The Dragon Father

Loss

It had been a year and a half since Sonya's death; Acnologia was still sane, and non-bloodthirsty. He and Anna had been married and were very happy. Then the Dragon King Festival began, however, in Acnologia's time it was called the Dragon War. It was an all-out blood bath among dragon-kind. It began with the dragons lashing out against humanity, other dragons moved to stop them. Acnologia chose a different side in the war this time.

As the war progressed Acnologia found dragons that he knew as enemies in another life and found it in his heart to call them friends. Soon, friends could no longer suffice, these dragons were family. They became as close as siblings. Acnologia had known their names once, but now, their names made his heart warm, the dragons were Igneel, Metalicana, Grandeeney, Skiadrum, and Weisslogia. Even after the long terrible war had ended they stayed close.

But peace did not last long.

The dragons started disappearing, quickly and silently, without a trace. Acnologia's siblings became worried, fearing that one of them, or the young dragon slayers they were raising, was next.

Acnologia knew that he should have seen the signs... Anna had always been a do-er. Once the dragons began disappearing she began obsessed with time, she met with other dragons to talk about preserving the dragon race; he should have seen it. He should have felt the enchantment she placed on him so that he couldn't sense her leave. But either way, it didn't matter what he should've done because one morning he woke up one morning to an empty bed and it was already too late.

He could feel that something was horribly wrong. He transformed and took to the skies, smelling for her. Then, he smelled the eclipse gate, one of Zeref's designs. He flew down to the woodland and nearly dropped from the sky when he saw the scene. Anna was there... bleeding out on the grass in front of the eclipse gate. He transformed and ran to her side his breaths catching in his throat. There was a deep wound in her side and she was bleeding too quickly.

"ANNA!" he cried falling to his knees by her side and picking her up gently so he could hold her.

"Acno...Acnologia," she choked a small weakened smile lighting up her face.

"What happened?! Who did this!" he demanded trying to hold her tighter.

"Listen..." she said hushing him, "the dragons are being killed or taken. You have to...to wait for them. They are our only hope... the five."

Then he saw all twelve golden keys strewn on the grass a few feet away. He smelled the air, he could smell Grandeeney, Metalicana, Igneel, Skiadrum, Weisslogia, and... Zeref.

"Oh, Anna... what have you done?" he asked full of pain as he looked down at her.

'Why would she do this, the exact same thing again!? but she lived last time!' the voice in Acnologia's head screamed

"They will save us... from him...have faith," tears were streaming down her face.

"I can't lose you Anna... please... not again!" he was crying now, he buried his face into her hair. She smiled when he drew back to look her in the eyes. Tears built up in the Dragon King's eyes as he watched the eyes of his mate slowly fade.

She put a hand on his face and smiled once more, "I will always love you."

Then she relaxed, and the hand fell from Acnologia's face and the rest of her body went limp in his arms. There was a moment of stunned silence, a moment where he couldn't believe it had happened, and then he let all of his pain out in a scream. That was one of the only moments that Acnologia screamed. He screamed and felt as if his heart was being ripped out of his chest. It was the most agonizing thing he had ever felt. He cried and cradled his love all the while the voices in his head screaming.

'Kill! Avenge!Destroy!'

'SHE'S GONE! WHY IS SHE GONE!'

'Who... who did this.'

'Kill whoever did!'

'WHY WOULD SHE DO THIS! WHAT DID SHE MEAN! HOW COULD WE LET THIS HAPPEN!'

"Acnologia," a familiar voice called out awakening Acnologia from his crazed grief. It was Zeref he was at the tree line of the clearing.

Acnologia stood up slowly trying to suppress the urge that rose in him. He wanted to kill Zeref... he wanted to kill Zeref so badly. "Zeref, what happened?" he said in a low voice, Zeref had never seen Acnologia cry until then.

"She wanted to preserve the dragon species. She found out who was forcing the dragons to disappeared... but she couldn't tell me because she was worried that you would-" he began.

"WHO DID THIS?!" he screamed, he launched at Zeref, grabbed him by his throat and slammed him against a tree.

"She was weak after opening the gate... and then someone came through it. Anna did not have a chance; I could do nothing to stop him!" Zeref choked spewing the words out as fast as he could.

"WHO!"

"...One of my demons. He claimed that Anna would be the one to cause the world's destruction, that she would rip apart what little family he had, I couldn't do anything, I was confused and-" Zeref cried, his words falling out of him 

"WHERE IS HE?!"

"I killed him already! He is destroyed and his book long gone!"

Acnologia growled and released Zeref. He tried to calm down, he couldn't kill Zeref, but he was tempted to try.

"Go away."

"I'm sorry Acnologia... I know how much she meant to y-" he began.

"You will never understand the pain that I feel, go," Acnologia snarled coldly turning and walking back to Anna's corpse.

"Acnologia-"

"GO!"

Zeref left the dragon king, but he turned once, to see the apocalypse dragon collapse on his knees in front of his mate.

Acnologia buried her on a cliff facing over the ocean, the voices in his head were silenced as he lay his mate to rest, every part of him grieved.

"Goodbye," he whispered the newly dug grave, and then he transformed and took to the sky