"Welcome to Fairy Tail." Natsu says with a grin as they arrive at the door, an aura of translucent 'flames' coats the trio as he throws the doors open and releases the grip the he usually has on his magic power to keep it from slipping out and crushing everyone. As soon as he does this, everyone weaker than A-Class is forced to the ground, unable to stand, Lucy and Happy being the only exceptions.
"Wait, why did you do that?" Lucy asks upon him releasing his power.
"Hehe, I do that every time I get back to alert everyone to my return. Everyone has something that they do to let everyone know that they've made it home safe, and this is what I do." Natsu explains as he reigns in his power, and is instantly hit in the chest by an Ice-Sword, the blade shattering as it happens.
"Yeah, and everyone wishes that you would do something else." The person who threw the sword says as he walks up. "Regardless, it's good to see that you got back so quickly. Did you take care of the guy impersonating you?"
"Yep. It was Bora The Providence, that former member of Titan Nose who got kicked out for using forbidden magic. Apparently he started up a slave trading ring, and was using my name to draw in my fangirls so he could sell them off to the highest bidder. Lucy, here was one of his targets, but she's a big enough fan of mine to have memorized my appearance, and as such wasn't fooled." Natsu responds, making Lucy blush out of embarrassment when Natsu mentions her being a fan of his. "Anyways, I brought her back because she wants to join the guild. You know where Master is so we can take care of it?"
"She competent? She doesn't look like much." The Ice-Mage says, before turning to Lucy. "Also, my name's Gray, better known as Fairy Tail's Ice King, nice to meetcha, Lucy."
"Uhmmm, nice to meet you too, Gray." Lucy says while mentally compiling everything she knows about him and going over it, which is quite a bit, due to him being Fairy Tail's second most popular male mage.
"Yeah, she's competent. The reason that she doesn't look like much is because she's rather lacking in the physical strength aspect, but in terms of magic skill and power alone she's an easy High-B-Class mage. No need to worry about her strength, though, I plan to fix that after she joins." Natsu responds, making Gray pity the poor girl, knowing full well how hellish Natsu's training is, having gone through it before, raising his power to be on the level of an S-Class mage, despite him not being officially considered one, due to him not having passed the S-Class trial yet. Even after all that training, he still can't beat Natsu.
"Right then. Master should be in his office. Welcome to the family, Lucy." Gray says as he walks away, heading back to the bar to finish his food. Suddenly, he stops and turns his head in Natsu's direction. "By the way, Natsu, Master wants to see you before you head out on your next quest." He then continues walking to the bar.
Natsu's face becomes serious at this. "That's fine, I was planning to talk to him anyways." He says under his breath, only Happy being able to hear him. "Hey Lucy, go talk to Mira and Lisanna at the bar, they'll explain how the guild system works to you. I'll go get Master." He says after turning to her, before walking off and leaving her to do it.
Makarov's office; a few minutes later
Natsu slowly enters the office and sees Makarov sitting at his desk, the chair turned backwards so he can look at the pictures on the wall.
"Hey Master, you wanted to talk to me?"
Makarov turns to him, a serious expression on his face. "The Dark Guilds are getting more active as of late, and worshippers of Zeref are popping up left and right. When we met you mentioned that you have a connection with Zeref, and know things about him that nobody else does. I've let you keep your secret out of respect for your privacy, but with things as they are now, it's important that I learn everything I can about Zeref so that I can attempt to combat his followers. I beg of you, tell me everything you know about Zeref." He says, his voice and expression turning pleading at the end.
Natsu sighs. "It's fine, I wanted to talk with you about this anyway. I plan on telling everyone soon enough." He says, his voice and expression just as serious as Makarov's. "I'm guessing that all you know about Zeref is that he's the person who created the Etherious demons, as well as the forbidden magics of The R-System and The Eclipse Gate, right?" Natsu asks, causing Makarov to nod. "Well, that's far from all there is to know."
Natsu closes the door, and uses what little sealing magic he knows to prevent any sound from leaving the room. "Allow me to tell you a story." He says. "Around 500 years ago, there was a boy. He had a father, and a mother, and a little brother, whom he loved more than anything else in the whole world. He and his family weren't a rich family, nor were they a poor family. But they were happy. One day, a dragon destroyed their village, killing everyone but the boy and a young man. The young man was enraged, and swore revenge against the dragons, which he would achieve, but this story isn't about him. The boy, however, was thrown into despair, for his brother, whom he loved more than anything, was dead. The boy also made an oath that day, but unlike the young man who was swallowed by his rage, he didn't swear vengeance. Instead, he swore an oath to his brother. And oath that he would one day bring him back to life.
Eventually, the boy was taken in by a magic academy, which was led and taught by worshippers of the god Ankseram, who rules over life and death. The boy inquired about magic that could revive the dead, but he was punished by the teacher that he asked, for such magic was nonexistent, as Ankseram had forbidden it from being created, and had claimed that anyone who created such magic would be faced with his wrath. But the boy was so determined to revive his brother whom he loved so dearly that he ignored the warnings, and set out to create it nonetheless. His first attempt was a gate that could be used to travel through time, but he was severely punished for this and his research was confiscated. By the time the boy had become a man and reached the age of twenty, he had come up with several magics, most of which earned him a punishment as their intended purpose was the revival of his brother. However, his latest magic, which he unveiled on his twentieth birthday, was by far the most heinous, and, should it work, it would be capable of reviving anyone. This magic he invented sacrificed 1 soul of power relative to the soul bring revived in order to revive them. Of course, if the caster had enough power, they could make up for a gap in power should the soul offered not be sufficiently powerful to revive the intended person.
This finally caught the attention of Ankseram, and he was enraged. He cursed the boy, now a man, with a curse most torturous indeed. This curse was known as the curse of contradictions, and has 2 effects. The first, and easiest to notice, was that, should the man care about life, all life around him would die. And should he decide not to care about life, life would flourish from his presence, though he retains the ability to cause death should he so please. The second aspect, which he did not notice until he was in his fifties and noticed that he still looked twenty, was that he could not die by any conventional manner. This caused his despair to reach new heights, as his brother was now even further out of his reach, as now even death could not bring them back together. The man sought out any manner of death he could think of, but nothing worked.
Eventually, when he neared 70 years of age, the man came to a revelation. If he could cast magics that brought about certain death, then perhaps he could cast magics that brought life. And indeed he could, the creation of life was an ability available to him. So he created life after life, each more powerful than the last. Each one created with the purpose of killing him, and each one incapable of completing it's purpose. This went on for another twenty years, during which his creations began to be called demons by the people who discovered them, before he gave up on this and cast his creations aside. He returned to his brother, whose corpse he had kept in stasis the entire time, preventing it from decaying. He used his life-giving magic on his brother's corpse, finally succeeding in reviving his brother, and creating one last demon at the same time.
He took his brother to the king of the fire dragons, one of the few dragons who remained alive, and offered him up to be raised as his son, a proposal which the dragon accepted, and the man left. Over the next few years, the man would occasionally visit his brother, telling him his story piece by piece during this time. Then, one day, the Fire Dragon King met up with 4 of the other dragons who were still alive, the children whom they were raising, the man, and a female celestial spirit mage who possessed all 12 golden keys. The dragons used sealing magic to seal themselves within their children, determined to protect them, and the man summoned forth the first magic that he had invented, the gate which allowed one to traverse through time. The woman then took the 5 children through the gate, and left her keys behind, leaving her descendants to watch over the gate, and giving them the responsibility of one day opening it, allowing the woman and the 5 children, though 2 were teenagers, each 16 years of age, 6 years older than the other 3, to complete their journey into the future. One day, around 400 years later, 8 years before today, one of her descendants finally opened the gate once more. But the children were scattered, each ending up somewhere else. You, Master Makarov, found one of them. Me." Natsu pauses to look Makarov in the eye. "That man was Zeref, Master. The Fire Dragon King was Igneel, and I am the brother."