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When your hearts beat with the sun's heat for each other, that is love. This Fairy Tail redo is a story of two people connected by a fire unquenched by any power in the world. Their bond will take change the fate of Fiore and all of Ishgar.
Chapter 39: Another Fairy Tail
"Woohoo, I'm fired up again!" Natsu celebrated as he engulfed his hands in dragon fire.
Similar if watered-down reactions were shared between the other Fairy Tail mages as they took the red pills given by Mystogan. It was a blissful feeling to have their magic back into control even after a moment of missing its touch. Erza herself was starting to get better as her magic reserves were filling back up again. She was already able to stand on her own two feet, but not as of yet to strain herself into running or jumping.
"Now that we have our bearings, where exactly should we go?" Gray wondered, stretching out his joints to relieve any aches from the crash.
And wasn't that the million-dollar question? They were stuck in foreign territory with no means of having a clear direction. Everything was just too alien. The sky was green, rivers flowed in the air, there were floating islands, and there were few too many moons in the sky. Even the scents the Slayers picked up were far too strange for them to pick out where their fellow guildmates could be.
"Uhm... maybe we go that way?" Wendy asked anxiously, pointing a finger towards a direction that was only vaguely like a path through the strange forest.
"Well, it's literally better than nothing," Adrian said, taking the lead. "C'mon, we'll eventually find some civilization then we can gather information about where our friends can be."
"I can get behind that," Gray agreed, following the former Inquisitor.
"Absolutely not!" Carla argued. "I don't think I have to tell you that the kingdom of Edolas does not take kindly to foreigners. Especially those they use for energy from other worlds. They will arrest you on sight."
"Oh, so please do enlighten us of a better plan then?" Adrian challenged the Exceed, smirking in satisfaction from her silent response. "That's what I thought."
Without any other ideas, the mages of Fairy Tail made their trek through the bizarre wilds of Edolas. Natsu had thought of putting on disguises, but both Adrian and Erza countered the fact there would be nothing around them to use. Besides, it did not seem like they would actually need a change of apparel if there were undoubtedly a human civilization here. Perhaps their clothes may have the possibility of being outlandish due to cultural differences, but not something to warrant the need for such.
Eventually, the mages came upon a man fishing from one of the flying rivers at the edge of the floating island they were standing on. It relieved Adrian that it was a human; he didn't know how it would go down if the inhabitants were more alien in nature. However, when they caught the fisherman's attention, the mages were shown the most bizarre reactions. At first, he was courteous to Adrian until he went into a panic at the moment he saw Happy and Carla. For regular folk, it was impressive to see how fast he ran.
"The hell?" Lucy wondered, giving a quizzical look to Happy. "Did he just run in terror from Happy? He doesn't look like he could kill a bug."
"Perhaps the concepts of terror are different from our own," Erza tried to rationalize, but even she didn't fully believe herself.
"I don't think so," Wendy deadpanned.
"Got any to add on that, Carla?" Adrian asked.
"I am not sure myself," Carla admitted, his face scrunching into irritation.
"That's not the point. That man could report to the kingdom, that blows are so-called cover."
"Then we will just keep on moving," Adrian said. "They can't find us then, and I don't think that man will have memorized our faces in that hysteria he was in."
Carla relented before adding, "In any case, if have to hurry in finding the rest of Fairy Tail trapped here."
"I just wish that man left his fishing rod behind..." Happy said wistfully as his stomach rumbled.
The mages continued on. Soon, the forest of balloon trees faded into a new environment similar to Earthland's swamps only scaled up tenfold. They walked on vines and branches big enough to serve as bridges while trees taller than any building they knew of reached for the skies. Below them was a practical sea that made up the floor of the swamp forest flowing with a mirky white color and blanketed by a white mist.
As Natsu looked down, he noticed what looked to be an orange fish poking its head out looking right at them. A toothy grin spread his face and had decided to make this otherworldly seafood his lunch for Happy. Lucy followed his gaze down to the Edolas fish, feeling her stomach rumble for food. However, she could not shake off this uneasy feeling looking at the strange creature.
"That's gonna make a good catch," Natsu said excitedly, raising his fist. "Let's catch it and chow down-"
His excitement turned into shock as the fish rose up, revealing that it was instead a monster of tremendous size easily standing up to their vantage point and then some more. What was horrifying was the gigantic maw it showcased lined in razor teeth and looking like it can swallow a whole building. Its sudden emergence rocked the earth, making the bridge the mages stood on rock side-to-side. Despite its tremendous size, Natsu's grin returned with an even bigger gleam.
"Ooh, you're a big one," Natsu said, igniting crimson red wings from his back. "That just makes it more fun!"
Erza and Gray tried to call out to Natsu to stand down, but it was already too late. Natsu leaped forward into the air to meet the leviathan in combat. Even the monster in question of caught off guard by the actions of its 'prey'. Such thoughts turned to pain as soon as Natsu punched him, making even its mighty bulk stagger back. The Dragon Slayer wasn't done having down a somersault while pivoting off his head to deliver a more powerful blow with a Fire Dragon's Claw. To the normal onlooker, it would be too bizarre to watch as this man sent this great leviathan over a hundred times his size flying out of its home and into the neighboring forests in the distance.
Natsu too caught up in excitement blasted onwards to continue his fight against the leviathan. The mages saw their resident Fire Dragon Slayer create wings of crimson flames to give chase all the way back to the balloon tree forest. Erza, Gray, and Lucy could facepalm while Juvia and Wendy stared widely not used to Natsu's antics.
"Should... Should we stop him?" Wendy asked as explosions of fire echoed in the distance.
"He's way past the point of reason," Lucy deadpanned.
"We have to do something," Carla urged. "That ruckus he's causing will attract the forces of the kingdom no doubt."
Adrian sighed as he pulled out the Ten Commandments, "Alright, I'll make sure to reduce the damage."
He changed the Ten Commandments to its Stormbreaker form and flew off to meet Natsu. The Dragon Slayer was quickly overwhelming the giant creature as his sheer strength broke down even its mighty bulk. A Fire Dragon's Iron Fist delivered through an uppercut sent the leviathan high into the air, where then Natsu followed up leaping into the sky and gathering intense flames between his hands above him.
"With this, I'll cook you in one shot," Natsu declared, "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"
Contrary to Natsu's belief, it would not kill the leviathan but certainly badly wound it. Something that would not bode well since Natsu will continue to cause immense destruction and attract unwanted attention. So this attack had to be the finishing one, requiring Adrian's. The young prodigy stopped in midair just a league from the fight, held out his right hand, and pulled on the powerful magic within him.
"Light God's Falling Star!"
From his palm erupted a barrage of black light shining in its pale splendor like a meteor shower across the sky. Faster than Natsu noticed, they soared passed the ball of fire and then aimed for the leviathan. In an instant, the leviathan was reduced to finely cut pieces, which slowly started to come apart. Before the full body broke apart, it was hit by Natsu's Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame, blowing it apart and even cooking it. To Natsu, it seemed that he had indeed killed the monster in that moment and cooked the chunky remains.
Natsu dropped down to the ground, now surrounded by piles of smoked meat. It took on a strange appearance of steak but filled the air with the scent of steamed fish. His stomach rumbled in hunger at the smell, and the Dragon Slayer dove right in on a cube-shaped chunk landing with his teeth first to tear it apart.
"Food!" Happy cried, chomping onto the same piece of meat Natsu was feasting on.
This was the scene the rest of the group was introduced and there were more than a few face palms in response. Juvia felt a little sick at the sight of such reckless gluttony. Erza was worse off having that look of disappointment that would be followed by punishment.
"Natsu," Erza cried, making Happy and Natsu freeze mid-bite. "We cannot afford such reckless behavior while we-"
Erza's words were grounded to a halt by a loud rumble of a stomach that could be mistaken for a bear's growl. The source was none other than the Queen of Fairies herself, her stern demeanor crumbling to red-faced embarrassment. And to Erza, the piles of cooked monster meat suddenly looked a lot more appealing.
"On the other hand," Erza said, summoning a sword to hack a head-sized meat chunk into her free hand, "we cannot afford to fight with hungry stomachs with our friends' lives on the line."
Juvia, Adrian, Carla, and Wendy blanched at the sight of Erza tearing into leviathan flesh without any decorum. Her ravenous appetite was matching Natsu's pace in its ferocity. Lucy and Gray simply shook their hands, not denying the free food with more of a mannerly fashion.
"How uncouth," commented Carla.
"Like I am going to turn down a free meal," Lucy replied, taking another bite of meat.
Adrian chose to turn his attention to their surroundings. He was sure that Natsu's tangle with the leviathan was heard for miles around. Someone was bound to come looking for them. All he could do right now was spot any hostiles as soon as they can. However, Adrian's sweeping gaze landed on a peculiar structure of a circular building built high up the trunk of a mighty tree. His senses were out for any signs of occupants, but it seemed no one was there. A single jump was enough for Adrian to reach the door.
With one hand on the handle of his weapon in caution, Adrian opened the entrance. It was an ordinary room full of all sorts of supplies, including the spare clothes of the locals. A storeroom the Inquisitor surmised and one that was importantly no one here.
He had an idea to have everyone change into the clothes here, but there was not enough for everyone. Besides, Adrian had a feeling such disguises will be next to useless due to Natsu's antics. At least he could put Happy and Carla in outfits so people don't panic at the sight of them.
Leaving the storeroom, Adrian found his companions leveling odd stares at something just out of his peripheral vision to the side. Adrian turned his head around, finding his breath caught in his throat at what he saw. It was the Fairy Tail logo hanging by a sign above the door that was recently hidden away by branches that had fallen away. At first, Adrian had his hopes up that it was a sign of their friends nearby, but he noted the age on the sign that suggested it was here a long time.
'Something doesn't add up,' Adrian thought. 'If this is from our guild, then why does it look so old? We only just got here shortly after Magnolia was kidnapped.'
Unfortunately, his suspicions were not shared with Natsu. "Oh yeah. This is it, guys! That means our friends are okay. They probably left this here to help us find them."
Lucy was of a different mind and warned her mate, "Natsu wait-"
But it was already too late. Natsu and Happy continued deeper into the forest post haste.
"Dammit, let's catch up with flame-brain before he does something stupid," Gray exclaimed, chasing after Natsu with Juvia right behind him.
The rest followed suit tailing Natsu until they came upon a building built between two massive vines twisting above. Hanging from the vines was a banner of Fairy Tail sign proudly on display in its traditional colors of gold and bronze. The sight alone made the group pause and allowed Natsu and Happy to ascend the steps to the entrance.
"Wait!" Gray cried, racing up the stairs joined by Juvia. "Someone stop that idiot!"
Juvia added, "Natsu, for all we know it could be true."
Lucy, Wendy, and Carla had reached Natsu, but it was already too late. The Dragon Slayer had slammed the doors open with reckless abandon.
"Too late!" Adrian exclaimed.
He did whatever did in his flight and grabbed Erza by the back of her collar before leaping to the roof above to avoid the line of sight. If the worst happened, at least the two will have the advantage of surprise. To Adrian's fortune, his eyes spotted a loose plank that will allow him to spy the inside.
"Warn me before you do that," said Erza, slightly jostled.
"Sorry," Adrian apologized. "But at least we can save Natsu from whatever mess he has landed."
Back with Natsu, Happy, Carla, Lucy, Wendy, Gray, and Juvia, the moment Natsu opened the doors both Lucy and Gray grabbed their comrades to hide under the tables without drawing attention. Lucy managed to grab both Natsu and Wendy with their respective feline friends to hide under one table while Gray and Juvia hid under another together.
'Ooh, Gray is so close to me I can feel everything!' Juvia thought lovestruck and red in the face being in such close proximity to the ice mage, who had forgone his shirt. They were so scrunched together under the table, their bodies pressed snugly so Juvia could very well feel the very twitches of Gray's sculpted body.
Gray on the other hand was trying to keep a straight face despite a persistent sensation of softness encompassing his entire shoulder. 'How could something from flesh be softer than a pillow?! No Gray, you can't be distracted. Just ignore it. Ignore how dastardly soft they are as much as how impossibly big- gah!'
"C'mon, Lucy," Natsu whined. "Why did you drag me under the table for? Our friends are here."
"We don't know that," hissed Lucy. "If you haven't noticed, the scents around here aren't the same. It's all distorted."
"Let's just take a peek and see," Wendy suggested.
They nodded in agreement, and this course of action was shared with the other Fairy Tail mages. So simultaneously they peeked from their respective hiding place into this supposed Fairy Tail guild. Their eyes widened seeing the familiar faces of their guildmates. At first, joy jumped in their eyes but was quelled by peculiar oddities that caught their attention.
For one, none of their friends were acting as though they were kidnapped. In fact, it was unsettling how they were going about their daily dues. What really put in this feeling of wrongness watching the people below were certain quirks certain people displayed that left them aghast.
The first of which was directed at the request board where there was... Juvia!?
'Wh-How is this possible!?' Juvia thought, barely keeping herself from squawking at the sight.
Gray himself was equally flabbergasted, switching glances between the apparently two identical Juvias. It was more than some coincidental twin but a mirror of two people. The only exception was the reflection itself differed from what was familiar to his Juvia. For one, while the Juvia laying beside him wore more than a moderate amount of clothing that masked her impressive figure, the Juvia standing there was more risque in her choice of clothes that left most of her legs and stomach, not to mention how the shirt emphasized her bust.
"If you excuse me, I must be going on a job," the mirror Juvia conversed with a guild member.
The surprise didn't end there, and in fact, it grew worse. As this 'Edolas Juvia' walked from the board, a voice spoke out to the woman. It made Gray's heart jump in his throat because it was his voice and looking at the person confirmed his fears. Just as Juvia had her alternate, there was his own not too far. This time the differences were much more apparent.
'IS THAT ME!?' Gray screamed in his head at the sight of a guy with his own face wearing too much clothing than should be normal. His 'clone' looked more like a blob with the number of layers on his person. And not only that...
"W-Wait, Juvia-chan!" The Edolas Gray called to Juvia in an uncharacteristically meek tone. "W-Would you mind letting me come along? It would be lovely if we..."
...his doppelganger sounded so freaking lame! Juvia, his version, was swooning at the sight. It was obvious to her of Edo Gray's infatuation for this Edo Juvia. Yet what the response followed was far from expectations.
"You're so stifling," Edo Juvia said cooly. "Maybe if you have fewer clothes on, I'll think about it."
Juvia felt as if lightning had struck her on the spot. She could not compute the scene before her eyes. While not her Gray, this Gray was giving out his heart to Juvia, who simply waved him off! It felt like some sort of cruel nightmare watching Edo Juvia give the alternate Gray a cold shoulder. This disbelief was then burned away to rage.
'That - That absolute cunt!' Juvia screamed in her head. 'How dare she! Her Gray is giving her all of his love and she dares to just swat him away! When I get my hands on that fuck-'
"Hey, Juvia," Gray said, taking Juvia's attention to see his downcast expression. "Why is my clone so lame?"
Juvia could only voice her sympathies, "Oh, my darling Gray..."
The wrongness simply did not end. Jet and Droy were bullies to a more submissive Elfman, whose build was less bulky and boisterous than it should be. Nab was overworking himself, taking job after job with more enthusiasm than Natsu in a fight. Probably the most disturbing was Cana dressed as a decent lady denying alcohol. That sent a chill down all of the mages' spines.
"...What the fuck am I looking at?" Erza said, her wide eyes expressing her stunned terror at the sight below her.
"I have no idea," Adrian replied in the same mind, then his attention was diverted to an Edo version of Bisca and Alzack making out. "I even see Bisca and Alzack there being, uhm, well..."
"Yeah, I see that," Erza said with a blush. "Well, good for them I guess. If only our own Bisca and Alzack were that open, we would have a wedding soon."
"So you figured it out then," Adrian stated.
Erza nodded, "We are not simply in a different world. It's an alternate dimension that reflects our own. The people may be the same in appearance and names, but they are ultimately different from the lives they lived. This is Edolas' Fairy Tail."
"In simple terms, the Multiverse Theory has been proven real," Adrian surmised. "Still. To see it like this is unreal. But it begs the question where is our Fairy Tail."
"You know, there is something that concerns me," Erza said. "If these are all of our friends' alters, then where is my?"
While Erza's question was innocent enough, an ominous chill still went down Adrian's spine. Unbeknownst to them, a shadow of a man was creeping up on them. His steps were completely silent against the wooden roof, so soft not even Adrian could notice it. At the same time, Natsu and Lucy were found out when a familiar voice suddenly called them out from just above them. Both Dragon Slayer, Demon Slayer, and Exceed looked up finding to their shock another Lucy Heartifilia. lacking her usual scars Natsu's Lucy often sported and wore a leather jacket with matching boots, she looked a mirror image of Lucy down to that tough persona on her face.
"Hey," Edo Lucy called out, catching the attention of the rest of the guild to the table below. "Who the hell are you?"
It was so uncanny really from the tone of the voice so like his Lucy. Natsu swore he might've found Lucy's long-lost twin. The Demon Slayer herself was more flabbergasted by her doppelganger than actually being found out.
Up above, Adrian finally noticed the shadow having crept over their prone forms. He mentally panicked, trying to figure out how someone could sneak up on a former Inquisitor. It was too late to make complaints and turned around to see a hammer coming down on them.
"Erza!" Adrian cried.
Even when alerting Erza, he still put a protective arm over the woman and held out the Ten Commandments to block the blow. The result was both Erza and Adrian falling down into the building in the room right in the center of the crowd. Adrian tried to get up, but a boot slammed down on the flat of his blade pinning him down. He glared up at the person managing to hold him, only to bawk at the sight.
It was a very large man in his early twenties, wearing dark clothes, not unlike Adrian's current wear with black pants, a jacket, and a grey undershirt. Standing out was his very bulky physique that rivaled Laxus and Gildarts, including his height of well over six feet. He could even notice the muscles bulging against the sleeves of the jacket; such a brawny build made Adrian wonder how this man sneak up on him. Leaving Adrian wordless was how damn familiar the man looked from his rusty red hair added with stubble around his chin and his piercing onyx eyes.
"So kid," the man spoke, leaning down to Adrian's level, "mind telling me why you look like me?"
Now it clicked in Adrian's head. This was the Edolas version of himself.
I'M BACK BITCHES!
Next is Chapter 40.
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