{Author Notes}
Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, I jut needed a break from this story. That said, I'm a little nervous about this chapter since it begins a brand new original arc. It's going to be a little different—or maybe the same as my other original arcs? I don't know. All I do know is that it's going to be an adventure for all of us.
She was supposed to be asleep. She was supposed to have a dreamless night. She slept in her bed and by the time her eyes were open, the sun was up and a new day arrived.
But this wasn't the case. She knew she was asleep, but she felt awake in every moment—eternity—in the black void. It had returned. She didn't remember, but she knew it had returned. She didn't remember who she was, but her soul knew what was coming, and it screamed. It screamed without a word coming out and this paradox and brought the nightmare to return. The nightmare: she saw too much and not a thing. She heard them to the point of being deaf, yet at the same time could never understand a word they said.
But this time? Their words were like sirens, their images where like looking into the sun. She could see them clearly, but she still did not understand.
Begin—The Ward—Necklace—Renew—Veronica—Traitor—War—Staff—3—Shatter—A promise—A sacrifice—An alliance—Seal—Acolytes—Priest—
I. AM. FREE‼
Then reality came, as abrupt as an execution blade. Éclair No-last-name woke up gasping for air more than a newborn baby. Despite the cold air of her room, she was sweating as if she was in a sauna. Beside her, Momon woke up from his perch and flew to his friend. "Éclair, are you alright?"
"I'm fine Momon." The words escaped her mouth before she could was fully back to her senses. She looked out the window and noticed the dawn peeking past in the distance. "We should get ready to go to the guild."
As Éclair started to get up, Momon was still obviously worried. "It's kinda early though, but why are we going?" He frowned when his friend didn't respond. "Did you have another nightmare?" When the small bird saw the young woman freeze, Momon looked far more concerned. "These nightmares have been getting worse this past month! Maybe we should get some help!"
"Momon, there's no need." Éclair started to get ready for the day.
"But Éclair!"
"We should get ready." The dark colored brunette didn't say much after that. When she was finally finished, both she and Momon left their apartment.
However, there was one problem. When Éclair left her building, she saw something.
There were words in the air. The same words she saw in her nightmares. She looked around briefly, seeing other people walking up early for their work commutes. However, not a single one of them seemed to notice all the words floating around the air.
One of them, almost looked to be written in the name of unknown, but familiar rune.
She could almost read it as, 'Veronica'.
Even as Éclair tried to ignore the words. The words filled the air around her eyes. Everywhere she looked—it was like the words floating around were a part of her eyes. She said nothing to Momon about this, he didn't want to worry him and she also did not understand what was going on.
But something was amiss. Her heart felt like it was beating harder than before and the words were starting to sound like her nightmare, even though she was sure she was wide awake this time. Even though she was in Fairy Tail the words started to whisper…
The Star Falls—The Prison Weakens—The Gates Will Burst Open—!
"Good morning, Éclair, Momon. You two are early today? You want to start off with breakfast? I can ask Mrs. Dreyar to cook you a batch?" It took Éclair a second to hear Kain's words over the whispers of the floating ones.
"That," She paused and thought about it. "Does sound like a good idea. I think I'll take that offer."
"She's in the—land of the sacred temple and scarred battlefield!"
Éclair shook her head. The voices overlapped with each other and she couldn't hear the simple answer. "Sorry, where did you just say?"
Kain pointed over. "She's behind the bar counter with Mirajane." Kain—this young man wields the weapon of the stranger!
The amnesiac moved faster than she wanted to, moving away from Kain as the words were no longer whispering, they were shouting at her. Someone stood in her way briefly, and the amnesiac was forced to look up to someone she'd rather not meet.
"Uh—hey there!" She'd rather listen to the nightmares than Kageyama currently standing in front of—The Seal Must be Renewed!
The words were no longer passive, they were screaming even louder and more of them started to appear. Éclair got what she she wished for in grief and the words started to blind her and change right in front of her.
When the Night from 500 grand moons appears, so too the prison cast to ward away his greatest acolyte.
She couldn't take it anymore. Éclair suddenly felt something take hold of her body. This didn't sound like a scream—whatever it was it sounded inhuman.
तुम मेरी अणुकोशिका, देवी के अंश को रोक नहीं सकते । अपनी सील टूटता है और जब यह विफल रहता है, तो अपनी दुनिया के लिए । मैं अनंत की दुनिया में प्रवेश करेगा चिल्लाती है और खून की एक बाढ़ कि दुनिया में बपतिस्मा देगा मेरे मुश्किल विजेता के साथ नए सिरे से ।
The foreign words were like nails to a chalk amplified to every fiber of her being. Not being able to take anymore, Eclair collapsed, falling into darkness—and confusion. After a second of darkness, countless images she didn't understand flashed before her. Yet all of them felt familiar to her, causing this one word to appear that gave a feeling that she had not felt in the longest of times.
Home.
Many of the guild that was there crowded into the infirmary. Wendy was tasked to come early to help heal the fallen girl since the other medic of fairy Tail lived a fair distance away. However, before Wendy could even use her magic to check up on Éclair, the amnesiac in question got up from her bed, screaming bloody murder and scaring everyone else that was in the guild. It took the amnesiac a second before seemingly realizing that she wasn't in her bed and looked to those who were still in the guild at the time.
While everyone else was scared, Mrs. Dreyar was first to put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Are you alright? You gave us all quite the scare."
All eyes were currently on the girl with no past. Yet as Éclair gathered her bearings, she finally noticed the words that were haunting her this morning were gone at last. But it was more than that, for the first time in a while, she remembered something—she actually had a memory and it was of some kind of elevated Temple in a country called Veronica. She knew there was a nearby country of the Principality of Veronica, which meant that a clue to her home had finally revealed itself to her.
Éclair carried herself as if she was on a mission that must be completed. She walked out of her bed and marched through the exit, with many doing nothing but staring in confusion and walking out of her way.
Momon and some others tried to ask her what was wrong, but the girl seemingly didn't want to talk to them and instead moved towards Laxus. The fourth master of Fairy Tail remained silent as the other bar maid walked up to him and looked him dead in the eye.
"Thank you for accepting me here when I lost my belongings. However, I must formally quit this job."
Laxus was one of the few people, who didn't react or scream in surprise as Éclair said this. Instead, he unfolded his arms. "Is there a reason why you're quitting after what almost looked to be a stroke?"
"It is… something personal." Or more than likely, it was the first personal thing she's had in a very long time. Something that might tell her as to why she barely recalls anything but traveling with no destination. "I don't know how to explain it."
Laxus remained silent, but he could see in the girl's eyes there was no telling her no at this, and he had a feeling this was as equally important to her.
"I see. Thank you for your service here in Fairy Tail. Since you're an employee and not a mage, there's no reason to give you the farewell creed."
At Laxus' words, those that were there started to voice their dissent. However, the current leader could only speak louder to silence everyone else. "We're a guild, not a foster house. Anyone here is free to come and go if they so wish."
Éclair seemed to be the only one who had relaxed after hearing that. "Thank you." She spoke softly before starting to walk away.
Momon, on the other hand, looked very panicked and flew over to his friend. "Wait! What are we doing!? Where are you going?"
"Momon, we've stayed here too long, it's time to go." Éclair said while still making her way to the door.
The small flying bird stayed still in the air, looking back and forth between his friend and his new friends he came to like.
"Hey bird!" Everyone looked over to Laxus as he turned towards them. "Just a reminder: now that both of you are out of the guild, if you ever need a job, come to us and we'll accept it right away."
Momon tilted his head slightly at the strange offer. He wanted Éclair to be safe—wait a second! Momon's eyes started to widen and he opened up his beak. Éclair stopped and wondered what the words of that guild master meant, but when she realized the hidden meaning of those words, it was too late as her friend bird started to speak. "I have a quest! I want Fairy Tail to protect Éclair!"
The girl in question was about to say something, but much like how she ignored most everyone when she got out of bed, she was ignored as Laxus turned back to the rest of the guild.
"Who here accepts the quest from this client!?" Laxus yelled to the whole guild.
The response was nearly everyone raising their hand and shouting that they would take the quest.
Makarov, who was sitting at the bar counter, stopped his drink and gave a smirk over to Laxus. "Oi, bratty grandson, when did you get so sneaky?"
Laxus scoffed at the hidden accusation: that even though he was letting Éclair go, he wasn't letting her go alone like that. "What are you talking about, old man? I was always this smart—I had to be hearing nothing but complaints on your paper work."
"Wait, I can't accept this—"
"I'm sorry, miss, but you weren't the one to make this quest claim," Laxus turned to a rather miffed Éclair. He then turned to Momon, "Only that gentleman right there has the ability to rescind the quest."
Momon shook his head. "No! I'm worried for you Éclair! These nightmares aren't normal! And I don't like how you've been acting these past few days! You might get hurt!"
The dark haired woman wanted to argue, but Momon was obviously the one person she couldn't bring herself to argue with.
"Fine, but I don't want all of them to come." Éclair narrowed her eyes towards the group of mages that were currently looking over towards her and Momon.
Laxus lifted his hand to make a point. "They can't anyway, the maximum amount of mages from a single guild that can take a quest is ten anyway." The Thunder Dragon Slayer raised his voice for the rest of them to hear. "Alright, only ten mages can go with our Clients. So who's going?"
"I AM!" Natsu shouted out as he stepped on the rails to ensure his participation. However, everyone was surprised at this, not at Natsu, but at the fact that someone else screamed to participate with almost equal—but perhaps more energy than the loud Fire Dragon Slayer.
Kageyama stepped out from the crowd. "I'm going!" He added after speaking the same as Natsu.
Eclair let loose a long sigh. Of all people, it had to be the actual criminal here.
"Hey, if Salamander and Kage are going, then I am too!" Gajeel rose his hand and walked out the crowd and towards the center of the guild.
To some, they were rather surprised to hear the Iron Dragon Slayer mention Kage as a friend, even more so when the two shared a nod of understanding with each other. The sharper, read as 'small minority', members of the guild did notice that Both Kage and Gajeel did hang out with each other when the Iron Dragon Slayer joined. They probably had a lot to talk about since they were technically both previous enemies for Fairy Tail.
"Okay, I want you three!" Momon pointed a wing out towards the three while still being airborne. "Oh, I like picking—I wanna pick more! I want Bisca, she's nice to me!"
The green haired mage sniper blinked in surprise before holding the tip of her hat. "Alright then, I accept the offer!"
The power to choose seemed to get into Momon's head after that. This was mostly because his eyes widened like a child in a toy store and he pointed with zeal towards another person. "I choose you!"
Max Alors blinked and pointed at himself. "M-Me?" It was starting to look like Momon was simply choosing for the heck of it now as not many people noticed those two ever interacting.
Momon went on and pointed over to a different direction, showing by now he was indeed choosing just for the sake of choosing. "I choose you!" He pointed over to Lucy before moving his wing again. "I choose you!" Then of all people, the bird pointed to Nab Lasaro before shifting his wing one more time. "You!" His wing went over to Wendy. "You!" Levy pointed at herself in confusion at being picked for this, but Momon just went on. "And you look cool, you can come along!"
The last person who Momon chose was someone not known to be a part of Fairy Tail's main core.
His name was and is still, Wan Chanzi. He was slim and of average height, he had a long face, and a mildly long neck. He had almost fully shaved black hair and a small arched mustache above his mouth and a stubble on his chin. He wore sunglasses and had a dark, high collared zipper sweatshirt with a cute dog t-shirt underneath it. He also wore jeans with piano keys styled to his right legging.
Wan Chanzi stared—he might be blinking in surprise though no one could tell behind his sunglasses. After a few seconds he nodded once.
"And that's ten! Let's go everyone!" Momon pointed towards the gates of Fairy Tail.
"Alright!" Laxus stopped the excited bird from getting carried away. "You all were chosen. Get ready to prepare and then get going."
Éclair found herself sighing once again and put a hand on her head. As she looked up towards the ten mages, she couldn't help but feel that these people look so out of place after being brought together.
This couldn't possibly get any worse.
Everyone could hear the sounds of train whistles go off, along with that of engines beginning their movement down the tracks. The Train Station of Magnolia was as busy as it always was, and around a dozen people were already walking in with a fair amount of luggage.
"So, we're going to the Principality of Veronica for this?" Nab Laraso looked away from the ticket in his hand that told their their destination.
"That's where I need to go." Éclair moved a bag over her shoulder and started walking to their train.
"E-Eclair?" Lucy spoke up to the girl while trying to catch up. "Why do you need to go there of all places?"
"I remembered something?" She didn't sound so sure of that before she shook her head. "I remembered something. There's something in the Principality of Veronica that's a clue to my lost memory."
"You lost your memory?" Max Alaros looked over to Eclair before everyone turned to him. "What? I'm not always in the guild!"
The dark brunette haired woman sighed. "I've been traveling for a long time, but I don't really remember where I'm from. This morning, I had a flash of something from my past, and I believe it's in Veronica."
"By something, you don't mean that sudden collapse, right?" Of all people, Kageyama spoke out. "That doesn't really sound healthy."
Eclair's response was only to glare back, which made Kageyama shut up again.
"Anyway, since there's all of us together, we should have a leader, and I nominate myself!" Gajeel huffed with pride.
"Heck no! I should be the leader, I'm the strongest one here!" Natsu called out and it wasn't long before the two literally bashed heads against each other trying to take claim to the leadership of these group of mages.
Bisca looked over to Levy. "Hey, maybe you should be leader, you're already leader of Team Shadow Gear."
Lucy overheard this and clapped her hands together. "Yeah, I think Levy would be great as a leader!"
The small blue haired girl flinched with nervousness at the suggestion. "I-I can't control those two!" She motioned to the 'two' being Natsu and Gajeel already looking like they were going to battle right then and there.
However, a voice came in from outside the group. "Leave that to me." Everyone else turned to the voice and watched the owner walk past them, only to get between the two powerhouses and sling his arms around their neck. Both Dragon Slayers were surprised, shocked, and then started to pale as they realized it was Kain who had brought them together. They usually aren't even afraid of the slightly smaller young man, but there were times when he gave off this uncanny smile—like right now—that made their dragon sense blare and tell them that they were in danger.
"Natsu? Gajeel?~" His sing-song tone only made both dragon slayers feel goosebumps in their skin. Kain turned them both around and started whispering something to them. When he did that, everyone else turned to Wendy, who they knew to have dragon hearing and other heightened senses. To their surprise, Wendy seemed to be tilting her head in confusion.
Lucy was the one asking what they were all thinking. "Wendy, can you hear what Kain is saying?"
Wendy raised her brow but looked up to Lucy. "I don't know some of the vocabulary he's using. W-What's Bank-rupt-cy mean?"
Wendy's only response was Lucy looking away nervously and patting her head. "N-Never mind that." It appeared everyone else didn't want to know what their lawyer was doing to some of their stronger mages. When they did that, Kain turned around with the older dragon slayers, who looked as if they had their souls sucked from their now lifeless bodies.
"Kain," Levy began, ignoring the pale look on the dragon slayer's faces. "Not that I'm not glad you're here, but why are you here?"
Their brunette smiled. "What are you talking about, Levy? I'm just on another paid vacation week, because my job allows me a lot of those! I just so happened to buy a ticket to where you all are going; a funny coincidence, isn't it?"
Lucy gasped after hearing that. "So that's why Laxus earlier expressed only ten mages could come. He was secretly telling you to go with us, didn't he?"
"Well, he didn't say, but that did basically meant he wanted me to come along with you guys because I am your lawyer." Kain explained. "Now come on, let get into our train. It's a bit of a shame Erza left with Ignis on a solo mission yesterday."
And with that, their group was now finalized. A mismatch of people that don't really know each other as well were tasked to escort and protect an amnesiac girl who seemed to be hunting for her home.
What could possibly go wrong?
Kain was watching a rather… well, he didn't know what to call it really. He was placed in the same booth with Gajeel and Natsu, seeing as he was the only person in the group who could actually calm them both down. However, seeing as they were in a train, there wasn't really a need for him to do so. This was due to the fact that both Gajeel and Natsu were now slumped into their seats like rag dolls and struggling to exist at those current points in time. He was sat across from them and with Wendy, who he noticed seemed a little red. "Are you alright, Wendy? I was worried if Natsu and Gajeel were this sensitive to vehicles, you'd be too."
"I'm a little dizzy, but I'm fine!" Wendy tried to say. "Besides, I can use a spell that can make my motion sickness go away if it gets too bad." As the thought came to her, Wendy realized she could do the same for her older 'seniors' and looked over to them. "I can cast it on you two, if you'd like!"
"Y-Yes please!" It seemed Natsu struggled to even put one word out of his mouth and nothing something liquid like.
"Ha!" Gajeel's laugh would have been more intimidating... if he wasn't hanging on to his arm rest for dear life. "You need the spell of another and not your own power to overcome this, Salamander?! You're weak! I can totally handle this!"
He really couldn't. Especially with how he was shaking more than a chihuahua trapped in a rotating washing machine.
However, to Kain's annoyance, Natsu's ego was threatened and therefore, he then refused Wendy's sensible action of letting him be hit with an anti-motion sickness spell.
Kain shook his head and sighed, before placing a hand on his forehead. "Pride cometh before the fall."
Funny enough, the train they were on made a sharp turn. The sudden motion of the vehicle caused the older two dragon slayers to fall into the floor like unwanted toy dolls.
Kain decided that this was going to be a time for a valuable lesson and looked to the little girl beside him. "I was being metaphorical, but let that be a lesson, Wendy: don't be as stubborn as these two."
From the booth across Kain and the Dragon Slayers, Bisca, Wan, and some of the 'sidekick' animals watched the whole thing.
Carla stated with a huff. "Look at them both, so uncouth!"
However, Momon raised a wing when hearing that comment. "Ms. Carla, it's really not nice and rude to judge people for their personal flaws."
Carla looked to the bird and the realization of someone calling her rude was somewhat of a wake up call. Especially since it was indeed a rather rude thing to do herself. "I apologize for that statement then. Thank you for being civil about it."
"It's alright, I know you care!" Momon smiled to which Carla could only blush and look away from the bird.
However… that action… well… there was someone right behind the bird that really didn't appreciate it.
"You lower-than-scum feathered rodent!" Happy whispered darkly and with murderous intent the bird and other cat didn't notice. "How dare you encroach to Carla!"
Behind Happy, Bisca was starting to sweat at the murderous aura the blue and usually carefree cat was emitting from his person. She began to panic when Happy stopped and slowly turned to her. He then somehow whispered to her, "Hey, Bisca? Do you by any chance have bird poison?"
The answer is no. The answer to that will always be no from now on, but Bisca for some reason couldn't bring herself to say it. Instead, she found the courage to try and change the subject instead. "By the way, I don't think you guys have met a friend of mine hat travels with me. I'd like to introduce him to you all now that I have the chance." The green haired girl reached for her hat and took it off, revealing a small mouse that popped out of the gun woman's hair and jumped to the cushioned seat. "Everyone, meet Sonny! He's an old friend of mine."
Bisca motioned to mouse with heart shaped patterns to the cats and bird—which in retrospect, would usually eat mice like him. Luckily, or unluckily, Momon acted first. He raised his wing to wave and gave a friendly smile to the mouse. "Hello, Sonny, my name is Momon!"
"A mouse?" Happy looked more surprised than hungry—which Bisca supposed was a good thing. "Hey there, I'm Happy!"
Now, the reason it was unlucky was because Happy was a cat. Since cat and mice, even in a magical world… have… differences… Sonny panicked at the sight of the blue cat and ran up to the other source of comfort in the seat—that being Momon. "Oh don't worry about Happy, Sonny! He's a little weird, but he's super nice!"
Bisca was slowly realizing she had made things even worse with how Happy looked frozen, but his right eye lid was twitching upward. Somewhat desperate, she turned to the other human in her booth. "Wan, by any chance are you good with animals?" Technically, Bisca was good with animals, but right now this was a little out her league.
Wan was hard to read because of his glasses and nearly silent persona, but even Bisca could get the message when the glasses wearing mage shook his head once.
Bisca wished she was in another booth.
In another booth, Lucy, Levy, Max, and Nab were all talking about something more serious.
"I know it's weird, but I was told that she's been traveling longer than she could remember." Levy then took out a map of the Principality of Veronica then pointed to a city they were heading to. "This train is heading towards the City of Vilish. It's a town around the same size of Magnolia. According to Eclair, the hint towards her home is in this old city that dates back to the Kingdom of Veronica."
"Anything specific?" Nab asked.
"She just said," Lucy paused. "Something about a temple?"
Meanwhile a few booths ahead of the rest of Fairy Tail, Éclair stared out the window. There was nothing but endless desert, but as she stared out, she almost felt something familiar passing through the endless nothingness.
"Sooo?" The dark haired brunette looked to her right to see Kageyama standing beside her booth. "You're finally going home. That must be nice."
The amnesiac decided to be quiet.
"Though I gotta admit, being able to forget about your past, I kinda envy it."
All though he was trying to make small talk, Kageyama wasn't expecting the girl to turn so sharply at him with a glare that was far worse than usual.
"Having to question who you are every waking moment, having the sense of doubt and mistrust at your own mind each passing second, always knowing that you are incomplete, and having the fear of never regaining what I once lost has plagued me about my amnesia, and you have the gall to be jealous?"
Kage tried to shake his hands. "N-No! I didn't mean it like—!" The poor guy didn't get a chance before the amnesiac brunette walked up form her seat and walked out of the cart.
The shadow mage sighed and sat back in his booth, where the ancient robot of Wendy was sitting in a slightly cramped manner.
"I don't suppose you know how to talk to girls so they won't hate your guts?"
There was a low beeping whine coming from the rust and mossy robot as he tilted his head.
"Yeah," Kageyama sighed and looked out his window. "This is going to be a long trip, I can tell."
Fire is one thing, heat is something a little different. Heat isn't usually dangerous, but too much of it can cause problems. For example, when Fairy Tail and their clients left the train station of Vilish, they were hit with a heatwave, the sun that was akin to being baked alive, and a humidity that caused even Natsu to start to sweat.
Kain, before he came to Earthland, had always wanted to travel the world. When he came to the Principality of Veronica, he supposed it was the closest thing to going to India he could pull off at the time. The streets, weren't actually streets but mostly paved and worn out dirt roads. The buildings all were modern like, but also looked as if they were there for decades and had been worn by extreme weather and dust storms. People were filled to the brim in narrow streets and Bazaars lined up every few feet. Scattered across the city, where temples that seemed to have stood the test of time and the earth, and everyone could see a giant temple that was placed in the center of the city, that looked more like tower of stairs with some statue placed in the center.
"It's sooo hooott!" Lucy complained as she and Wendy hid behind Pla because the tall automaton was the closest thing they could use for shade. Lucy looked over to Levy, who had a glowing rune on her cheek that she read as, 'feeling-cool'. "Levy, please make a rune like that for me too!"
"Hey! I want one too!" Bisca and Max also added along while poor Wan seemed to be sweating already to the point of looking soaked.
"It takes too much time to make these!" Levy seemed to squirm with all attention on her.
"Oi quit it! Leave her be!" Gajeel shouted out despite sweat coming down his large eyebrows.
"He is right, guys, give Levy some room." Kain added in to which more people were inclined to listen to. "We can all stop by a store and buy some climate appropriate clothes like a shemagh or was it a turban? Maybe even a hijab? Just stick together, it'll be easy to get lost here." It didn't take long to convince everyone to at least go to a nearby clothes shop for the area to prepare better for the weather.
However, as they made their way, Éclair looked back towards the stair temple at the heart of the city.
Dance…
She shook her head and followed after the rest of them.
Some wore hats, some bought some turbans, but many in Fairy Tail were wearing loose fitting clothes that matched the style of the city. Yet, as Fairy Tail started to travel the city, they did start to notice that there were many other tourists as well, and that the city was lined up with posters of the same star like picture that seemed to be falling from the sky. They were all curious about this, so Kain walked up to a nearby salesman and asked what the festivities were all about.
"Oh! You came here and didn't know? Your timing must be amazing then friend! You see, the country of Veronica is old, so old that wars and sandstorms have buried most of our history." He then explained further. Because Veronica's history was lost, all people had left of their ancestors were their temples that littered the city, and their mysterious practices that even the oldest of them can't remember what they were really for. Among their long-lost practices, was something they called the 'Moon Dance'. It was a dance that scholars and historians theorized it was some kind of ceremony of praise to their ancestors' old gods. The meaning was long lost, but they were able to keep and pass down the dance itself and many found it to be beautiful and alluring.
"Tonight is going to be a special Moon Dance ceremony." The salesman told them. "Because magi-astrologists say there's going to be a comet seen falling across the moon during our festival! They say it's falling right now, but it's slow moving and you guys can see it when the sun sets."
"That does sound pretty interesting. Éclair, does that ring any—" Kain turned around, as did the rest of Fairy Tail. When they did, they all saw the distinct, lack of Éclair in their group.
"Éclair!? Where'd you go!?" Momon cried out before flying in a panic in any direction after his friend.
"Momon!" Lucy cried out but the bird was already moving.
"Everyone, stop!" The rest of Fairy Tail looked to Kain before he pointed back to Momon. "Happy, Carla, Kage, follow Momon!"
There wasn't time to argue as those who were called did as they were told. When they were lost in the crowd, Kain spoke up again. "Natsu, Gajeel, even Wendy. Can any of you three sniff Éclair out?"
The dragon slayers took a second to try. However, none of them perked up after that second. "It's no good," Gajeel spoke first. "The place is filled with strong smells, exotic perfumes, and really good smelling food. It doesn't help I'm also hungry." Gajeel mentioned.
"Yeah, even the fire smells good because it's cooking food." Natsu obviously agreed with Gajeel.
Yet even with that, Kain was quick to act. "In that case, let's split up into a group of four. Lucy, Levy, Bisca, you guys try to search the western parts of the city. Nab, Wan, and Max, you take the north. Natsu, and Gajeel, I swear to heck, I'm going to regret this, but you guys hunt for her at the eastern part of the city—but just so we're clear: if either of you start a fight and break things unnecessarily because of something that isn't related to the safety of Éclair, we will have words and economic planning."
The two dragon slayers gave a weird reaction. They both laughed with all the authenticity of fake gold, and gave thumbs up signs before agreeing to Kain's words.
"And that leaves, Me, Wendy, and Pla to search the southern parts of town. "We'll meet up near the train station we came from if we find her." He waited for everyone to nod once before speaking again. "Okay, break!"
And with that the four groups were off. However, Levy in her group gave a deep sigh that the other two girls noticed.
"What's wrong, Levy?" Lucy asked her friend.
"Well, it's just you guys said I should be leader, but Kain pretty much took charge there."
"I'm sure he didn't mean to belittle you, Levy." Bisca added in.
However, Wendy shook her head. "No, no! See, when Éclair went missing, I was so overwhelmed, and when Momon started to run away from us, I froze up! It's actually a really good thing Kain was here otherwise, I don't think I could have handled it as well as he's doing right now."
"Don't be like that, Levy! I'm sure you'd make the same choices too!" Lucy tried to say.
Levy was silent, but it seemed like she couldn't really see it. In fact, she was recalling back during the Isle of the Undead, she was so out of it, Jet had to be the one to talk her down—Jet of all people! (No offense to him.)
Bisca looked up ahead and tried to find their friend. "Let's find Éclair and make sure she's safe."
Sadly, their search proved fruitless as the sun had already set and the main Moon Dance festival was about to begin.
"Where could she be?!" Momon looked around with carrying levels of worry and stress. "We've been flying around the place and there's no sign of her!"
Kageyama appeared and rose up from a shadow. He looked around the area before looking up to the sky. He did see a slow moving comet inching closer to the moon, but he still saw no sign off—wait. There are dancers ascending the stairs near the center, large temple. He recognizes the back of one of the dancers! She always turned her back towards him nearly every time they encountered each other!
"Guys, follow me!" Kage yelled as he started pushing through the crowds.
Meanwhile, the familiar Dancer had already reached the top of the temple, performing a dance that felt akin to coming home after what felt like centuries. The other dancers did their thing, while Éclair, swept away by something she could not explain, continued to dance closer towards the center statue: a many armed deity wielding an orb above their head.
She gracefully pranced towards the statue as the comet crossed the center of the moon that night. A shadow was cast over the orb, and some kind of spot light was seen coming from the old crystal. Éclair was able to end her dance under this small spotlight of the crystal, letting the light hit her necklace.
However, as the light hit her necklace, something was off. It started to glow green before it started to glow with a red X, a spell that remained from Gomorah, the Lich some time ago.
The magics clashed, and a red light was reflected back at the crystal and caused it to crack.
No! YES!
The dancers all suddenly stopped and gasped at the sight. Kage appeared from the shadows, followed by the other flying sidekicks and ran up to Éclair and called out her name.
At that moment, everyone in the city could see something amazing: the slow moving comet froze at the center view of the moon. Then, it started to unfurl, crating some kind of symbol like that of a spider with a skull on it's main body that was encompassing across the moon. As it did, the moon—then the sky turned blood red. If that wasn't enough, the deity statue cracked right down the middle, and shattered into so many pieces, that it looked like sand. The cracked sphere started to change color to match the red symbol marked over the moon.
Everyone in the city started to panic. All across the city, Fairy Tail had this strong urge to run straight for the center temple of the city and did so post haste.
But that was not the worst of it, the dust of the broken started started to rise and spin together in a miniature tornado. But instead of expanding, the dust of the statue was all condensing together, forming that of a human body.
As the spinning stopped, the body was formed, he was towering man of seven feet tall, completely bald and of dark tanned skin from the intense sun. Even though, he was bald, they all could see blood-colored markings all across his skin and written over his face and skin. He wore some elaborate, long black robed patterned with a red spider across his torso.
Under the blood red sky and stolen moon, this man forged from the dust slowly opened his eyes… all three of them.
As Kain ran towards the center of the city, he could hear the distant cries and screams of panic. He couldn't stop this horrible feeling at the pit of his stomach—something that told him that this was going to be worse than all previous already deadly and dangerous adventures before.
And all the young man from another world could say was…
"Oh great, here we go again!"
{Author Notes}
And here we go folks! Welcome to this new, Original Arc!
Actually, I need to tell you guys that this arc is actually the First Fairy Tail movie, Phoenix Priestess. But I call it an original arc because I completely and utterly re-wrote everything about that movie and practically only kept the characters Momon and Eclair in it.
That's right boys and few gals, this is my take on the first Fairy Tail movie!
You're all also wondering who Wan Chanzi is. You all may think he's an OC, but surprise surprise! He isn't! He's actually one of the background characters in the Manga who has a small page dedicated to describe who he is. If you look at the cast of mages for this adventure, I'm really, really focusing on all the looked over characters and giving them time to shine.
This arc, is going to be a dozy I really wanna thank you all for supporting this fic.
Oh before I forget, I do have a rough translation for what I (translated) from a sight hopefully a little more accurate than google.
*(You cannot stop my acolyte, fragment of the goddess. Your seal breaks and when it fails, so to your world. I shall usher in a world of eternal screams and a flood of blood that shall baptize the world anew with my scions victorious.)
Thanks for reading, have a great day!