Fairy Tail: Nightmare Chronicles
Chapter 1: The Ominous Messenger
Blue skies stretched out as far as the eye could see, with clusters of clouds being carried along by a gentle breeze sweeping through. And just below the clouds, a white, square platform floated, with a young man standing on it. Straight black hair ran down to his neck. He had several piercings in his ears, and one on his left eyebrow. Covering his body were a white, sleeveless cloak with a hood lined with black fur, along with fingerless black gloves that reached halfway up his arms, and matching boots. Around his neck was a beaded necklace, with a pendent hanging from it.
From his platform high in the sky the young man looked out over the entire country of Fiore below. Glorious cities, towering mountains, beautiful forests and even the surrounding ocean, all were in sight at once. The scene brought a peaceful smile to the man's lips as he silently took in the beauty of the world surrounding him.
...That is, until it all abruptly began to change. The clouds grew darker and stretched out to cover every inch of the blue sky. A low rumble of thunder echoed through the sky and the wind began to blow more harshly. Suddenly, it almost seemed as if a large storm was about to break out. The man's eye searched curiously through the dark clouds, as if looking for the source of this change within them. But then his attention was drawn away as a voice called out.
"Rem," it said, and immediately the dark haired man began to whip his head around in the direction the voice came from. He was surprised to find he wasn't alone up here in the sky. Standing on a platform identical to his was another man, who he didn't recognize. The stranger had bright blue hair, and a darker blue cloak over his body.
"Who are you? And how do you know my name?" Rem asked back.
"I know all about you, Rem Akumu," the man replied. "I know where you come from. I that you belong to a small guild in the south called Aurora Pistola. But most importantly, I know you've been blessed with an unusual and exceptional skill. You possess magic capable of bridging the realm of dreams and reality itself. My name is Kaiho, and with my help we can use your power to change the world."
"Change the world?" Rem repeated as a mixture of surprise and confusion filled his expression. "What are talking about?"
Kaiho opened his mouth to respond, only to stop just short of speaking. Their eyes had locked, but Rem now seemed to start zoning out. Something else was starting to take his attention, but what?
That's when everything around them went completely dark. The sky and even everything beneath became a pitch black void, with Rem and Kaiho becoming the lone two visible things there. Off to Kaiho's left side an image flared up of a terrified woman kneeling over her infant child to protect it as a dark haired male wielding a katana held his blade over them. A sadistic, psychotic smile stretched across the face of the man, and Rem gasped in horror before looking away to rid himself of the sight. Then another image appeared before him. This time a woman with blonde hair stood before an enormous building, watching with a gleeful smile as an enormous fire engulfed the building and burned hundreds of screaming people inside.
"What...wh-what is this?!" Rem's heart began to race, and fear filled his gaze as he once again tried to look away, only for a third image in the darkness. Just outside the gate of an enormous castle several guards were on their hands and knees. Before them stood a blue-haired man with glasses, holding the severed head of one of their fallen comrades.
"No more! Stop!" Rem shouted, closing his eyes and shaking his head furiously as if trying to make himself forget the horrible things he was seeing. But they wouldn't go away. And worse, there were still more when he opened his eyes again. Next he saw two flashing images. The first showed a woman with purple hair stabbing a knife into the neck of a man. And the second depicted another woman, this one with black hair, keenly observing a crown in her hands while right in front of her while a man was suspended in the air before her. His eyes had been gouged out and blood poured down his face as he screamed in agony. Judging by the grand clothing the man wore, he could only assume it was his crown the woman was amusing herself with as she tortured him.
"So it's true. You really can see the dreams of others, can't you?" Kaiho said, finally breaking his silence. "Then you know why it is so critical that you lend me your power. With it, we can stop these things from-"
"LIAR!" Rem shouted, slamming his eyes shut and grabbing onto his hair. Tears had started to gather in his eyes, and his body was shaking in horror at the things he'd just witnessed. "I can tell the difference between a dream and a nightmare. To a normal person, the things you've dreamed of would be as terrifying as a nightmare can get. But you... These dreams didn't disturb your mind in the slightest... Is this the kind of world you want me to bring about?! Forget about it! I'll never help a monster like you!"
Kaiho remained silent for a moment before he spoke again, this time with more authority to his voice. "That's a shame, Rem. And here I was willing to let you make the choice yourself. Understand this: That power of yours will be mine, whether you choose lend it to me of your own will or not. I will give you one week to reconsider your position on the matter. If your answer is the same, well... That would be rather foolish on your part. Just remember, the 'Dawn' is coming. You would do well to be ready when the time comes."
"Get out." Rem grunted through grit teeth. "I won't listen to any more of this. Get out of my head!" The world around them began to violently shake as Rem's shouting became outright frantic. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT-!"
Suddenly Rem felt cold water rushing onto his face, and with a sharp gasp he opened his eyes. He was sitting upright in his bed, trembling, with roughly a dozen of his guildmates standing in the room staring at him with completely dumbfounded expressions. Next to him stood a woman with black hair, wearing a red bra and matching underwear, and held bucket in her hands that was empty now that she'd used it to dump the ice cold water over Rem. And unlike the rest of the guild, she was far too irritated right now to bother being as surprised as them.
"IT'S FOUR IN THE MORNING! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP!" she shouted at him, but Rem didn't respond. And that was when she noticed the tears that were collecting in his eyes and rolling down his face. Sighing and scratching the back of her head, she dropped the bucket and called out to the others, "Someone get Master Mac and tell him Rem had a nightmare."
"Already here," replied the voice of Aurora Pistola's master, Mac Chinegan. Standing over seven feet, the tall blonde had to lower his head to enter the room, then moved past the other guild members to make his way over to Rem.
"Y'all get back on t' bed. Goes for you too, Yuki," he said, briefly switching his focus to the black haired girl. "Or at least put some clothes on 'er somethin'." The thick accent Mac spoke with would've likely been thought of as highly peculiar in most places, but here everyone had heard it more than enough to get used to it.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," she replied, and followed everyone else out of the room.
Once everyone was out, Mac went into the bathroom to grab a towel, then came back and helped Rem dry himself off, then found a dry set of sheets for his bed and brought them over, crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall.
"Been a while since ya had a nightmare. Sounds like this one was a doozy too. Wanna talk 'bout it?"
For several seconds Rem remained silent, but finally he managed to start explaining what he'd seen. "Th-there was a man... Kaiho. H-he said he wants my magic and..." The horrific images he'd seen from Kaiho's dreams flashed in his mind, and again Rem tried to shake his head in hopes of making them go away. "Master, horrible things are going to happen if he finds me!"
"Alright, slow down there," Mac said, stepping forward and putting a hand out onto Rem's shoulder to try to calm him down. "It was just a dream. No one's gonna do anything, y'hear?"
Rem just shook his head. "No. He was a thought projection... I-I don't know how he did it. But everything he said he meant..." That was troubling news. If someone had enough knowledge about dream-based magic to be able to infiltrate Rem's dreams, who knows what would happen if they actually had his magic at their disposal.
"Rem, I know it ain't gonna be easy fer ya, but I need ya ta tell me everything that happened," Mac said. Rem hesitated, but nodded shakily. And slowly he recounted the entire conversation between him and Kaiho, and what he'd seen of the mysterious intruder's dreams. His hand moved up to grab onto the pendent hanging around his neck, as if doing so gave him some sort of protection from his fears.
"Master... What do I do?" Rem asked, looking to Mac with hopeful eyes. The tall blonde pondered over the information for a moment. He hadn't heard of this Kaiho fellow before...or had he? Now that he thought about it, the name might've come up at a recent meeting with the other Wizard Saints. Another such meeting was going to take place tomorrow. Maybe one of them could shed some light onto this.
"Don't ya worry 'bout anythin', Rem. I'll find out if any of the other Saints know anythin' 'bout this guy tomorrow. In the meantime, just stick close to me or someone else from the guild at all times. We ain't gonna let anyone get their hands on ya, got it?"
Though his fear hadn't entirely gone away, Rem did feel at least comforted enough to smile and nod.
"Good. Now try to get back to sleep. An' try ta dream 'bout somethin' a lil' more friendly this time."
The joking comment earned a small chuckle from Rem, and Mac gave the troubled mage another pat on the shoulder before turning to head back out of the room.
"Thank you, master," Rem called out to him, but Mac just waved a hand back.
"Think nothin' of it, Rem. Just get some rest," he replied, then ducked under the doorframe and walked out.
Letting out a deep exhale, Rem laid his head back onto his pillow and stared up at the ceiling. Try as he might, he couldn't put Kaiho or his dreams out of mind. But his master's reassurance that he would be safe helped to ease his mind. And slowly, the boy managed to drift off to sleep once again.
TBC in Chapter 2: Empyrean Dawn