsu anytime he goes to a place we can not see from the stands. This will prevent the Rune Knights from suspecting that they have been noticed, since Erza is from the same team.”

--

“Natsu, I’ll be following you around anytime you exit the arena.”

“Is this about those Rune Knights? They were watching me all creepily while I was taking down the kidnappers.” The ethernano hissed, ‘Creepy! Wrong!’

“Yes, Jellal told me that Crime Sorciere noticed them watching you outside of when you were stopping the kidnappers. It’s logical to assume they are here to keep an eye on you .” ‘Stalkers! Bad! They are interrupting the natural flow!’

----

The Grand Magic Games Day 3: Doms Frau

----

The third day Jellal had spent his time in the stands. He had smiled when Erza managed to destroy all the monsters of Pandemonium. Very few would have been able to do that, and yet she made it seem almost easy.

The first few battles were interesting, however they meant little in comparison to the final battle. While he had found out that Sherria was not the reason for the Zeref-like magic, he never got to find out exactly who was. He had been interrupted by the Rune Knights. 

He was fortunate that Mr. Yajima had come to his rescue. 

He was sure that the Rune Knights probably knew that he was truly the Jellal of Earth-land, but he was glad they had decided to leave him alone because of Mr. Yajima. 

That gave him more time to find whoever that had been that was surrounded by ‘Zeref-like’ magic. But it did mean he couldn’t be involved too closely with figuring out why the Rune Knights were watching Natsu. They knew he was there, so he couldn’t risk it.

Which was unfortunate, because he had a terrible feeling about the whole ordeal.

He’s seen the Rune Knights send out less people for dark guilds. Why could they possibly find the need to send so many people to keep an eye on a member of Fairy Tail? Sure, Natsu—and Fairy Tail as whole—was fairly destructive, but there were far too many Rune Knights to just keep an eye on him. They were planning something, and he wished he knew what.

--

“The plan is to arrest him tomorrow, at the end of the battles?” Lahar questioned Spider.

The white-haired man nodded, a serious expression on his face, “Yes. It’s planned to do it in front of everyone so that we don’t have Fairy Tail trying to intervene outside of the Doms Frau. If we make it clear to not only Fairy Tail, but other guilds as well, that Natsu is only being taken for questioning, then they will be far less likely to try to get him back afterwards. They certainly won’t be able to stop the actual arrest itself, or they’ll risk being kicked out of the games.”

Lahar found the logic there, “So why is this being called an arrest, rather than a questioning? We aren’t formally arresting him, right?”

Spider frowned, “It depends. Tomorrows ‘arrest’ isn’t really an arrest, however, he will be escorted by many Rune Knights, so we will be calling it one,” Lahar nodded in understanding, “as for arresting him, it will depend on his answers to the questioning. The Rune Knights have to make sure he is not a threat to others because of his lineage. We also have to find out if he is even aware of his lineage. He likely is, but if he isn’t then we have little worry over his relation to Zeref.”

“For his sake, I hope he does not know his lineage,” Lahar looked away, “Even though the one time I have ever truly interacted with him involved him trying to prevent an arrest, he was never someone I truly considered deserving of arrest. He’s destructive, yes, but I have heard about how kind he is to others. He cares deeply for the well-being of others and is someone that ultimately does more good for the world than bad.”

“Depending on the day,” Spider chuckled, “I have read the many records of him where he destroyed people's homes in the middle of a battle.”

Lahar chuckled alongside him, “Fairy Tail always pays for the costs and then some, so I’d say that evens that out.”

“Fair,” Spider conceded. Not every guild pays extra on top of the original costs. It’s not a requirement, so the fact that the previous number one guild did so showed true kindness on their part.

“So, how long will we be holding him?” Lahar asked.

“Anywhere from 2 weeks to a month,” His superior grimaced, “We have a long list of questions to ask. This list has been made over the centuries as a just in case thing. No one expected we would actually need to use it after the first century of nothing.”

Lahar’s eyes widened, “Just how big is this list?”

Spider hesitated, “There are 597 questions… Excluding the questions repeated using separate wording…”

“And we have to ask all of them?” Lahar’s eyebrows furrowed, “That sounds excessive…”

Spider nodded his agreement, “Most certainly excessive, but when CODE DRGNL was created, no one expected the list to get… this long…” he turned his head away and grumbled, “Unfortunately, I have to ask all of the questions…”

“You have to ask them all?!?”

Spider sighed, “Yes. Fortunately, I don’t have to be alone in the room with him. Due to yours and Doranbolt’s previous interactions with him, you will also be allowed to tag along.”

“I am guessing that you will be making us join you?” 

“Yup.”

Lahar put his head into his hands and let out a sigh of utter defeat. The next good while would be hell as his regular paperwork would certainly begin to pile up.

Spider, the bastard he was, laughed at his despair.

----

The Grand Magic Games Day 4: Doms Frau

----

Natsu was absolutely prepared for his battle. He needed to beat Sabertooth! They were unnecessarily cruel to Lucy! And not only that, they seemed to not even treat each of their guild members as friends! Sure, he fought with Gray and Gajeel a lot, but he was still friends with both of them! 

He was going to make his guild proud, and he was going to make it obvious why Fairy Tail should be the true number one guild! A guild without heart was no true guild at all! 

The ethernano agreed, but it also knew what was coming.

----

Chapter 8: Noticing the Watchers End

----

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: Something’s Changed

----

The Grand Magic Games Day 4: Doms Frau

----

When the twin dragon slayers activated dragon force, Natsu could only frown. He knew how destructive dragon force could be, after all he had used it a few times so he knew how dangerous it could be to go against someone using it. Additionally, he knew how much power it took to use it. If those two could use it at will, then it meant they held a good amount of magical power.

Sting was currently underestimating both him and Gajeel, claiming to want to fight 1v2. The announcer was speaking, but Natsu didn’t have the time to listen in. If he didn’t focus on this fight he could lose. He had little doubt about that.

Sting rushed at Natsu, far too quickly for him to keep up with, and sent a punch at his face. Natsu hardly had the time to think even the simplest of thoughts before he was sent backwards. ‘Shit!’

Gajeel used his leg—transformed into a long steel beam using his magic—to send a sweeping attack towards Sting. Unfortunately, Sting dodged before sending a burst of magic at Gajeel, sending the iron dragon slayer back a few feet.

Natsu jumped at Sting, aiming to punch him, however the white dragon slayer caught his flaming punch and used Natsu’s briefly dropped guard against him by sending his knee into the fire dragon slayer’s stomach. 

Sting then threw Natsu at Gajeel and jumped up before calling, “White Dragon’s Holy Breath!”

The force of the attack shook the entire stadium and sent the two Fairy Tail dragon slayers crashing through the stadium's floor. Apparently, this ‘mountain’ was man made.

“I’m only getting warmed up!” Sting yelled as he followed the two as they crashed through what must have been 7 or 8 stories of rock and steel beams.

Natsu landed on his feet and turned upwards to glare at Sting, “Fire Dragon’s Sword Horn!”

His attack managed to hit Sting and it sent the dragon slayer flying through the air, where Gajeel sent his own attack towards him, “Iron Dragon’s Roar!”

Sting went crashing into the rubble below, but he was quick to get back up again. It was as if neither his or Gajeel’s attacks did nothing.

“The light of the white dragon will purify all!” Sting yelled, “Holy Ray!”

The attack was devastating. It sent both Gajeel and Natsu crashing to the ground, where Sting took advantage of their temporarily dazed state and sent a magic-filled punch at Natsu. Natsu blocked the attack, but damn did it hurt!

Sting continued to hit Natsu backwards until he sent a particularly more powerful punch his way, knocking the fire dragon slayer into some rubble.

The white dragon slayer quickly turned to Gajeel, sending a kick the man's way. He then turned around and kicked Natsu in the face.

Both Gajeel and Natsu sent a barrage of strikes Sting’s way, but he managed to dodge them all with a large grin. It was like he was toying with them, and it pissed Natsu off. Good thing he would start fighting for real here soon.

Sting sent two particularly strong punches both of their ways—all the while still dodging every punch they sent—and soon both of them were laying on the ground.

Neither were too exhausted—there was still some exhaustion and pain, no doubt, but they were far from down for the account. They had spent most of the fight analyzing Sting’s fighting style. If they could pay enough attention to how he fought, then they may just be able to overcome him. Maybe. There was no doubt that Sting was strong, and they didn’t just have to fight him. They had Rogue to worry about as well.

But they needed to win, for their guild and for Lucy.

Rogue, from just a bit higher up in the rubble, talked calmly, “We are at the dawn of a new age. Seven years of practice have made us true dragon slayers. The age of the old generation is over.”

“Yeah.” Sting was looking at the two Fairy Tail dragon slayers, unaware that the battle wasn’t quite over yet.

“Still,” Sting smiled, “You were strong, Natsu, Gajeel.”

“Are both wizards down?!?!” the voice of the announcer could be heard in the distance.

“Hold up,” Natsu pushed himself up, shocking Sting. Clearly, Sting thought he had won. 

Shortly after Natsu stood up, Gajeel followed suit, “You're better than I figured you would be.” The iron dragon slayer rubbed the back of his head.

“Now that hurt!” Natsu complained, “but now I know all of your tells!”

“What?!” Sting exclaimed. Rogue seemed to be in a similar state of shock.

“The timing of your attacks, your posture, your breathing patterns…” Natsu began listing off with a grin—or rather, as best as a grin as he could manage with all of the damage his face had sustained throughout the fight.

“That’s not possible,” Sting growled, “I just used dragon force! ”

Natsu nodded, “You sure did! And it was great! I’m in all sorts of pain because of you!” he paused for a moment, “For instance, you pivot your foot to the 11 o'clock position when you attack.”

“No, it’s 10 o’clock.” Gajeel grumbled incorrectly. It was definitely 11 o’clock.

“It’s 11!” The twin dragon slayers were both in states of shock as they watched this internal fight.

Gajeel turned to Natsu, “It’s 10:30 at most! There ain’t no way that it is 11!”

“Want me to state it a different way?!” the pink-haired mage challenged, “How about 23 o’clock!”

“That’s the same damn thing!” Gajeel snarled at him and that was when Natsu decided he’d had enough of the bickering and picked up Gajeel, depositing him in a conveniently placed rail cart that somehow hadn’t been blown away or crushed during the fight. Bye bye Gajeel!

“H-hey!” The iron dragon slayer cried out, “Yo-you jerk! aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Natsu turned around with a chuckle and large grin.

“W-what?!” “Gajeel…”

“You guys underestimated us” sort of, they were injured, but not out for the count, “and now we gotta get payback for it! Just me alone will be plenty! Come at me!”

Sting and Rogue gave him stares.

“Really fires you up, huh?” Natsu smirked. Now things would truly get interesting!

--

Jellal noticed the person that felt like Zeref—or at least someone similar. They felt slightly off compared to the day previous. He was currently in the stands—as it was near where he had seen them yesterday, but it seems as if they may either be outside the stadium, or within its walls somewhere.

‘Jellal!’ Ultear used her magic to contact him, ‘Make sure they don’t get away this time!’

‘I know! I won’t let them get away.’ He was already making his way out of the stands.

There was a moment of pause.

‘Wait!’ Ultear called suddenly, forcing him to pause in his step, ‘The Rune Knight’s have become really active all of a sudden! Many of them are making their way to the interior of the stadium!’

He turned and looked around, and sure enough, the majority of the Rune Knight’s had stood up, and many were heading to the exits of the stadium. Including the exit he stood in front of. Damn it.

‘I don’t think they are after you! Head to where Fairy Tail’s team is watching! From there you should be able to watch if they are in the entrances for the guilds, if that is where they are headed. I think they are waiting for Natsu’s match to end. For what reason, I don’t know.’ Ultear told him.

‘What about the—’ Ultear interrupted him.

‘Meredy, Kiharu, and I will go after whoever they are! You stay there, just in case.’  

Jellal nodded and changed the location he was headed to. Soon he found himself where the Fairy Tail team stood. Erza noticed him quickly.

“Jell—er—Mystogan,” She seemed to remember there was a crowd that could probably overhear, “What brings you here?”

He walked over and stood next to her against the ledge. Both Laxus and Gray raised their brows at him, but he ignored their looks, and instead paid attention to the entrances to the arena, “The Rune Knights suddenly got really active.”

“So you came here to hide?” Gray asked, but when he shook his head the ice wizard frowned.

“Do you think…?” Erza hesitated to finish her sentence, but Jellal knew what she was going to ask.

“Yes,” Jellal frowned, though she wouldn’t have been able to see it because of his mask. He could already see the Rune Knights starting the gather at the entrances to the arena. He pointed down towards the entrances, “The Rune Knights are gathered in all of the guild entrances. I don’t know why, but they really seem to be after Natsu.”

“After Natsu?” Laxus questioned, “Why the hell makes you think that? Perhaps they are preparing to go down into the mines to find Gajeel once the fight is over?”

Erza shook her head at the lightning dragon slayer, “They wouldn’t send in that many forces, or gather at all of the entrances.”

“Couldn’t they be after one of the two Sabertooth members, then?” Gray questioned.

“If only that was the case,” Jellal grimaced, watching the behavior of the Rune Knights below carefully, “However, they have been carefully watching Natsu the entirety of the games. When he saved your other guild members from those kidnappers, they were watching him instead. One of them even stood as if to stop him.”

Laxus grunted, “But why would they be after Natsu?”

“That is what we wish to find out,” Erza looked up at the lacrima screens to see what was occurring in the fight. Jellal’s gaze followed hers and found that Natsu was clearly winning.

“Whatever reason it is, it can not be good,” Jellal turned to Gray and Laxus, “I’ve seen the Rune Knights send out their forces on many occasions, and this time around they have the same number of forces as they tend to send out for entire dark guilds, not one person from a normal guild, one who hasn’t even done anything wrong—er nothing to warrant the council’s involvement. I remember reading the reports of the damage he’s done.” He muttered the last part.

“You’re right, he’s done nothing to warrant this,” A new voice called from the entrance to their balcony. 

All four of them turned around to look at whoever had arrived. Jellal recognized the Rune Knight immediately. Doranbolt.

Erza quickly stood in front of Jellal.

“There is no need for that,” Doranbolt walked forward slightly, so that he wasn’t under the entrance, “I’m not here for Je—Mystogan.” He looked at the stands, clearly aware that he shouldn’t say that name.

“So you did manage to figure out that Yajima was covering for me,” Jellal’s brows furrowed. He knew it was likely, but that didn’t mean he had to like that the Rune Knights knew he was helping Fairy Tail, it could put them in danger.

“Covering for you?” Erza gave him a look of concern which caused him to flush. He probably should have told Erza that the council almost caught him. Good thing he had a mask on so that he could hide his red face..

“We demasked him yesterday,” Doranbolt informed her before turning to Jellal, “Only Lahar and I know. We haven’t told our superiors, and our subordinates are under the assumption that you are from Edolas. We don’t want Fairy Tail under any more heat as of right now. If Lahar were with me, he’d try to arrest you on the spot since Yajima isn’t here to stop him, however, he is not.”

“You won’t arrest him?” Gray questioned, relaxing a bit.

“No,” Doranbolt replied firmly.

Jellal relaxed, and so did Erza and Laxus. However, Erza still stood between him and Doranbolt. The blue-haired wizard could only feel embarrassed that she was so protective over him.

“Then why are you here?” Laxus questioned, “Shouldn’t you be down there with the other Rune Knights?”

Doranbolt nodded, “I should be down there, but I decided to explain to Fairy Tail—or at least a portion of Fairy Tail, since I couldn’t get to where the rest of the guild is—what is going to happen. I didn’t expect him,” he looked at Jellal, “to be here, nor did I expect for you to have noticed our troops, but I guess that makes things easier.”

“You came here to explain what’s going on?” Gray asked, “And you ‘should’ be down there? Are you doing this on your own, with no orders? Why would a Rune Knight want to do that?”

Doranbolt rubbed the back of his neck, “Yes, I came here to explain this on my own accord. I… feel obligated to after being… after leaving Tenrou without being able to help you all before it vanished for those 7 years.” 

Laxus frowned but didn’t say anything.

“I…” Doranbolt hesitated, “don’t know where to start…”

“The beginning?”

“We don’t really have the time for that,” Doranbolt replied, “Um… Basically, the council is going to be questioning Natsu for a short while. Probably 2 weeks at the least.”

“Questioning him over what?” Erza demanded, “Why would you need this many Rune Knights to bring in Natsu for questioning?”

“Well… the council don’t trust him to not try to fight his way out of it…”

“This still seems excessive…” Jellal commented. Sure, Natsu was strong, but they certainly didn’t need so many people to bring him in. 

“It is,” Doranbolt agreed, “but, I understand where they are coming from… 7 years ago, when Tenrou disappeared, we learned of Zeref having left the island not too long beforehand.”

Jellal turned to Erza with a look of concern and alarm. He hadn’t known that! Had Ultear and Meredy kept that from him? He had known that they had gone there in search of him, but he didn't know they had found him .

“I never personally encountered him,” Erza noticed his alarm, “He didn’t even harm any of us. Though, as far as I am aware, Natsu, Evergreen, Happy, and Elfman all had a close call with some sort of death magic that originated from him.”

“I saw him,” Gray nodded, “But he was knocked out. I had assumed it hadn’t been the real deal, but if the council is so concerned…?”

“It was the real deal,” Doranbolt confirmed, “The council was able to briefly track his magic.”

“Briefly…?” Laxus questioned.

“He vanished on our trackers, but we’ve caught brief glimpses of his magic here and there. But that’s besides the point,” Doranbolt sighed, “Because Zeref had appeared after centuries of silence, it concerned the council. But not just because of his reappearance.”

“Because of Natsu?” Erza asked in confusion. Jellal was just as lost as her, how did Natsu fit into this?

“In short, yes,” Doranbolt looked up at the lacrima screens, “Damnit, the fight is over. The arrest will be occurring soon, I have to hurry with my explanation.”

“Essentially,” he continued, “the council had kept an eye on Natsu since he first came under their radar in the year 777. They did this because of his last name, Dragneel. He is the only one to have held that name in just about 4 centuries. The last one was Zeref.”

Jellal’s eyes widened and he heard Erza gasp in shock.

Doranbolt grimaced, “Because of that, they kept an eye on him. But over the course of 7 years, nothing came up besides the same last name—and the fact that Natsu has no public records from before 777. That was until Tenrou.”

“Do they believe they are related?” Laxus questioned, “It’s probably a coincidence. Natsu was raised by a dragon, so he probably gave himself that last name.”

Doranbolt hesitated, “It’s not that they believe… 3 months ago, we got a blood sample of his. We were able to test it against Zeref’s blood from centuries ago. Genetically, Natsu is Zeref’s brother.” he looked to the side, avoiding their gazes as their collective shock echoed out.

“How is that possible?!? Natsu is not centuries old!” Gray growled.

“We,” Doranbolt sighed, “aren’t sure. But that’s not all—shit! The knights are moving! In very, very short terms, Natsu isn’t even human. He’s got some dragon DNA and demon DNA. He is going to be questioned on if he is aware of any of this, if he isn’t then the council won’t count him as a concern. Now, I have to go!” 

“What’s this?!?” the announcer exclaimed, “What are the Rune Knights doing in the arena?!?”

Doranbolt teleported away, joining the Rune Knights below.

Gray looked heavily conflicted. Based on what Ultear has told him, his family was killed by one of Zeref’s demons. Learning that his best friend is related to Zeref—as is part demon as well—probably hurts.

Laxus had a frown on his face, but other than that it didn’t seem to matter to him.

Erza was looking at Jellal with alarm, and Jellal certainly understood her alarm. This was not something he had expected to find out today at all. Or ever. 

They all peered over the balcony to watch what was happening.

“Why are they grabbing Natsu?!?” Chapati sounded just as confused as the audience.

“I’m not sure…” Yajima commented slowly. He sounded upset

Sure enough, two Rune Knights had grabbed Natsu. A third one, one perhaps in higher rank and has white hair, came up from behind and put what were probably magic suppressing cuffs on the dragon slayer. The third one backed off, but was still closer to Natsu than the majority of the Rune Knights there.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?” Master Makarov called from where the rest of Fairy Tail was.

“Don’t worry, Fairy Tail.”  

“Lahar?!? What are you doing back in here??? How did I not see you come in???” Huh, so they had prepared in case Fairy Tail were to question anything.

“We will try to return Natsu Dragneel in a timely fashion. We are going to be questioning him for a while.”

“FOR HOW LONG?!!? THESE STUPID CUFFS ARE ANNOYING AND SO ARE THESE,” Natsu was trying to swat at the two guards next to him, “GUARDS. DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO CLOSE TO ME?!?!” Natsu seemed to be handling his arrest well. Or as well as to be expected from Natsu. 

The Ethernano in the air crackled and popped. 

“Yes, Natsu, they have to be close to you. They are doing their job. This questioning is of utmost importance, so we have to be diligent. You will probably be away from Fairy Tail for anywhere from 2 weeks to a month.”

Natsu let out a cry of shock. Well, cry of shock was probably not the best description. It was more like a roar, but not like any of his magic roars.

‘A demon’s rage.’

Gray froze from beside Jellal, “A demon’s roar…” ‘Rage.’ The Ethernano corrected.

Gray hadn’t been the only one to freeze. It seemed as though the whole stadium had. Though, everyone unaware of the reason for the arrest, such as the civilians, probably thought the roar was like one of his magic roars. 

Quickly the Rune Knights doubled their security on Natsu, causing Natsu to complain loudly, “OH COME ON! WHY DOES THERE HAVE TO BE FOUR OF YOU THIS CLOSE TO ME?!?” 

‘Jellal, we caught up to them, and I was just about to contact you to explain, but now I need you to explain what the HELL that noise was?!? It sounded like a demon!’

‘That’s because it was a demon’s roar…’ ‘Rage.’

‘What?!?’ Meredy’s voice shrieked, nearly causing him to flinch.

‘Don’t worry… Whatever you are thinking, it is far from that. I’ll explain it to you when we reconvene. You can explain what you discovered then too.’

----

Two wizards from the future, both in separate places, found themselves alarmed when they heard the demon’s rage. 

One turned to the three that had just questioned her, “There was no demon roar” ‘Rage.’   “in my future…”

The other turned to the princess he had just been talking to, “That was not a dragon’s roar,” ‘Rage.’   “and that did not occur in my time.”

‘ S o m eth i ng ’s c h an ged .”

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Chapter 9: Something’s Changed End

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Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Questions and Revelations

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The Grand Magic Games Day 4: Doms Frau

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The Rune Knights had left with Natsu and the entire stadium was silent. No one truly knew what to make of the situation.

“We—well!” Chapati’s voice echoed through the stadium, breaking the silence and startling those still in the Doms Frau, “That was unexpected!”

“Certainly,” Yajima agreed

Good thing that that was the last battle of the day, meaning day 4 of the Grand Magic Games was over with. If it hadn’t been, then they may have had to take a break before continuing. No one would have been able to truly enjoy the battles afterwards if they were distracted.

“Reminder that tomorrow is the break day! The Grand Magic Games will continue after tomorrow!”

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The Grand Magic Games Night 4: Fairy Tail’s Hotel

----

The silence in the hotel was unnatural—unnatural for Fairy Tail anyways. The guild was usually full of all sorts of energy, but with Natsu having been taken by the Rune Knights, no one had the energy to be as chaotic as they typically were.

The Ethernano particles in the air were all moving slowly.

Those who had the situation explained to them by Doranbolt didn’t know whether to explain this to the rest of the guild or not. They hadn’t even told Master Makarov—who had wandered off alone with the first master—yet. How were they even supposed to explain this?

It didn’t help that Gajeel hadn’t returned yet either, and he probably didn’t even know of the arrest. 

It was a terrible situation, really. While the rest of the guild thought that they were just questioning Natsu something, Erza knew better. Sure, they would certainly be questioning him, however, based on the new found information on the fire dragon slayer’s familial relations, the questioning would probably be far… worse then normal. And it probably wouldn’t just be questioning. 

They would be lucky to actually get their guildmate back at all.

But they couldn’t do anything, at least not yet. They would probably have to wait until the time is up to do anything, otherwise it could be seen as them trying to ruin an investigation. That could easily give the council a reason to disband Fairy Tail.

Which, of course, would lead to Fairy Tail being considered either an independent guild or a dark guild because they would never separate.

Everyone turned to the door as it creaked open to reveal Gajeel. He had walked in with a frown, and it only deepened when he saw the empty state of everyone.

“What th’ hell has gotten all of you like this?” The iron dragon slayer questioned loudly, “I didn’ see th’ last of the fight, but I saw our score, didn’ we win?”

The silence made Gajeel look around the room, “And where th’ hell is the Salamander? Don’t tell me he got so injured that he had to be put into the infirmary.” 

Erza couldn’t help but wince. Gajeel knew the results of the battle, but not what had occurred afterwards.

Gajeel’s attitude changed a bit, clear concern filtering in, “Is he okay?”

A loud sigh came from a corner of the room. Laxus spoke up, “As far as we are aware, his injuries aren’t that bad.”

Gajeel’s eyebrows rose, “Then what th’ hell has got you all down?” he paused before his eyes widened, “And what do ya mean by ‘as far as we are aware’? Where is he?”

“They took him,” Happy’s sad voice filtered through the room.

“What?” the dragon slayer’s eyes narrowed, “Who took him?”

“The Rune Knights,” Erza gained the confidence to speak, “They arrested him right after the match.”

Gajeel’s voice did little to hide his shock, “Why’d they do that? What’d he do ta’ deserve that?”

 “We don’t know,” Carla was frowning. 

Erza looked off to the side. That statement wasn’t entirely accurate.

“But there were a ton of them there. It was… excessive.” The exceed continued.

The iron dragon slayer looked at Erza—who was still looking away—and questioned her, “You know something, don’t ya?”

Lucy turned to her, “Erza?”

Erza grimaced. 

“Well, why don’t ya share with th’ class?” 

“She’s not the only one who knows,” Laxus was looking at Gray. Gray had been sitting facing away from the center of the room the entire time and he had a grimace on his face.

Gajeel huffed, “So you and Frosty over th’re also know?”

Laxus nodded, “We do. But first I’d like to ask you what took you so long.”

“I found somethin’ that Salamander and Tiny over th’re,” he gestured at Wendy, “would’ve wanted ta’ see. But seein’ as he’s not here…” he sighed, “I might as well share what I found. When the cart finally stopped movin’ I was deep underground and… surrounded by hundreds of dragon skeletons.”

Erza finally turned to look at the iron dragon slayer again. Gray was still facing away.

Wendy’s eyes widened, “dragon… skeletons..?”

Gajeel nodded, “I was goin’ ta’ have us check it out, but I guess that can’t happen tonight,” he looked between Erza, Laxus, and Gray. He scowled when he saw Gray still turned away, “So, what do ya know?”

“Well…” Erza started, “we know the reason for his arrest…”

“Right.” Laxus confirmed, “Some Rune Knight warned us. Apparently he had been on Tenrou..?”

Erza nodded to Laxus, “Yes, he had been there with us. That’s why he warned us. But that’s not too important… He hadn’t actually been the only one to warn us, however, he was only the messenger to why. We had been alerted when the Rune Knights began to fill all of the entrances into the arena. Err, I knew they were paying attention to him during the games of previous days, but I didn’t think they would do anything.”

“There were so many Rune Knights that never entered the arena,” Laxus added, “I think they were prepared to do anything to bring him in.”

“Huh,” Gajeel raised an eyebrow, “So what’d he do? Ya don’t just get arrested for nothin’.”

“He didn’t do anything,” Erza lowered her gaze.

“Hah? Then why’d he get arrested?”

“Yeah, if he did nothing, why did he get arrested?” Lucy’s brows were furrowed.

Both Erza and Laxus grimaced.

“They tested his blood.” Gray stated blankly as he slowly turned to face the guild. 

“What’s that got to do with it?” Gajeel tilted his head, “Did they find out about the tiny bit of dragon blood in dragon slayers? Does he have more than normal or somethin’?”

Wendy perked up, “Really? Our magic changes our gen—ge—DNA?”

Gajeel nodded, a small smile appearing on his face, “Ya didn’t know? Metalicana taught me that when I was younger.”

The sky dragon slayer shook her head, “Grandeeny never told me…”

“Huh, wonder if Salamander knows,” Gajeel’s brows furrowed.

Erza hopes that if Natsu knows anything about his genetics, it is only the part about his dragon blood. Otherwise, the council will most definitely not be kind.

Gray slammed his fist against the table he was sitting at, startling Juvia who had been sat next to him. He was gritting his teeth.

“Gray?” Juvia’s eyes were wide as she looked at the ice mage in concern.

Gray shut his eyes tight for a moment before reopening them, “If only that was what they were concerned about.”

“What do ya mean?” Gajeel’s frown returned.

“They aren’t concerned about that part of his blood?” Wendy questioned, “Is it something else in his blood? What else could even be there?”

Erza looked at both Gray and Laxus. Laxus nodded to her while Gray clenched his jaw. If Erza didn’t know Gray’s past, she would wonder why he was so upset about the reason behind Natsu’s arrest. Unfortunately, he had learned that his best friend was not only related to the person who created the demon that killed his family, but was also a demon as well. 

Erza also had complicated feelings about it, but she knew that it didn’t change who Natsu was. Sure, he was related to the person that those controlling the tower had tried to falsely resurrect, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t separate him from the actions of his brother.

Gray seemed to be having difficulty doing that, but she could understand why he would have such difficulty. Despite them both having issues with anything related to Zeref, Gray was the only one truly directly affected by him. She had problems with cults that had followed him. He had problems with him because he created the very thing that killed his family and mentor. Of course he would have a harder time separating them.

Erza took a deep breath, “Natsu doesn’t just have human and dragon DNA. He’s… part demon.”

Gray once again gritted his teeth. If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up chipping a tooth.

The room was silent for a moment before people began clamoring to ask questions.

“All of ya!” Gajeel growled, “Asking a bunch of questions at th’ same time won’t get ya anywhere!”

Gajeel’s yell had managed to quiet the guild down again. Whether it be because what he said made sense, or because his growl had scared them, it didn’t matter.

Erza went to speak again, but she was interrupted.

“He’s not just part demon either,” Gray’s hands were clenched. Erza would not be surprised if his palms were bleeding from how tightly he had them clenched. “While it hadn’t been specified exactly, it only makes sense,” he growled, “that he’s a demon from the book of Zeref.” 

Erza blanked, that did make sense. With Natsu’s relation to Zeref he was probably a demon from his book. Though, she had always thought that those demons were pure demons. Natsu wasn’t. But then again, he was blood related to Zeref, so perhaps Natsu had been turned into a demon , rather than created as one.

“What makes you say that?” Carla questioned, “Aren’t those demons created, making them 100% demon?”

Gray turned away with a snarl, prompting Erza to shake her head at the exceed, “If only that were probably the case,” the requip wizard hesitated, “But… We also found out that he is genetically related to Zeref himself…”

The whole guild collectively lost their shit. Most of them had looks of alarm on their faces while the rest either weren’t paying attention—some had drunk themselves to sleep—or looked to be in deep thought.

“H—” Gajeel cut himself off as he struggled to form a proper sentence, “How closely related are we talkin’ about? Zeref is centuries old, and I know Natsu” He was struggling so much he had called Natsu by his actual name, “has lived in the guild for most of his life. Before then he was with his dragon, Igneel.”

Elfman wiped the shock off of his face as if to ask a question, but then something seemed to dawn on him. 

From beside him, Evergreen turned to him and squinted her eyes at him, “What?”

Elfman turned to her, before turning to Happy, “Do either of you remember that initial interaction with Zeref?”

“Of cour—” Evergreen’s eyes widened as she moved a hand over her mouth. 

Happy frowned, “All I remember was him crying…” 

Erza couldn’t help but think ‘The evilest wizard known to mankind was crying?’

Elfman hesitated, “I’m not talking about the crying—though it now makes sense why he was crying…”

“He called Natsu by name,” the brute continued, “when he saw him. And his crying got worse… Though, Natsu did not recognize him.”

“Then…” Gajeel’s brows furrowed and he tilted his head down as he thought, “they have to be closely related right? But then what about being a demon from the book of Zeref? As the cat over there stated, aren’t they 100% demon?”

Laxus spoke up, “They are closely related… Way too close for the council to ignore. Genetically, Natsu is Zeref’s—”

“Brother.” Gray interrupted, he was still facing away from everyone, “They are brothers.”

“What?!?” Lucy exclaimed, “How does that work? Zeref is centuries old! Natsu is our age!”

Silence filled the room for a minute or two.

“Actually,” A young voice called from the entrance to the hotel. The first master had seemingly floated through the door. Master Makarov opened the door not too long afterwards. He was grimacing, “It’s probably not as complicated as you are thinking. We couldn’t help but listen in once we got back, and… Makarov remembered something that he had found weird.”

All eyes turned to the small man, “Right, it’s as the first master said. I remembered something specifically from the battle during Fantasia…” He turned to Gajeel, “You remember how you and Natsu couldn’t leave the barrier Freed had set up?”

Freed raised an eyebrow, “Wait, neither of you could leave? I had it set for someone above a certain age to be unable to leave, only the Master should have been affected.”

Gajeel tilted his head, “I guess I do remember that, but it also affected me…”

The Ethernano shifted around.

Master Makarov nodded, “Yes, it did also affect you… However it was written in a certain way, right, Freed? It was written so that anyone born before a certain date couldn’t leave. Physical age may have had nothing to do with it.”

“I wasn’t born around th’ same time as you, old man,” Gajeel deadpanned.

“No, you weren’t’.” Master Makarov conceded, “However, that was a clue for me. It shouldn’t be related to whether or not you carry dragon blood,” he turned to Freed, “Could you put up a barrier with the same rules as before? Just a small one that can fit one person at a time.”

Freed nodded and created a barrier with the exact same rules.

“Okay,” Makarov began again, “Now, Gajeel, I want you to try to enter that barrier.”

Gajeel frowned but followed the request. He couldn’t get past the barrier.

“Alright,” The guild master nodded, “Now, I’ll try to enter it.”

As expected, he couldn’t. He didn’t fit the requirements.

Master Makarov turned to Wendy, “Wendy, could you try to enter it as well?”

The blue haired dragon slayer nodded and walked over to the barrier. Like the previous two, she couldn’t enter it.

“What?” Wendy tapped against the barrier, “I should’ve been able to go through it…”

Makarov nodded, “Right, you should have been able to.” He turned to his grandson, “Laxus, could you try to enter it?”

Laxus was frowning, “Okay.” 

He walked through it just fine. He himself seemed shocked. Laxus had probably thought he would be blocked as well. 

“As is obvious, it’s affecting the dragon slayers raised by dragons,” Master Makarov nodded to Laxus as he went back to where he had been sitting, “And it can’t be related to the dragon blood, because it's the magic that changes a slayer’s blood. A false dragon slayer, one with a lacrima, is still affected by the magic.”

“But what does that mean?” Gajeel grunted, “We are still not old…”

“Well of course not,” Makarov frowned, “However, there is something else that the dragon slayers raised by dragons have in common.”

Gajeel tilted his head, “Our dragons all vanished the same day?”

Wendy’s eyes widened, “That is weird…”

The old man nodded, “Yes. That’s weird, right? Well, here’s a little fact about Natsu. You see, I had searched, when he first joined the guild, for any record of him before joining. While he had joined the guild, and was now a part of our family, I had wondered if there was any family searching for him that he didn’t remember. I found no record of him anywhere.”

“No record?”

He shook his head, “No. Not a single one. Not only that, but he was the only person currently alive with the last name of Dragneel. There weren’t even any records for well over a century. Once I reached a century of no one with that last name, I gave up searching further. Few live past a century after all. I actually thought that perhaps he had just combined the words dragon with his dragon’s name, Igneel. But, perhaps that is wrong.”

Gajeel grimaced, “That… Is strange… I also have no record from before Metalicana vanished. I had thought that was strange when I had discovered that, but… I guess I ignored it… There should be birth records for both of us at least, right? Unless we were both abandoned quickly, what are th’ chances of that being both of us? It has to be low. Both abandoned without any record and found by a dragon that somehow knew how to take care of a human child?”

Makarov nodded, “You are right. Those chances are too low. I believe that Wendy’s is likely under similar circumstances too, with having no records from before that day, but I have never gone looking for that information.”

He paused for a moment before continuing, “But in addition to their lack of records, there is a distinct lack of confirmed sightings of dragons for years. Besides Acnologia, I could not find any record of a dragon being spotted in Fiore for centuries. If there were five dragons raising children in Fiore, as the two dragon slayers from Sabertooth were also raised by dragons, then they should have been spotted. While this land has plenty of open wilderness, it is still small. One of them would have been spotted at some point.”

Erza frowned, “I’m sorry, Master, but I don’t see how the lack of records connects? All this is just making everything more confusing…”

“We aren’t entirely sure,” Master Mavis frowned, “but… there are magics that can preserve people for centuries at a time. Similar to how you were kept alive and unaging for 7 years. It’s possible that someone, potentially Zeref, preserved all of the dragon slayers raised by dragons for a long time, preventing them from aging. Perhaps…” she sighed softly, “perhaps it was a part of some plan for all five of you, and perhaps it went wrong. Otherwise, I don’t see a reason for you to have been separated.”

“But what about the day that the dragons went missing?” Carla questioned, “And that none of these three recognize each other, but they do remember their dragons?”

“It could be an effect of the preservation magic,” the first master hesitated, “but it’s hard to say.”

“We could try pinpointing a time?” Freed hesitantly offered, “I could set the date for this to 150 years ago and we can see if they can go through? And then after that, if they can’t, we could try in increments of 50 years until they can?”

Master Makarov nodded, “That sounds like a good idea, Freed.”

Freed smiled before turning and changing the runes on the barrier. 

Now is where it may start getting tedious.

----

Chapter 10: Questions and Revelations End

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Chapter Text

Chapter 11: Time

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“All right,” Freed starts, “I have set it to 150 years ago, Gajeel, you may proceed.”

Gajeel nodded with a frown. Surely he wasn’t born more than 150 years ago, right? He should be able to make it—or not. His fist collides right into the barrier, “Wendy, come see if yours collides too.”

Wendy knocks her fist against the barrier. It seems that she is not able to as well. Huh.

“And to prove that I can get through it,” Makarov nods as he walks through the barrier.

Freed’s eyebrows furrow, “Okay, I’ll set this to 200 years then.” He is quick to rewrite the runes, “Try again.”

The two dragon slayers once again find that their fists collide with the barrier. Damn.

“250 years.” 

They collide again.

“300 years.” 

Once again, their fists collide with the barrier.

“Th’ hell?” Gajeel’s frown kept deepening the longer this went on. He turned to the first master, “Are you sure there's magic that could perfectly preserve someone for that long?”

Mavis seems to hesitate for a moment, “Yes… Though, I am surprised that it would go unnoticed for so long…” She didn’t elaborate further, but it was clear that she was trying to calculate something in her head. Whatever it was, she seemed stumped.

The iron dragon slayer turned back to Freed and nodded with a defeated sigh.

“350 years.”

More colliding. 

“400 years…”

Does it really have to be made obvious what happened this time? Of course, their fists collided against the barrier. Gajeel was beginning to question his entire existence. 

“450…”

Gajeel went to knock on the barrier again, but this time, finally, his fist went through. He looked at Wendy, whose fist had also gone through. She grinned at him, and he felt himself grinning back.

Freed removed the barrier, “It looks like we have a rough idea of when you may have been born.” He paused before shaking his head, “I could’ve never imagined that… Over 400 years ago…”

“I had no idea,” Wendy frowned, “But if we were preserved for so many years, it would explain why all our dragons ‘vanished’ the same day. It’s not that they vanished… We did… sort of.”

Gajeel grunted, “Yeah…”

“First master,” Master Makarov turned to Mavis, “What has you troubled?”

She sighed, “What I am not understanding is how…” she stopped before restarting her sentence, “While the circumstances aren’t the same as the time I saw this… first hand…” something seemed off about the way she put it, but whatever secret she was trying to hide was hers to keep, “and some differences are certainly… to be expected… There should have been an ethernano build up… You dragon slayers should have greater capability with your magic than you already do, your magical containers should be vast, and yet that isn’t the case… However it was done, it must have been done in a way to prevent magic from growing in you… This was likely to prevent magical overload…”

“That’s a thing?” Erza asked from where she was standing. 

Mavis nodded, “Just like how you can be too deficient in magic, you can be too full of it. They are both dangerous, and they both can lead to death if you are not careful.”

Wendy paled, as did many other members of the guild—Gajeel included. 

As far as he was concerned, he was very lucky that the person—whether it be Zeref or someone else—had the foresight to consider magical overload. He could only imagine what four centuries of built up magic could do to a body.

The silence in the hotel was deafening. 

Or rather…

It allowed him to sense a sudden shift in the ethernano. This change made him tense.

He wasn’t the only one that tensed. Beside him, Wendy did as well, and across the room so did Laxus. They had all felt that change in the ethernano. No one else in the room had tensed or sensed the ethernano shift.

It was as if it had emotions, and as if those emotions had just drastically changed to something darker.

Gajeel couldn’t tell what that meant, and he didn’t know if he wanted to know that or not.

----

In another place, at the same time

----

“So, you are saying that you came from the future, but that the future you came from did not occur like this one?” Jellal asked future Lucy. She had already explained everything that she knew, so his question was more of a formality than anything. Just as how she had asked a similar question in response to his explanation of what had occurred at the Doms Frau.

The celestial wizard—who was missing an arm—nodded, “Yes,” she hesitated, “I don’t know how, but something changed. My future did not have Natsu arrested… Or revealed to be E.N.D. I don’t know how this could have happened…” she paused for a moment and then turned to Kiharu, “I didn’t mention this before, I had thought little of it at the time, but you weren’t a part of Crime Sorciere in my future.”

The ribbon mage frowned. They clearly didn’t like the sound of that.

“I don’t even recognize you. I never even encountered you in my future,” Future Lucy continued with a frown.

“That’s weird,” They furrowed their brows.

“Weird, but I think I understand what may be going on,” Ultear looked to future Lucy, “I believe that, instead of going to your past, you have ended up in a… parallel timeline of sorts.”

Future Lucy’s eyes widened, “Does…” she paused for a brief moment before continuing in a pained voice, “Does that mean that everything I did to come back in time to change things won’t be able to help either my timeline… or yours..?” Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.

Meredy quickly shook her head, “No!” she winced before continuing in a softer voice, “It’s nothing like that. The knowledge you carry is still helpful.”

Jellal nodded his agreement, “Meredy’s right. Even if events have not occurred the exact same in the timeline as yours, there are some similarities. There's a chance that what happened in your time may still happen in ours. Your knowledge about the dragons coming will be immensely useful in ensuring that we are more prepared than we ever could have been.”

Kiharu nodded, a small smile forming on their face, “He’s right, you know? And even if that event doesn’t happen in this timeline, I’m still glad you're here. You being here means you don’t have to continue to suffer in your time.”

Future Lucy promptly burst into tears.

Kiharu panicked, clearly thinking that they had said something wrong, “Did I say something wrong?!? I’m so sorr—”

“No, no, I’m sorry,” Future Lucy gave a small, yet warm, smile as tears still fell, “I don’t even know why I’m crying… You're being so incredibly kind.”

Perhaps, her being sent to the past of a separate timeline then her own would give her a chance to heal. Or, at least, that was the hope.

----

Crocus, local Council holding cells

----

Natsu had absolutely no idea why the Council wanted him. All he knew was that he was going to be questioned about something. But about what? He couldn’t think of any reason to question him. If he had done something on a mission that they wanted to question, they would have brought at least Lucy or Happy as well, but from what he could tell, he was the only one detained.

What’s worse is that he has two guards standing directly outside of his cell. He had walked past many other cells earlier, and none of the others in cells had constant guards. Furthermore, he knew that those two guards weren’t the only ones posted nearby, they were just the only ones he could see. He could smell others standing just out of his range of sight. Why were they so worried about him? Sure, he was a tad bit destructive, but that certainly didn’t warrant this?

The guards wouldn’t even talk to him. He had tried, multiple times, to get them to respond to his questions, and he had tried to start up conversations, but unfortunately the guards didn’t even react. They just stood there.

“Oh come on! Why won’t ya talk to me?!? I’m booored.” he can remember himself saying, “What does the Council even want with me? I should be back there with my guild!” Their silence had frustrated him.

Now, he could totally handle this situation if it weren’t for the fact that it's still the Grand Magic Games. Why’d they have to go and arrest him before the games ended? He would’ve answered their questions just as well afterwards! In fact, he may have answered them better if they had waited, because now he’s distracted thinking about the games!

Damn the council.

Natsu sighed. He hoped that the questioning would be started soon. He did not want to be stuck in this cell for too long. Sure, he knew they said it would take a long time, but getting started would get it done sooner. And the sooner the better.

The distant sound of boots hitting the stony ground made themselves present in that moment. ‘Huh, maybe I should wish for something to be done sooner more often.’

The footsteps were a good distance away, but they were definitely heading his way, and there were 3 sets of them, making it unlikely to be a guard change. 

Natsu grinned. Even if he wasn’t getting let out, and even if the questioning were to take a long time, anything was better than just sitting here waiting. 

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Chapter 11: Time End

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