These Blood-Soaked Pages (Fairy Tail) [Book 1 of Reaper's Scythe]

VII - Emperor

Bits of food fly past Zeref's face as Natsu chows down. The dragonslayer brought a tall stack of pancakes up from the kitchen to his room- he had much more food, but he ate the rest on the way there.

"So, um, Natsu..." Zeref dodges a particularly large food scrap. "You remember what I told you on the ship, right?"

"Yeah. That we're brothers, and I'm E.N.D."

"Well, when August and I cured you, I'm afraid that... er..."

"Spit it out, bro!"

"We had to undo the seal on the Book of E.N.D. in order to save your life..." The dark wizard's bottom lip trembles. "I'm so sorry we didn't ask, it's just you were unconscious and you could have died..."

Natsu spits small bits of pancake everywhere. "Wait, so what does this mean for me?!"

"Your powers will return slowly so they don't overwhelm you, but you have to learn to control them. I sent Rakheid to retrieve the Books of the Demons of Tartaros, he and Seilah should be able to help you a little with learning to control your demonic powers."

"But we killed the Tartaros demons!"

"Yes and no. You destroyed their bodies, but with the exception of you, the Etherious can be revived as long as their books are intact. The only Tartaros demon who really died was Mard Geer."

"'Cause you killed him."

Zeref flinches. "Yeah, well, he was hurting you and I guess I overreacted, I should've just sent him away into his book. You know what they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty."

"I don't get it."

"Of course you don't," Zeref sighs.

"Hey, I get that I have to train so I don't blow up even more stuff by accident-" Zeref chuckles at that- "but can I at least send a letter to Fairy Tail? I know everyone must be worried about me, especially Happy and Lucy."

"I don't see why not, so sure! Mind telling me who they are, though?"

"Well, Happy is a blue talking cat who can grow wings when he wants to. I hatched him from an egg with my friend Lisanna."

Zeref stares at Natsu, unsure if the dragonslayer is joking. "A... blue, talking, flying cat you hatched from an egg?"

"Yep!" Natsu nods in confirmation. "He's my best friend! And Lucy... she's the other member of our team. Well, Erza, Gray and Wendy come along a lot but sometimes it's just the three of us. Lucy is awesome, but she can be kinda scary sometimes. Happy and I break into her apartment all the time!"

Smirking, Zeref leans forwards in his chair. "Do you like this girl?"

Natsu throws a pancake at him. "Now you're starting to sound like Happy!" He complains, but Zeref notices he didn't deny it. The dragonslayer happily stuffs two entire pancakes in his mouth.

After he finishes eating those, he says, "Honestly, this is a lot of take in, but I still have a few questions."

"Ask away."

"Okay, first of all, why isn't your curse doing anything? Seems weird to me, not that I'm complaining."

Zeref pulls out a small vial from his robes. "This is an extremely powerful curse-suppressing potion August made for me. The ingredients are really rare, though."

"Oh. Well, second of all, what's with the freaking PALACE?!" Natsu gestures around at the room in general.

"That's a simple one. I'm the Emperor here."

Natsu freezes. A few seconds pass. Then... "WHAAAAAT?!"

Zeref laughs. "And since you're my brother, that makes you a prince!"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

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A few days later

Lucy walks along the edge of the canal, Happy flying next to her. "Be careful!" Somebody yells like usual, except this time she's so distracted that the noise startles her and she falls in.

Well, she would have if Happy hadn't caught her just in time. "Thanks for the save, Happy."

"Aye."

The celestial wizard had been distracted by thoughts of the upcoming mission to Alvarez. She, Erza, Gray, Wendy, and Mirajane are going to go and rescue Natsu from the Empire. Of course, Charle and Happy insisted on coming along.

The plan is for Erza, Gray, and Wendy to cause a distraction while Lucy and Mirajane sneak into the castle. Mirajane would abduct a guard, and Lucy would have Gemini turn into him or her to learn where Natsu is being kept. They would knock out the guard, and Lucy would use his or her cloak as a disguise while Mirajane disguises herself with transformation magic. They then should be able to rescue Natsu much more easily.

Despite having a solid plan, Lucy's still worried. And it's about the wild card- Zeref. Nobody in Fairy Tail knows how he factors into this.

Lucy sighs. There will be plenty of time to think on the ship to Alvarez.

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Meanwhile in Alvarez

When Zeref introduces Rakheid to Natsu, he feels he just told two bombs to shake hands. "So, this is the infamous E.N.D. I've heard so much about?" Rakheid raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Natsu, this is Rakheid. As my second most powerful demon, he should be able to help you learn to use your Etherious powers." Zeref looks at Rakheid questioningly. "That is okay with you, right?"

Ever since the effects of Zeref's curse were all but negated, he's been much nicer to all of the Twelve, especially Rakheid.

"Of course, Father. E.N.D., I will meet you in the Spriggan's training arena outside in two hours." The demon promptly turns and leaves the room.

"Huh?" Natsu stares at Zeref. "So he's..."

Zeref scratches his head absently. "Yeah. I created him, so he thinks of himself as my son. I honestly don't know if that's correct, but even if it's not he's still my son." Suddenly, Zeref grins. "That means you're his uncle!"

"Seriously?! So I'm going to be taught by my nephew?"

"Yep!"

Natsu sighs exaggeratedly.

"That's just great..."