He heard the sounds of winds passing through forest leaves. He heard the sound of rushing water. He could hear the birds singing.
He hated it all. Mostly because he heard it all before, because he wanted to sleep more, and most importantly, it was all fake. The young prince would rather hear all those things in person. The young prince sighed as he got out of his bed and he stretched out his arms.
The sounds of nature stopped as flying machines with screens flew towards the child and started to undress and clean the young heir.
It was at that point that a humanoid machine entered through the grand and ornate sliding doors. "Ah! Prince Nagotsym, shall I read you today's schedule?" An electronic and posh voice came from the humanoid machine.
"It's the same as it always is!" The young prince shouted in annoyance.
"I beg your pardon, my highness, but these classes are important for your future duties as King of Edolas."
The young prince stomped his foot. "How can I become King of Edolas when I'm not even allowed out of the castle walls!?" Despite his tantrum, the child stormed out of the room. The servant robot seemed panicked and wobbled after the child.
"Oh my! M-Master Nagotsym, please! You'll be late for breakfast!"
"UGH! I hate it here!" The Prince whined as he started to run the elaborate and sleek metal halls. "I swear that one day I'm going to leave this castle and never look back!"
"Your majesty?"
Mystogan blinked before he shook his head and put on his mask. "Please call me Mystogan as long as we're here."
"In that case, I think I'll go by Alexi as long as we're here." The armored man continued to walk up the mountain path. "The last thing I need is being mistaken for my Earthland Counterpart, whoever he is."
"He's a criminal in this world."
A single chuckle escaped the armored man's filter. "How surprising."
"It's different." Mystogan sharply interrupted. "He is a criminal, not someone brave enough to stand against a tyrant." The bitterness of the masked mage's tone killed whatever levity the two had.
Silence filled their walk, and Mystogan found it odd how silent the Commander was. "You never told me where we're going."
"There is something I need in Earthland that will help me... stop Anima permanently," Alexi continued to walk. "Unfortunately, even with the two of us, I doubt we have enough manpower to accomplish this task."
"Can you explain what it is?"
Alexi stopped for a second and took another second before he turned to Mystogan and answered. "As you know, Anima is magic that involves piercing through the veils of time and space to harvest magic to fuel all of our Lacrima Technology. As long as Anima exists, they will continue to use it to absorb magic."
"I tried to slow it down." Mystogan gripped his fist. "I was able to seal as many holes as I could find, but..." The Edolas Native couldn't blame anyone. How could he had possibly known that the reappearance of a fallen god would undo all his seals!?
"You bought us much needed time, Mystogan," Alexi spoke kindly and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It was never for naught."
"It might as well be with all my seals undone and Anima at full capacity."
"That is why I am here. I am attempting to create a 'New' Anima." Mystogan was surprised to hear this. "Or rather, I am creating a new invention that will close the tears that Anima will never be able to reopen. I said new Anima because it's heavily based on how Anima works."
The armored man turned and started to walk. "According to my research, we're going to have to do some hunting to create this Anti-Anima."
Was that why they were heading to the top of Mt Hakobe?
"The first thing we need to collect is," Alexi stopped when they both heard the sound of pebbles falling in the path in front of them. The two looked up, only to see what looked to be an army of Vulcans.
Mystogan was honestly shocked. He thought Macao had cleared the Vulcan infestation a fair amount of time ago. How were there more of them now?
"It seems we're not the only one looking for our special target." Mystogan saw that Alexi was looking down and in the opposite direction of where the Vulcans were. He followed the gaze of his long-time friend and spotted what looked to be a long line of armed thugs climbing the path they already crossed. "It seems we've been caught in a race to the top."
Mystogan was about to ask what was at the top of Mount Hakobe that attracted all of them. But he was distracted when the Vulcans above started to make battle cries and rushed for them. The cries made the thugs look up and start preparing their magic to blast them and the Vulcans.
"How is your combat skill?" Alexis asked as he took a combat stance.
Mystogan reached and unsheathed two of his staves. As they gathered energy, he exclaimed,
"You suck at that."
Prince Nagtosym's first response was to throw the naysayer in the dungeon... after the bump on his head swelled down. Thanks to the bump on his head, he was able to see the person who dared to accuse—(state the truth)—at him.
Whatever anger the prince had turned to a smile when he saw the young man with pink hair and wearing a lab coat. "You're here!"
"Your Highness," Seeing the teenager always brought a smile to the future king's face. "It's good to see you again."
The Prince dropped the practice blade and ran up to hug the teenager.
"Hey, wait!" The training robot pointed. "Your majesty, you can't just abandon—"
"Override code: Delta land 548."
"Electronic sigh," The robot slouched lamely. "Roger Roger. I'll guess I'll go and... I dunno fix my darn aiming matrix then."
The pink-haired scientist watched the training bot leave with a raised brow. "I see someone's been practicing changing the AI personality programs."
The Prince gave a grin that lit up the area. "You should see what happened to my political bots."
The teenager pushed his hand onto the prince's head. "Hey, pranks are my thing, your brat-ness." Touching a prince without consent was considered a fatal crime, but the teenager rubbed the child's head affectionately.
"If you're here, does that mean?" The child's eyes were wide when he asked this.
The teen nodded and threw a thumb behind him. "Yep, Professor Redray is here too. He went up to your father just now."
The mention of his father made the prince frown. "Why does Redray have to see that old coot?"
The prodigious teenager laughed. "Well, considering we're creating a device that will save our energy crisis, I'd say that it's very important."
After pouting, the prince looked up to his friend and asked. "When will he be done?"
"I don't know," The smile on the teen's face faded. "But, Professor Redray did look troubled." Zeref turned his gaze towards the sky, or specifically, the isle in the sky.
"Is something wrong with Anima?"
"No, but," The teen trailed off as he started to think. Should he tell the future king that his teacher and leader was starting to get distracted? The lead scientist of the Anima Project seemed distraught recently. There have been signs that he's been doing some sort of secret project. But he didn't understand what was going on. "Well, it's adult stuff."
"Ugh! That's what everyone says, even that creepy Byro." The Prince folded his arms and pouted. "When I'm king, I'm outlawing that kind of talk."
"Of course your majesty." The teen then walked up and picked up the wooden blade. He twirled it around in one hand as naturally as a bird to flight. "In the meantime, while we're both waiting, how about a round?"
The Prince's eyes widened before his eyes fell to a competitive glare. He smirked as he ran and picked up a nearby wooden blade.
The Prince and The Prodigy took opposing sides and stances. The future king smiled before rushing with his blade in hand.
"I'm not going to lose this time, Zeref Dragion!"
I have come to a point in my life where I want to punch a princess in the neck. The previous chapter in my life involved fighting evil-magic Not-The-Mummy before he brought tarantula-god back to the material plane.
Goddammit, magic. I refuse to believe this was part of the Fairy Tail Series. Had my friends opened up with that shit, I would have been reading this story more religiously than the Pope to the Bible. Then maybe I'd at least be prepared for all this madness being thrown at me!
... By the way, where am I? The last thing I remembered was taking a plasma blast at point-blank range, being near-blind, feeling like I was in a microwave, and... oh yeah. After the white noise died down, I recalled hearing the building crumbling around me along with the fact there were screaming civilians. Everything else was a blur. I think I remember then electricity.
I think I got captured again? I can't feel my arms, so I'm going to say yes. My life sucks. Or rather, being an anime protagonist is not as awesome as people make it out to be. Granted, I'm probably not a protagonist by any means, and I'm probably more like a comic relief character. Maybe damsel in distress since I keep getting captured. Whatever. Point is my life still sucks.
"GAH!?" My eyes! What's that bright light!? ... wait, I'm not seeing this through a visor?
"Hello there." Hey, it's Mr. Mascara without the mascara. And now that my mind is processing, it's Edolas Erigor.
"Captain Erigor, you are a bold one." I will never be rid of Star-Wars if my knee-jerk reaction is to respond in their memes.
It took me a second to realize my hands were cuffed. But they were odd cuffs. Wooden ones? Wait, why am I getting such a sense of deja vu? Great, they're covering my arm up to my inner crevice, so I can't activate my morpher. And I'm sitting on a seat behind a cold table across from the actually competent Mr. No-Mascara.
"Says a young adolescent who helped lead a strike team of around half a dozen of people against not only the Eisenwald Police Force but a platoon of the Kingdom's Sky Navy?" He leaned forward. "Now, I have some questions that it's in your best interest to answer."
"Wait, are you interrogating me?" Oh god. Not Lullaby all over again. "What, are you going to try and break my hands by Wyvern claws?" On the other hand, I would like a second Wyvern pet.
"Oh please, we are not barbarians. We don't torture our captives." Right. Edolas Erigor. He's a decent fello—wait. Why is he smiling? "With that said, we can do this the easy way... or her way."
It was at that moment something stabbed the table, and someone—it could have been anyone but me—squealed like a scared little girl in surprise.
"By all means," Edolas Erza began. She stepped out of the darkness and into the one spotlight in the area. "Choose my way."
I probably shouldn't say that I am scared but turned on by Edolas Erza.
Yes, I shouldn't say that at all.
I swallowed my spit before looking to Erigor. "W-What kind of questions are we talking about?"
Erigor's face turned solemn. "The location of Ivan Redray."
The campfire flickered from the cold night winds of the outdoors.
"So where's this Bluelazer guy we keep hearing about?" Earthland Natsu asked with his legs crossed as he sat next to the fire. "I keep hearing about him, but we've never seen him."
"If you're talking about Commander Redray, then your guess is as good as ours." Edolas Mira sighed. "Which is annoying because we really need his help now more than ever. Natsu, have you found any trace of him yet?"
"What? I never even met the guy." Earthland Natsu raised his brow.
"I think she's referring to me." Edolas Natsu said from inside his car.
"Yeah, having two Natsus is going to get confusing fast." Edolas Droy folded his arms. "We're going to need new codenames between you two."
Laxus found himself speaking up, "I think Edolas and Earthland have different last names. Our Natsu is Natsu Dragneel."
"Huh," Edolas Natsu looked up from the screen. "I'm Natsu Dragion."
"Okay, so we call our Natsu, Dragion, and the Earthland one will be called Dragneel." Jet added.
"Oh! Mira-nee here is Mirajane Rhea! They're the Rhea Siblings here!" Lisanna clapped her hands together.
"Lisanna," The girl with a leather jacket sighed.
"Wait! That's it!" Dragion suddenly cried out and started to type furiously on a strange device inside the car. "I think I know where The Commander is!"
"Where?" Jet asked as he and the other Edolas members stood up straight.
Dragion pointed to Dragneel. "It's why these guys are here! It's why Anima energy points have been skyrocketing as of late! I think the Commander is in Earthland!"
"He's back where we started!?" Laxus shouted in surprise. "Why is he there!?"
"I don't know, but that explains why he's not answering his emergency calls! Of course, another world is out of range for our communications!"
"Then let's find him!" Rhea pointed a thumb over the two Earthland Mages. "We got these guys to lead us back to Earthland."
"That's not going to work," Laxus spoke up. "We came through the sky. And we now we lost all our fliers." Inwardly, Laxus despised that their Lawyer was no longer among them. The one time he trusted the punk, he goes and gets himself captured!? Where was that bad luck when they were on different sides?! Putting his inner rage to the side, Laxus went on. "Shouldn't we be saving your friends and ours?"
"That's why we need the commander! We can't launch a rescue operation without him!" Edolas Mira argued.
"No way!" Dragneel stood up. "We can't wait! We gotta save our friends now!"
"Don't be stupid! Edolas is the strongest Kingdom on the planet! No one can fight them directly! That's why we follow the Commander! He's excellent at hit-and-run tactics!" Jet cried out.
"That sounds like coward talk!"
"What did you say!?"
"Natsu, calm down!"
"Lisanna, I'm always calm! You were talking about me, right? Or where you talking about my Earthland..."
Everyone started to overlap with each other in their shouting. Laxus could no longer take it anymore and stood up from where he sat.
"SHUT IT!" Laxus shouted that scared the nearby wildlife and silenced the arguing. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, everyone is right. We do need our friends, but we also need the guy who can make rescuing them easier. If that's the case, we should split up."
"Split up?" Edolas Mira asked. "Are you crazy? There's not even ten of us. We're down manpower as is."
"I'm all ears for another plan." Laxus narrowed his eyes at Edolas Mira. However, when Mira's face turned to a scowl, the fourth guild master sighed. "When I heard the name Lahar, the way you guys spoke made it sound like Fairy Tail had other branches, right?"
"Yeah, we have other branches. But the problem is that we've been kept separate from each other. I've never seen any of the other cells." Edolas Jet placed his hands into his pocket.
"Why would you separate yourselves?"
"We do that in case one of the branches get captured, like so." Edolas Droy answered Natsu Dragneel. "It was the Commander's orders. We have no idea how to get in contact with them too. Heck, one of his drills described us laying low if even one cell was found."
Laxus put a hand on his head. "If we're going to save your friends, we are going to need back up. That and we'll also need to figure out where they're going to keep your friends and ours."
"It all goes back to the Commander," Edolas Mira folded her arms. "If there is a way to get the others out of hiding, it's by finding him."
Laxus supposed he was going to meet this infamous commander after all. "That also goes back to the fact we came through the sky. And unless those vehicles of yours fly, I doubt we can do anything."
His words seemed to ring true to everyone. However, Edolas Mira had a mischievous smirk on her lips. "You're not wrong. We can't do anything about it, but how lucky for us that our enemies have a sky navy? Oh, and look at that," She showed a hologram of what looked to be a map. "There happens to be nearby a small Skyport base. Isn't that interesting?"
(Huh. That is interesting.) They think I know where the opposite of Laxus' dad is.
Even if I did know where he was, I wouldn't tell them. But fact is these guys know more than I do. Wait a second. I can use this to my advantage.
"Oh, right! My Boss! He's the one wanted for bedding the queen, right?"
"HE DID NOT DO THAT!" Someone burst through what sounded like the doors of this interrogation room. It took me a second, after a splitting pain I felt throughout my entire body, to realize that it was the iron princess. She apparently slammed me to a wall and raised her fist with the intent to see which broke first: the wall behind me or my head. And she didn't care about the former. "You and your ilk are just as heretical as your boss! First, he kills the god of this world, and you accuse him of bedding the long-late queen! I'll burn your face off the face of the Kingdom!" Her palm is starting to shine.
"Princess, stop!" It took the combined efforts of both Edolas Erza and the other Iron Knight to hold back and subdue the angry Princess. Still, my plan worked somewhat: my problem was that I almost died for it.
It was at that point that Erigor stood up as the Iron Knight and Edolas Erza tried to hold back the killer princess.
"Please forgive my allies. We will return you to your cell." The Police chief began to the surprise of everyone in the room. "Officers, take our prisoner back."
"What!?" Everyone, including me, screamed it. I tried to get a good look at Erigor, but he was obscured by the darkness. The soldiers took me away before I could even process what was going on.
"What is the meaning of this?!" The princess began after their prisoner was taken away.
"Princess," The Police Commander began. "Did you realize what he was doing?"
"How could I not!? He was making a mockery of the crown!"
"No, he was baiting us with false knowledge and bravado. By stating false knowledge, we felt more inclined to correct him. He learned more from us than we from him." The Police captain inhaled deeply. "We cannot learn more from him at this state. We'll have to try again when we reach the kingdom."
Without waiting another word, The Chief of Eisenwald left. Inwardly, he was ticked off that his own superiors were messing up their responsibility. As the man left, he did not notice the livid look on the Princess' face.
However, it was at that moment that one of his men walked up to him.
"Sir, I thought you might want to know, we've received reports from the other captors that one of the Fairy Tail members have an unusual reaction to our special cuffs."
"Continue briefing while we move."
"That little girl that you spotted earlier today? Being near the Special Anima wood made her ill. She almost fainted being in the same room as the material."
Erigor raised his brow. "That's the first record of someone having that reaction. We don't use it on children, but I've never heard of someone reacting like that before."
"There's more, sir. As soon as it was reported, a Priority 1 order was sent to bring that little girl straight to the inner castle."
"What?" Erigor turned to his officer with shock after hearing about Priority 1. "That little girl should be sent home, to a hospital, or wherever any of her relatives are. Why is there an order directly from the King's inner circle!?"
"I simply reported it to you, sir. But Secret Service came in and took her away quickly. Even restrained, some of the Fairy Tail members got rowdy trying to get her back."
Erigor looked down as he started to remember something. The boy they caught had similar DNA and a similar face to someone known to him. Not to mention, files dictated that Fireball Natsu Dragion was always seen in a getaway vehicle; there were no reports of him getting access to pyrokinesis. Now, a little girl gets a violent allergic reaction to a long time material and is suddenly being taken by the King's most private forces?
"Sir," The officer sighed, which snapped the Eisenwald Chief out of his thoughts. "I didn't know how to tell you this, but we have received new orders."
The chief took the device out of his officer's hands. When he activated the device, he saw the recorded message and who had ordered it.
Without a single change in his face, he closed the message and gave it back to his office. "Simon, tell the others to start mobilizing. Something tells me that this isn't even over by a longshot."
All things considered, it could be worse. At least there's a toilet in my cell, my futuristic laser cell. Hey, wait, a second! This place has a toilet! I remembered once that in a sci-fi show, a person in nearly the same situation back upped the pipes and short-circuited something important!
Granted, the person had to dislocate their thumb, but it's an honest option to research!
It took me a bit, but I've got to try and feel for the pipe inside the water. Oh this is so not sanitary.
Sploosh! Shing!
... Why did the cell doors close the moment I put my hand in the toilet?
Why is there a bad feeling coming from my bones?
And why is The Iron Princess holding my Omni Tool as a sword while standing right outside my cell?
"I uh." If only my mind could move as half as fast as my mouth. "I dropped my contact lenses?"
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, she ignored me. "What a strange device you have, scum." I can't believe I'm thinking this, but I miss the angrily screaming princess. "It turns into any weapon one wants." It turns to any shape anyone wants. How annoying that it's used against me now. And is it me or did this cell get much smaller?
"It'll be a shame. You steal back your weapon and attempt to escape." She started to walk to me even as I backed to a corner. "And in your escape, you can't help but want to defame the kingdom further and attack me. I barely defended myself in time."
Oh, she's trying to set me up. Swell.
"But who cares?" I spotted her raise the Omni Tool above her head with the intent to cut me in half. "You're simply rebel scum."
She brought down the blade—
And my mind moved fast, moving my hands up and having her strike my cuffs in an angle that would make her hit my Morpher before my skin. The contact shattered my cuffs, and faster than I could process, my armor activated again before the blade could follow through and cut the rest of me. I went on instinct and punched the princess right in the face.
She slammed into the wall. I didn't hesitate to grab her and make my way out of the cells. While speeding, I spotted Ignis in an even bigger cell. I looked around and saw no one. It took me a second to realize that the Princess might have dismissed the guards to try and get no witnesses for my attempted murder.
Well damn. This is the first time an incompetent politician helped! I stole back my Omni Tool and walked towards the cell that held Ignis. I saw my friend open his eyes from the mechanical muzzle.
"Come on, Buddy, let's do a prison break." I was going to break what looked to be the console. However, another thought occurred to me. I sped around the area, finding and picking up cuffs before coming back. "My bad, we have a new passenger. Now let's blow this joint!" I have always wanted to say that!
Alarms blared around the ship. Arcadio and Erza Knightwalker entered the large cockpit.
"What was that!?" Erza asked one of the many pilots.
"We have an explosion in our prisoner quarters! Our captives are escaping!" As the man screamed this, a giant hologram showed the picture of a red wyvern flying out and making a dive towards the forest.
"I want all our cannons to blast that thing out of the sky!" Knightwalker screamed.
"Wait!" Arcadios grabbed on to his friend's shoulder. "Zoom in to the tail of the wyvern!"
The view did so, and all attendants were horrified to see Princess Hisui captured and being taken away by the wyvern.
Everyone heard the sound of a metal rail bending from a slam. "That idiot!" Erigor screamed. "What was she doing in the prisoner quarters?!"
"Everyone, send our fighter planes! They cannot escape!" As soon as Knightwalker exclaimed this, they spotted the wyvern dive bomb below to the ground. However, instead of an impact, they saw nothing but trees for miles.
"I want our scanners working now!" "Sir, we're too near the Paragodian Forest! It's teeming with nocturnal creatures moving around!" "Heatseekers!? Tracing the energy signature of the Princess' armor!?" "It's the same, sir! And we're picking her armor signature inside the ship!"
Knightwalker removed her blade. "Enough excuses, if we do not find the princess, the kingdom will personally see our executions!"
Happy was not happy. He was separated from Natsu, separated from Kain, and both he and Carla were taken by these creepy hooded figures. But what he couldn't understand was why Carla looked so despondent. That, and where these figures were taking them.
Eventually, Happy spotted them being carried to what looked to be a castle in the sky.
Or at least, he thought it was a castle. Now that he was moving in closer, it looked more like the cathedral back in Magnolia. However, it was much bigger than the cathedral back home. The houses around it seemed to be styled similarly to the Cathedral.
"Younglings, we welcome you back to Excadia, The Holy Land." Their Captor spoke up. "Welcome to your triumphant return home."
Happy didn't think of this place as home. Home was with Fairy Tail, but he couldn't help but feel like this place was weirdly familiar.
As they landed and were herded to the main building, Happy took the sights around him. The palace/cathedral was somehow brighter than the sunlight outside. The hallways were massive, and there were man mosaic windows of what looked to be cats with wings. After what felt like hours of walking up stairs, they reached a room that smelled of incense.
There was a figure whose face was obscured by the light behind them. Yet Happy could make out a cat-like figure and what seemed to be a throne.
"Welcome, children," From the light, an old cat walked wearing ornate clothing like that of a bishop. "You have done your goddess and our people proud this day."
"What's going on here!?" Happy cried out as he was confused as to what was happening.
They heard a voice, powerful and almost mystical. It silenced the room the moment the first syllable was uttered. "Have you forgotten the meaning for your existence?"
Carla seemed to tremble at the words.
"Find the dragon slayers. Capture them or destroy them if you must."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!?" Happy yelled out. However, he noticed that Carla looked horrified and was starting to shiver.
"What? Were you not given," Before the older cats could say more, they were interrupted by the figure covered in light.
"Everyone, but the two, leave." The voice declared. Everyone looked surprised, but without another sound, they all bowed and left, leaving the grand area.
Happy was surprised how those words alone made even those scary, big cloaked figures leave. Yet he was somewhat scared when he started to see the figure behind the light move up from her seat.
He heard Carla gasp beside him, and she looked confused as well. But Happy had the feeling that she was confused about something else completely.
"Have you found them?" The powerful figure asked. Her voice was no longer booming with authority. Instead, it sounded desperate.
"Found who?" Happy asked with confusion.
"The Dragonslayers. Our only hope."
Both Carla and Happy were starting to believe they were the most confused people in all of Edolas.
"What the hell is going on here?" Gajeel looked around in confusion.
"The last thing I remember was light above Magnolia after returning, then here I am. ... Where the hell am I?" As Gajeel walked out of the alleyway, he spotted what looked to be a city even bigger than Crocus, with technology he never saw before. And a giant tree that gave him a grave feeling in his bones.
Gajeel stared a while as he saw all the constructs of lights, the flying vehicles, the metallic robots walking all around him, but he had enough sense to do some digging.
Or at least that was the case until... "Gajeel, there you are!"
The Steel Dragon slayer turned and was surprised. "Totomaru?"
It was Totomaru, one of the Element Four of Phantom Lord, but he looked different. He was wearing a collared, long sleeve shirt with a tie and a bowl hat. And was it him, or were his black and white colors switched?
"What the heck are you wearing? Don't tell me you tried to find a Fairy Tail indoctrination group at this time? Here, take my coat. You can't have people in Edolas seeing that symbol now!" Gajeel was startled about this strange dump of information, but he allowed the Totomaru lookalike to place his coat over him then get pushed by him all the way to a giant building that had the title,
"Phantom Press?" A news outlet? It was the same symbol as the Phantom Lord Guild, but the Iron Dragon Slayer was surprised to see many familiar faces working desk jobs as he was brought to the top of the building.
"Guys," Totamru screamed as the elevator opened to the top floor. (And after Gajeel felt a little sick from simple elevation. He was lucky that it was quick enough to go away as it came.) "I found Gajeel."
The Iron Dragon Slayer saw many familiar faces in unfamiliar states.
"Yo, Gajeel! Where were you, my main home slice?" Monsieur Sol looked more like he lived his entire life in a city urban area than somewhere of high influence. It was jarring seeing the dude stooping low. "Were you trying to dig a scoop in the down-low from the big ones?"
Even in a different dialect, Gajeel still had trouble understanding the green-haired man.
"Now's not the time for that," Gajeel almost made a motion to rub his eyes when he saw Aria. He was still a massive of a man, but he looked more like a thug than Gajeel did. The scars across eyes and face looked brutal. "The Boss wants to see you, Bluewolf."
Gajeel was surprised at the name. His last name was Redfox, not Bluewolf. However, he found himself walking to the door Aria motioned to. Gajeel opened the door—then dodged an empty whisky bottle that slammed into the wall.
"You lazy bum!" Gajeel watched Jose shouting angrily at the only man wearing casual clothes in the building. "How many times do I have to tell you no drinking during the job!?"
"Relax, Jose," Gajeel couldn't believe that drunk man looked like Voyu. "I wasn't," He hiccuped, lifting up his large hat and revealed his flushed cheeks. "Drunk."
Gajeel watched the Jose lookalike turn to him. "Bluewolf, the royal company is planning an assembly in the morning at 8 A.M. We've been given insider access, but we only have two passes. Since you're our best journalist, I want you to go and bring that new photographer, the one Alexandra hired. What's his name again?"
Voyu hiccuped again. "Jason Parker."
"Can you be sober for once in your working life!?" Edolas Jose screamed at Edolas Voyu. "I can fire you as my secretary, you know? I literally have more people than I can count that can do your job better!" The Chief of the press picked up something and tossed it over to Gajeel.
The Iron Dragon Slayer caught it. He saw it was two laminated cards that were connected to lanyards.
"Get back to your office, and someone get me some coffee!" Jose yelled out.
Totamaru left and sat down at a nearby desk with his name on it. Gajeel followed him and spotted his name, of sorts, not too far from his.
The Iron Dragonslayer was used for reconnaissance missions before. He watched the other Totamaru sit down and activate the thin device in front of him. Gajeel copied his 'ally' and performed the same actions to activate the item on his desk. He was surprised to see the small device light up.
However, a problem came up when the device asked for a password.
Gajeel decided to take this moment to not only figure out what was going on but to gather his thoughts. As he collected everything, he started to remember that the lawyer nerd came from another world where he claimed that he recognized some people. Gajeel thought it was crazy, but seeing everything he saw just now, it was hard to discard the fact.
After more time mulling it over, Gajeel looked at the password in front of him. After a few guesses that had iron or metal-based words, Gajeel decided to try one word that he hoped was wrong.
"Metalicana."
He wasn't.
But what he saw on the device made him raise his brow. "Hey, Tota," Gajeel spoke up.
"Yeah?" The reporter continued to type without removing his eyes from the screen. "What's up?"
"What do you know about dragons?" Gajeel asked.
"Are you asking me again?" That caught the surprise of the Iron Dragonslayer. "I told you, nothing but fairy tales and boogeyman stories moms tell their kids."
Gajeel looked back at the device and saw the words on one of the pictures. "The Edolas Kingdom Special Forces seem interested in these boogeyman stories." He read out loud one of the notes as it showed pictures of armed forces handling giant rocks that had ancient depictions of dragons with X across them.
"Or, they're the only ones that have the equipment to help excavation teams for museums." He shrugged his shoulders. "But you are our best journalist, so who knows? You might uncover something after all?"
Gajeel watched Totamaru use the round device to move the screens on his device. Gajeel looked at his device and spotted a small arrowhead moving around on the inside of his screen. After he figured how the device work, he started to move past the pictures and figured out how folders worked.
Gajeel didn't understand most of what he saw, but he started to write down words that sounded interesting.
"Mr. Bluewolf?" Gajeel looked up to see a somewhat familiar face. If he recalled this baby-faced kid was in Alexandra's place, right? What was his name again? "I'm the new photographer, Jason Parker? I was assigned to accompany you to the press conference this morning?"
It was at that moment that Gajeel looked around him and was surprised with how much time passed. He came there around night, yet it was already looking like dawn. What kind of magical item was he using for that long that he didn't notice the time?
Gajeel decided to play along. "Right. You lead the way, kid."
"M-me? S-sure!" This kid didn't seem that different besides his clothes. "D-Do you want to have breakfast first?"
...
"You offered. You're paying. Think of it as a rite of passage for newbies in Phantom L- I mean Phantom Press." Despite the slip of the tongue, Gajeel thought on his feet. That, and now that his eyes were off the device, his brain finally told him that he was hungry as hell.
He'll figure everything out after he eats here. Gajeel knew he was in for a long one.
"Grrr..."
"Easy there, Ignis." The lawyer from another world soothed the wyvern by petting his head.
Slowly but surely, the Princess of Edolas was slowly waking up. The first thing she saw was the prisoner in front of her with a giant wyvern beside him.
"Scum!" She yelled but found out she was cuffed by the same wood used on the lawyer. Not only that, she was stripped of everything but the clothes she wore, which included the Iron Knight Armor. "Release me this instant!"
Kain gave the trapped princess a look before he sighed. "You know that's not a bad idea."
"What?" The princess looked up to him.
"I mean, I only used you as a meatshield so Ignis wouldn't be blasted out of the sky. And I don't have a use for you now, soooooo... yeah. I guess you're free to go after we leave." He had to go and find the others.
Luckily for the lawyer, when he stole the pair of cuffs, he found his bag of personal items such as gumballs, and the USB he used a while ago to download whatever Lisanna wanted him to download. He supposed it was lucky they didn't fully search his items yet.
"W-What? Y-You... you're just going to leave me?" Kain was shocked to see the girl starting to tear up.
"Why do you sound like you're the one who's been wronged here!? You tried to kill me!" The young adolescent hysterically pointed to himself.
It was at that point, against all odds, the green-haired princess started to cry. And it was hard to tell the difference between her and a small child crying.
Kain shared a look with Ignis. However, the wyvern looked just as confused as the lawyer. A few seconds continued of this awkward crying before Kain turned around.
Ignis snorted in dissatisfaction.
"What!? I just said that she tried to kill me!? Are you expecting me to help her!?" Kain shouted over the ugly crying.
Ignis narrowed his eyes as a parent to a disobedient child.
"Look you scally, fire-breathing freeloader! If you think I'm going to help someone that has tried and attempted to kill me on multiple occasions while belittling me at every opportunity!" Kain looked back and saw the girl crying harder as she sniffed and gasped for air.
"Then you'd be right." The brunette clenched his fist and sighed. "Why does being the bigger person have to suck?" Ignis smirked. "You're lucky you can't talk like Happy."
He turned back and walked to the cuffed princess under the tree.
Kain sat down across from the princess. "Alright, why are you crying?"
"B-Because," The Princess began. "I'm useless. I can't do anything right!"
"I mean your incompetence did help me escape." Whack! "Ow!? Ignis that is unfair, and you know it!" The lawyer rubbed the back of his head as he saw the tail of the wyvern slither back. The boy sighed again. "What were you trying to do? It feels like you weren't really focused on capturing me and my friends."
"I wanted to! If I captured a Fairy Tail cell, maybe even Ivan himself, my father would finally be proud of me!"
Kain's face fell to a deadpan as something started to make a disturbing amount of sense. "I... see..."
"Now even criminal scum are pitying me!" Kain wondered why he was consoling his enemy if he was still being insulted. "I'm the worst princess ever."
It took a lot for Kain not to comment on that. "Look, I'm sure you'll be a wonderful princess."
The green-haired princess looked up. "Are you mocking me?"
"Princess, you were the one belittling me at every other moment. I'm trying to be sincere." He wished he wasn't. "You just need to be patient and learn from people you respect. You don't need to force yourself to be great if you're not ready yet. Take your time."
It was quiet, the princess sniffed once, but she was no longer crying anymore.
Kain stood back up.
"You remind me of him."
The lawyer turned back. "Who?"
"My brother. He always tried to comfort me even when I annoyed him." The Princess looked down to the ground. She looked so miserable. "I miss him so much."
Kain could understand that she was implying he was dead, if not in an unreachable place.
"It's almost the anniversary of his death," Now it was confirmed for Kain. "And Father will execute all of Fairy Tail on that day."
The lawyer nodded in understand— "WHAT!?" The boy shrieked.
"Oh, right." The princess blinked. "As soon as we captured Fairy Tail, my father sent a message that he was going to publicly execute them at the anniversary of Prince Jellal's death in two days." She shrugged her shoulders as Kain dropped his jaw.
"It's only fair. That Heretic killed both the King of the Exceeds and My brother on the same day."
{Author Notes}
Finally, I did it. This chapter was hard to do at first, but it started to form the more I wrote. I'm a little worried at the fact it might jump around a lot, but there's a reason for it. If only I can pull it off properly. '
I have one little note: For the few people who haven't read the cannon story fully, this is spolier-ish notes. Some may be wondering about "Metalicana" and "Edolas". If you remember the relationship with dragons in Edolas, these names shouldn't match. In this case, I made it simply because it was the easiest thing I could think off that sounds important to both Gajeels.
I hope this story finds you well. Thank you for reading, and I hope you guys have a good day.