The Fall
Act 2
Part 6
"Bullshit!" Gajeel yelled at the dragon.
"Are you calling me a liar you damn brat?" Metallicanna snapped back.
"You are telling me that you did all that in order to obey Acnologia's orders? Bullshit! You are not obeying anyone else than yourself!"
"If only it was that simple you stupid brat…" Metallicanna muttered and stared coldly at Gajeel. "He is the Dragon King, he is by far the strongest dragon and all dragon magic simply obeys him."
"You are not making any sense!"
"You may be my brat but you are not a dragon, you can't really understand…" Metallicanna muttered angrily. "I told you that we are magic incarnate, we wouldn't exist if magic didn't take form into us. It is our magic that compels us to fight each other, in order to determine who is the strongest; and once the strongest would be decided dragon magic would obey him." Metallicanna looked around before he continued. "The fighting begun the moment we first walked onto this world. First the dragons from the same elemental family fought each other, I am an Iron dragon and my elemental family is metal. Iron is not the toughest of metals but it is very versatile, I fought and I won every dragon foolish enough to stand in my way. In time all of the metal dragons recognized me as the strongest, as the King of the metal dragons. I never cared for the title but they obeyed everything and in order to spite them I named them all Iron dragons." He giggled at that. "They didn't like that at all but I was their King and they all called themselves Iron. Bronze dragons, steel dragons, gold, silver and everyone else, they hated it but they all obeyed and they all called themselves Iron. Do you understand now? I am their King and they all obeyed an order that they hated."
"And the same applies to you with Acnologia?" Gajeel asked.
"No, not in the same way as before but a sense of obedience still lingers within my magic." Metallicanna replied and then turned at Natsu. "Igneel fought as well and proved himself to be the King of the Fire dragons, all fire dragons obey him and all fire magic is within his domain." He then looked at Wendy. "Grandeeney is a special case, she is the strongest sky dragon and by all rights she is the Queen of the Sky dragons. The problem is that she never cared about fighting. She was always odd like that, preferring to experiment and study with her magic over using it to become Queen. Most of the sky dragons acknowledged her anyway but the second strongest, Ageras, could never stomach that fact. Once he somehow made her fight him; it was over so quickly that he couldn't even comprehend it. It's obvious that he joined the human haters because he wanted to fight her again."
"You mean that Grandeeney fought to protect humans?" Wendy asked.
"Not just fought, she was the leader of the dragons that sought to protect all of you. She, her sky dragons and the thousands who followed her are what kept humanity alive." The dragon then turned and looked at Laxus.
"And then there is you, a human who doesn't even know that he is wielding the power of the King of the Lighting dragons. You haven't even realized how his magic influenced your past actions…" The dragon then turned and faced all of them. "Then again, our magic has influenced all of you to a degree. You all act very much like your dragons; except you brat." He said to Gajeel. "You are stupid and never look before you leap."
"Look who is talking…" Gajeel muttered.
"At least I figured that diamond bastard's trick on my own." The dragon teased him. "Where was I? Yes, you are all carrying the magic of the Dragon Kings of your element. The subordinates of those Kings will sense it and will act accordingly. Gajeel if you run into a metal dragon know that I didn't care for obedience, loyalty and all that crap; I lived for fighting and the metal dragons adopted the same outlook. They will either fight you or fight beside you, they won't care about your cause and any of that complicated stuff." The dragon turned at Natsu. "Igneel is a lot like me but he preferred to keep things friendly with his subordinates. He never ordered them around and they all are his loyal friends; it was annoying to see them fighting as if they were playing some kind of game between a big brother and the younger siblings." Metallicanna sighed and smiled at that. "My fights with him about it were the stuff of legends. His soft hand was the reason why many of his dragons chose to fight in the war, many for the human haters and others for the protectionists. Still he is their King and all of them will do as he says." He then turned at Wendy. "Grandeeney is a rare breed of dragon, at first I saw her as a weak minded coward but in time I realized who strong and smart she really was. As a queen she led through charisma and reason. It's a pity that loser Ageras is the only Sky dragon left; the others would go at any length to help you." The dragon then turned to Laxus.
"Then there is you, the one who doesn't even know the name his dragon. His name was Ravnos and he was the King of the Lighting dragons. He believed in strength above all else and he acted accordingly, we all know that strength has its own virtues but he had become obsessed with it. One day he even gathered his subordinates and proceeded to brutalize and kill those he thought of as weak."
"That's horrible." Wendy commented while Natsu and Gajeel glanced at Laxus who just kept staring at the ground in front of him.
"I didn't care much about them but I always found Ravnos to be annoying. Igneel and Grandeeney were outraged, a King treating his subordinates in such a way was something that they couldn't let go. It's funny but all three of us went to teach that asshole a lesson at the same time." A smile of satisfaction formed on his face. "I still get shivers whenever I remember that fight… Through the thrashing we gave him Ravnos realized the error of his ways and changed his approach. Lighting dragons were free to do as they pleased but they still valued strength above all else. If you run into one and you are weak don't expect anything else than to be thoroughly crushed." Laxus remained silent for a few moments before speaking. "I did… something similar sometime ago… was I…"
"Influenced? Yes, all dragon slayers are influenced by the personalities of their dragons but in the end your human side is stronger than that influence and it always has the final say. The first dragon slayers called this influence the 'dragon's instinct' and only through that we realized that we were similarly influenced by our magic." Metallicanna punched the ground in front of him angrily, lifting up a cloud of dust. "At first I thought 'so what? I would fight anyway!' but it is far deeper than that. Magic itself wants to see which magic is stronger and the strongest magic automatically commands the weaker. Dragon magic is the first magic and is by far the strongest; all magic simply obeys dragon magic and the Dragon that proves himself the strongest would command all magic. Acnologia was a dragon slayer and a strong one at that but he wanted to be even stronger; he fused himself with Zeref's demon magic and managed to become an abominable dragon that was human, dragon and demon at the same time. He simply overpowered us all and in front of him our magic betrayed us and wanted us to obey him. Dragons have pride however, many wouldn't just accept such a mongrel as their one true King, even without magic they fought him and died in drives by his hands. I wouldn't care if I died in a straight fight against him but I wouldn't allow myself to die like cattle. I decided to obey and buy time in order to force my magic to fight him. Igneel, Grandeeney and some others probably thought the same; the other survivors just bent the knee and obeyed him without question. When he had the acceptance of every living dragon he commanded us to cut all of our dealings with humans and to never go to certain places of magic. He then left us to our own devices and centuries later he contacted us and the rest you know."
"Why? Why did he order you to raise and train dragon slayers?" Natsu asked.
"How should I know? I don't like complicated things and I hate making sense out of them. Ask Grandeeney if you ever get the chance. She is smart enough to figure it out and foolish enough to waste her time on it." Metallicanna replied and raised his head to greet the two approaching mages.
"And the son of the prodigal snake arrives. Do I have to repeat myself or have you heard the parts that mattered?"
"I heard." Cobra replied as he and Erza approached them. "I didn't come here because you asked for me, I came here because I am a dragon slayer."
"I think that I am going to like you." Metallicanna replied with a crooked smile. "Do you know who your dragon was?" Cobra simply shook his head. "He wasn't a King but he was a strong and dangerous and dangerous dragon. His name was Crotal, an ill tempered dragon with only a handful of friends."
"That sounds about right." Natsu muttered only to have Metallicanna spit a piece of metal at his head again. "Rule number one: Don't interrupt me with stupidity." Metallicanna said coldly and looked at Erza. "Now little girl, what I am about to say and do is only between myself and the dragon slayers."
"I…" Erza glanced at the others who just nodded in return. "See… will they be ok?"
"That's up to them."