Protection
by theolims (Kitty)
August 2015 - ?

Contra spem spero.
I hope against hope.

Title: Protection
Category: Gen (Canon AU)
Characters/Pairings: Natsu Dragneel, Zeref Dragneel/Some NaLu and (blatant) Zervis
Rating/Warnings: T/major character death, violence, language
Summary: "I am your older brother. It is my duty to protect you." - Zeref saves Natsu's life. Everything changes.

"There is no certainty; there is only adventure." - Roberto Assagioli

CHAPTER I: Redemption

IN retrospect, it started out simply enough.

Natsu wanted to go on a mission to fight the bad guys. He also wanted Lucy, Erza and Gray to go with him (and Happy, of course) just like in the old days, before Tartaros.

There was a problem with that though. He had to find one that was difficult enough that Erza and Popsicle just had to come along with him and Lucy, and he had to make sure the reward was high enough for her rent since she always seemed to be low on money for it. Which meant that he had to find a mission for four S-class level (he, Popsicle and Lucy technically weren't... they never had been promoted, but he was pretty sure Lucy was S-class level now) mages to go on, because he did not want to be bored out of his mind.

So, that was how he had ended up standing there and staring at the board, feeling remarkably like Nab as the seconds ticked by. All the missions were too easy—mostly helping people across the desert or cosplaying some famous book that Natsu couldn't be bothered to remember. That was Lucy's thing.

"There's nothing here," he moaned under his breath, wishing he could burn the board but knowing that Erza would probably beat him into a pulp and then step on him if he did that. She had become even more strict since being named guild master temporarily before they had managed to rescue Gramps.

He heard footsteps approaching, and he spun around. Mira had a serious expression on her face as she stared at him, holding a single piece of paper in her hand and— Ooh, he so hoped that was an exciting mission.

"Natsu, there's a job requesting you, Lucy, Gray and Erza specifically."

He wept in joy. In his head. Popsicle would never let him live it down if he actually cried in front of him... again. He stopped that train of thought before he could go down it and depress himself again.

"What's it about?" he asked. He snatched the sheet out of her fingers because he couldn't wait for her answer, and scanned the contents.

REQUESTING: TEAM NATSU

Dragon slayers and mages are terrorizing our town. They say there is a "demon" within us... blah blah blah. [He couldn't be bothered to read that part – something about the town's location and stuff] Please help us!

Reward: 50,000,000 J

Natsu's eyes bugged out of his head at the amount in the reward. Lucy wouldn't have to worry about her rent for a year! How could these people afford to pay so much in the first place? That was S-class level pay!

"It's in Heather."

Oh. That explained it then. Heather was a port town like Hargeon or Magnolia, except it was, like, really rich. Apparently, all the elite people lived there—like the council, and the people who visited the palace regularly. What were they called? Politicians or something?

He hummed under his breath, and stared back down at the request. Even though he wasn't nearly as money obsessed as Lucy was, he honestly wouldn't mind having some extra to surprise her sometime with lunch or dinner... or something pretty, for that matter.

"All right!" He said with a grin. "I'm all fired up! Yo, Popsicle! Erza! Luce! I got us a mission!" He waved the request around in the air, spinning around on his heel. Gray shouted something at him, but he honestly was too happy to really care about whatever it was. Mirajane giggled.

"Have fun guys! Be careful."

As soon as they got off the train, Natsu hugged a tree. A stable tree. That did not move. An inch. At all.

He probably would have kissed the ground too if Erza hadn't told him to "come", and since he was more scared of Erza than he was of not kissing the still ground, he obeyed her command. Lucy was staring at some place with wide eyes, and when he followed the direction of her gaze, he realized that it was a garden.

"All right everyone; keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. Natsu, Happy, you stay with Lucy. I'll stick with Gray."

And then Erza was off with Gray, heading in the direction of a cake shop. Of course. A bead of sweat formed on Natsu's temple—of course Erza would go for where there were sweets on a mission, leaving him alone with... Lucy.

Oh.

His hands suddenly felt sweaty and he rubbed them against his pants. He hadn't really been alone with Lucy in... well, the last time he had been alone with her was when he promised her that he would bring Fairy Tail back together. Since then though, he had been too busy rebuilding the guild and then finding Master Makarov to actually really talk to her.

"Um... this way then." He pointed in some random direction. She nodded but didn't smile.

"Sure. That way."

They walked side by side for a while. He wasn't entirely sure if he knew how to break the silence—he wasn't sure if he wanted to break it, simply because he really hadn't talked to her in so long and it felt nice to just... be with her. He guessed. It was kind of weird, but nice.

Ah! Her weirdness has rubbed off on me!

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?" he was contemplating slapping himself just to snap his brain out of whatever funk it had gotten into. Because there was no way he, Natsu Dragneel, could enjoy silence. He lived off of chaos and noise and energy—

"Do you hear anything?"

He froze. He hadn't heard anything; he would have told her if he had, and the fact that she was asking him meant she must have felt something he hadn't... He closed his eyes and listened. Nothing. He couldn't hear anything. Not even the rustle of the breeze in the trees or bird song or—nothing. Nothing.

He could hear nothing.

A chill ran through him. That wasn't normal—in fact, that was very far from normal, and he hadn't even realized that he could hear nothing. That scared him; normally, he heard everything when he concentrated hard enough, so when even Lucy told him he missed something...

"No. I don't."

She looked at him, her eyes wide and she pulled out a key— maybe Loke's. He lit his fist on fire as Happy took off from Lucy's shoulders and flew into the air.

"Well, this is a first." A smooth voice spoke, and he pressed his back against hers. His eyes darted around, but he couldn't see anything that stood out against the flatlands. There was absolutely nothing there—it was like the person who spoke was...

Invisible.

"Luce!" he hissed, and something sailed out of the air— like black fire maybe—at them. Natsu stared for a moment (he never had seen anything like it, but it was oddly beautiful in a twisted, gloomy sort of way) and then he leapt to the left, pushing Lucy along with him. He swung around, lighting his whole arm on fire, only to meet a fist that snuffed his flames out like they were flames on a candle.

He glared at the man. The first thing that he noticed was his hair—either black or blue, but it was even more wild than Gajeel's and just as tangled as Lucy's was in the morning. The man stared back at him, a smirk on his face. A black tattoo wrapped around his left eye like a vine, and his eyes... they were two different colors. One gold, and the other silver.

"Who are you?" He snapped.

"It is not who I am, but who you are, young Master."

Natsu kind of liked being called master; it made him feel like an overlord over an army of minions. Not that he would tell anyone that—Lucy would kick him into a week in the future, and he didn't really want that to him.

"I already know who I am! Who are you?" The man disappeared. Natsu blinked. "What the...?" He was gone—he couldn't even smell whatever scent he left behind. It was like he had never been there in the first place, which was impossible because that man was real—he wasn't smart enough to figure out how to answer riddles, let alone think them up.

Lucy screamed.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end at the sound—like she was being tortured—and he spun around sharply in time to see an arm wrap around Lucy's waist and the other hold a dagger to her neck. The man's body shimmered and flickered, and then it solidified with a "zzzzz"ing sound a lot like Doranbolt's transportation.

"Lucy!"

"Let her go!" Happy sounded furious. Natsu's heart fluttered as he caught her gaze, but she didn't look very scared. More annoyed, like she had been held at knifepoint millions of times before and this was routine.

"Answer me this; what is the one magic?"

Blood rushed through him. He hated being toyed with, but he hated it even more when people hurt his nakama. Especially Lucy. Besides, riddles weren't his strong suite – they were Lucy's! She was the one good with words! It should be him who is being threatened at knife point, not her. Never her.

"Better hurry, or my hand might just... slip." A thin trail of blood slid down the side of her neck. Natsu swallowed the lump in his throat back. He had to get her out of that psycho's hands, but how? She didn't even look scared – there was steel in her eyes that hadn't been there before, which meant that she wasn't going to lose her head and freak out. And there was nothing he could see that could help them, and as far as he knew, Erza and Gray weren't coming which meant that he was on his own... with Happy... and Lucy, who was a hostage.

He gritted his teeth. The more he played the man's games, the less likely he was to hurt Lucy... until he got bored. But if he was able to stall him for a bit, think of a way to get her back, or maybe she could think of a way to fight back herself... then he and Lucy could fight back. Somehow. He wasn't even sure how he managed to let Lucy get in his clutches...

"The one magic..." he murmured, frowning. Hadn't Lucy said it was love once? But why in the world would he ask about love when he was about to kill her? His blood boiled. Maybe if he was able to get Happy out of here, he could distract the mage and Happy would be able to get Gray and Erza... maybe... but how would he tell Happy to get them?

"The one magic is the root of all emotions, right?" He was basically making stuff up off the top of his head, but the longer he drew it out, the more time Lucy had, right? He caught her eyes again. She nodded minutely, and he flinched when he saw that the dagger had drawn more blood with her small movement. He shook his head at her—trying to tell her not to move without words. "It's love, isn't it?"

"Close enough..." the mage said, peeling his lips back into a smile that was too wide for his face. His eyes seemed hallow and bugged out at the same time. It was a little scary, Natsu had to admit, and he didn't get scared too often. "This round you win, your prize: my name, Barbosa."

"Couldn't my prize be Lucy?"

Lucy glared at him. He knew he would probably pay for that comment later, when they were out of danger. It was the only thing he could think of saying to respond—he hadn't meant it to come out that way, even though it was true. He didn't really care about Creepo's name anymore; he wanted Lucy away from him.

"She is the grand prize, Master Dragneel!" Barbosa cooed. "Win the next four rounds, and you shall win. Lose, and you and she goes night night... eternally."

He wanted to scream and run around, flapping his arms behind his head like Erza was on his tail. He wasn't good at this thinking stuff—this was Lucy's strength. Not his. He could fight with his fists, but not with his head. But he had to try, at least. He had to—

...The ground. He could write a message in the ground for Happy to read!

But he had to make sure Lucy didn't die so that they could rescue her...

He shuddered. Well, this one time he would just have to be smart enough to get them out of this—he wasn't about to fail her and let her die. Again. For real.

"Okay. Give me."

Barbosa clapped his hands together, momentarily releasing Lucy. That was all he needed. He jumped forward, and Lucy swung her leg around in a perfectly executed roundhouse kick. He filed that away for later and threw his largest ball of fire at him.

"Gate of the lion, I open thee! Leo!"

He ran toward Barbosa and leapt, spinning around in the air as he curved his foot slightly. He chanted, "Fire Dragon's..." His legs lit on fire. "CLAW!"

"Lion's Brilliance!"

"Star Dress: Loke Form!"

Their attacks landed on Barbosa one after another, and Barbosa fell. Natsu breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't rise and turned toward Lucy, who was breathing heavily.

"Your neck," he said. Her eyes snapped up. "It's bleeding."

"What in the world was going on?" Loke snapped, whirling around and resting his hands on his hip. "And why are you bleeding, Lucy?"

She touched her neck and stared at her hand with round eyes. "I don't suppose either of you have bandages?"

He tore the edge of his jacket off and gave it to her. She took it and pressed it against her neck. He felt a little sick when he saw that her hand was coated red.

"I'm not a prize." She eventually grumbled. He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it that way. It just... came out?" She sent him a look so cold that he felt like Gray had frozen him again. He shuddered. "I'm really sorry, Lushee! Please forgive me!" He hugged her, and she yelped a little. He let go of her.

"I forgive you." She sighed and closed her eyes. "M'dizzy."

"Don't close your eyes!" Loke said quickly, and then he looked at Natsu. "What happened anyway?"

"Riddle man over there surprised us with some weird teleporting magic." He crossed his arms and looked away. "I let my guard down."

"You what? Weren't you away for a year to stop this kind of thing from happening?"

Natsu froze at the accusation in his tone and slowly raised his head. He opened his mouth to respond that he had, yes, but no words came out. The air suddenly filled with a static tension, and Natsu wasn't sure how that had come to be.

"Loke," Lucy interrupted. "Can you get Gray and Erza and bring them here? They're in town."

"...Fine." He didn't sound like he wanted to agree with her, but he did anyway. Loke shot one last icy look at Natsu before he began to walk away, his strides long and disjointed. Lucy sighed and shook her head before she turned toward Happy, who had been hovering by his shoulder without a sound coming from his mouth.

"Happy, can you go with him?"

"...You're kicking me out, aren't you?"

"Noooo?" She sounded way too uncertain for that to be true.

"You are, but aye, sir!"

Natsu watched her face turn a lovely shade of purple as she fisted her hand at him. Happy flew away with a cackle and chased after Loke. Natsu closed his eyes and counted each breath he took until his heart finally began to slow.

It was strange he hadn't noticed anything was off. He knew he had gotten stronger—far stronger than he ever believed he was capable of, so for Lucy to notice something he had not... for there to be something he had missed...

He sniffed the air experimentally. Nothing. He smelled nothing at all. He couldn't hear anything and he smelled nothing. Maybe he was sick? He didn't feel sick, but it was possible that he was...

Lucy touched his elbow, and he opened his eyes only to find that he couldn't meet hers. So, he looked away and studied the way her long, thin fingers rested against his elbow. Funny. He hadn't noticed how her once insanely pale skin (seriously, she'd been paler than a sheet of paper) had a bronze tint that was now prevalent. It didn't contrast against his darker skin – if anything, hers almost complemented his skin.

"Your magic focuses on the things that you can touch, hear, or smell, right?" she asked. He nodded slowly, not exactly sure where she was going with this train of thought.

"Yeah." He cleared his throat and stepped away. There was something still steely in her eyes and her shoulders were tense. But it was mostly that look in her eyes that made him uncomfortable; it reminded him that this woman wasn't the helpless girl she'd once been. He recalled maps and newspaper clippings and an apartment in Crocus even though he did not want to, and pushed it into the back of his mind. Her hand fell off his elbow, and he ignored just how weird that felt. "Yeah, it does."

She hesitated. "Maybe ... I mean, it's a bit of a long shot, but, well ... my magic kind of deals more with the spirit?"

He stared at her for a moment, forgetting about the weird steel in her eyes. She held the makeshift bandage against the side of her throat again, and he tried to ignore the way the maroon blood on her neck and her collarbone glinted in the sun. "What does that mean?"

She shrugged one shoulder – the one that wasn't holding the bandage. "It deals more with things that aren't really ... well, there entirely, I guess. Things that aren't tangible in our world. Things you can't touch or see or smell or hear."

Our world. She made it sound like there were two different versions of reality – one that he could sense, and another that only she could sense. Who knows. Maybe there was.

"I just wish I knew why I didn't notice anything off." He wanted to hit something. It would probably make him feel better, at least a little. She looked like she was at a loss for words, so he looked toward where Creepo had fallen –

He was not there.

He was not there.

"...Lucy?" he said slowly. "Creepo was over there right?"

"Don't be silly, Natsu. Of course he's ... not there."

He traded one long, electric look with Lucy. Only one word was running through his head at that very second: Shit.

Erza was so going to kill him.

"Don't panic," Lucy said. He gave her a flat look. Her eyes widened as she looked at something behind his shoulder. "NATSU!"

He was pivoting on his toes before she'd even finished the first syllable of his name and barely managed to deflect a dagger. Quickly, he sank back into his center before he Creepo could throw him off balance – and he held his arm up to guard his chest as he threw and backhanded punch under his guard. Creepo batted it away and Natsu seized the opportunity to grab his forearm and throw him.

There was a manic light in Creepo's eyes as his legs kicked out. Natsu took an automatic step away from the flailing limbs.

A fatal mistake.

He saw the way his gaze moved over toward where Lucy was standing – he could hear leaves crunching against the ground over his labored breathing. He saw that strange, inky fire form in his palm and move insidiously toward his partner.

He didn't think. He just turned and leapt. There was no time to bat the fire out of the way – some of it would get her. But he was close enough to her (or maybe she was close to him) to use his own body as her shield.

As they fell, he cradled her head and tried to make himself as big as possible as she curled against him. His eyes squeezed and he hoped, hoped hoped against hope that something like a miracle would happen like Dragon Force kicking in even though it hadn't in over a year—

"NO!" A ragged scream that was so familiar that it hurt him, though he did not know why it was familiar.

Something heavy landed on him. Something so heavy that he couldn't help but gasp in surprise. Lucy groaned.

It was a few seconds more before he realized that all was quiet. He was not dead. Lucy was not dead. And there was ... something on top of him. Something heavy.

Quickly, his breath coming out in sharp gasps, he struggled to push the body off him – it had to be a body, there was no other explanation for the lumpy softness – and when he had, Lucy wriggled out from underneath him.

He glanced around – Creepo was down. Lucy was already limping toward him, clutching her side, and Natsu felt a little guilty for not protecting her better.

He turned back to the person – the man – who saved him. Black hair. Some black trench coat thing with a white ... cape? Whatever. He definitely recognized this person.

"It's you! You're Zeref, aren't you?" That man on Tenroe Island ... and in Tartaros, with the creepy magic that killed everyone around him. Except for Natsu himself. Black Mage Zeref, the guy who plunged Fiore into the dark ages a hundred years ago. He prodded the man.

The mage's eyes opened and Natsu jumped back. Did he love fighting? Yes. Had a death wish? No. He was not getting near this crazy person who was probably going to try to kill him and –

The evilest man on the planet, whose name people feared, who caused one catastrophe after another, who had been the been at the root of so much sorrow — laughed. Laughed. As if something was funny!

"I've gone completely mad."

This mission is way too weird.

"He's bleeding, Natsu."

Natsu jumped – he'd been so caught up with their savior's identity that he'd forgotten looking for injuries. He twisted around and caught Lucy's carefully sculpted poker face as she stood over Creepo. She obviously knew who this man was... Natsu turned back. There was a hole in his weird clothes, over the right side of his chest, and it was smoking slightly. He smelled burning flesh and gagged.

Ugh.

He focused on his hands and brought them down. Recently, he'd discovered that if he focused really hard, he could bring down their temperature until they were colder than an average human's. It would not do much, but ...

"I'll need cold water," he told Lucy, who made a sound of affirmation. He moved to cover the burned area, but Zeref suddenly opened his eyes and squirmed away.

"No, don't. Please. I'll kill you."

Natsu frowned. That ... wasn't what he'd expect a mad mass murderer who caused a genocide to say. "Baka. This is for the pain. And I'm not going to let you die out here."

"If only it was that easy for me to die."

What in the...? He shook his head—sometimes, he didn't understand people, why they would want to die when there was so many things to do and see in this world—and he pressed his hand against Zeref's side. Zeref gasped, but he ignored him. Careful. Don't make a mistake.

"I'll be back," said Lucy. He nodded, narrowing his eyes at the round, and heard her walk away.

Zeref was still staring at him, like he was some kind of miracle or something, and that made him feel a little uncomfortable. And annoyed. Which made him want to burn something until he remembered that he was supposed to stay nice and cold. Like a popsicle. Or an annoying ice mage. Which made him want to burn something again—

"What?"

"You can touch me."

He felt a scowl knit at his eyebrows as he put his other hand over the wound. His skin was warm, which was strange. He kind of thought it would be cold since he was so ... evil. Except he wasn't as evil as history books made him out to be, since he'd just saved his and Lucy's life. Which he really, really did not understand. At all.

He wondered where Loke was and what was taking him and Happy so long to get the Popsicle and Erza. They kind of needed them.

"Where are they?" He mumbled. "Creepo over there may get up again."

Zeref groaned. "I killed him."

"You WHAT?!" He swung back to look at the older mage, whose eyes were beginning to close. "Whoa, hold on. Don't close your eyes—keep talking to me."

"Natsu," Lucy's voice was soft, and he looked over his shoulder. She held out a bucket and he took it, surprised to see a cloth. When he looked up again, he saw that Virgo was sitting on the ground, studying Zeref with judging eyes.

Right. The celestial spirits probably would know the most out of all of them.

"Thanks," he muttered. Zeref had closed his eyes. He swore under his breath, again, and he quickly dunk the cloth under the water before he wrung it out. His fingers shook. Lucy was hurt, and so was Zeref... both of them had tried to protect him, though he didn't understand why Zeref would. Zeref, whose named was used to scare children away from doing bad things – Don't go out after dark or Black Mage Zeref will get you. Watch out for the Dark Wizard Zeref!

"Natsu!"

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked over his shoulder as Erza, Gray and Happy appeared. Happy was flying.

"Natsu, who's that?" Happy asked when he landed. Lucy took the washcloth from his hand so he met Erza's steady glare. For once.

"There's the guy," He jerked his head over at Creepo, "Although I'm not sure if he's alive or dead." Gray made a sound in the back of his throat and he walked over to Creepo. They waited for a few seconds as he placed his palm against the side of his throat, and then he shook his head. Erza's eyes went wide as her head swung back toward him.

Natsu offered her a shrug, feeling rather lost. "I don't know what happened. I just know that this guy saved our lives."

Something quivered. Natsu suddenly realized that he felt like they were hanging on a precipice by their toes, and the gentlest of breezes would tip them over the face of the cliff.

"And ... do you know who this man is?" Erza shattered the silence.

"I do," he said slowly. And offered no more.

"Who?" Gray snapped.

"His name is Zeref," Lucy bit back.

It was the wind that plunged them over the precipice.

Story Notes: This was written for the 2015-2016 Fairy Tail Big Bang Project hosted on tumblr (url: unisonraidevent), which has been a ton of fun. Basically, a Big Bang is when artists and authors pair up together and "collaborate" by making art for a fic and a fic for the art.

Many thanks goes to ariakfd who provides all the gorgeous fanart and helped me hash out ideas/pointed out plotholes/beta read everything. Huge thank you goes to MissMythoMagic who helped me hashed out ideas and beta read everything for me. Ari's fanart is posted on tumblr under our official blog: protectionunisonraidblog2015.

I hope you enjoy this!

(Funny story about this - This was supposed to be completed last January but ... well, you have several procrastinators on this team between the three of us.)

This story is cross posted under various pen names: Wattpad (theolims), Archive of Our Own (theolims), Whimsical Wanderings (Olim), and Tumblr (protectionunisonrainbang2015).