Chapter one: Identity Crisis

Feeling the waves lapping against his body, the man who was floating in the middle of the ocean suddenly opened his eyes, groaning, as he tried to remember who, or what he was.

Who am I? Where am I? And why am I floating in the middle of the ocean?

Realizing that right now he should be focusing on getting to dry land, the man turned his head as he floated, searching for a boat or something of the like to come and save him, but to his chagrin he saw nothing for miles, the glimmer of the harsh afternoon sunlight off of the water the only thing that he could see. Sighing, he went back to floating along with the currents of the ocean, and after drifting off into unconsciousness a couple of times he suddenly heard something in the distance, something his sun-baked mind took a moment to process…

I know that sound…..the word, what's the word? Shhhh…..shiiiip? Ship! A ship! There's a ship over there!

Turning towards the noise that now seemed to be getting closer and closer, the man saw a wooden fishing boat coming towards him, an old man looking over the side at him as he approached, his eyes wide with surprise. As the boat got closer, the old man threw a fishing net overboard just at the right time so It snagged the man as he floated in the water, the old man's powerful arms hauling the strange, floating man back up onto the ship as the old man looked down at his newly acquired cargo, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"Hey Marcie, I found something! Better come take a look at this one!"

His eyes drifting open and shut, just before he passed into unconsciousness he heard the sounds of more footsteps running up beside him, and two voices conversing…

XXXXX

Suddenly snapping awake, the man found himself sitting straight up in a strange bed, with bandages wrapped around his stomach and head, frowning. As he sat there, trying to remember who he was and why he had been floating in the middle of the ocean, only one word came to his mind:

Jack.

As he tried to remember something else, after about ten minutes or so he mostly just gave up, sighing as he lay back in bed, lost in thought.

That must be my name then…..Jack.

Nodding to himself as he lay there, he was about to get up and try to walk around when he suddenly heard the door to whatever he was inside of swing open, and suddenly he saw the old man who had fished him from the water standing over him, his white hair and beard tied into braids as the man smiled down at him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Stranger! Seeing as how you've been out for about two weeks now, I would hope you've caught up on your beauty sleep! HAAHAHAHA!"

As the old man laughed heartily, he grunted as he helped Jack to his feet, inspecting the bandages around his waist and head as he did so and nodding.

"Good, good…..The bandages seem to be holding up nicely! Still, I must say…..That Purple hair you got there is sure something else…I don't think I've ever heard of hair that color before….."

Realizing for the first time that his hair was indeed purple, Jack seemed confused as he realized that his long, shoulder length hair was in fact purple! He continued to fiddle with his hair until the old man laughed again and led him over to a pan that was sitting beside his bed, a pan which held bits of shrapnel that glowed with eerie blue light, strange runes engraved on their surfaces. Picking up a piece, he held it in his hand and examined it, and as he did so he felt something strange coming from the piece of metal, a feeling that filled him with warmth and happiness, as if this metal was something special to him. As he stared at it, the old man looked over his shoulder, his face serious, and spoke.

"Hmmm…those pieces of metal were in your stomach and your head when I opened you up for surgery, and when I brought them out they began to glow like this…..who knows what it means? I gotta say though, whenever I was digging around in your chest to get the shrapnel out I swore I could hear machinery somewhere in there, but I'm sure that makes almost no sense…."

Seeming to compose himself, Jack slipped the metal in his pocket and turned to the old man and spoke.

"I'm going to keep these, if that's ok. Also, I don't remember anything, so would you mind showing me around the village and stuff? I want to know about things like this again…"

Smiling, the old man clapped him on the back and began walking towards the door

"You certainly are a strange one, kid! Come with me stranger, I'll show you around the village!"

Nodding to the old man, Jack followed him out of the house he was in and out into the village proper, looking around and taking in the sights as the old man began introducing the various parts of the town to him, grinning from ear to ear as if Jack was the first stranger to visit their house in a long time…

"And over here, you can see the town hall, and over there…..is the hospital! And of course, this is the town square!"

As they stopped in the center of what seemed to be a bustling marketplace, Jack looked around with interest as he watched the dozens upon dozens of people meander around the plaza, each with their own business to attend to, each with their own unique goal, and he smiled appreciatively as he spoke.

"I'm not sure if I've ever seen anything like this before, but I think this place is….."

Searching his brain for the right word, he finally found it and spoke.

"…..diverse. If it's okay, would you mind if I hung around here for a while? I just wanna see this stuff for myself, you know…."

Afraid the old man would get mad, Jack was surprised when he merely laughed, his pot belly bouncing as he clapped him on the back and began to walk away, his hand waving as he spoke.

"Sure! Just come on back when you're done, you hear?"

Yelling back that he would, he turned and sat down on the town fountain that was in the middle of the plaza, putting his head in his hands as he struggled to remember whatever he had forgot….Namely, his entire past.

It's all just one big blur….who I am, why I was floating in the ocean with shrapnel in my chest and head, all of it…

Thinking to himself as he stared at his hand and flexed it, he was about to give up when he could have sworn that he heard the sound of a clock ticking, and the sound of gears turning! As he got up and searched for that infernal noise that wouldn't seem to go away, it finally quieted down after a few minutes, and he sat back down, sighing as he did so.

The hell is happening to me? Why do I keep hearing clock noises, and the sounds of gears turning at random intervals? I'm getting seriously freaked out here…

As he sat there for the better part of a minute trying to recall his past to no avail, he finally yelled in frustration and leapt up, his hair bouncing and the faint sounds of gears rattling once again filling his ears as he stormed off down the street, his eyes fixed firmly on the ground as he walked. It wasn't until felt something strange that he stopped and looked down at himself, his body dissipating and reforming as it was made of smoke! Just as he was wondering what exactly was going on, he suddenly screamed in pain as his arm began to twist into circles, his bones snapping and shattering repeatedly as soon, his entire body began to twist and warp like a snake, his limbs twisting and turning in upon themselves over and over and over again as he writhed on the ground, wailing in pain. As he felt like his insides were burning up, his vision suddenly went dark as he heard a POP, followed by a wet impact on the ground in front of him, his panicked mind racing!

Oh god….oh god…..did my eyes just pop out of their sockets?! What…..WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!

Unable to stay conscious any longer, he finally slipped into unconsciousness, his mind and vision going black as he thought he heard the screams of the people around him…..

XXXXX

Gears….Cogs…..Levers…..nothing but machinery…..as far as I can see…

Jack floats in the middle of a sea of gears, cogs turning endlessly and steam whistling across the bleak landscape, his eyes struggling to take it all in. He wonders where he is, but as he floats around, he sees nothing that could identify what all these gears are from….

"Nothing but gears…what is this place…?"

Finally coming to a stop before a massive sphere with three separate rings, each spinning endlessly in concentric circles around each other as Jack stared at them, swearing he had seen them somewhere before…As he stared at them, after about a minute he saw that same familiar, tiny piece of metal he had taken from the old man's house which had been in his head, the writing on it spreading like a virus to the other pieces of the machine!

"That piece…it looks like it was haphazardly welded into the sphere….or maybe it created the sphere..? As far as I can tell, that writing is spreading outward from the piece to the rest of the machinery here….."

As he stared at the writing on the circle, he gasped it suddenly morphed into a language he could somehow understand, the words that were legible sending a chill down his spine….

PROPERTY OF … AGNOSTUS MANUFACTORUM….7TH PIECE…..THE ASCENDANT MACHINE…..DESIGNATION…SELF-RE…AIR….MOD….LE

Strange thoughts whirled through his head as he read the strange runes that were swirling across the gray machinery before his eyes. Just before he could come to a decision what they might mean, his world began to swirl, the gears dropping into the darkness below as he soon joined them, his entire vision going black as he was catapulted back into reality…..

His eyes fluttering open, as Jack's vision came back and he slowly opened his eyes he saw the head of a strangely beautiful woman standing above him, her head cocked and a damn creepy smile cross her face as she stared down at him, her sunset red hair tied behind her back as she stared at him. Staring up into her eyes, confused, Jack finally found his voice and tried to speak, but he soon found he couldn't make sound come out of his mouth! Eyes wide now, he reached up to his throat and felt it in an attempt to figure out what had happened to him, only to find that his throat felt strange, like metal was hiding just beneath his skin! Opening his mouth once more, this time noise did come out, but it sounded more like gears grinding together overlaid with static, a truly strange noise indeed.

"kshhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..bzzt…"

The woman looking even more confused as she stared down at him, her face looking ever creepier as her hair seemed to wrap itself around his chest and begin to squeeze! Just as he thought he would burst, a sudden POP echoed from his stomach and the sound of gears turning and clanking began steadily resonating from him, and his voice even began to work, albeit with a slightly mechanical undertone…

"Hoooo…..Haaaaa….Th-Thanks…God…what….happened to me?"

Her hair unravelling itself from his stomach and returning to its position at her back, the woman looked down at him and smiled her same creepy smile again as she spoke.

"Don't know…..Master found you in the streets of that town down there, and brought you here….Yes…."

Pausing for a second to think about what she had just said, Jack now began to wonder where the hell he was…

"Say….that's some strange hair you got there….that color…..it's different….like my hair…"

Once again perplexed by the color of his hair, the sheer brightness of the purple, Jack nodded as he looked up at her hair, smiling slightly as he admired that beautiful shade of red that it was.

"Yeah, It seems that it certainly isn't lacking in the purple department…..I gotta say though, you may have the most beautiful hair I've ever seen! Although coming from an amnesiac, I'm sure that doesn't mean much. Haha…"

Swearing he saw her blush the slightest bit before turning and moving towards the door, she seemed to stroke her hair slightly before turning back to him, her head still cocked as she did so, fidgeting awkwardly.

"Yeah….you hair's….pretty…too….anyway, the master will be in a moment, so I'll be going, bye!"

Hurrying out the door before he could call out to her, he frowned as the door shut behind her.

"Didn't even get to know her name…."

As he lay back and stared at the ceiling, he could only wonder what his strange dream had meant, and why he no longer felt quite…..organic…as he felt his insides churning away and gears moving, just like a machine…. Just as he was deep in thought, he heard the door open again! Instead of the woman this time, it was a mountain of a man who walked over to his bed, his pitch black hair and oddly shaped beard drawing Jack's eyes to his face as he seemed be examining Jack as he lay before him, waiting a full five minutes before addressing him directly.

"So boy, how do you feel?"

Yeah, as if I have any fuckin' clue how I feel right now with all this shit happening to me…

Putting his hand on his stomach and feeling the rhythmic ticking of his insides, Jack spoke.

"I….don't honestly know…."

Laughing, the man put his hand on Jack's stomach, his smile quickly turning to a frown as he seemed to be once more deep in thought….Feeling really, really weird with a strange man's hand on his stomach, Jack cleared his throat and spoke.

"Uh…..Why are you doing that? Is something wrong with me?"

Seemingly snapping out of whatever he had been thinking about, the man turned to Jack and spoke, his face returning to a serious expression.

"I'm not sure, boy….I can't sense a lick of conventional magic energy from you….and not just magic energy…..I can't sense any energy from you of any kind…! So strange….I can only sense intricate machinery inside of you, and a most…..unusual magic coming from your core….I can say with complete confidence that this magic does NOT belong in Fiore…."

Assuming Fiore was the name of this land, Jack began to wonder what exactly that meant when the man spoke again.

"And when you take your strange hair color into account….much like flare, I would surmise you are certainly not from anywhere around here, somewhere far, far away from Fiore…Somewhere we don't know about…This machinery is most….unusual."

His hand once more feeling his stomach, Jack was getting ready to tell the creepy old guy off when the man pushed down on his solar plexus, and a sudden POP was heard again, and Jack suddenly found himself speaking against his will, his voice completely mechanical!

"Gear one Activated…..Steam drivers booting up….coming online…..Steam drivers, online. Gear one operating at 100%."

No sooner had he said those strange words than the man actually yelped and moved back, his eyes scanning Jack frantically as Jack's body began to waver and vibrate, his form now completely made up of steam! Looking down at his body as it wavered and dissipated, reforming when he willed it to, Jack suddenly found himself floating out the window! The old man frantically trying to grab onto him, Jack began focusing on turning this 'Gear one' off, his mind focusing on it as hard as he could….

COME ON, DAMN IT! GEAR ONE, DEACTIVATE!

Suddenly, as if in response to his thought, his body solidified, but as he began to fall he realized that he was already outside, falling to the ground! Screaming in terror, as he began to fall the old man's hand grabbed onto his collar and hauled him into the room again, both men breathing heavily as they sat there, Jack thouroughly scared shitless after almost floating out the window while the old man seemed to be thinking about something…

"Hey boy, I think you have plenty of potential as a mage, with that Gear one you showed me…if you could control it, that is…."

Standing up, brushing himself off and offering his hand to Jacob, the old man grinned as he stood there, hand outstretched, and spoke again.

"What would you say to joining me and my guild? I'm always looking for more people to fill our numbers, and with that strange body of yours, and that foreign magic...You could certainly be most formidable, with the right training!"

Standing up, his legs shaking slightly as he did so, Jack thought about what the man had just said.

Join a magic guild..? If he can train me how to get used to this damn mechanical body, why not?"

Nodding, Jack took hold of the man's large hand and shook it, smiling as he did so and spoke.

"Yeah…I think this place would work…besides, if you can teach me how to get used to this body, and maybe even use some magic or something….why should I refuse?"

Laughing as he shook his hand, the man nodded satisfactorily and turned to lead Jack out the door, turning back halfway as Jack spoke again.

"Hey old man, I never did get your name…What is it? And Does your guild have a name?"

Swearing he saw some sort of dark grin pass over his face, Jack cocked his head as he listened as the man stuck his thumb into his chest, chest swelling with pride as he spoke.

"My name? You can call me Ivan, boy….Ivar Dreyar….and this here's my guild, Raven Tail! Welcome to Raven tail, boy! Hahahahahaha!"

I'm happy with how the first chapter of my new fairy tail story turned out! As you may have already guessed, this'll be a story about a character I made, but don't worry, fairy tail will show up next eventually….Now that Jack has Joined fairy tail and met Ivan and Flare, will Ivan train him to be a warrior? Anyway, thanks for reading, I love writing these sorts of things!