章 69: Reunion

Alex arrived in his teleport hub with little fan-fare and quickly made his way home, the exhaustion was catching up to him and he felt like he could sleep for a year. Mira greeted him as he entered the house but didn't question him about the events of his 'hunt'. She could see how tired he was and did all she could to help him get cleaned up before snuggling with him as he fell asleep.

Alex woke up feeling refreshed. Mira was snuggled by his side and he could see the first signs of the morning sun creeping over the horizon. Giving Mira's sleeping form a light kiss on her forehead, Alex moved to get dressed and prepare some breakfast. Mira Joined him a half hour later as the wonderful smell of food and coffee filled the house. "Good morning love. How was your sleep these past two days?" Mira asked in greeting as she stole a morning kiss.

"Two days?" Alex questioned absently as he digested that information. "Didn't realize I had slept that long but with how tired I was, I guess it makes sense", He mumbled in response.

"Yeah, you didn't even seem fully coherent when you got here. Seemed to be moving like a golem, by instinct alone", Mira chuckled lightly at his expense. They talked about nothing serious for the remainder of breakfast.

When they were done cleaning up the kitchen and had moved to the lounge, they were just about to start the more serious parts of Alex's tale when there was a knock on the door. A little bit of focus and Alex could tell it was Mavis. "Mavis is here", he said as he used some magic to open the door.

"She has come by at about this time for the past few days to get a report but left each time after learning you were still asleep", Mira said as they waited for the guild master to come in.

"Alex! You are finally awake! I was getting worried", the childish guild master said excitedly.

"Yes. We were just about to start the story. Please, join us", Alex said in a kind tone.

"How come you never told the guild you were going to hunt Acnologia of all things? That is soo reckless! That dragon wiped out all of tenrou island in a single breath attack and you went to fight it alone!" Mavis said hysterically as soon as she sat down.

Alex gave Mira a sidelong look, wondering why she had told the guild about his objective when he had specifically asked her not to. Seeing the look, Mira was quick to correct him. "I didn't say anything to the guild. Someone in the magic council was recording the whole fight and sent a copy of it to all the light guilds as proof of the dragon's death. There was not a report about the real identity of who 'The Demon, Stormrage' is. The recording only starts when you just finished your oversized transformation. It has the words you spoke with the dragon in it, but anyone who doesn't know you, wouldn't be able to tell it was you. Sure they have their suspicions, but even people who know of your take-over form just think you are borrowing that demon's power, instead of thinking it was actually you", Mira explained calmly while Mavis just nodded along.

Alex was silently contemplating this information. He hadn't intended to tell the world of Acnologia's death in such a public way, but figured it wouldn't be so bad as long as nobody really believed it was actually him. Sure there were people who knew the truth, but they were either smart enough, or scared enough, to not make a big deal out of it. Acnologia had the power to rule most of the known world as a tyrant had he wanted too, and now that there was proof that someone, or something, was stronger than him, it made those in positions of power very wary about angering this entity.

"I guess having this information spread isn't a bad thing. It'll certainly make it easier to convince the others when we remove the 'Fairy-sphere' next week. I am not going to actively advertise that it was me, but I won't confirm or deny it unless I trust the ones asking. No point making the entire world fear me, I would rather keep it a 'rumor' and let people make their own decisions about it. Should also make people hesitant to attack me or mine, while not making us seem so unapproachable", Alex mused to the others.

"My thoughts as well", Mavis agreed quickly with Mira just nodding along to her words.

Alex spent the rest of the morning telling his side of the story to Mira and Mavis. He also told Mavis of his conversation with August and told her there was a small chance that Zeref would actually make his way to Fiore in the future, if nothing else than out of curiosity. Mavis had a small panic attack thinking about seeing her long lost love and any implications it could have, though she was quick to calm down. Their meeting changed to preparations to head to tenrou island and who among the guild would be joining them.

As the meeting was drawing to a close, Alex stiffened up and then looked towards the door with a wry smile 'Didn't expect to see her again anytime soon', he thought wryly. "Alex?" Mira questioned curiously.

"Come in Ur, the door is open", Alex called out before the first knock could register. The door opened mere moments later to show a slightly startled Ur on the other side, confusion clearly on her face.

"How did yo.." "I'd know your magical signature anywhere", Ur started to ask before Alex quickly cut her off. She nodded to his words and joined them in the lounge.

All four started asking questions of each other after the initial introductions. Ur wanted to know about the fight with Acnologia and if it was actually him, to which Alex just smiled at her cheekily and refused to answer. She scoffed and started asking about where Gray was and the rumors she had been hearing about half their guild being destroyed. Alex and his group told her about the tenrou team and even invited her to join them in retrieving them next week, they then questioned her about what she had been up to. She told them that she and her group had headed north to her original home to see what became of it. She had traveled around with her daughter and 'granddaughter' for the last two years, exploring and learning more about magic. Leon and his group had accompanied them for only about a year before taking their own path to increase their strength. Last Ur had heard, Leon and his followers had joined the Lamia-Scale guild. They asked her if she knew why they hadn't joined the GMG, but she didn't know. The conversation soon changed to more mundane things.

The next seven days passed in a flurry of activity. Fairytail had many visitors from allied guilds all asking about the titanic battle they had seen. Thankfully Alex's presence in Magnolia had the effect of making all his allies believe that he wasn't the one in the video as it should have been impossible for someone to cross the ocean in the same day. Mira and Mavis could attest to his alibi that Alex was in the city that day. With so many of their allies coming to the city, it was easy for Fairy tail to let them all know that the Tenrou team would be returning, most decided to stay in the city for a few days and join in the celebrations that were already being prepared, almost the entire city was involved in the 'Welcome Back' party that Fairytail was setting up.

Alex, Mira, Mavis, Ur, Macao and Jura boarded a ship the morning of the seventh day and headed towards tenrou island. They had to limit the number of people coming as almost everyone had volunteered. Using the excuse of the last minute party details needing to be prepared, they were able to keep most people placated. Ur was coming because she had been invited first, Macao was coming because he had served as the GM for a time, Mavis because she needed to lift the spell, and Jura decided to join on a whim at the day of departure. He had asked mostly in jest, but he had a likable character and was quickly accepted.

The trip was uneventful but filled with excited energy. When they reached the spot the island used to be, it took Mavis no time at all to take control of the spell and use her authority as the caster to raise the island from the depths of the ocean. The spectacle was so grand that it actually brought tears to the eyes, though if that was from the beauty or the fact that they would get to see their friends again, was left unsaid.

It took a couple hours of searching the island for all the members as they were scattered everywhere, some even half buried under rubble. The reunion was happy and chaotic as the tears flowed freely. The explaining took some time and finding out they had been missing for two whole years was a little disheartening for them. Alex surprised himself and Wendy by giving her a deep hug, though he clunked Liam on the head for doing something dumb before giving him a hug. Alex wasn't ashamed to admit that he missed the two children and Carla, but that still didn't change the fact that sneaking off to join a fight that way outclassed them was stupid. Mira was inseparable with her siblings and was shedding tears of joy. To Elfman and Lisanna, it had only been a couple months but seeing the signs that Mira had gotten a little older, they too couldn't help but feel how sad her situation could have been. The entire trip back to Magnolia had a very happy atmosphere to it with a constant barrage of questions. They touched on everything that had happened over the last two years, from reviving Mavis and the destruction of Tartaros to the grand magic games and the death of Acnologia. That last one surprised them the most. To them, they had literally been fighting the dragon the day before. Questions kept pouring out of the tenrou team clear until Hargeon came into view. Fireworks started blasting off into the sky as soon as the people ashore recognized that the expedition had been successful. Everyone was a little shocked to see how many people had made the trip to Hargeon just to welcome them.

The fireworks show in Hargeon was nice, but the real party didn't start until they all returned to Magnolia. They were greeted with cheers from the civilians as magic filled the entire air of the city. All the questions the tenrou team had about the events of the past two years seemed to leave them and the excitement in the atmosphere seemed to increase many times over. Friends and acquaintances that they had met over their lives were all here, cheering them on and ready to celebrate their return to the world. There was even a group of 'reporters' doing a live broadcast of the entire event. Laughter and excited yelling could be heard from all over the entire city, easily dwarfing the party they had held to celebrate the fantasia festival.

***

Epilogue.

Alex and Mira stood side by side under a lavishly decorated archway, white and blue flowers covering the entire thing. Alex was dressed in a finely crafted dark tuxedo and Mira was in a beautiful long white dress that was decorated with many dazzling diamonds. Makarov was standing before them with happy tears in his eyes as he officiated the wedding ceremony. He had been greatly honored when asked to be the official at the wedding. Behind Alex stood those acting as his Groomsmen, and behind Mira her bridesmaids. Everyone had smiles on their faces but the only sound that could be heard was Makarov as he directed the service. Alex was staring lovingly at his beautiful bride. As they put the rings on each other's fingers, she was the only thing in the world he could see at that moment. When he finally heard the fateful words 'You may now kiss the bride', he wasted no time in doing just that. They withdrew from the kiss to massive cheers from their friends and family as they were congratulated over and over again.

The wedding celebrations carried long into the night and Alex couldn't help but reminisce over the events of the past two months since they had reunited with their missing friends. Bisca and Alzack had their baby, a beautiful little girl that they named Asuka. Alex and Mira had been planning to have their own wedding a little later in the year, but changed their minds when Mira told him some amazing news, she was pregnant. They kept it to themselves, only telling Mira's siblings for the time being, but it did spur them to get married quicker and now that Mira had been reunited with her siblings, there was nothing holding them back from tying the knot. The rest of the guild had been brought up to speed with the events of the last two years and the more battle oriented of the lot had been training their asses off so as to not be left behind by the members that had been trained by Alex, Mira and Mavis. Zeref showed up at some point and Natsu almost immediately tried attacking him because of how dangerous he 'smelled'. Zeref had been quite skeptical about Alex's ability to remove a divine curse but didn't want to antagonize the one who could kill Acnologia. He only agreed to have his curse removed after he saw Mavis, the initial meeting almost making his curse take control of him. Being freshly turned mortal again, Zeref had left the city with Mavis in tow and the guild only got periodic updates from her, they were exploring on their own and she had put Makarov back in charge of the guild, much to his dismay. There hadn't been any major blowback from Alex's battle with Acnologia, cementing the fact that most people didn't truly believe he had been the 'Demon' in the video. Alex and Mira hadn't taken any official quests from the guild and were in an official state of semi-retirement from Wizarding in general.

With his excitement at starting a brand new chapter of his life with the woman he loved, Alex refocused on the party happening all around him. He didn't know what the future had in store for them, but with Mira at his side and the ability to stop their aging if he so chose, he was excited to find out.

***

(A/N.)

Thank-you to all the readers that have stuck with this story for this long. It ended sooner than I had planned, when I started it, but it was either that or just dropping it, something I was actually loath to do. Ending didn't turn out as great as I had hoped, but it was rushed so it couldn't be helped. Zeref's part in this story has been a massive disappointment for me as I had a few plans for that but I couldn't make any of them work in the timeframe I had given myself to finish this. I apologize, to the ones who have stuck with this story from the start, for not finishing it properly and I thank you again for supporting this story. It has been a lot of fun doing something like this, which definitely helped me get better at typing! Haha.