Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 32:- Dragon Kin
He had spoken!
The dragon towering over Lisanna had spoken!
The young Take-Over mage was nothing short of astonished. She'd long heard stories from Natsu about his father Igneel, and how he had not only taught him magic as a child but had also taught him things about culture and began teaching him how to read, even though he had vanished without entirely finishing the job. And though Natsu had never once had to outright say that Igneel could talk, she'd often wondered what his voice must be like. She assumed deep and gravelly, like a constant growl coming from the back of his throat.
But she'd never seen a dragon speak for herself before. Even Acnologia hadn't said a word when he'd attacked them before.
And now this one… was speaking. And not only that, but he was speaking directly to her.
"You look surprised, my child," the dragon noted. "But you need not cower so. I have no intention of eating you. Or indeed harming you in any way. If I did then I would have done it the moment I separated you from that Horntail."
"…Huh?" Lisanna croaked, her voice straining to return to her. "You… you undid my Take-Over spell?"
"More or less," the dragon's voice seemed to surround her, and she found his soft mannerisms and rich tones soothing away the tension in her muscles as if he was somehow giving her a massage with just words. "I placed an enchantment upon you both that made you fall asleep in mid-air and you came apart moments later of your own volition. It took but a mere moment for me to snatch you out of the air and wake the Horntail up before he crashed into the floor. He flew off rather quickly. I tend to have that effect on some of my… lesser kin."
"Um… thank… thank you," Lisanna slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, staring up at him with awe. His golden eyes were like deep pools of wisdom that seemed to draw her in. Though she couldn't tell to look at him she got the feeling that this dragon was… seriously old…
"You are most welcome. It's been a while since I've ever felt the need to help a human."
"Um… what did you… say your name was again?" Lisanna asked curiously.
"If you would refer to me by it then you may call me Kilgharrah," he replied. "Perhaps it would be better than simply 'The Great Dragon,' which is a title many refer to me by… or once did at any rate."
"Are you… from my world?"
Another rumbling laugh pulsed its way out of Kilgharrah's stomach and Lisanna could practically feel the entire ledge she was standing on vibrate beneath her. "Heavens no… though I almost wish that I was. But no, I am from this one."
"But… but how can that be possible…? Charlie said that none of the dragons in this world could talk. He said… he said that they were all simple animals… not sentient and not capable of speech."
"Indeed. And that is most certainly true… of all the dragons he has ever seen," Kilgharrah smirked. "I am from a far more ancient and more noble breed of dragon than the ones your friend is familiar with. I am a creature of the Old Religion… and once, I was the last dragon left in the entire world."
"…Huh?" Lisanna blinked. "But… that… how can… that doesn't make sense…"
"Oh, it does, if you know the full story," Kilgharrah said, settling back on his haunches and elbows to lower his head down several metres. "Has this… Charlie… by chance ever mentioned the reign of King Arthur Pendragon?"
"…Yes. Yes, he has," Lisanna remembered, the conversation bubbling up to the forefront of her memory. "I remember now… he spoke of the legends of the ancient king and how… and how some of them included dragons who could talk and… men who could command them… But he told me himself that he thought they were just legends!"
"Not so," Kilgharrah's eyes twinkled in a way that reminded Lisanna rather eerily of Dumbledore. "I was there."
"You were?" Lisanna's eyes widened. "You're… one-thousand years old?"
"Nearing on two-thousand now actually. But for half of that life I have been almost entirely alone. Once, there were many of my race, flying free throughout the skies of the world. We hunted, we reproduced, we flourished. And we lived in relative harmony alongside mankind. Oh, every so often one of my kind would go rogue and eat a few hundred or so, but usually we left each other in peace. But, of course, that was before the Purge."
Lisanna's heart felt like it turned to ice and not just because of the way Kilgharrah's voice dropped, taking on a far lower, angrier tone.
"…What happened?" she breathed.
"It was initiated by Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father. To cut a long story short, he conspired with a sorceress to use her magic to give his barren wife a son. But in order to use magic to create life in this manner there must be a death to restore balance to the world and as a result, Arthur's mother died during childbirth. Uther was consumed with hatred for the very thing that had brought his son to life and sought to entirely eradicate magic from his kingdom. He butchered, burned and drowned thousands who used magic - men, women and children alike, regardless of whether they had learned the art or had just been born with it, or how much they used it."
"…Oh gods…" Lisanna choked, trying to imagine the level of death, destruction and grief that must have happened back then, before promptly trying to stop. That was… unimaginable… far worse even than what had happened in Edolas. At least there, King Faust had forced everyone into giving up their magical items and only hunted to the death those who resisted. But the idea of cutting down anyone who so much as cast a spell… she suddenly felt sick just thinking about it.
"But of course he didn't stop there," Kilgharrah sighed. "Creatures of magic had to be eliminated too, including us Dragons. And we were powerful, far stronger than mankind could ever be even if they assembled all their most powerful of sorcerers together in one army."
"Then how did he…?" Lisanna trailed off - the rest of the question didn't need to be asked.
"Through the use of Dragonlords," replied Kilgharrah. "Men with special traits that made them kin with dragons. Rather like your Dragon Slayers, only very different. Their purpose was not to kill dragons but to support them, work with them for the benefit of both species. They were part of the reason disputes between Dragon and human were so rare, for when a Dragonlord commanded a Dragon to do something, the Dragon was compelled to obey. So… I suppose you could say that Dragonlords were like combinations of Dragon Slayers and Take-Over Mages… such as yourself."
"…Wow…" was all Lisanna could think to say. She felt a deep sense of respect for these men she'd never met welling up within her. They were like… the ambassadors between two different races, permanently keeping the peace between them. It was the kind of thing she could imagine Natsu being, for despite the fact his magic was designed to kill a dragon he had no desire ever to do so.
"A Dragonlord was not supposed to abuse their power over Dragons," Kilgharrah went on to say. "Those that did were punished by their fellow Dragonlords or by the Dragons themselves as soon as they got the chance. But… during the Purge, Uther had the Dragonlords rounded up. He had them brutally tortured for days… months on end… until finally their wills broke and they simply wanted it all to end. And so, Uther allowed it. On condition that first they use their power to command every Dragon in the world to come to Camelot and allow themselves to be killed. Even in our prime there were never more than a few hundred of us at at time. By Uther's reign there were only about ninety of us. And they were all slaughtered… every one… except for me."
The bitterness in Kilgharrah's voice now almost overwhelmed his audience. "That's beyond barbaric!" she proclaimed angrily. "How dare he…!? How dare he presume to wipe out such a magnificent race of creatures! That's… that's genocide… just because his wife died?!"
"It was indeed," Kilgharrah replied. "I was the last to be summoned, and instead of killing me Uther chose to make me an example. He imprisoned me in a cavern beneath his castle, a magical chain that even I couldn't break keeping me in there. A true testament to Uther's hypocrisy that he would use a magical device himself in this manner. And I wasted away there for twenty years before I was finally freed by the last known Dragonlord ever… Merlin himself."
"That Merlin guy that everyone in this world talks about was a Dragonlord? And you knew him personally?" Lisanna's eyes widened. "Whoa… wait until I tell Charlie this. He may have a hernia… But… I'm so… so sorry to hear all that, Kilgharrah. I can't imagine how lonely you must be."
"It was not easy to bear, even for me," Kilgharrah acknowledged.
"But… you're not the last of your kind anymore… you said? How does that work?"
"That was pure luck. A single Dragon's egg managed to escape from Uther's Purge. The mother who laid that egg was slain but well-meaning sorcerers were able to hide her egg, lying dormant for years until it was discovered and re-awakened by Merlin. Her name is Aithusa. Perhaps you will meet her someday."
"A female?" Lisanna brightened. "That's great! So you must have…"
"Repopulated?" Kilgharrah raised a horned brow, giving Lisanna a dry stare that made her blush. "She may be one-thousand years old but she is still half my age. There is something of a stigma to that even among dragons, young lady. And even after all this time, Aithusa is still often childish. Perhaps one day we may mate… but I highly doubt that will be for at least another one-thousand years yet. No, we are the last of our kind. And that does not look set to change."
"But then what about all of the other dragons?" Lisanna asked. "Like the Horntail and all the other ones that were being held prisoner by the Goblins? If you and… Aithusa… never mated then where did they come from?"
"Wyverns," Kilgharrah replied.
"Sorry?"
"Back in the time of Camelot we dragons had distant cousins, much like humans of this world are distant cousins of its apes. They were called wyverns. They had similar bodies to us, but they were much smaller and more beastly. They didn't have a shred of our intelligence, nor our magical abilities. And while Dragonlords had some limited power over them, they couldn't command them to do anything they wanted like they could with us Dragons. So while my kind was wiped out, wyverns escaped Uther's Purge and were still common by the time Arthur welcomed magic back to the kingdom."
"So all other dragons in this world are just wyverns?"
"No… I suppose in a sense they are dragons now," Kilgharrah wrinkled his nose in slight distaste. "After Dragonkind vanished, sorcerers around the world decided to try and… resurrect us so to speak. By capturing wyverns and performing magical experiments on them in a bid to make them more draconic, giving them the ability to breathe fire as we could - which they could not before - making them bigger, giving them more horns and tougher scales.
"They succeeded in making them look very like dragons, but they couldn't give them our power, our grace or our sentience. And the transformed wyverns bred with the untransformed ones and passed those traits along until, over time, the entire wyvern species evolved into modern day dragons, that branched out into many different species due to the different ways that wizards across the world changed their own first wyverns. Like us but not like us. Hence why you could use your Animal Soul Take-Over on one."
"…I hope I don't offend you when I say this…" Lisanna said. "But that's horrible too. Experimentation on animals… you're saying every dragon in the world besides you and Aithusa are the way they are due to human intervention? What were they thinking?"
"I hope you don't take offence to my words either, but I find humans very rarely think of the consequences of their actions. And even less, the morality of them."
"That's not true of all of us! But… is true of a depressing amount…"
"Precisely," Kilgharrah said. "And that… is my story. But we've gotten rather off the topic that I was hoping to broach today. I am far more interested in your story than my own. In all the two-thousand years I have lived… I have never encountered anyone from another universe entirely. Until now."
"Yes, that's another question I have!" Lisanna cried, getting to her feet. "How do you know so much about my world? You said that you haven't talked to any humans for a while! And even if you can read, which I'I doubt you read newspapers… so how can you know about Dragon Slayers and Take-Over Mages. Did you read my mind."
"Certainly not," Kilgharrah replied with a lopsidedly lizardly grin. "But… I suppose you could say I have… reliable sources."
"So someone told you? Who then?"
"That is not currently my place to say."
"…Why?"
"That I cannot answer either, but I am fairly certain you will find out for yourself in due course. But often the only source I really need is myself. After all, I knew you would be arriving here in our world long before you finally appeared. Years before, in fact."
"Wow… so you can see the future? Perhaps you should teach Divination at Hogwarts."
Kilgharrah snorted derisively. "Modern day crystal balls and tea leaves are utter tripe compared true Divination of the Old Religion. Yes, I can see the future. Not to the finest detail. After all, the future is always changing. But I see strong possibilities that can impact many. And I see the overall path a person's life can take… I can see people's destinies… including your own, Lisanna."
Lisanna's mind spun with the implications of that. This dragon… what things could he know about what would happen? To herself and to her friends? If he could really see destinies… he was making Charla's clairvoyant abilities look pale in comparison! Perhaps he even knew who she would one day marry!
"And what… is my destiny?"
"I think perhaps it would be best if I didn't reveal that to you," Kilgharrah smirked. "I told Merlin of his destiny back in the days of Camelot and he ended up trying so hard to make sure he fulfilled it that his efforts were almost more often a hindrance than a help. But… I think I can get away with saying, Lisanna, that you shall play quite a key role in many things to come. We can expect great things from you."
"…From me?" Lisanna whispered, looking down at her hands. "But… how can that be? I'm not very strong. Next to people like Elf-niichan, Natsu, Gray and Juvia, I'm practically nothing. Erza and Mira-nee are even further out of my league… and while Levy might not be super powerful either she's much smarter than I am. I lost two years in Edolas where I couldn't get stronger because I couldn't use my magic. Compared to everyone else I'm just leftovers."
"Does that bother you?" Kilgharrah asked.
"Actually not really," Lisanna smiled. "I'm perfectly happy the way I am. I don't really feel the desire to be strong. If I can just bring a smile to people's faces then that's good enough for me."
"Yet you have the potential to be very powerful indeed. After all, you did turn into a dragon."
"…I did, didn't I?" Lisanna breathed, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply as she felt within herself. She could feel the power of the Horntail brimming inside her, boiling beneath the surface of her skin and ready to launch forth anytime she called upon it. She had obtained a brand new Take-Over form last night. Her most powerful one to date!
But… she had lost control of it…
"The others!" she barked. "Wendy, Juvia and the others… are they safe?"
"They are all perfectly fine. You needn't worry - you didn't kill anyone while you were merged with the Horntail."
"Oh thank Mavis," Lisanna placed her hand over her rapidly pumping heart. "If I had hurt them… I… I don't think I could have handled that… but… the Horntail's power… if I was to call on it again, would it overwhelm me once more?"
"It might be easier for you to control it a second time around. After all, the Dragon within you would not be filled with fear and rage as that one was before. But do you realise the implications of what you have done, Lisanna?"
"Huh?"
"You transformed into a dragon! A full-sized and very real dragon! It may have been only the primitive, beastly kind but you still did it. That is something that nobody from this world, not even the Dragonlords, have ever managed to do. Numerous attempts have been made over the centuries for people seeking to by Animaguses to gain draconic forms too, but none have ever succeeded. And from your own world, there had only ever been one who has managed to become a dragon."
"Wait… what? There has? Who was that?"
"Again, there is someone else who would be more appropriate to tell you that than me. More importantly, I think that you now have an opportunity here, Lisanna."
"Opportunity?"
"Indeed. And opportunity to become stronger than you ever dared imagine yourself to be," the Great Dragon flashed her another crooked smirk. "That is why I have come. That is why I travelled to intercept your flightpath and meet with you now, breaking my long solitude to speak with another again."
"…Go on…" Lisanna murmured, her curiosity peaked.
"Humans failed to turn wyverns into full, true Dragons," Kilgharrah said. "But now I wish to take my turn to experiment. I want to see if I can turn a human into a true Dragon. That human being you. Simply stated, Lisanna Strauss… I want you to use your Take-Over on me."
Lisanna couldn't say anything. She just stood there, stunned in almost more than one sense of the word.
"You are the closest thing to a new Dragonlord for one-thousand years," Kilgharrah went on. "You have the ability to command the lesser dragons of this world. I would nurture that ability and strengthen it until you could apply it to all of dragon-kind."
"But… but… that's crazy…" Lisanna exclaimed. "I can't use Take-Over on you. I can tell that already - you are far from just an animal. And my Take-Over only works on animals. And not only that, you're incredibly powerful! Far stronger than me! I don't even know if I could handle that kind of power."
"You are quite right - we are not mere animals. We are a noble race of sentient beings easily on par with humans, demons. You could not use Take-Over on me presently. But you are very close. You already have the soul of a dragon inside you. A lesser dragon perhaps, but a dragon nevertheless. And that might just be the key. The key to taking a further step down the path of dragonkind. The key to unlocking a new power, never before seen in either world. An entirely new type of Take-Over spell.
"…Dragon Soul…" Lisanna whispered the words reverently. Was it possible? Was she, of all people, capable of something like that?
"Yes, you are," Kilgharrah said, as if he had guessed exactly what she was thinking. "If we are successful then by the time we are finished, you could potentially use your new power on not just myself, but on dragons from your world too. And I can tell you right now… you will return home."
"We will?"
"Indeed. To be frank, I do not know how. But you are not destined to be trapped here forever. There are things Fairy Tail must do back in their own world. And you will play your part in those affairs. The only question is… how much of an impact will you make? What say you, Lisanna Strauss?"
The options stormed through Lisanna's mind like a runaway freight train. Even with such a wise being saying it, it sounded utterly absurd! The very idea that a young girl like her could possibly draw on… no, create… such a power… that was the kind of thing that only magical masterminds with decades of experience did. Yet… what if it was possible? What if she really could pull it off?
While her assertion that she didn't desire incredible power were very true, she couldn't deny that during the whole Grimoire Heart situation she had wished she could be more useful in combat. They had all made it out fine but there had been close shaves.
And there was one particular memory that was really burned into the back of her mind… and that was when she'd been trapped in giant tree roots by Azuma, which he had then set a timer to detonation on. The wooden structures had held her securely and while she could have theoretically slipped out of them by morphing into her fish form, they would have detonated if she'd tried.
Of course she wouldn't have died thanks to the spell upon the island that prevented anyone with the mark of Fairy Tail being killed while they were on its shores. But neither she nor Mirajane had been aware of that at the time. She'd be forced to stand there, utterly helpless and watching as her beloved sister desperately battled an opponent that was out of her league in a bid to free her.
In all her life, she'd never felt more useless than she had then. And she'd desperately wished she'd had more power. Power to break free and join her sister in the fight. Power to protect her and her friends from harm.
She felt that feeling again now, swelling inside her chest as she clenched her fist. She still didn't want power for the sake of power. But if she could gain enough to protect her friends… then it would be worth it.
But… there might be something else she could do with this power… maybe with it… she could find Igneel.
She felt her heart pitter-pattering at the thought. When they were young children, she'd often seen Natsu sitting by himself and staring into space with a sad, almost empty look filling his eyes. And whenever she'd seen that, she'd known what he was thinking about. Only thoughts of Igneel could make the Natsu's blisteringly upbeat personality turn like that while everyone else in the guild was still happy. The dragon he loved, gone with the wind… nowhere to be found… wondering where he was always ate him up inside.
In fact that had been how she and Natsu had initially met. She'd seen the new kid sitting in the rain by himself next to the river and had wandered over to talk to him in a bid to cheer him up. And she'd succeeded, leading them to begin bonding over how amazing Igneel was, even though Lisanna had never met him herself. But she considered Igneel to be something of the catalyst that had started one of her most precious of friendships.
As he got older, Natsu would sadly mull over wherever Igneel could be much less often. But he still thought about him all the time, following up every lead he could find on his foster father's whereabouts no matter how vague. And even after two years in Edolas, Lisanna could see that Natsu still did. And it had always torn Lisanna up inside that though she could cheer Natsu up with a smile and a game, she could never fix the problem that made him sad in the first place.
If she were to gain this power… the power of Dragon Soul… could she maybe find Igneel for him? And the other dragons too for Gajeel and Wendy? If there was anything Lisanna could do to reunite them with their foster parents she would do it.
"It seems you have made your decision," Kilgharrah chuckled. "If the resolute expression on your face is anything to go by."
"…I have," Lisanna nodded, taking a deep breath and looking Kilgharrah firmly in the eye. "I don't know if this will work or not. But I am willing to give it a shot. For my friends. For my family. And most especially for Natsu."
"I thought you would say that," the dragon stood up, towering up to his full height and lifting up one enormous foot to deposit a large hunk of charred meat on the ledge in front of Lisanna. "Then eat up and when you have, I will take you to a mountain stream for you to rehydrate yourself. You will need your strength for what we are about to do."
Lucius Malfoy placed his copy of the Daily Prophet down upon the dining room table, spreading out and staring at the huge title:- DRAGON ESCAPE, BLACK CAPTURE. He pursed his lips, looking up across the table and locking his eyes with another pair… a red, slitted pair.
"It seems there is no denying it now, My Lord," he said. "The Order of the Phoenix is definitely working with Fairy Tail. Crabbe and Goyle did not make a mistake on that mountain the other day."
"So I have gathered, Lucius," Voldemort hissed as he stalked along the other side of the room, slowly pacing backwards and forwards the length of the table, his cloak billowing out behind and Nagini the serpent faithfully slithering along behind him. "Now Black has been captured by the Ministry along with two of their number. Those morons will doubtless do us a favour and rid us of a couple of nuisances before long. But the Order are another matter. They are not morons, and if they are with Fairy Tail, then doubtless Fairy Tail will have now heard of me. And based on their recent activities, it is clear they are the kind of people who would oppose my reign. The Ministry may be too blinded by fear to see it, but every time they have opposed the Ministry has been in some sort of rescue… or good will mission…"
"It's curious that Snape did not tell us about this new development though… is it not, my Lord?" Lucius asked.
"Severus knows not to cross me. His position at Hogwarts may be invaluable but it does make it difficult for him to make his reports. Nevertheless I will be having… a talk… with him about making such urgent news as a new and powerful enemy much more prompt in future."
"How are we to proceed now…? These Fairy Tail mages… can we really fight them?"
"…You doubt me, Lucius?" Voldemort abruptly stopped pacing, his gaunt face turning slowly to fix his blood-red eyes upon the blond man, who immediately took a step backwards, swallowing hard.
"Of… of course not, my Lord… but… but clearly these mages, my Lord… they are well beyond anything we've ever faced before…"
"That does not mean that we cannot defeat them!" Voldemort surged towards the table and slammed his hands down upon it, causing Lucius to almost jump out of his skin. "Perhaps the job will be more difficult than we anticipated. Perhaps we shall need more allies. But I will not be denied my right. I am the most powerful wizard in the world, and no outsiders will take that away from me!"
"Of… of course…" Lucius nodded hurriedly. "For… Forgive me, my Lord, I never truly had doubts…"
Voldemort ignored his weaselling attempts at sycophancy, sweeping back around and staring out of the window. "Fairy Tail can still be fought. We simply have to change our tactics. Clearly though we must make haste. As I told you before, our plans will now have to accelerate. The newspaper… it gave us something more. It seems that a good many of these… mages… have a weakness to Dementors, do they not?"
"So it seems, yes…"
"Then I think it is about time I visited Azkaban," Voldemort's mouth creased into a wide smile. "There are many within that prison waiting for me to come forward… and I shall deny them no longer. And it will take but a small push for the Dementors to join our cause. And the paper… it said that the two captured Fairy Tail mages have been taken to the prison."
"That's right, my Lord."
"Then I want them brought back here. Those two women… I will find a way to turn them against their friends. Force them to become our allies. Or if they prove too troublesome, I will kill them." He turned around and stepped over Nagini. "Prepare the Death Eaters we have available, Lucius. I want the invasion of Azkaban to begin at…"
"My Lord!" he was suddenly interrupted as Peter Pettigrew shuffled into the room, waving his silver hand wildly. Voldemort swung around and fired a curse from his wand that whistled past Wormtail's ear and destroyed part of the wall behind him, making the stumpy man leap backwards in terror.
"WORMTAIL!" The Dark Lord snapped. "What have I told you about interrupting me?"
"But… but my Lord… it's important," Wormtail snivelled. "The Sphere… one of the Spheres… something's happening to it!"
"…What?" Voldemort asked. "What do you mean?"
"It's started to… to pulse or something. I think… I think it might be about to… to lower, Sire…"
Voldemort was already striding past the wretched coward before he'd finished speaking, Lucius hard on his heels and Wormtail spinning around to bring up the rear. The three of them hurried down the corridor to the room where the two Fairy Spheres were being kept, and Voldemort stared with rapt interest at the one Wormtail had been talking about. It was indeed pulsing, practically flashing like a blinking warning light as the surface of the golden globe rippled like light across a lake.
It was on the verge of dissipation.
"Change of plans, Lucius," Voldemort said, turning to smile sinisterly at his lieutenant. "I will be staying here. You will lead a group of Death Eaters to Azkaban to treat with the Dementors and bringing back those Fairy Tail mages. I will deal with whatever happens here shortly. Go… and if you fail me… you had better hope that you are kissed by a Dementor. You would prefer that to what I have in mind right now."
"…Yes, my Lord," Lucius nodded and hurried out of the room, Wormtail scuttling out behind him. Voldemort slowly approached the Sphere and stared into its depths as if hoping it would become more translucent and let him see inside.
"Natsu, are we getting close?" Happy asked as he zipped along the sky with enough speed to send the clouds inches above his wings billowing out to either side of his slipstream. "Surely we should have found Lisanna by now… and I'm starting to run low on magic…"
"Damn it all!" Natsu growled, inhaling deeply. "What's going on? For some reason I can't seem to pinpoint Lisanna's scent… I can still smell her but its like something's interfering with the trail…"
"I suppose tracking things that are flying through the air is probably harder," Happy conceded.
"Yeah, but its not just that," Natsu replied. "I'm sure we would have found her by now if that was the only problem. It's like… something doesn't want me to find her… and is trying to throw me off…"
"What could be doing something like that? Do you think Lisanna's okay?"
"I don't know… but when I find her and she's been hurt by something… I'm gonna make that something pay!"
Lisanna was quite relieved to finally have her raging hunger and thirst slaked, though she didn't dare to ask exactly what Kilgharrah had provided her to eat. She had checked to make sure it wasn't human though, and Kilgharrah had laughed and told her that though he had killed humans before, he had never eaten one.
Now though… she was exhilarated beyond measure! Because she was currently sitting astride Kilgharrah's back just above his armour-plated shoulders, holding on to one of the ridges in his scales as the wind blew her short hair wildly in every direction. Kilgharrah's humongous wings beat a slow, rhythmic pace on either side of her, blocking off her view of much of the ground whenever they raised up, his low thrumming wingbeats seeming to send her whole body vibrating.
"You sound like you're enjoying yourself back there," Kilgharrah's voice thrummed from up ahead, and it was only that that point that Lisanna realised she'd been whooping for joy!
"Well, can I really be blamed?" Lisanna called back. "This is amazing! And how many people besides me can ever have claimed to have done this."
"Certainly very few if you're talking about riding my personal back," Kilgharrah replied. "But this is no mere field trip. I have brought you up here for a reason. The sky is the dragon's domain, and I believe we will establish a connection more easily with you astride my shoulders. Are you ready to begin?"
Lisanna took a deep breath and nodded firmly. "I am," she said. "What do I have to do?"
"I am going to try and teach you the art of being a Dragonlord. You are not one obviously. For one thing you are female and Dragonlords were only ever males, for the ability was only ever passed from father to son. Even if your father had been a Dragonlord, you you never have inherited the ability. However, I believe your Take-Over magic will be enough to emulate the Dragonlord's ability. And I will consider the first step of this training accomplished when you have successfully given me a command."
"What kind of command?"
"Quite simple really," the dragon laughed. "I am not going to put you down until you have succeeded. Therefore you must command me to land."
"…Okay…" Lisanna nodded, gripping his scales harder and her expression locking into a grimace of determination. "Let's do this."
"First, delve deep within yourself and picture the Hungarian Horntail…" Kilgharrah intoned. "The Dragon you managed to Take-Over back in the capital. Form an image of him in your mind. Remember every detail of his body, every horn on his head, every spike on his tail, every scale down the length of his torso… When you have that picture in your mind, go deeper. Feel his soul intertwining with your own. You have it inside you. Allow him to fill you up and for your souls to unite as far as possible without turning into him."
Lisanna wordlessly did as bid, closing her eyes and holding her breath as she created the vision within her mind's eye. She'd used Animal Soul so many times that she barely had to think about the process before shifting into an animal anymore, but this time she allowed herself to dwell on it.
Almost immediately she felt the effects. Her body tensed… even though she was still entirely human she felt suddenly so much more powerful. She could feel the strength of the dragon coursing through her veins and arteries, filling her to the brim with its raw, sinewy strength. Her chest suddenly felt warm, as if she had a fire brimming within it ready to burst forth at any moment. And she felt the savagery… the primal instincts of the dragon burning to the forefront… defend its territory, find food, rest, find a mate… all the basic drives of any animal yet multiplied by ten.
Before she could stop herself she actually growled, the smell of another dragon filling her nose and filling her with unease.
Kilgharrah's voice broke through the reverie as he said, "Do not succumb to the dragon's thoughts and focus on its soul. You need to meld it with yours as if you were kin… siblings… you need to understand every part of him without allowing him to rule you. Feel his body around you, his wings on your back, his tail behind you, but keep yourself in control at all times. You are one, but you are in command, not him."
Kicking herself, Lisanna focused and felt her body relax. In a strange way this was a new experience for her. Usually she just became the animal but she still felt like herself even in the new body. This was something different. This time she really felt truly like she was a real dragon, even though her body and her mind were still entirely human. She felt as though she could exhale and breath fire everywhere, as if she charge into a wall and smash through it with her sheer strength. Of course, if she were to actually try those things at this moment she would doubtless fail, but it felt like she would succeed.
"I… I think I have it," she said, so quietly that for a moment she wondered if Kilgharrah would even hear her. But he evidently did because he said:-
"Good. Now… keep that state of being and extend your magic out over me, in exactly the same way you would to a regular animal. But do not lose the dragon within you at any time whilst you do, or I fear what I have in mind will not work."
Lisanna focused her senses on the dragon below her, reaching out to him with her soul as she extended her power. It didn't take long before she could feel a deep thrumming within her chest… a beat that didn't seem to be coming from her own body… because it was coming from Kilgharrah's. She could now feel the Dragon's heartbeat. His thick scales had prevented her from doing so before but now it was like she could feel two heartbeats within herself! Huh… Kilgharrah's heart was on the right hand side of his body rather than his left… interesting…
"That's it," Kilgharrah said encouragingly, his wingbeats slowing as he settled into a glide. "Use that Horntail as conduit. If you make yourself kin with him then you make yourself kin with me. And with him inside you… find the voice that you and I now share…"
"I… can feel it…" Lisanna breathed. "I can feel… you…" she whispered. She was no longer riding Kilgharrah, she now felt like an extension of his body. She could feel the wind passing over the top of his wings as if they were her own… she could feel every tooth in his jaw, the flick of his spiked tail… and she could feel the ancient wisdom within him… thousands of years of experience… so much that she felt her mind would explode.
"Then tell me…" the dragon replied. "Tell me to land and set you down upon the ground."
Inhaling deeply, Lisanna exerted her power and said, "I command you to land…"
…Kilgharrah didn't alter his course. He continued gliding, weaving slowly in and out between the clouds. If anything he went higher than before.
"You are trying to use too much of the dragon now," Kilgharrah said. "Do not push too hard for me to do your will. I am not some common lizard your normal Take-Over can control. The dragon within you is lesser than I - it cannot force me to do anything. It is key, yes, but your dragon and human sides must combine together in perfect synchrony. Neither can do it alone. But above all, do not try and force me. Dragonlords who tried to force us to do things for their own gain were considered to be abusing their power. We had to do what they said, certainly, but we were not servants. We were friends. I am your brother. Remember that… and try again…"
'My brother…' Lisanna thought to herself. Her mind swivelled on an axis as she suddenly found herself picturing her real brother, Elfman. When he was in a celebratory mood, he could sometimes scoop her up and place her on his shoulders, parading around the guild with her on high. She'd always been somewhat embarrassed when that happened but still, it was one of his quirks she enjoyed.
Gods how she missed him right at that moment.
'Imagine he's Elf-niichan… feel the bond you have with him and apply it to Kilgharrah…' She squared her shoulders and felt her heart opening up. The brother she had lost for so long and then lost again so soon after being reunited with him… she felt sudden great affection for him welling up inside her and with it, affection for the dragon she was now riding instead of him. Now it felt like their hearts were pumping in unison as she exerted her magic once more, opened her mouth and said, "Please land and put me down, Kilgharrah-niichan…"
"Now you're doing it too much with your human side," the dragon refused to change course. Gasping, Lisanna slammed her focus back onto the soul of the Horntail. 'Okay, don't imagine he's Elf-niichan… just imagine your bond with him… and apply it through the dragon… okay… here I go…'
And as she balanced the love from her human side and the power from her dragon side… she felt a change rush through her body like a freight train. As she stretched out for a Take-Over she felt a sudden, raw power flooding through her system… unlike anything she'd ever experienced before even when she'd been the Horntail. She felt as if her soul was slowly slipping free from the confines of her body, and Kilgharrah's doing the same… the two of them intertwining like… like she was hugging two long-lost siblings again. She felt the magic within her expand, bolstering and… evolving… inside of her, taking on a brand new form that felt simply… indescribable.
And in that moment she knew she had it…
"Land… and put me down… Kilgharrah…" she said quietly. And almost immediately Kilgharrah tilted his wings, almost as if his body had been compelled to obey, and arced gracefully to one side - stooping into a dive as he rushed down towards a nearby mountain. Lisanna held on tight as he rushed in at breakneck speed, before flaring his gigantic wings and pounding them hard to brake into a hover above a large ledge which he then landed on with a heavy thud that shook pieces of grit from the cliff walls above him.
Wordlessly the dragon lowered his neck until his monstrous yet magnificent head was resting on the stone, providing a perfect walkway for Lisanna to make her way down and climb off.
"I… I did it…" Lisanna whispered, scarcely daring to believe it. "You… you did what I asked you to."
"I felt something within my unlike anything I have felt for hundreds of years," the dragon sounded suddenly and deeply satisfied. "It was just like my soul was meeting with that of a Dragonlord once again. I think it is safe to say, Lisanna Strauss… that you and I have accomplished something great today."
Lisanna stepped slowly down his neck, using the ridges as handholds before she hopped through the horns on his head and slid off past his eye. She landed awkwardly, stumbling and swinging around to land on her backside, but that just made Kilgharrah laugh as he raised his head. "And you remind me of Merlin too," he grinned. "He could be oddly clumsy for such a powerful warlock."
"Then… I have it? I have… the Dragon Soul…?" Lisanna asked without standing up.
"Not yet," Kilgharrah shook his head. "You have only tapped into a part of the power by giving me that command. The core of a Take-Over is being able to take on the shape of your subject as well, is it not? Your magic has developed inside you to accommodate my kind of dragon but it is incomplete, and thus it could be potentially dangerous if it is not brought full circle."
"That's true. But you've been an amazing teacher to get me this far," she beamed up at him. "Thank you."
"Would that young Aithusa would be so willing to listen to what I had to say," Kilgharrah heaved a heavy sigh. "Or Merlin for that matter - he ignored my advice half the time he asked for it…"
"His loss. So now… I have to become you, right?"
"Yes and no."
"…And no?" Lisanna frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Am I correct in understanding that if a Mage from your world tries to take on a spell that consumes too much of their power, they risk potentially killing themselves?" Kilgharrah's scaly brow raised up slightly. Lisanna swallowed. Master Makarov had warned the younger children countless times never to try something they were not ready for. Like Loke's former owner, Karen, who had attempted to open a second Zodiac Gate before she was ready and had almost died in the process, leaving herself so weak she could easily be killed by her opponent.
"Yes, that is true."
"Indeed," Kilgharrah said. "You must remember the difference between myself and the Horntail. My magic is infinitely more powerful. If you were perform a Full Body Take-Over on me you would become instantly as powerful as I. But you are still human and your magic is still developing. If you gained all of my power as you are now then it would be too much for your human body and you would be destroyed from the inside. Perhaps one day, after you have trained up your magic enough, you would be able to transform into me with no adverse effects. But that day is a long way off."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"A partial Take-Over is what would be best for now. Incorporating some draconic aspects into your body, enough to give you a dose of my power, without receiving it all at once."
"Right… like my Cat Form," Lisanna nodded. She had the ability to transform her body completely into that of a cat but she found that only partially changing into one was far more useful in a combat scenario as it allowed her to keep her human strength while gaining the cat's agility and made her claws that much larger. "But… how can I make sure that I don't try and copy too much of your power? What if I… overestimate how much I can take?"
"Then you would die," Kilgharrah said simply. "However, I have a solution to that. With your permission, I would like to cast a spell upon you."
"A spell? What kind of spell?" Lisanna asked, suddenly a little wary.
"The Magic of the Old Religion can do many things, Lisanna. And it's principals are quite similar to those of your own. Sorcerers back in Camelot who could use it were also in danger of perishing if they tried to cast something too powerful. However, I can cast a spell of limitation upon you. One that will stop halt the progress of any spell you cast before it reaches a stage it can overwhelm you. As your magic grows, the spell will adapt with it to let you gain greater and greater access to the power of the dragons you use it on without risk of you overdoing it. It's a spell many warlocks would use upon their apprentices if they ever found them necessary."
"That sounds perfect! But will it ever wear off?"
"No… but it can be broken if you push it hard enough. If you ever try and draw on so much power that you feel something straining to stop you from gaining more… do not try. You would undo the spell and risk causing catastrophic damage to yourself the process. Understand?"
Lisanna slowly clambered to her feet and nodded. "Yes, I do. This power… I am learning it to protect my friends. But my brother and sister… they have already lost me once. I will not let them lose me again. No matter what."
"Then hold still…" Kilgharrah flexed his wings and reared his head back, sucking in a deep breath through his fangs before pushing his head forwards and breathing hard over Lisanna's entire body. The air rippled with the force of his breath and Lisanna could almost see the wind as if he was copying Wendy's breath attack but without the violent blowback. The young girl felt her body tingling as if she suddenly developed pins and needles everywhere. Other than that she didn't feel any different, but she could somehow tell that something was happening… maybe it was her newly found kinship with the magnificent creature before her but she could just tell his spell was working.
But, just Kilgharrah was beginning to close his mouth…
"RRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"
"NATSU!" Lisanna gasped, swinging around to see the Dragon Slayer come surging out the sky at top speed with his blazing fist raised, Happy clinging to his back and blasting forwards straight for Kilgharrah's face.
"YOU'RE NOT EATING HER!" He shouted as he launched his his punch for Kilgharrah's jaw, but the dragon moved deceptively fast for something of his enormous bulk and powered off from the ledge, his wings carrying him aloft as Natsu shot past and pulverised the cliffside in a shower of rubble and debris. But he planted his feet off a falling boulder and rebounded off it, surging right up for Kilgharrah once again.
"NATSU WAIT!" Lisanna shouted. She understood what was happening - if Natsu had spotted Kilgharrah breathing on her like that then from afar it must have looked like he was about to try ingesting her. But her cry was drowned out by a thunderous bellow from Kilgharrah, who returned fire quite literally, exhaling a veritable inferno from his jaws down at his attacker.
Lisanna took several steps back, the heat searing at her even from a pace of fifty metres or so - Kilgharrah's breath attack was phenomenally stronger than any of the dragons in Gringotts. But it still had no effect on Natsu, who thrust his arms out to shield Happy from the blast at it impacted him, slurping the flames into her mouth and drawing the conflagration deep into his stomach by the bucketload. But Kilgharrah seemed to have expected that to happen, because he merely said, "Fascinating magic indeed."
"WAAH! IT TAAAALKED!" Happy yelled. "That's not supposed to happen in this world!"
"Looks like this world's dragons are smarter than we thought," Natsu growled, not even stopping to question the situation. "But we aren't letting anyone touch Lisanna! KARYUU NO… KOEN!" he formed a huge fireball between his hands and lobbed it at Kilgharrah, who pitched his body sideways to dodge the blast. Natsu sent another flying at him a moment later but this time the dragon brought his wings crashing down with a colossal beat, creating a blast of wind strong enough to knock the projectile off course and send it fizzling out as it did so.
Lisanna couldn't prevent herself from blushing slightly when Natsu boldly declared to protect her, but the emotion was quickly swept away as she watched the dragon arcing his body down to aim himself at Natsu like a like the world's largest cannonball. Happy wrenched Natsu upwards into a spin to dodge him but as Kilgharrah shot past his slipstream still sent the both of them spinning wildly over and over. Happy beat his wings like crazy to right themselves again and immediately dove down towards Kilgharrah's back.
"EAT THIS! KARYUU NO… YOKUGEKI!" Natsu roared, lashing his arms to launch a wing attack, two long streaks of flame curving out of his arms to crash down on Kilgharrah's exposed shoulders. The dragon bellowed, a sudden roar of pain surging from within his throat, but still Natsu's attack didn't seem to affect him too greatly. He twisted his body around so he was face up as Natsu descended, readying another Fist attack and this time Kilgharrah brought his tail into play, lashing it up to use it as both a club and a shield. Natsu redirected the aim of his punch at the last second to slam it straight into the incoming tail and while he caused some damage he was still sent hurtling backwards under the brutal impact. Happy was only just able to stop them from crashing into the mountainside and Natsu clutched his wrist, displaying some bruised knuckles but other than that no worse for wear yet.
"Natsu!" Lisanna tried to cry out but Natsu was already hurtling right back up. She recognised this - he was in the full swing of battle and it would now take something quite drastic to snap him out of it. But what could…
…Of course! It was now or never! And she saw Kilgharrah glance in her direction for a moment, his golden eyes locking with hers and his great head nodding before he dodged Natsu again.
Lisanna focused her magic, bringing forth the dragon inside her and melding with it just like when she'd been riding his back. 'Remember…' she thought as she stretched her magic towards Kilgharrah once more, a low growl building in her throat as she felt their souls connecting. '…the basics of a Take-Over is to know your subject. Focus! Focus, Lisanna, come on! Focus on the parts that you want to change!'
And as Dragon and Dragon Slayer traded blows above her, Lisanna slammed her fists into the ground and screamed:-
"TAKE-OVER… DRAGON SOUL!"
Natsu and Happy curved through the air, dodging another fiery wall expelled from Kilgharrah's mouth. The Salamander brought his hands together and growled, "I'm gonna have to break out the big guns here… METSURYUU OUGI!" he roared, readying the most powerful attack he could call upon as he was. "GUREN… BAKUENJI…"
Right before he could finish calling out the attack, something streaked up from below and crashed straight into him, grabbing him by the wrists and knocking him and Happy backwards and away from his adversary.
"Natsu! That's enough!"
All thoughts of fighting evaporated from Natsu's mind when he saw what was now holding him back, his limbs practically going slack in her grip as he stared at her in astonishment. "L… Lisanna…?" he breathed.
"What… what's going on?" Happy was similarly stunned. "What… is that form?"
Lisanna let go of Natsu's wrists, falling away from him and flexing her wings to keep herself aloft and she looked down at herself. Yes, wings. She now had two large wings growing from out of her shoulders, large flaps of pale brown skin stretched between skeletal bony fingers just like Kilgharrah's own mighty wings.
Her clothing was gone, replaced by scaly armour covering certain parts of her body, including a breastplate that covered her upper chest and back with segmented bronzed plates and ran down the centre of her navel to her waist, but left her shoulders, lower back and sides bare along with her upper arms, while her lower arms were covered by brown, scaly vambraces each with five curve spikes running up the centre just above her still human hands. Her lower half had several brown, vertical plates that descended in a full circle around her body from her hips to her upper thighs which resembled something like a cross between a skirt and a fauld.
Her bare legs were entirely human from the thighs down to the middle of her calves, where abruptly they changed and became not only scaly buy distinctly draconic, her feet now having only three toes each with a large claw. A long sweeping lizard tail swept out from the back of her scaly skirt, swishing faintly in the air behind her. And to cap the image off, a ridge of scales was sat atop her white hair like some kind of tiara except on the back of her head rather than the front, and capped with three horns akin to Kilgharrah's own.
Her face thought was exactly the same as ever. The same warm, friendly blue eyes and wide smile as usual, but now with an added amount of astonishment as she inspected her new attire. But she could feel the power broiling within her… it was but a mere fraction of Kilgharrah's full strength she now had but compared to anything she had ever used before it was massive!
"I… I don't believe it…" she breathed. "I actually… did it…"
"Indeed you did," Kilgharrah alighted on the ledge behind her, cocking his head as he too admired Lisanna's new form. "If we were not kin before then we are now, Lisanna. You have done something now that none before you have ever achieved in either world. You have created Dragon Soul."
"Dragon… Soul…" Natsu looked absolutely dumbstruck, his jaw flapping about as if it were on a hinge as he searched for something to say. Turning into the Horntail was one thing but this… this was on a whole other level.
"Don't tell me…" Happy agreed. "Lisanna can now use Take-Over on all kinds of dragons? Not just the animal ones?"
"It… looks that way…" Lisanna beamed, turning around and clasping her hands together over her breastplate as she looked to Kilgharrah. "And I couldn't have done it without you… I… I don't know how I can ever thank you enough for this. It has to be one of the most amazing gifts I have ever gotten. Thank you… a million times."
"It was an honest to goodness pleasure. And a privilege to see it unfold."
"Although… you knew who Natsu was too, didn't you… so why exactly were you fighting him instead of trying to explain what was really happening to him?"
"Call it curiosity. I wanted to get a taste of the power of these Dragon Slayers for myself," Kilgharrah chuckled.
"…WHAT!? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?" Natsu suddenly yelled. "MY HEAD HURTS!"
Lisanna turned to smile at him, her eyes shining. "Don't worry, Natsu. I'll let you know as soon as I get my head around it myself. This is going to take some getting used to."
"Yes," Kilgharrah said. "More than you currently know."
"Huh?" Lisanna looked up her brow creasing slightly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean… there is a reason I have chosen to help you learn this magic beyond what I have currently told you," Kilgharrah replied sombrely. "And now that we have succeeded… I think it is time you learn what that reason is."
Voldemort stood by the Sphere for a good ten more minutes after Lucius left before suddenly… quite abruptly… the Sphere vanished in the blink of an eye. Like a light bulb that had suddenly had a power surge and blown away into nothingness. The other couple of Death Eaters in the room stepped back in alarm, but Voldemort only stepped forward, eyes wide with greed as he beheld the two figures lying prone before him.
One large, muscle-bound man with tan skin and no shirt, bandages around his arms and torso, his blue trousers tattered and the Fairy Tail mark emblazoned in black upon his neck.
And one slender woman, also with bandaged arms and wearing a a dress that was pink from the waist up and white from the waist down, her white Fairy Tail mark visible on her left leg through a slit in the dress and her fringe tied in a small forwards facing ponytail.
And both their hair was white… the same as Lisanna's. For Voldemort was staring down at the unconscious forms of none other than her genuine siblings, Mirajane and Elfman!
"Welcome to our world," Voldemort leered at them. "Now, you belong to me!"
Yes, I gave a whole chapter to Lisanna learning this new Take-Over. But considering its such a massive step for her, I think that that was needed. And indeed, she has a whole new form to go with it. I hope you liked the description I gave… but… I ALSO HAVE A PICTURE! It was drawn for me by a good friend of mine and if you want to see it then go to my profile. You will see a link at the bottom to a wordpress blog site. Take out the spaces and you will find the website its on. I hope you like it!
Anyway, as an extra little note, many of you seemed to know who exactly Kilgharrah is. For those of you who do not, I shall now tell you that this is actually a three-way crossover of sorts. For Kilgharrah and indeed Aithusa who was also mentioned, as well as the story Kilgharrah told from the days of King Arthur, are all taken from the BBC hit TV series called 'Merlin.' Since Merlin is considered to be ancient history to the wizards and witches of Harry Potter, rather than a simple myth, I thought it would be a fitting element to add in without using an entire third universe. But to those of you unfamiliar with the show, you won't need to watch it to continue to understand what's going on in the story. Any time a plot detail involving the ancient history of Camelot is brought up, I will have it explained properly.
However, those of you who are familiar with Merlin may have noticed that there's one major inconsistency in this chapter with the series, and that is that Kilgharrah is still alive when at the end of Merlin's final season he said that he would die soon. This is because I was quite dis-satisfied with final season of the show and the way it ended, so I am putting my own spin on it. But everything that happened through Seasons 1 to 4 is totally canon here. Hope you enjoyed!