AN: So, i know, not a lot of the Loud House in this Loud House fanfic, but im a sucker for thorough, thorough, THOROUGH set-up. Love to read it, so imma write it. And yes, this is gonna be an incest story...eventually.^^ Dont like it, dont read. And dont lecture me about it in the comments please. Just to set the records straight: No, i do not think Incest is wrong. Deal with it. Reviews are always welcome though, one can always learn from criticism. Soooo, i hope you enjoy.
"Well, I guess were ready now." The old man turned around and looked at the one hundred beings in front of him. From the outside it must've looked like the biggest collection of freaks and weirdo's out there, and in a way it was. But that was exactly how he had wanted it.
"I want to use this moment to thank each and every one of you for the amazing strength of character it shows to give up ones life for the sake of another. The life you will lead from now on will certainly be a difficult one, lacking even most basic freedoms, but know that you will not regret it."
One of the assembled people, a scrawny man in a tight suit with glasses shook his head.
"Its not like you left us a choice old man." He balled his fist. "I wouldn't be here if you had given us the option to leave."
"Indeed!" Another person spoke up, drawing his sword and pointing it at their captor. "While the task you have given us is indeed noble, I and I'm sure most of my fellow chosen would have appreciated a warning, or at least the option to back out!"
"And its not like all of us have this "strength of character" you propose we all share." a girl threw in, flipping a coin in her hand. "If someone wanted me to help them I would make sure they lost all possessions and friendships they had, and their clothes for good measure, for being foolish enough to trust a stranger."
Slowly but surely more and more people spoke up until the room was drowned in noise. The old man sighed, raised his hand and made a short gesture which caused the room to fall silent in an instant. He waited until even the last few noticed that no matter how much they moved their mouths no noise was escaping, and finally spoke up again.
"Yes my friends, this may be true, but even after I explained the situation to you, even if there was a lot of complaining, no one resorted to violence, and no one tried to kill themselves, even though what you are about to go through may be considered torture in a way."
He stepped back a bit and looked every one of them in the face once. "And considering how some of you behaved in your own worlds-" his gaze stopped on the coin-flipping girl for a moment, who grinned in satisfaction. "-and how little some of you valued the feelings and lives of others,
ruining them just for the fun of it-" this time he lingered on the scrawny man, who corrected his glasses and shrugged. "-the very fact that you would accept a live of serving others at all is enough to make me believe that there is at least a tiny fraction of good in all of you."
Suddenly the old man collapsed, heaving for a minute, before slowly getting on his feet again. "It seems there is not much time left, so please excuse me for speeding things up a bit. I wish all of you luck, and as much happiness as you can find in your new life. Thank you."
And without delay he raised his hands, started mumbling, and after a few seconds arcane energy was swirling between his fingertips. Another few seconds later he lowered his hands until they were squarely pointed at the mass of people in front of him and released the energy in a blast of lightning.
Had the old man not cast a silencing spell a few minutes ago the hall would've surely been filled with noise again, as one hundred people, faces contorted in agony slowly but surely turned into tiny, not all that detailed oak statues of themselves, all with a unique pedestal.
The whole thing only lasted a minute at most, and after it was all over the old man began the last step. With the remainder of his powers he opened a portal just where the oak figurines were standing, watching them fall into the swirly mess of colors below. And as the portal closed and the man drew his final breath, his last thoughts brought a smile to his face.
"Finally, for the first time in my life, I actually did something that was...good."
"So Alex gave that to you?" Kraden asked.
"Yeah. He said it fell out of the sky. Said he wanted to make sure I would "feel comfortable enough with them."" Jenna spat. The fire adept frowned.
It had been a few days since she and Kraden were kidnapped by Saturos, Menardi, Alex...and Felix. She still couldn't believe it was actually him.
"Can I hold it for a moment?"
"Sure."
He turned the wooden figurine around in his hands. It depicted a little humanoid creature with tiny wings flying through the air on top a wooden pedestal with a little plaque.
"So, what do you think this means?" He pointed at the engraving on the plaque, a simple slightly cursive 1.
"I don't know." Jenna sighed. "Maybe this was the artists favorite piece?"
"Or his first." He returned the statue. "Well, whatever it means, I don't think there's anything special about it. How about we "hit the hay" as you youngsters call it nowadays." Both gave a slight chuckle.
"Yeah, you're right. G'night Kraden."
"Good night, Jenna."
But Jenna didn't go to sleep. She didn't know why, but the little thing fascinated her for some reason. A few hours after bedtime with Kraden soundly asleep behind her, she finally decided to call it quits.
"Well, little thing." She yawned and put the figurine down beside her bed. "No matter what happens, tomorrow you're gonna show me your mysteries."
In that moment she suddenly heard a light "thud" sound coming from the thing. And sure enough when she checked what happened the plaque had fallen off the front of the figure revealing a hidden compartment inside the pedestal. Curious she grabbed inside and removed its innards, which consisted of three pieces of paper, all different sizes, all fully filled with writing, and all three numbered.
Carefully she inspected the page numbered 1, bigger than the second but much smaller than the third, and began to read.
Congratulations curious soul.
Your lucky streak is on a roll.
For the very thing you found today
may help you out on futures way.
So fill the blanks that need be filled
and claim your price, you must be thrilled.
And worry not for consequences
try as you will, there're no defenses.
Jenna raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and moved on to the next page, hoping it would explain more than the first. The second page was the smallest of the three, and thankfully not in rhyme this time. In fact, it read less as instructions and more as some kind of oath.
Hereby I, _ , will fully accept the consequences that will arise from performing the following action incorrectly, and also vow to accept the reward should I succeed.
"Consequences?" she thought and checked the first page again. Indeed there was a section that absolved her of any consequences that may arise.
Strange. Maybe these things really were part of a set and she had gotten the lucky one? She shrugged again and continued reading the second page.
I hereby declare that I am one hundred percent sure and willing to bet my life that this oak statue depicts a _ and I demand my reward for proven intelligence and may I be punished according to your terms if I am incorrect.
"Hmmm", Jenna scratched her chin and turned to the third page, which was by far the biggest. On it were no instructions, no oaths, not even any coherent sentences. Instead there was a listing of about a hundred words. Some of them were occupations, some simply adjectives, some didn't really make any sense. "So I guess these are my options then." She debated with herself for a minute if she should actually humor the obviously crazy person who put this whole thing together but then she remembered that she had nothing better to do anyway so why not?
After studying the last page for a bit, she had already figured it out. Out of all the options that were presented one seemed like an obvious fit.
It even seemed a bit too easy, but then again even if this whole thing were real its not like there would be any consequences for guessing wrong.
She was about to fill out the blanks on the page when she realized that she didn't have anything to write with, so she decided to do the next best thing. After all, reading out magical formulas aloud always seemed to work in those children's stories she heard when she was young.
She fished the second page back out, cleared her throat and whispered (as to not wake Kraden.):
"Hereby I, Jenna, will fully accept the consequences that will arise from performing the following action incorrectly, and also vow to accept the reward should I succeed."
She quietly contemplated the pointlessness of that paragraph before she moved on to the relevant part.
"I hereby declare that I am one hundred percent sure and willing to bet my life that this oak statue depicts a Fairy and I demand my reward for proven intelligence and may I be punished according to your terms if I am incorrect. Which I'm not."
She lowered the page and looked at the statue. After a few minutes she sighed and shook her head. "Waste of time. Should've known."
The fire adept yawned and gathered the pages to put them back inside the thing. But as she grabbed the pedestal the return them she noticed something that made her drop it immediately. Because what she had held in her hand was the pedestal. Just the pedestal.
"What the..." she whispered. "Where's the little fairy thing?"
"Oh, so I'm a thing now, huh?"
Jenna barely managed to hold back a scream of surprise. Slowly but surely she turned her head in the direction of the voice and came face to...
whole body... with a little glowing flying human with insect wings.
"You're alive!?" Despite her bewildered state she managed to keep her voice down.
"Yeah, I had the same reaction, what with your dead eyes, screechy voice and remarkably strawy hair. But that's to be expected from a human now, isn't it?" the fairy said clearly not amused.
"Hey!"
"Sis, if you're gonna be racist I'm gonna follow your lead is all I'm saying."
Jenna shook her head in confusion. "So...just to get this straight, you were the wooden statue. And now you're alive."
"Pretty much. yeah."
"...And why?"
"So are you stupid or just a moron?" Jenna was a bit taken aback at that question."Nevermind, you're both. You solved the thing...
the riddle thing...you know? In the hidden compartment? R-I-D-D-"
"Yeah yeah I know. But what exactly is your purpose? Are you going to use your magic fairy powers to help me now or something?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"...Wow, I was joking..." Suddenly the implications of that sentence hit her. "So are you gonna grant me a wish now or something? Can you help me and Kraden get away from here? Make Felix his old self again?"
"Yeah, no. That's not how I work."
Jennas mood deflated again instantly.
"And why the hell not?"
The fairy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
"What do you think the 1 on my plaque meant?"
"Uuuhm...that you're number 1 when it comes to magic?" she sad with a nervous grin on her face.
He put his face in his hands and sighed.
"No..no, you moron. It means that there are a whole bunch of other people out there just like me and I...am the weakest. Sorry, not sorry."
"...So...what are your magic powers exactly?"
"Im glad that you asked. You couldn't have gotten a better statue than mine, even though literally anyone else would have been much more useful. but who cares about that? Because you see, after researching magic for hundreds of years I have acquired the awesome and spectacular power of giving people good advice."
"...you have the magic power of giving people good advice?..."
"Yeah, I was pretty miffed too."
Jenna started walking around in circles shaking her head while mumbling incoherently.
"icantbelievethisifinallythoughtthismaybeourchancebutthenthishappensandwhydoesthisstuffalwayshappentomeandwhyisthatfairysuchanas..."
Suddenly she stopped.
"Wait...wait, no this is a good thing. If you always give good advice then that means that you can help us escape after all, right? And help us win fights and stuff...we just have to listen to you because any advice you give has to pay off, right?" She gave the fairy her biggest smile, the hope was clearly visible in her face. "RIGHT?"
"What? Hell no, what gave you that impression? Did I say I have the magic power to give out great advice? No. Good advice. Good is all you're getting.
Tis more than I ever got, that's for sure."
Within the span of a second all emotion was sucked out of Jennas face. Shoulders sagged, head held low, she turned around and lay down in her bedroll.
"Well...lets hear some of that good advice of yours then..."
"Whatever you say boss. You know this Alex person that you hang around with..."
Jenna looked up, just catching that the fairy was settling down on her forehead.
"Yeah?"
"I don't think he can be trusted."
"...I hate you..."
"You know what? I think I'm gonna enjoy staying with you."
"That's from your dad, Eren?" Armin turned the wooden statue around in his hand. It was obviously depicting a dragon. A great winged beast, fire streaming from its mouth.
"Yeah. He got it as thanks from one his patients. Apparently its been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years."
"Really? Whyd they give it away then?"
"Well, if my dad hadn't been there the family would have lost its last surviving member, so it seemed a fitting present, I guess." He sighed. "Just another thing I have to leave behind when we enlist."
...
Eren couldn't sleep. It was the last day before it was off to the training camp. He looked at the statue on his desk.
"My father was so obsessed with you...but I never understood why...what mysteries are you hiding?"
Suddenly he heard a noise. Eren immediately propelled himself out of his bed and ran toward the wooden figure. Sure enough, the plaque that showed the number 63 had fallen off. He turned the statue around and shook it until its bowels were emptied.
He lit a candle and started reading the first page.
Congratulations my curious friend,
your deductive skills you have to lend.
There are two blanks that must be filled.
And for this one you needn't be that skilled.
If you are right you will earn might
enough to give all creatures fright.
But be warned, my friend, your victory has to be earned.
For if you're wrong, and that's no lie, your flesh and skin will both be burned.
"Cute" he thought. If this wasn't obviously nonsense it could've actually been useful.
The second page contained some kind of oath, while the third had a bunch of things listed on it. It took him only a few seconds to locate the word "Dragon". He shook his head. Maybe his younger self would've been ecstatic for that sort of thing, but now? He didn't have time for childish bullshit like this. With a sigh he placed the three pages back inside the pedestal and reapplied the plaque. Now he had to get a good nights sleep. Tomorrow a new chapter of his life was about to begin.
...
It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. This couldn't be happening. They had trained so much. Trained so long. Had bonded over the years. Did all that mean nothing. He couldn't die. It was just a dream. He still had all his limbs. He wasn't in the belly of a titan. He was still asleep. About to finish his training. He couldn't die. He had to live. He had to destroy all titans. But no...how could he possibly destroy all titans. He alone.
It wasn't possible. He wasn't powerful enough. He needed to be stronger. He needed more power. Might. And suddenly he remembered. He remembered it as clearly as the day his mother died. He didn't know why. It was just a childish fantasy. It was nothing. But there had to be a reason that this specific memory popped into his mind right now, And it couldn't hurt to try, even if it wasn't gonna work. But it had to work. It had to.
It...had..to...
"I...Eren Yeager...hereby declare...that I am one hundred percent sure and willing to...bet my life that this oak statue...depicts a Dragon... and I DEMAND my reward...for proven intelligence and may I be punished...according to your terms if I am...incorrect."
Not a second after he finished the sentence he was suddenly pulled underwater...or blood, in this case. His mind couldn't even register what was happening. He just felt himself being pulled deeper and deeper, deeper than logically possible, until finally the water gave way and he fell onto solid ground. It took him a moment to regain his senses. He finally stood up, but immediately after looking forward he fell back down again with a scream.
Right before him was a beast. Not a titan, no. It was larger than the average titan. A little bit smaller than the 15 meter class. No, it wasn't a titan. It was much more intimidating. The scales looked sharp, as if a simple touch was enough to slice through his hand. The teeth looked more like an array of knives forced into flesh, the yellow eyes, pupils slit, that gazed down upon him.
"Wh...wh..what are you?"
The gigantic beast lowered its head until it was right before him. Its breath was hot, almost unbearably so, but Eren didn't dare to move.
"Why do you ask what I am? Since you stand before me I can only assume that the last thing you did immediately before arriving here was identify me,
am I wrong?"
Eren was still to flustered to speak, being even more intimidated than before. The titans were scary. They are powerful and vicious, But another thing they are is dumb. Mindless. Something that was obviously not true for the being standing before him.
"Human...my patience wears thin. Speak, what do you want from me?"
Eren balled his fist, swallowed, and finally composed himself...as much as he could, anyway.
"...Where are we?"
After what felt like an eternity the dragon lifted his gigantic claw and pointed one finger at Erens head, stopping just short of impaling him.
"We are in your mind right now little man."
"In...in my mind?"
"Yes. I would've loved to join you in the outside world, but only the weakest of us was allowed to leave his prison."
"...Prison?...So there are more of you?"
The dragon chuckled. It was a deeply unsettling experience.
"Yes, 99 more. All sorted by power. The weakest could be defeated by a gust of wind. And even a thousand of me couldn't lay a single claw on the strongest. But I was the most skilled magician of my world, so my power is nothing to sneeze at."
"So you are gonna grant me anything I wish?"
"Yes...within boundaries of course."
"Alright!" Erens face contorted, bloodlust clearly visible, as adrenaline and enthusiasm flooded his mind. The dragon gave a small smile. This unadulterated rage and potential for cruelty...it reminded him of himself in his youth. Eren balled one hand into a fist and held it out in front of him. "I wish for you to eradicate all titans! And make them suffer!"
Suddenly the smile left the dragons face and a guttural growl erupted from its throat. It lunched forward until Eren could feel its breath burning his skin away.
"You fool! Didn't you listen when I spoke of boundaries? In my home I would have had you boiled alive for wasting my time! And you can believe me,
if I wasn't forced to cooperate you would've been dead the moment you entered my sights! You humans disgust me. I go through all the trouble of wiping your kind from existence and now I am being forced to serve you, what madness is this?!"
Suddenly all the bravado left Eren as he fell backwards once more and began to whimper. He would've been embarrassed about that, but he was sure that he held out longer than most people would have, so he figured he had nothing to be ashamed of.
"I cannot destroy all your monsters just like that! I could kill twenty, maybe forty, maybe even a hundred with one spell, but all?"
"M-maybe you c-could use m-more than just o-one sp-spell?"
Anger flared up inside the dragon once again.
"A single. spell. is all. you get. And you should be grateful that I am granting you even that!"
"Y-y-yes, s-sir, master d-dragon, sir!"
"...Good...Now, I cannot fight your battles for you...but I can lend you something of my own. I feel that you already possess marvelous power.
I could tinker with it a little. Wouldn't that be fun?"
"And it would help me eradicate the titans?"
Another chuckle.
"It would ensure it."
"Then do it. Lend me your power!"
"As you wish." The dragon raised one claw again, and in a matter of seconds raw energy coursed through it. As he was enveloped with the energy Eren felt strong. He finally felt powerful. Mighty.
"And now go! Go and use your power to kill your enemies! And when it comes time to pass on...give my statue to someone who would feel compelled to use it. I doubt we will ever meet again."
Suddenly Eren felt himself being pulled up again, and soon enough he could feel water surrounding him. But this time, instead of desperate, he felt strong. And as the survivors of Trost witnessed as a mighty dragon rampaged through the ranks of the titans, snapping the armored titan in half, they knew that humanity finally had a fighting chance.
"And three pieces of paper were inside?" Lincoln asked.
"Yes, but I don't exactly know what to make of them." Clyde responded.
"Well, lets see them."
Lincoln unfolded the first piece and began to read.
We finally meet, oh curious mind.
Your earlier life you can leave now behind.
All you must do to get my thanks
is fill out two simple, easy blanks.
But be warned, should your answer be fake
the next time you sleep you shall nevermore wake.
"Alright...alright...so where is the riddle that's mentioned here?"
"Oh, of course!" Clyde fumbled around in his pockets a bit and produced the two missing paper slips.
"Here you go. But its less of a riddle and more of a madlib."
Lincoln skimmed the second page.
"blablabla consequences, blablabla reward, blablabla bet your life? blablabla punishment...Alright, seems easy enough. And the third page is..?"
"Well, I can't be sure of course, but I think these are supposed to be our options."
"Hmmmm." Lincoln sat down and carefully studied the list.
Knight Archer Alchemist Lanternsmith Guard Courtesan Politician Fairy Jester Flier Angel Inquisitor Guide Baron Loon Animal-Trainer Blacksmith
Murderer Banker Sweep Detective Butler Goldsmith Carpenter Huckster Fletcher Wizard Peddler Chandler Innkeeper Brewer Mintmaster Wigmaker
Plumber Wendigo Sheriff Slater Arrowsmith Fearmonger Dealer Steward Gatekeeper Judge Notary Reaper Gunsmith Surgeon Fool Vagrant Beggar
Bookworm Whitesmith Lonely-Twin Crone Royal Vampire Hallow Grinner Goose-Chaser Thief Beast-Hunter Mercenary Victim Dragon Child Tamer
Brigsmith Mundane Free Postman Great-Great-Grandmother Self-Inclined Fendersmith Collector Fisherman Demon Defender Sunny Drowsy Ominous
Weak Fearful Guardian Popular Cheater Tinsmith Kingpin Sceptic Arrogant Maestro Chef Locksmith Native Gardener Lookalike Famous Firestarter
Hypochondriac Ghostwriter Assassin
He scratched his chin with the plaque showing a slightly worn 100. "This is gonna be tricky."