Fairytale of Doom

By CrimsonStarbird

Chapter One – Little Town, Quiet Village

Normally, blinking her bleary eyes open to entirely unfamiliar surroundings would have caused Levy severe concern.

Normally, though, this wouldn't have been the second time it had happened in the last fifteen minutes.

And normally, she wouldn't be in the middle of a war, so much grief and terror and heartbreak crammed into the last half hour that surely there wasn't much of life left to experience.

In fact, when Irene's Universe One had first shoved Fiore through a blender, Levy had been too busy reeling from the sight of Gajeel being dragged into the underworld to care what was happening to her. Then she'd heard his voice in her head, rallying the guild, somehow still alive – and she'd not even had the chance to process what that meant when golden light had swallowed the reality that Irene's scarlet glow had only just regurgitated, and she'd once again found herself somewhere else entirely.

So, where had the enemy's magic dropped her off this time?

Somewhere rural, by the looks of things. The world around her was alive with greens and golds beneath a cerulean sky. It was frightening how quickly all-out warfare had made her forget that such peaceful colours existed.

The countryside rolled out from her in all directions, save one. Behind her loomed a huge estate. It was surrounded by walls so high she would have struggled to see over them even standing on someone's shoulders, and – though she was doing her best not to think about it – she was very much alone here. A pair of doors stood even larger than the walls, their dull shade of red worn to solemnity by age. Each one bore, in faded gold, a crest she did not recognize. The doors were ever so slightly ajar.

Levy started towards them, but stopped herself after just one step. What was she doing? Had the meadows and the birdsong made her forget she was in the middle of a war? Just because Gajeel hadn't died after all didn't mean no one else was in danger. Just because the sun had risen somewhere between Irene's mangled Fiore and wherever here was didn't mean the threat was over. She had no idea where the second spell had dumped her. For all she knew, she could be in the middle of Alvarez, about to walk into a den of enemies entirely alone.

No, until she knew where she was – and where her friends were – it would be best to keep her head down.

At her feet, a road ran off in both directions. Although it was little more than a dirt track, generations of wagons had moulded it into shape and smoothed it over with the dust of ground-up pebbles, and it felt pleasantly firm beneath her feet.

Squinting in both directions, she thought she could see a cluster of colours to her right, somewhere in that hazy distance where green below and blue above shimmered and merged into one. It was as good a destination as any, so she headed towards it.

As she walked, the illusion that she was the only human being in this place melted away. The first time she heard the trundle of wheels on the road, her heart surged up into her throat. Expecting a demon like the one who had almost swallowed Gajeel, or a rider draped in the black robes of evil, she turned in terror to see an old woman in a horse-drawn wagon. Levy stepped off the road, muscles tense, unblinking, waiting for the enemy's true form to reveal itself – but wagon and mistress rattled by without a second glance.

After that, travellers came more and more frequently. Some tipped their hats to Levy, and some ignored her, but none of them unsheathed a sword and struck. In fact, she noted that very few of them carried weapons at all. Wherever she was, it didn't look like a country in the grip of bitter warfare.

Which made sense, when Levy thought about it from a strategic point of view. Universe One had scattered her friends, but as far as she'd been able to tell before she'd been whisked away again, she and the others had still been in Fiore, ready and raring to fight any Alvarez troops they stumbled across. But if this second spell had picked her up and flung her to Bosco or beyond… well, by the time she made it back, the war could already be over, Magnolia fallen, Fairy Tail destroyed, their First Master captured.

She picked up the pace.

Soon, the blur she'd seen in the distance began to resolve into a collection of houses. The sight excited her, but also dismayed her, for it quickly became clear that the quaint, crooked houses with their thatched roofs were unlike any she'd ever seen outside of antique paintings. Too old-fashioned to be a Fiorean town, but too new to be simply a settlement that prided itself on its history and preserved the old styles, it only served to confirm her suspicions that she was somewhere far from home.

Levy took a deep breath, and let it out again.

All the fear she should have felt when she'd first opened her eyes in this strange place now threatened to overwhelm her. She'd pushed it away, tried to focus on exploration, tried to keep herself moving, but it had bred in the dark recesses of her mind and now reared up stronger than she had ever known it.

She was alone. So alone.

Universe One may have rearranged Fiore, but at least it was still Fiore, full of familiar landmarks and friendly voices.

This poor provincial town was like nothing she had ever seen before.

And yet…

There was something familiar about it. Something almost nostalgic. She could wander through the streets and know without looking that the crooked building before her was a bookshop; could glance left knowing that she'd see a baker with a row of baguettes on his tray. In the centre of the town was a fountain in a cobbled square, and when she perched on the edge of it, she didn't find it strange that a flock of sheep was passing by before her eyes.

Her gaze roved over roads too uneven for a magic-mobile to pass through, across streets bearing wrought-iron oil lamps rather than modern lacrima-powered ones, at a scene that couldn't possibly be unfolding in Fiore, perhaps not even in Earthland, and felt sure that she'd seen it somewhere before.

Townsfolk bustled around her. Like those on the road, none spared her more than a cursory glance. She wasn't invisible to them, but nor was she noteworthy, and they certainly weren't hostile. The aim of the enemy's spell must have been to separate them, then, since she couldn't believe she was in any danger from portly men and child-juggling women complaining about stale bread or smelly fish.

"-the inventor's daughter?"

"She's the one. The lucky girl I'm going to marry!"

Levy sat up with a start, and almost toppled into the fountain.

It couldn't be.

Her hand gripped stone not as old as it ought to have been as her heart thundered in her chest.

Entering the square were two men. One was short, with great gullible eyes and a huge nose; his feet flapped clown-like on the cobbles. He had the look of a man who did not much care for his appearance, and why would he? All attention would always be on his companion. He, the hulking brute of a man, the peacock wrestled into a red tunic, striding down the street as if nothing could ever go wrong for him; he, who was adored by the vapid women and worshipped by the ignorant townsfolk and considered himself the ruler of the tiny little world he surveyed… and who had been Levy's archnemesis since she had first learnt to read.

"-the most beautiful girl in town!" he was saying grandly. "That makes her the best! And don't I deserve the best?"

Oh, there were fairytale villains who were crueller, or more powerful, or more dangerous, but there were none Levy had loved to hate more than Gaston, to whom women were pretty prizes and education a mortal enemy.

But it wasn't possible.

Wherever the enemy magic had sent her, surely it was somewhere… real.

Surely she couldn't be inside her favourite fairytale of all time.

It had to be a coincidence, that was all. Just because a burly man happened to dress like Gaston in a poor provincial town didn't mean-

"Here in town there's only she, who's as beautiful as me!" he declared, thrusting his fist towards the sky in triumph. "So I'm making plans to woo and marry Belle!"

No, this was really happening.

And if Gaston and LeFou were here, then surely that meant…

Levy jumped up onto the wall of the fountain. Frantically, she scanned the crowd who had gathered around Gaston, desperate to catch sight of that famous blue-and-white dress, that book-loving heroine whom Levy had looked up to since she was a child. This was her big musical number: the grand scene that introduced her and set the stakes of her story, Beauty and the Beast. She had to be here.

Gaston swept pompously out of the square, LeFou trotting at his heels. The crowd began to disperse. Still there was no sign of brave, beautiful Belle.

Balanced on the fountain's rim, spray in her hair and adventure at her heels, Levy had a moment of hesitation – but only a moment. Because, really, what else was she going to do? Sit around and mope? Wait for someone else to rescue her from this fictitious world?

Following Gaston might not get her back to Fiore, but it should at least give her answers.

And if not, there was a child inside her who was desperate for the chance to meet Belle, and following her antagonist was Levy's best shot at finding the elusive heroine.

Mind made up, she jumped down to the ground and set off after the two men. She moved at an unhurried pace, making sure she stayed back far enough that neither of them would spot her. Admittedly, there was little risk there, since the only person who loved staring at Gaston's face more than LeFou was Gaston himself. Levy had to wonder how a man who struggled to tear his eyes away from his own reflection had managed to gain such a reputation as a hunter.

She crept along behind them, listening as Gaston laid out every detail of his plan for his and Belle's wedding. "So, when we come out of that door, you're to start the band playing- oof!"

He looked up in surprise, and so did Levy. The townsfolk had been respectfully clearing a path for him, but apparently no one had told that to the mottled grey horse in the middle of the road, and Gaston had walked right into it.

As he squawked in indignation, the rider glowered down at him. If not for his horse, he would have been a short man, but he carried himself with too much importance to have noticed. The sumptuous blue robe further elevated him from the earthen colours of the town. On either side of him rode an armoured guard, and Levy tensed automatically before acknowledging that they did not carry the Alvarez crest. Nonetheless, she thought it prudent to slip into an alleyway, watching the exchange from relative safety.

The rider's face was creased, and not kindly. "Remove yourself from the middle of the road at once."

Gaston drew himself up even taller, and puffed out his chest, a man-mountain not to be moved by some imposter who needed a steed just to match his eye-level. "I think you'll find I was here first."

"But I am here on imperial business," came the rider's smug proclamation. Peering round the corner, Levy narrowed her eyes, trying to place him. A member of the Beast's household? Surely they would all have been talking furniture at this point in the story.

"Oh, I can guess at your imperial business," Gaston scoffed. "Another new tax? Perhaps it's your dear emperor's birthday, and we all have to take him presents. No, I know what it is – has the emperor decided that he doesn't just own all the swans in the land, but all the pheasants too, and I'm not allowed to hunt those either?"

Emboldened by the jeer in his voice, the townsfolk began to laugh.

The rider's face flushed an ugly scarlet. "Such insolence," he scowled. "His Imperial Majesty stepped in to help your kingdom when he could have let you starve these last ten years, and this is how you repay him? Even now, with the enemy already at the border, he is mobilizing Heaven and Earth to try and save both our kingdoms. And that's in spite of the miserable tax revenues that are all your backwater villages have to offer in return."

"That's because we don't pay for things we don't want," Gaston spat back, to cries of hear, hear from the crowd. "And your emperor is one of them."

"Bah! We'll see if you're still saying that when the Huns are at your door." Turning to address the crowd – or perhaps simply to not have to face the towering Gaston any longer – the rider proclaimed, "By order of the emperor, every household must send one man to serve in the imperial army. Though I highly doubt you untrained peasants have much to offer the army…" Here, his gaze fell again upon Gaston's rippling muscles, and his smirk faltered. "Well, a bit of discipline might do you good. Dismissed!"

With a jerk of the reins, his horse stepped around Gaston and continued up the street, flanked by his two silent soldiers.

LeFou looked up at Gaston hopefully. "So, uh, about that wedding…"

"I'm not in a romantic mood any more," Gaston grunted, stomping in the direction of the tavern. "Maybe tomorrow. Women love a war hero…"

Meanwhile, safe in her shadowy back alley, Levy finally managed to shake off her paralysis. It wasn't Gaston she chased after, though. It was the emperor's envoy who strutted through the whispering streets, safe in the knowledge that his status would protect him from any unrest, who had her attention now.

"Excuse me!" she called. "Uh- sir- I'm really sorry to bother you, but I wasn't sure I had heard correctly. Did you say the Huns are attacking?"

The rider whipped around so quickly that she barely saw him move before his palm cracked across her cheek. "Impudent girl!" he snarled. "How dare a woman speak so casually to the right hand of the emperor?"

Levy reeled backwards, eyes wide. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm-" Then the content of his words caught up with her. "Wait, what? Gaston just insulted the emperor to your face and got clean away with it, but me asking one polite question is a criminal offence?"

"Talking back, too," the robed man muttered. "I think you need to be taught your place, girl."

He nodded to one of his mounted guards. Before Levy's astonished eyes, the soldier slid his sword free from its scabbard without pause and swept the flat of its blade towards her.

Metal met metal with an almighty clang.

There was a second sword, and it moved with grace where the first knew only bluntness. A silver arc flashed; the soldier's weapon flew from his hand and landed point-first in the dirt.

The other guard started forward, but stopped again almost immediately. Levy couldn't blame him. One glimpse of the scarlet hair fanning out behind her saviour, and she would have backed down too.

Erza turned the point of her sword towards the blue-robed rider. "How dare you threaten my friend?"

The rider's eyes bulged. His gaze jumped from Erza to his guard, still wringing out his numbed hand from the blow that had disarmed him, and the other, who did not dare to face her – and not even he, snug in his imperial robes, was foolish enough to take the challenge.

He wheeled his horse around. "So uncivilized, these provincial towns," he huffed. "Barbarian women wielding swords – what has the world come to?" Flicking the reins again, he and his guards carried on down the road.

Erza did not sheathe her sword until all three of them were out of sight, a silent, noble guardian. After the fear of the Alvarez War, with its overwhelming foes on every side, Levy had almost forgotten what it felt like to have the enemy be afraid of them. It was all she could do not to throw her arms around her friend in gratitude.

"Erza! I am so glad to see a friendly face…"

"As am I," Erza told her solemnly. "Are you hurt, Levy?"

"Not at all, thanks to you."

Levy couldn't help smiling. Trust Erza to come storming into the scene like Prince Charming. Suddenly, all her speculations about being inside a fairytale seemed incredibly foolish. Erza Scarlet was too bold and too fierce for any classic story to hold. She had no need of a hero or a prince. She would slay the dragon and break the curse all by herself, and woe betide anyone – hero or villain – who got in her way. Erza would show this backwards misogynistic village how a real warrior did things…

All the colour drained from Levy's face.

Because there was a story like that, wasn't there?

And maybe it wasn't a coincidence that Erza had shown up at the same time as the messenger come to recruit a man from every household to join the emperor's army…

"I cannot help but wonder where we are," Erza was saying, glancing around the now-empty streets, none of the villagers daring to share the road with a woman so openly in violation of their expectations. "This doesn't look like Fiore to me."

"I think," Levy started, swallowing nervously, "we might be inside a fairytale." Erza's gaze whipped to her, as cutting as any blade, but she continued nonetheless: "Or, two fairytales, to be precise. I think I'm in Beauty and the Beast. And I think you're in Mulan."

To her surprise, rather than dismissing this ridiculous theory out of hand, Erza just asked, "What makes you think that?"

"Because… you're right, this isn't Fiore. In fact, I don't think it's anywhere in Ishgar. Look at it – it's just like something out of a storybook. Before you arrived, I was following a man. Not only did he look exactly like Gaston, the villain from Beauty and the Beast, but he was also saying the exact same lines from the scene where he goes to propose to the heroine, Belle."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Levy vowed. "I know this story by heart; it's always been my favourite. I don't know Mulan quite as well, but it involves a woman who joins the army and saves the kingdom from a Hun invasion. And that man you just scared off – I'm almost certain his name is Chi-Fu – was recruiting one man from every household to join the fight against the Huns! It's too much of a coincidence."

There was a dubious expression on Erza's face, and Levy felt her confidence draining away. In that moment, she had felt so certain, but she didn't know how to express it. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but you have to believe me!"

After a moment, Erza nodded. "I do, Levy. No one knows more about the power of words than you. If you say we are inside a story, then indeed we are inside a story. What I want to understand is why."

"I don't know," Levy said miserably. "I remember gold light, but nothing else. All I can think of is that if we're here… well, we're not protecting the guildhall, are we?"

"Hmm. Yet Universe One did an excellent job of disorientating us. Why strike again so soon?" Her gaze turned pensive, but only for a moment. Erza Scarlet, the Seventh Master, the war general, was a woman of action. "Still, we gain nothing from standing around and wondering. How we got here is nowhere near as important as how we are going to get back home."

"Well…"

"Go on," Erza said encouragingly. "If you have any ideas, Levy, I should like to hear them."

"It's just… I don't think we're in the world of the stories. I think we are in the stories. I think… I think that I might be Belle."

An embarrassed crimson flushed across her face at this admission. Casting herself in the role of her fictional idol was so arrogant that she had barely been able to force out the words. But there had to be a reason why Belle hadn't turned up to her big musical number, and no one fit the part of the sword-wielding heroine Mulan more than Fairy Tail's own Titania – and when Erza only nodded thoughtfully, rather than casting judgement, Levy felt a little more confident.

"And I think you're Mulan, Erza. Bringing us both here at once may have crossed over the stories – and maybe there are others from the guild here too, caught up in their own stories, or even cast as the princes in our own."

"Hmm, I see." Erza nodded twice. "You are saying that, if you are the Beauty, perhaps Gajeel is here as the Beast."

Levy choked. "I mean- I wasn't saying- I wouldn't presume-"

"It is a reasonable theory," Erza mused, heedless to Levy's stammering. "There is only one way to test it, and that is by playing out our respective stories."

"I think so. I know it's a long shot, but it might be how we get home. Beauty and the Beast is all about breaking a curse, and Mulan… well, it's not magical as such, but Mulan returning to her home and family is a key part of the ending. Maybe reaching our Happily Ever Afters is how we break this spell and return to Fairy Tail."

"It is as good a place to start as any," Erza agreed. "Levy. What must I do to become this Mulan?"

"…Eh?"

"I am unfamiliar with the story. What does Mulan do? Where should I go next?"

"Uh… well, uh… I don't know it as well as Beauty and the Beast, but after she finds out that one man from every household has to fight in the emperor's army against the Huns, she disguises herself as a man and runs away to-"

"Disguises herself as a man?" Erza interrupted. "Why would she do that?"

"Because only men are allowed to fight."

Erza looked appalled. "No wonder they're losing to these Huns. Their army is only half the size it could be."

"Yes, well, if Mulan is discovered, the penalty is execution. So she takes her horse and her father's armour – oh! I wonder if that estate I passed on my way to the village was the Fa Family household? You should head there first. Anyway, once she's got the armour and cut her hair short, Mulan infiltrates the army training camp, where she is trained by Captain Li Shang, who totally falls for her even though he thinks she's a man, and then-"

"Wait." Erza held up a hand for silence. "I need to write this down. Do you have a pen?"

Wordlessly, Levy fished around in her pocket and handed one over. In the absence of any paper, Erza rolled up her sleeve and began to jot down on her arm, muttering to herself all the while: "Horse… armour… hair… be a man… training…"

Levy went on to recount, hoping she wasn't missing anything important, the battle at Tung Shao Pass, Mulan's expulsion from the army, the showdown with the villainous Shan Yu at the imperial capital, and finally Mulan's victorious return home.

When she was done, Erza rolled her sleeve down again, hiding the notes. "I understand. I will vanquish Shan Yu and return triumphant. What about you, Levy? Will you be safe on your own? You are going up against a Beast, after all."

"The Beast isn't the villain of the story," Levy assured her. "He's a selfish prince who was transformed into a monster as a punishment until he could learn to love another, and earn their love in return. Besides, if your theory is right, and Gajeel is cast as the Beast, I'll be in no danger at all. My Beast and I put our animosity aside a long time ago."

"True. Then I suppose this is where we part ways."

If she were being honest with herself, the last thing Levy wanted was for them to split up, but she knew with a grim kind of certainty that they would have to if they wanted any chance of returning home. Steeling herself, she gave a tight nod. "Be careful, Erza. You are going to the front lines of a war, after all."

"I've just come from the front lines of a war." Erza's fingers drummed on the hilt of her sword. "And I intend to return there as soon as possible, to continue the fight against Zeref. That's what really matters. This is but another challenge to overcome along the way."

For a moment, Levy wished she could have been as brave as her friend. Standing tall, her armour gleaming, a glow too bright to be contained by this little town, Erza was every inch the warrior-princess of legend. There she was, taking on an unknown land without fear, even though she knew that her only reward would be to return to the deadly struggle against Alvarez…

"Have courage, Levy," Erza told her sternly. "We'll get through this – you, me, and anyone else who may be stuck here with us." She touched her own arm, where her guild mark lay hidden. "You know us. We always find our way back to Fairy Tail."

"…Yeah." Levy managed a smile. "Good luck, Erza. See you back at the guild."

A/N: It's a story about stories, so it only felt right to kick it off with Levy narrating!

As you can probably imagine, there are quite a few different characters running round, so the story will jump between them. Beauty and the Beast (the original animated one, of course) is my favourite film of all time, so it will probably get more screentime than the others (sorry not sorry). This chapter is quite heavy on the movie details, because it was necessary for Levy to be able to work out what is going on - this won't be the case as much going forward. After all, this is Fairy Tail we're talking about. It's not going to take long for these guys to derail their stories entirely…

Forgot to mention this after the prologue, but this fic will update on Sundays, albeit with generally shorter chapters than I have done in the past. See you next week! ~CS