Rising Moon
Summary: A second chance wasn't something I, Aldrin Zevon, expected. I didn't expect to wake up in a five-year-old body in a forest, nor did I expect what would come after. A multiverse of possibilities has opened up to me, and I intend to take it for all it is worth. SI-OCxHarem, Fairy Tail/Multicross Story
This story is inspired by A Nascent Kaleidoscope by AStoryForOne. I HIGHLY recommend you go check it out. It's almost 1 Million words, still going strong, and definitely worth the read.
Chapter 9
Finding a town and then getting directions to Magnolia had been easier than I thought.
What wasn't easy was the journey itself. Because I could not, would not, get on a fucking train.
I could use Meteor to travel faster, but honestly? I just kind of wanted to enjoy the air of the world and enjoy my new found freedom from under Selene's teachings.
Whenever the night came, I opened a portal to my Dimension, which I referred to as 'Dimension Silver' given it was simple and fitting and slept there.
The dimension had come a long way ever since Qila first taught me the spell. Where once there was only a world of silver, now there was a clear azure sky that travelled on for about a mile, with a lovely green patch of earth that travelled the same distance, with everything beyond returning to a silver void.
A variety of flowers littered the area, with ponds having lotus flowers and the field having huge amounts of different kinds of flowers. Lilacs, roses, and so on and so forth.
I did have to plant many of the flowers, but the world took care of the natural environment for me so I wouldn't have to tend to them very much, instead just leaving them to grow.
In the middle of the field was a house that was very 'modern' compared to the world of Fairy Tail. A simple two-story home, though rather wide with a lot of room. Six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, and a washroom.
Was it excessive? Yes.
Did I care? No.
It was my home after all, I wanted to be fully comfortable in my own home. Plus, I was planning to have a big family someday, so better I prepare for that now rather than later.
I leaned back in my chair with a cup of water, sipping it as I thought about current events to decide my next move.
I was planning to perform my first World Jump soon, though I'd like to be a bit older first in case I ended up in a world that didn't take well to a child who could take care of themselves. Granted, I could always hide in Dimension, and I did have the basics of transformation magic so I could change my appearance,
The year right now was 774, three years before the dragon slayers were due to arrive. Natsu and Gajeel would both be around ten to eleven, while Wendy, Sting, and Rogue would all be five.
… Did that mean that Sting and Rogue killed Weisslogia and Skiadrum at five years old? Fucking hell, and I thought that Selene was brutal…
I shook my head and scoured through my memories to try and recall any events that happened this year.
I couldn't remember anything off the top of my head… I think Ur might die this year, and Gray joins Fairy Tail? I didn't recall the exact date, but I was pretty sure Gray joined before Erza did.
Speaking of Erza… The Tower of Heaven.
I leaned back, staring at the ceiling… Erza escaped the tower in the year 776. I was two years before that, I could free the slaves, destroy the tower, and get them to Fairy Tail.
But… Should I?
Not so much was it something that I should or shouldn't do, but rather… Should I fuck up the timeline to such an extent? I knew what would come, and I could try and avoid the plot and keep things stable…
But on the other hand, if I didn't go and save them, then it would lead to a lot of trouble in the future. Jellal being possessed, Brain obtaining powerful people for the Oracion Seis… Even Grimoire Heart to a lesser extent.
I swirled my water in my glass before I downed it and placed the glass beside me, taking a deep breath.
The hell was I even thinking? Maintaining canon? People's lives were hanging in the balance here, and I was just going to do nothing?
No, fuck that. I didn't know if there was some kind of 'higher purpose' behind my coming to this world, but I wasn't going to let people suffer when I had the power to stop it.
"Well, guess I'm going to the Tower of Heaven," I murmured to myself. "Now, I just need a plan…"
Firstly, was getting to the tower itself. After all, there was no way a guild wouldn't have just dealt with the tower if they knew where it was, meaning it was considered 'well hidden.' So, I would need to find some way to the tower first and foremost.
There were a few options I could take. First was seeing if I could find any slavers and hitch-hiking aboard their ship… But I'd definitely be caught since I had motion sickness as a Dragon Slayer, there's no way I'd stay hidden without being caught. And if I was caught, there was no way I'd be able to fight back. If Acnologia could barely fight back with his motion sickness, I stood no chance.
… I'd have to find a way around that at some point.
Which left me with my second option, and probably the more likely one to work. I would have to lie in wait in a village until the slavers attacked and 'kidnapped' me and the other people in town and took us to the tower to be slaves. It would give me a direct route to the tower, and I could use magic to place a 'marker' on the mainland of Ishgar, so I'd know which way to send the boat back after destroying the tower.
The only really viable option for this was number two… There was third option which included just hoping I'd find it, but I couldn't spend that much time on a boat. And the boat would probably get blasted down before it could reach the shoreline.
"Well, looks like my decision is made," I sighed in annoyance. So long as I acted like a poor orphaned kid, they probably wouldn't put magic restraining shackles on me… Even if they did, I had enough physical strength to rip steel if I wanted to.
My trip to Magnolia was delayed. I had a tower to destroy.
.
.
.
I wouldn't lie, motion sickness was worse than I thought. I was definitely not prepared for it, and it resulted in me throwing up more times than I thought I would. Of course, the slavers didn't care. Hell, they laughed at my discomfort.
It took a couple of months for the town I'd decided to settle down in and pose as a poor orphan boy to be attacked by slavers, though I was never bored. Instead, I took it as practice for my Concealment Magic. Clearly, I'd done well since the slavers didn't notice anything off about me, just thinking I was a normal, weak orphan.
Finally, we were taken off the ship and I felt my body immediately calm down… Magic motion sickness bullshit, now I could understand why Natsu was so glad to find dry land whenever he got the chance.
I was definitely going to learn Sky Dragon Slayer Magic if the chance came and learn the spell to stop motion sickness…
The slavers weren't gentle with us all as, first, we were taken to a room and made to strip. I used transformation magic to make myself look like a weak child, no better than the other kids around me. Boys wore green shorts and white shirts, while girls wore short white dresses.
After that, the cuffs were applied. The cuffs weren't explained to us, but my best guess was they were made to hold back magical energy… They had a limit of what they could restrain, however, which would explain why Erza's own monstrous magical power could still manifest despite them.
My own reserves were considered by Selene to be on the same level as a Dragon, which meant these cuffs could only restrain me so far. My transformation magic did waver for a second before I pumped more magic into the spell, managing to keep it stable. Luckily, none of the slavers noticed.
With the cuffs introduced and our clothes changed, we were then taken to our cells. Some of us were put together, others of us were separated.
I kept my head down, acting like a defeated child, when I was finally shoved into a cell, and they walked away.
"Are you okay?" A girl's voice asked me with concern, causing me to look up.
My eyes widened at the sight of Erza Scarlet, of all people, right in front of me.
"Hey, are you okay?" Erza asked me in a soft voice.
"Y- yeah," I stuttered, then shook my head and took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm fine," I told her as I slowly got up. "Looks like I'm er, joining your cell. I'm Aldrin. Aldrin Zevon."
She gave me a small, pretty smile. "I'm Erza Scarlet, nice to meet you."
I nodded and looked over her shoulder at the other residents.
There was Millianna, Sho, Wally, Simon, an old man I presumed was Rob and…
A girl with short blue hair and a tattoo around her right eye…?
Jellal got genderbent!?
"Who are the others?"
"Oh, these are my friends," Erza smiled. "This is Millianna, Sho, Wally, Simon, Casey, and Grandpa Rob."
"It's lovely to meet you, young one," Rob said politely as all the other residents gave me their polite greetings to, though they were obviously still weary of me, save Casey and Simon.
"Nice to meet you all," I told them as I slowly got up. "What is this place?"
"This is known as the Tower of Heaven," Rob sighed. "Made by a Zeref cult who want to do… Something, I'm not quite sure."
"Zeref… Who's that?"
"Questions for later," Rob shook his head. "For now, you should rest… You've likely had a long day."
'Oh, you have no idea…'
"I think rest is the last thing I want at the moment," I told them as I slowly eased myself against the wall and took a seat. "Can we talk instead?"
"Sure, what about?" Casey agreed easily as she came over and seat nearby, the other kids following their example as Rob looked at us with a fond smile.
"Anything. If I sleep now, I'm only going to have nightmares," I lied, still playing up the role of a scared kid.
Casey nodded and began to talk about some nonsense thing, just keeping the mood up. The other kids soon joined in, and Rob watched over all of us with a warm smile on his face.
I wouldn't lie, I found myself relaxing. It felt nice to just talk like this, even given the circumstances myself and all the kids were in. It was almost like I was back with Qila and Selene, just relaxing on one of the rare days that Selene decided that training wasn't to be done.
It felt like… Family.
'Well, now I definitely need to get them out of this tower…'
And so, I decided to lay low for a few days. Some people would ask why I didn't stage a breakout right away, but the answer was very simple: I didn't have enough information.
Sure, I could rip the devices off my shackles and wield my magic all I liked, but I didn't know things like guard patterns, the layout of the tower, if all the prisoners were kept in one area or were spread out, nothing.
If I was going to do this, then I was going to do this correctly in a way that would minimize possible deaths.
… Well, possible deaths on the side of the slaves, that is. Fuck the slavers and Zeref cultists, they could all die.
.
.
.
Seven days.
That was how long I spent working in the tower of heaven, acting like a frail child to help build the R-System. In that time, I did not dawdle, despite how pathetic I made myself out to be. Despite the kicks and punches I took for being 'worthless' to the cultists.
The entire time, I observed.
Timing of shifts, any structural weaknesses I could find. And most importantly, what would be the most opportune time to break free.
All behind the façade of a young, frail child, nobody suspected a thing.
Did I feel bad for deceiving Erza and the others like this? A bit, I'd admit. But even if I felt relaxed with them, happy with them, this was for their sake. I'd accept their complaints and anger later.
For now, it was almost time.
I let out a fake cough as I worked, Erza and Casey were both nearby watching over me, clearly working harder so that I wouldn't have to struggle as much.
Honestly, you two, why are you making me feel bad about this?
"Guard change!"
"Fucking finally!" One of the guards groaned as he got up, patting his fellow cultist on the shoulder. "Keep up the good work, I'm gonna go take a nap."
"Go ahead," the new one said with a smirk. "I'll keep a close eye on these worthless slaves."
"For the return of Lord Zeref!"
"For the return of Lord Zeref!"
'Fools…' I looked away as I kept doing my part to 'build' the tower. 'Wanting to revive someone who cannot die. Then again, Zeref probably did his best to make it out so he was dead to the world… Hell, he probably didn't even need to do that, just move out of the public eye and people will think he's dead after a while… Well, all he did was change his name to 'Spriggan' and go over to Alvarez… And then formed a kingdom.'
Honestly, just how many contingency plans did Zeref have in place to bring about his own death? There was the curse of contradiction from Mavis- which he definitely planned around, there was no mistake about it- travelling to the past, the Etherious, he even took the opportunity when Natsu was using Igneel's magic.
'Hm, it might benefit me when I'm strong enough to steal Natsu's book… There's bound to be someone versed in demon script somewhere in the world. If I'm able to get them to re-write the book to sever Natsu's connection to Zeref, that means that Natsu will be able to kill Zeref sooner, thus meaning the whole war between Alvarez and Ishgar will be cut short.'
Though it was unlikely that I'd ever find someone who could understand demon script. The only person I knew other than Zeref who was versed in such a thing was Lucy, and even then, that came from countless hours of studying that she did. If Layla survived- I was planning to save her, she didn't deserve death- then that meant that there was a great chance Lucy would never join Fairy Tail. After all, it was only after her mother's death that her father changed so drastically.
'Speaking of… Brandish… If my math is right, she should be a year younger than me right now, or the same age. I'd like to save her mother's life, and save Layla… Perhaps I should head to Alvarez and see if I can track them down? I can say that I'm delivering a message on behalf of Layla that on the day the Dragon Slayer's arrive, she will require all 12 Spirit Keys… That would make sure Zoldeo doesn't blame Grammi for killing Layla since she'll arrive on time, and it means Brandish won't grow up without her mother… Hm, maybe I can push her towards Fairy Tail at the same time? Fairy Tail gets a great mage, I potentially get a Waifu, and Alvarez loses an army crusher.'
Yeah, that was a solid idea. Brandish would get Aquarius's key most likely, but it meant Lucy would get Capricorn instead who would be far more co-operative...
'Oh, what about Virgo's key?' I couldn't help but think. 'I should pick that up too at some point… Thing is, I don't know if he even has Virgo's key right now. Still… It should be worth checking out, and I've done studying on Celestial Spirit Magic… Would it even work across dimensions? I mean, theoretically it should… Experimentation for later when I get Virgo's key.'
Really, I had so much work to do… And that was before I even left this dimension. I was planning on leaving after joining Fairy Tail, but it seemed that I was going to be putting that off. Everything else took precedence and I'd rather do it sooner in case when I returned, I ended up coming back years from now.
'While I'm stuck here working, might as well line up timeline events in my mind… Let's see… First in 777, Dragon Slayers arrive. Gotta make sure Layla doesn't die, which means getting Grammi to be there on time… Then I think that, a year later, the Strauss siblings join Fairy Tail. No notable events come until… I think it was 782, when Mira takes the quest that results in Lisanna going to Edolas…'
That was something I would like to prevent if possible. Half because Lisanna was one of my favourite characters and I hard shipped her with Natsu, and half because Mira and Elfman shouldn't need to go through that pain. Mira wouldn't lose her magic if Lisanna lived, so that meant she'd be even stronger by canon. So would Erza since the two would push each other.
'Next up is 784, Lucy joins Fairy Tail. Then there's Macao, then after that is Everlue. Following on is Eisenwald, then…' I frowned. 'Fuck, what was after Eisenwald…? God I'm so bad at remembering shit… It was Eisenwald, then… Galuna Island, right? Yeah, Galuna Island… Then I remember they come back from the island and it's Phantom Lord Arc…'
I was really struggling to remember the events in the right order, but I thought I was right. I always struggled remembering the right order of events, so I just pressed on since I got more confident past Phantom Lord.
'Then there's Loke's mini-arc, then Tower of Heaven- that shit ain't happening since I'm stopping it here- then Fairy Tail Civil War. After that is Oracion Seis and then I remember Edolas is right after, because after Edolas is the S-Rank Trials and Grimoire Heart Arc, followed by Acnologia attacking the guild.'
… Wait, shit… Did Filler Arcs count here? God, please no. That meant that after the seven years, Fairy Tail would have that fucking 'Oracion Seis 2' Arc, then the Eclipse Arc that was right in the fucking middle of the Grand Magic Games and 'Dragon Invasion' Arc… At least I thought it was, I skipped that shit in the anime, and it was never present in the manga, so my memory was blurry.
Wait, wasn't there also that filler arc where Gray betrayed Natsu and Natsu got stuck inside that weird fake dragon? That was another filler I skipped because it was fucking stupid.
Granted, I wouldn't need to be present for a good majority of that stuff since- with the changes I was implementing- hopefully everyone would be strong enough even if I wasn't present, just like how Fairy Tail still maintained its title as the strongest guild without Gildarts, who could still easily defeat Natsu despite the fact that Natsu was basically as strong as a Wizard Saint.
"You brat!"
"Huh?" I looked back before a fist hit me in the face, sending me to the ground… Though not in pain, it was just from the surprising force and the fact I was distracted that knocked me down.
"You piece of shit!" The guard growled as he began to stomp on me repeatedly. "If you could work this hard, why weren't you doing so sooner!?"
'Huh? What is he…?'
I looked over to the area I'd been working… Oh, it seems while lost in thought I'd ended up working more efficiently and thus been able to do more.
I turned my gaze as my friends ran forward, trying to pull him away. But the cultist just swat them away and kept stomping on me.
I felt irritation bubble within me, a memory of words Selene told me coming to my mind.
"Listen well, Aldrin. As a Dragon Slayer, your body takes on traits like that of a dragons. This includes a love of treasure and shiny things and being fiercely protective of those you consider family. There are some exceptions to this rule, Ignia comes to mind, but they will hold for almost all dragons."
I felt anger starting to rise within me as I looked up at the cultist stomping on me, all while Casey, Erza, Millianna, all of them kept working hard to stop him from attacking me, and I could see he was about to turn his rage on them.
'Oh, I see now… This whole time… Just like Qila and Selene… I already consider them my family, don't I?'
And with that realisation, I decided enough was enough.
I roared.
And the cultist didn't even get to scream as the moonlight enveloped his body, leaving him as nothing but a bloodstain on the ground.
There was silence in the air as I slowly rose up, casting my gaze around… The other prisoners looked at me in shock, even Rob's eyes were wide in surprise.
But my friends?
They looked at me with gazes of awe and admiration.
I felt a warmth spread through my chest, and determination fill my body.
"I was going to pretend to be a good little prisoner for a bit longer," I said aloud as I grabbed the cuffs on my wrists. They sparked with power, trying to stop me from taking them off as I began to tug.
But I'd felt far worse when training with Selene.
With a tug, I ripped off one cuff, and then did the same to the other. I allowed my transformation magic to fail, and my body grew a few inches, my true figure coming into view as I filled out the prisoner uniform.
"But you fools just had to go and piss me off by hurting my friends, didn't you?"
I slowly turned my gaze to the Zeref Cultists, all of whom were suddenly looking terrified as they quickly got ready.
"My name is Aldrin Zevon. I am the Son of Selene, the Moon Dragon God. A Dragon Slayer."
Light covered my body, and I vanished in a flash my aura moulding into claws as I ripped the remaining cultists in the area to shreds in a matter of seconds.
"And I think it's about time for a prison break!"