Hello once again my loyal readers! Sky Fable back again with yet another installment on my next gen Fairy Tail fic. This chapter may confuse a lot of people, but keep in mind that the Fairy Tail manga was and is far from over at the time I was writing this. I am open to all questions should you have any, and please don't hate me for my ideas lol
This chapter makes me happy. Mostly because I actually drew the character highlighted in this chapter, but also because It was just a lot of fun to write.
*SPOILER* There's a pretty gruesome scene at the end of the chapter, and I probably went complete overkill, but hey I think we all need a little bit of overkill every now and again.
Well, that's enough of me! Time to get to what you all came here to see!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters. All credit goes to Hiro Mashima. I only own the lovely children of his lovely creations!
Children of the Flame
Jasper: Part 1
"Cap'n! We won't make it t' port afore we hit that storm dead on! It be comin' t' fast!"
Jasper was not one of many emotions. His cold, unchanging stare was what won him that reputation, though he was usually feeling much different than his collected demeanor would ever lead one to believe. "Brace the ship and get the crew below deck. I'll make sure we stay on course."
"Ye don't really mean to-"
"That's an order, Damian." Jasper cut him off. His voice was smooth, but commanding and he felt the quarter master's expression of disbelief morph into one of reluctant acceptance. Jasper's deep blue eyes did not leave the ever angering waves of the ocean ahead of him.
The large bearded man scoffed, but complied with Jasper's orders. "Alright mateys, batten down th' hatches! On th' double ye scallywags or ye'll be swimmin' wit' th' fishes t'night!"
There was a bustle of commotion behind Jasper, but he did not turn to observe the happenings of his ship: The Iced Shell. Instead he focused on the deep rumble of thunder off in the distance.
'You can do this, Jasper. Nice and easy, just like you trained.' True to the contradiction that was Jasper Fullbuster, he felt his heart rate quicken, his stomach drop and a lump form in his throat. 'What if I screw up? I have the lives of the entire crew in my hands.'
"The ship be prepared, cap'n. Any last orders?"
The break in his focus almost caused him to jump out of his skin. Thankfully, his collected reputation was not ruined, and he remained very much in tact. The same, however, could not be said for his buckled trench coat. Sighing and reaching out with a practiced hand only years of being around the navy-haired water mage could train, Damian snatched the coat out of the air almost as soon as it left Jasper's grasp. "Just get yourself below deck. We're in for a rough couple hours."
Damian folded the discarded jacket over his arm and turned to obey orders. "Don't work yerself to death. Th' crew needs its cap'n."
'Understood.' Jasper responded silently as he heard the man's steps fade into the growing wind. The storm was almost upon them now. Isolated drops of rain had begun to fall from the darkening sky. The wind made it impossible to hear anything but the breakers battering his ship's wooden hull.
Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Jasper felt his mind empty. He felt magic surge through his veins, and he felt his own body quiver at the sensation of mentally becoming one with the very ocean beneath him. He could not break concentration. Not now. Not with his crew putting the utmost faith in his mastery of water. He felt the power held within the roaring waves. Focusing on the pull and push of the violent currents, Jasper let his magic spread to the water around him. Tendrils of his magic energy whipped about his body as he bent the sea to his will. The storm was picking up in its intensity. The waves became more and more powerful, forcing the water mage to expend more and more of his rapidly depleting energy. Stinging rain threatened to break Jasper's concentration, but he would not fail his crew.
He was too prepared for it. He knew it was coming, but not when, and when it did, he broke. The thunder exploded in the sky directly above him. The bolt of lightning preceding it gave no warning as it lit up the world below. The water mage's eyes snapped open and, almost immediately, the ship was at the mercy of the relentless tide.
'Shit!' He cursed. 'I knew it! I knew I wasn't ready! Father I'm sorry, I won't ever be able to take over the guild. I'm trash! I'm-' An exceptionally large wave rocked the boat hard, sending him skidding across the top of the forecastle and down onto the deck below. He landed hard, feeling the wooden planks crack, but not give, beneath his weight.
He didn't know why, but in that moment, his senses began to dull. A vision played itself across his disoriented eyesight.
'Jasper. This is your first S-Class mission.' His father had been more serious than Jasper had ever seen him when he gave that lecture. 'Take the Iced Shell to Galuna Island, complete the mission, and on your way back, you know what you have to do. Remember, she needs to be retrieved at any cost.
'And what about mother? Do you want me to tell her anything?' If Jasper was excited about anything, it would be the chance to see his mother again. After she learned of Gray's plan to leave Fairy Tail and go back to Avatar, she was abhorred. He had heard stories and even seen himself how much she loved his father, but to return to the cult that caused her so much pain, that caused him to leave her, she simply could not follow him anymore. With two newborns, it would have been tremendously difficult to carry them safely through the Mikage Woods. Juvia had loved and still did love his father, even after he left the guild another time, but she now had a responsibility to her children and would not have them grow up in a world without Fairy Tail. Jasper was only six years old when he chose his father over Fairy Tail. The choice was easy for him. He had no deep connections with the guild like his mother and father, but he did often find that he missed his friends and his mother's overly enthusiastic hugs.
'Just that my offer still stands. Make sure to give the twins my regards as well.' The look on his father's face was pained. He was a great, kind man that protected his comrades with an intensity unlike anything Jasper has ever seen.
'Yes father.' Jasper bowed his head and turned to leave.
As he reached for the door that would lead him out of his father's private room, Gray spoke. 'Don't fail me, son.' Jasper didn't know why, but those four words instilled within him a desire, a need to do just that.
'Don't fail me, son.' The phrase played itself over and over again until it became deafening to Jasper's ears. When he could no longer make out words, he could once again hear the roar of the ocean and the howling of the stormy winds. With new-found confidence, the water mage dashed to the very edge of the bow, just before the bowsprit.
'I need to get closer!' He thought.
Jasper desperately tried to regain control over the wild waters. Finding it much harder to coax the waves when they were angriest than when he was easing into their wrath, the teen launched himself off of the bow and plunged straight into the swarthy froth of the raging ocean. Once in the water, Jasper could feel his senses clear. 'That's better.' He thought calmly. Using magic taught to him by his mother, the navy-haired mage allowed his body to dissolve into the brine. He positioned his discarnate body so it surrounded the entire ship. Magic radiated from the water molecules belonging to himself, and quickly transferred to neighboring water molecules. Soon, there was a large magic circle surrounding the Iced Shell. In control once again, Jasper regained his physical body and rode a long water spout onto his previous position atop the ship's forecastle.
Undeterred by the whipping rain that pelted his bare upper body, Jasper directed the current to take the ship towards the port town of Hargeon. Much to his chagrin, the storm did not let up one bit, but there were no more instances in which drastic measures were required. Hours passed. The sky became even darker with the sun setting somewhere behind the thick layer of storm clouds. Hargeon's city lights came into sight just as the wind died down, and the clouds had given all the rain they could hold. Now, only a few drops fell every now and again.
'I did it...' Jasper thought with an exhausted sigh.
"Well done, me boy!" Damian said with a slightly drunken laugh and a slap on the back.
Jasper grunted in acknowledgment, too spent to expend energy responding to the man.
A thoughtful expression crossed Damian's face. Though intoxicated, he could probably hold down more alcohol than anyone he had ever met. "Get some rest lad. Ye've earned it."
The water mage shook his head in disagreement. "Too much to do." He said plainly. Damian looked ready to argue, but Jasper spoke before he could. "Tell the crew to sober up and prepare the ship for dock."
Knowing that the stubborn water mage would never heed his advice, Damian loosed a sigh of defeat. "Aye, Cap'n." He said and went off once more to give Jasper's orders in a much more aggressive, pirate-like way.
The rain had finally stopped by the time the Iced Shell was able to dock at the Hargeon ports. Stepping onto the gangway, Jasper's body was raked by intense chills. "Damian!" He called for his right-hand.
"Aye!" Came the response from the large man from the upper deck.
"Come with me into the city. Leave Howell in charge for now."
"Aye, Cap'n!"
'Of all places.' Jasper thought in exasperation. 'Of all times!'
"What be shiverin' yer timbers, boy?" The older mage fell in step beside Jasper as he made his way into the town.
"Scorch." He said plainly.
Damian groaned angrily. "Wha's that grog-snarfin' gut ache doin' out o' th' brig?"
"Beats me." Jasper said cooly. "But we're about to find out."
They walked along the streets of Hargeon. People were just starting to venture from their homes as the sun finally penetrated the once black sky. A particularly large group of people was gathered by the town hall. They were huddled in a circle, observing something at its center. Upon approaching, Jasper and Damian noticed an large crack in a patch of extremely dry, charred earth. The air was dry, suggesting that a type of heat magic, or high energy magic, was used. Jasper didn't bother pushing through the crowd, but did notice a trail of ash headed in the direction of Hargeon's East exit.
"Ash." Damian noticed it too. "That means he-"
"Died." Jasper finished. "Go back to the ship and help with resupply, I'll handle things from here."
"Now don' go gettin' a big head, boy." Damian was always acting more like a babysitter than a ship captain's right-hand, but Jasper had learned to ignore it fairly soon after they had met.
"Scorch Jr. is the least of my worries." Without another word, Jasper followed the trail of ash. Damian sighed as he so often did with the young captain, but returned to the ship to assist in resupply for their next mission involving the crossing of a sea.
The trail grew smaller and smaller until there were only a few flakes of the black powder every few feet. Jasper realized that he was not going to find the demon on foot. Letting his magic surge, he allowed the molecules that made up his body to separate and spread apart until he was a superheated cloud of water vapor. Jasper the steam cloud traveled quickly through the woods between Hargeon and Magnolia. He fanned out his gaseous body and continued to search. It wasn't long after that when he found the shrunken demon. Appearing no older than ten years old, the pink-haired spawn stopped and sniffed the air.
"Well I'll be damned." He said with a smile, looking at his surroundings and trying to pinpoint his location. "Jasper Fullbuster. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Calling his molecules back together, his body took solid form a short distance away form Scorch. "I suppose it has." He said.
"Yup, you're still stoic and uninteresting as ever." His child-like voice amused Jasper to no end. So much that he actually cracked a smile.
"Looks like you died again." The water mage said condescendingly.
Scorch scoffed in obvious disgust. "It was a cheap shot." He said pouting. "I was just about to burn that sexy Dreyar babe into a crisp, that Scarlet asshole comes out of nowhere in this rain armor, and sticks his thunder sword right through me!"
"Whoa there demon, didn't know rolled that way." Jasper said, cracking a proud smile at his witty remark.
Scorch began to laugh. Being a child made everything in the world much funnier than it actually was, but the fire demon laughed and laughed until he had to clutch his stomach and force himself to breathe. "In all the years we've known each other, you have never cracked a joke! It was totally shitty, but coming from you? Genius material right there!"
Letting the smile fade, Jasper figured it was time to get to business. "Well, I figured I'd give you that once in a lifetime opportunity."
"I know what's coming Fullbuster. You don't have to beat around the bush." His pink hair danced to the winds of a light breeze that chilled the air around them.
"I did some research." Jasper said as the temperature continued to drop.
"It appears you have. How lucky for me to be reincarnated, AND THEN run into my favorite arch mage!" The smile never left his face. There were no signs of fear or regret written on his expression or in his eyes.
Anyone else would have felt awful. Torn between what has to be done and personal feelings. Now usually, Jasper was an emotional wreck, but now, standing face-to-face with the demon that always was. He felt joy. He felt that this moment would lift a great weight from his shoulders, and free him from a burden that had been at his heels since the day he met Scorch Dragneel, four years ago.
"You're not going to fight back?" Jasper's expression never changed. He stared into the red eyes of the phoenix mage and saw nothing. He was calmly waiting for the water mage to make his move.
The temperature had dropped so low that the leaves on the trees had hardened. Their breaths became visible, and the water falling from the trees had frozen and formed tiny icicles hanging above their heads.
"Why bother?" He asked. "With my magic power now, I might be able to beat you. You know, if you cut off your arms and legs for me, but as you are? We both know how that ends."
"I wasn't planning on running into you again for a while." Jasper commanded the ice that now surrounded them to anchor the demon where he stood.
"Neither was I." He raised his hand and pointed his first two fingers towards the Dragnite.
"Its a shame." Jasper was truly saddened that this meeting happened the way it did.
"Isn't it? I expected our last fight to be one of the most epic showdowns in the history of Fiore! But this..." The navy-haired teen focused on the water that made up most of the demon's body weight.
"You could call this cold-blooded murder." Once he could feel every molecule of water in Scorch's body, he directed his focus towards the water-rich blood in the fire mage's neck.
"It is how it is." He said matter-of-factly. "I'm a demon. You're a mage. Think of it as your good deed of the day."
"Goodbye, Scorch."
"See ya, Jasper." With that, Jasper expanded the water molecules in Scorch's neck. There was an icy 'crack,' a roll and a thud, and the circular blade of red-tinted water sat perfectly on top of the demon's small shoulders.
Jasper didn't spare the gruesome scene another glance. He turned and swiftly headed back for Hargeon. He was sure that, by the time he got back, most of the crew would have already gone home having completed an S-Class mission, but his job was not over. There was still that girl.
Ah yes. The Gruvia child. I absolutely adore Jasper, and his magic, and everything about him!
Well, thoughts?! If you liked it, leave a favorite and a follow to see more!
Again, if you have any questions regarding how Gray became a guild master and why the H E Double Hockey Sticks it's AVATAR of all things, feel free to ask.
Again, again, the most recent chapters had not come out at the time of Jasper's conception (ew) so I had no idea ***SPOILER*** Gray was undercover ***END SPOILER***
Anyway, hope you enjoyed!
See ya next time!
Sky Fable
