August 1, 2015
Magnolia, Fiore
Fiore Hunter College
11:22 A.M.

After the cram class early that morning, Zeref went back into his office to think. The headmaster sat quietly at his desk, rummaging through some old things in his drawers that he should really take time to organize through soon.

He gasps, coming across an old picture of his from three years before. He was twenty-six when it was taken. He had his favorites girls around his arms. His beloved wife, Mavis, who was twenty-four at the time and a small little girl, only at the age of three.

"To think... That was only three years ago. She's about... Seven now..." he sighs, softly touching the giggling face of the tiny girl.

He thought about what Lyon had told him a few days ago.

"That woman... She's alive."

Everything seemed to be spiraling down to him. He lost his family and then, his brother mysteriously returns as the thing he was trained his whole life to fight against. And then... Well... He messed up every possible way that he could ever connect with his brother again. Of course, Zeref only said the things he said from being between pain and the spur of the moment but, his brother would be his brother, no matter what. Even if he was a vampire and he was an exorcist. Maybe if he-

The phone rings, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What is it, Capricorn-san?" he asks, sounding very annoyed but, slowly trying to calm down.

"Sir... Someone who claims to have your daughter is here."

Zeref sighs, "I'll be there in a minute."

He hangs up the phone down and straightens his suit.

"Why of all times... Why would they bring Zera back here?!"

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The little girl sat with the red-haired woman in the hallway.

"He'll be out here soon, Zera-chan." the woman smiled, re-braiding her extremely long hair.

The little girl continued to sit and put up her black hair, brushing her bangs out of her green eyes. She pouted as she tried to tie up the pigtails, straightening out her pink polka-dotted white dress and her new Mary Janes.

"When is he coming?" She asks as the red-haired woman tightened her braids.

"Soon. I promise, Zera-chan." the woman fixes the young girl's pigtails.

"Do you think he's gonna like me?"

"He's your father. He loves you very, very much."

"Is that why did he have me go away for so long?"

"Well, when he gets here, you can ask him that."

"Okay..." the girl nods.

"I can hear him approaching. Get up now, Zera-chan. You have to be presentable." she stands, helping the girl stand up.

The doors in the hallway open, a man with black hair in a suit steps out. He eyes the little girl and smiles softly.

"Flare. It's good to see you again." he says, walking over to them.

"Zeref. It's been awhile. Zera-chan... Why don't you give him your present?" The red-haired woman pats the girl's head.

Zera's green eyes sparkled as she ran back to her chair to grab a doodle and a patch of daisies.

"I have these for chu, Daddy!" She smiled and Zeref kissed her forehead.

"You still say chu instead of you..." he laughs.

He lightly pats her head, looking at the doodle.

"Is that me, with a red hat and... Bunny ears?" He chuckles as his daughter explains.

"I'm Alice. Daddy is the Mad Hater and Mommy is the White Queen. Flare is the Hare! See, Daddy?" Zera smiles.

"I see, Zera. You got Mommy right too."

"Flare told me that Mommy was tiny and BEAU-TI-FUL!"

"Is that what she said?"

"But, she can be very scary too."

"Mommy can be scary..."

"What was Mommy like, Daddy?"

"That's a long story..."

"Can chu tell me the story pretty please?" her green eyes sparkled in excitement that made Zeref chuckle, kissing her forehead again.

"Well... I guess I could tell you but-" he places his finger in front of his lips and whispers, "You can't tell anyone."

"Ohhh... Okay! Shhhh!" she did the same hand motion as her father as he took her hand and began walking outside.

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Fiore Hunter College, the basement headquarters of the Exorcists
1:49 A.M.

"I'm bored... And hungry... And blood-thirsty..." Natsu groans, his eyes leading up to Lucy's neck.

"Natsu, don't even think about it." she looked coldly at him.

Natsu groaned again, flopping on the couch in the lounge.

"You sure pissed off Lucy last night." Loke chuckled, "What did you do?"

"Shut it, cat boy!" Natsu's dark eyes turned angry as he growled at the ginger.

"Why you little-" Loke aimed to punch Natsu but, his fist was caught by Lyon, the newest member of the group of tamed vampires.

"That's enough, Leo." Lyon's eyes stared at the equally angry ginger.

"Are we playing nice in here, boys?" Erza's vampire, Jellal, raised an eyebrow at the three as they all went off to go do other things.

That was when the headmaster walked in.

"Headmaster Zeref! What are you doing here?" Lucy stood up in surprise.

"I came to check up on some things. Where's Natsu?" Zeref asks.

He suddenly looks around and his cool expression quickly turns to worry.

"Zera?!" he shouts.

"Daddy, I'm right here!" a little girl jumped into Zeref's arms, daisies in her hands and leaves in her hair.

"Didn't I tell you not to run off? This isn't a place to play, Zera." Zeref looked worried.

"Sorry, Daddy..." her green eyes scanned the floor as he picked out the leaves in her hair.

"Don't run off again, please. Hey, come here. See this lady here? Her name is Lucy. You met when you were little." Zeref shows the small girl to the blonde.

"Hello, Lushi! Nice to meet chu! My name is Zera Drrrragneel-Vermilion!" the little girl in Zeref's arms smiled at the blonde.

"I remember you! And you're just as adorable as ever." Lucy giggles and Zeref kisses Zera's forehead.

"And she says chu instead of you. That's so cute, I could barf rainbows." Lucy chuckles, looking at the girl a little more clearly.

"If you don't mind me asking, headmaster... Does she remember her mother?" Lucy asks, noticing the green of the little girl's eyes to be similar to her deceased teacher.

"Vaguely. She was only three when Mavis died. I'd be surprised if she remembered anything about her." Zeref puts Zera down, still holding her hand as she looked around the training area.

"Does she know about... You know." Lucy asks.

Zeref shakes his head, "No. And I don't want her to ever find out either. All she knows is that her mother died three years ago and that's all she'll ever know."

"Right... Oh! And about Natsu!", Lucy says, "I think he went to go get something to eat in the kitchen."

"Alright... Zera, let's go wait in the lounge." Zeref tugs slightly on Zera's arm and she waves goodbye to the pretty blonde.

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"This is Zera?!" The pinkette picked up the little giggling girl and spun her around.

"Hi, Uncle Natsu!" She laughed and he smiled.

"This can't be Zera. She was only this tall when I last saw her. And look at you now! You're so big!" Natsu spun her around a few more times, being mindful of his nervous-looking brother.

"Daddy told me that chu went to Churope. Is that true?" Zera asks and Natsu looks at Zeref, who was giving him the face to answer.

"Well, Europe was pretty cool! There's uh... Big Benjamin! I mean, Ben! And..." Natsu obviously didn't pay attention in global studies in order to be prepared for this.

"So, this is the famous niece of yours?" Gajeel shows up and goes to pat her head but, Natsu quickly pulls her away and into a quick hug.

"Mine." he hugs her tightly.

Gajeel's coughs, "Overprotective Uncle Salamander."

"I heard ya, iron bastard!" Natsu gets smacked by Erza.

"Natsu! Don't say such language around a child!" The red-haired woman stared down at the pinkette, making him hide behind the tiny girl.

"You boys are so rude!" the sparkling ginger straightens his sunglasses and hands the little girl a flower.

"For you, my lady." he smiles, Zera taking the flower and cutely saying, "Thank chu!"

"KAWAII!!!!!!!!!!" Natsu somehow squealed and began to hug his niece once again.

Gajeel snickered, "Such a girlish laugh, Salamander..."

"Well, yeah?! Fu-" Natsu was punched into the wall, having Zera safely back in her father's arms.

The mighty Erza brushed the dust off herself as Gajeel and Loke hugged each other in fear of being next.

"The pretty lady sent Uncle Natsu flying, Daddy!" Zera clapped her hands in joy.

Zeref sweatdropped, "I can see that, sweetheart."

"I think you should take her to the library, sir. I don't think she'll be safe with these idiots." Erza sighs as Zera's eyes sparkled at her.

"Pretty hair..." Zera grabs a fistful of Erza's hair, admiring the softness and brilliant scarlet color, causing Erza's cheek to flush pink.

"T-Thank you..." Erza smiles and Jellal smirks at how cute Erza was.

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"So, what story do you want to hear?" the moment he took his little girl into the library, he knew that he'd be done for. She was Mavis's daughter, after all. Her big green eyes lit up at every book she found on fairies and dragons and magic spells (thank god, she didn't find the section for exorcists).

"Hmm... This one!" in her big pile of books, she picks up one with a green leather covering and gold writing which read:

The Fairy and the Spriggan

This was the story Mavis would read to her before she went to sleep.

"Okay then..." Zeref smiles as his daughter sits in his lap and he begins to tell the story.