Fairytale of Doom
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Eleven – At Tung Shao Pass
The harsh cry of an eagle echoed between the mountain peaks.
Beneath a sky of hostile blue, the fierce glare of sunlight enveloped a land imprisoned by snow. Laxus shaded his eyes with his hand as he stared up into the pass. Typical that he would find himself in the worst possible environment for a Dragon Slayer, his sensitive eyes turned against him by the untameable wilds they faced.
They had only been travelling for a few hours. Though the weather had been fair, and the sun unflinching, the temperature had dropped alarmingly. Soon there was unmelted snow crunching under their boots, and then swallowing their ankles, and now edging right up to their knees. He might have asked how it was possible that the environment had changed so quickly, but there seemed little point in puzzling over such trivial things in a world that shouldn't have existed in the first place.
They were alright for now, Laxus thought, but as soon as they stopped moving, they would be in trouble. None of them were dressed for snowy weather, and the new recruits didn't have the experience of travelling through harsh environments that he did from his exile. Had that occurred to Erza, leading the way at the front of the column of men atop her horse?
He dismissed the question with a shake of his head. Of course it would have done. Erza knew what she was doing.
Still, he didn't like the look of that mountain pass one bit. Between the shape of the land, the brightness of the sun into which they were walking, and the snow that muted everything except their own ungainly trudging, it was the perfect place for an ambush.
Maybe he should say something. Just to be sure.
It wasn't difficult to pick his way up the line of straggling men. Once he was walking alongside that great black horse, he called up, "Erza!"
"Laxus," she acknowledged, with a slight inclination of her head rather than any kind of smile. She fell into the role of military commander so well. If Mavis hadn't been around to take control of the allied forces against Alvarez, Erza would have given Gramps a run for his money for that leadership spot, that was for sure.
Pushing the thought away, he jumped straight to the point. "Are you sure we're going the right way?"
"I am sure. This is Tung Shao Pass. I remember the name from Levy's story; this is where we shall encounter the Huns."
"That's what I'm worried about! Don't you think we'd be better fighting them elsewhere? Say, by falling back a couple of miles to flat ground and letting them come to us?"
"Yes," Erza agreed. "However, that is not how the story goes."
"…I'm sorry?"
"Mulan fights the Huns here," Erza reiterated. "Levy told me so. And I have already made too many changes to the story. I must see this through as it was intended to be."
"But…" Laxus's gaze turned again to one of the sheer rock faces on the right-hand side, a monument of shadow against the glare; a reminder of how easily nature could crush them if they did not take heed. They had no magic here. They had to be careful.
Cautiously, he asked instead, "How does the fight in the story go, exactly?" After all, there was no point in seeing through a story that ended in their deaths. Besides, all he had to go on that this was a story at all was a few short words from Erza. He knew nothing about this place they had been thrown into, and wasn't too proud to admit it.
A frown marred her face, so slight that anyone without a Dragon Slayer's senses would have missed it. Such well-hidden uncertainty; another sign that she made an excellent general. "We stop the Hun advance here, in Tung Shao Pass. I do not know any further details than that, only that if we encounter them here, as per the story, we will prevail."
"What if we can do more than prevail?" Laxus wondered aloud. "If we fall back, improve the odds, we could give our soldiers a better chance-"
"And risk throwing off the entire story? No – we must and we will win this fight, as Mulan did."
She had a point. Beating the Huns and protecting the kingdom didn't actually matter, only getting to the end of the story. And the half-trained recruits marching behind them in the cold – they didn't matter either. They weren't even real. Erza was focussing on getting them back to Magnolia as quickly as possible, which was the best thing for everyone.
It wasn't how he'd have done things, but Erza was their leader, not him. An army – especially an untrained one – needed a single, clear voice of command. Being seen to argue with her would only cause worry and dissent they didn't need right now.
Besides, what did he know? There was a reason why no one ever asked for his opinion these days. He should've just stayed at the back of the line of troops and let her do her thing.
"Alright," he acquiesced. "I'll be ready for an ambush."
"Good!" Chi-Fu snapped, appearing at Erza's other side. "Leave General Mulan in peace. Go on, shoo!"
Letting his heels drag, Laxus fell back from the mighty black horse and resumed his place further down the column of soldiers. The grim feeling hadn't lifted from his shoulders since the messenger had burst into the army encampment, bringing news of a sighting of the Huns within their kingdom's borders. The advance guard had been unexpectedly wiped out, and their unit, untrained or otherwise, was the only thing that stood between the Huns and the Imperial Capital. Erza had mobilized her forces at once, citing their duty as the kingdom's last line of defence.
Now he understood her real reason for leading them so eagerly into battle, but it brought him little comfort amidst the dread of what they were about to face.
He did not like the look of this Tung Shao Pass. And from the restless murmuring of the soldiers behind him – who had been trained for quarterstaff battles and smashing bricks with karate chops, not trekking through a wintry environment without proper equipment – even those who had never fought a real battle in their lives could sense trouble ahead.
Then Shan Yu and his men appeared, and it wasn't just a vague sense of danger any more.
It was doom in all its glory, bearing down upon them.
Hundreds of silhouettes – no, thousands – crested the snowy slope. All of them carried unsheathed blades, reflecting the sunlight dangerously across the snow. And more were coming every moment, the mass of men thickening and thickening until it seemed they would not even need weapons to win; numbers and momentum would be enough to sweep away the inexperienced defenders trapped in gravity's well.
They were supposed to win this? Outnumbered a hundred to one, pinned between rock walls and chasms and the blinding, blinding sun, with only a handful of untrained soldiers at their back?
Sure, back in their own world, both he and Erza would have taken on those odds with lightning in his veins and steel in hers, but here they were powerless. Surely now she would give the order to fall back. It was far too late for that, obviously, but they could at least mitigate the casualties by moving to safer ground-
"Defensive formation!" Erza commanded. She slid down from her horse and drew her sword, supreme calm on her features as she took her place at the very head of their formation, leading by example. "If we die, we die with honour!"
A roar of agreement burst forth from their troops.
It sounded so insignificant beneath the avalanche of noise as the Huns began their charge. Hoofbeats thundered, men shrieked in primal rage, the mountains trembled as a force that could shape history hurtled through the pass.
The only one not scrambling to follow orders was Laxus, who turned to Erza insistently. "How did Mulan win this fight?" he demanded.
"With courage and determination," she said resolutely. She didn't know either, then. But admitting it was the last thing she'd do, and indeed she added, "Have faith. We have won more difficult battles than this."
Even in his worst moments as Master, Gramps would never have been so patronizing towards a fellow S-Class mage, but he forced a nod.
Nevertheless, while he couldn't argue with the sentiment, he found it somewhat lacking in detail. The unstoppable tide of Huns was drawing ever closer, and they stood quivering in its path. At the front of the roiling black storm rode a wild, wicked man upon a powerful horse. His cloak unfurled like the wings of a hunting eagle; his curved blade was its talons.
"Stand ready!" Erza bellowed. "We will defeat Shan Yu, no matter the cost!"
A rallying cry sounded from her soldiers, unwavering because she did not waver, loyal to the end.
And just like that, Laxus knew how they were supposed to stop the Huns. How one person with no magic, no artillery, and no special power could send the Hun army into disarray.
It had to be him. They still needed Erza to get them home. This was what he was meant to do; this had been his role ever since he had returned to the guild after his exile.
Laxus broke ranks and ran.
"Laxus!" Erza shouted, but he ignored her, just like he ignored Chi-Fu's outraged cry of, "Coward!" He was indeed running away from the battle – but it was only to seize the reins of Erza's warhorse and fling himself onto its back.
The horse reared. He dug in with his heels and his will, and then he was tearing towards the oncoming Huns at a breakneck pace. "Get back to Fairy Tail, Erza!" he hollered. "No matter what!"
Her retort was lost in the screeching of the wind in his ears.
In his lust for battle, Shan Yu had pulled ahead of his troops. Far enough ahead that Laxus would get a good chance to kill him before his soldiers caught up.
When he saw the lone rider rushing out to meet him, the crazed villain threw his head back in a bloodcurdling laugh and sped up further.
The mountains swallowed the cacophony of sound before it reached him. Laxus's heart thudded once, and then seemed to still. His vision narrowed, darkened, refusing the light of the treacherous snow and allowing in only the black silhouette of his foe.
It wasn't the first time he'd charged into certain death for his guild in recent times.
This recklessness felt like coming home.
Shan Yu raised his blade high in anticipation. Laxus's hand touched the hilt of his own sword – and then returned without drawing it to the horse's reins and nudged his mount sideways. The warhorse obediently veered to the side, taking him towards his foe's off-hand.
Shan Yu tried to re-orient his own headlong charge, but he was too slow. Laxus leapt from the back of his horse – and he hit Shan Yu bodily.
The impact ripped him free from his mount's back and they both crashed into the snow. Cold and heat flared within Laxus, awakening his whole body at once. Rolling through the snow, he forced himself back to his feet, drawing the additional short sword he had managed to appropriate from the army camp before they left, as his own remained stubbornly stuck in its scabbard.
Seeing Shan Yu still scrabbling around in the snow for his own weapon, Laxus lunged. There was no such thing as stealth in the snow; his opponent wheeled around at the first crunch, and with astonishing agility for a man of his size, bent out of the way of Laxus's strike. One giant hand closed around Laxus's wrist with a pop of bone.
It hurt, but Laxus was more than a match for pain. He lashed out with his free hand, striking his opponent squarely on the jaw – if only there had been lightning in his soul at that moment! – and following up with his knee. It was crude, he knew, but over the pounding of the blood in his ears, he could hear the distant hunting-cries of Shan Yu's men. If he couldn't end this before they reached him, their overwhelming numbers would shatter his last hope.
Howling in rage, Shan Yu struck Laxus back into the snow. Another shock of cold – he was dressed for a battle in the sunny port of Hargeon, damn it! – and he struggled numbly back upright.
But the gleam of Shan Yu's fallen sword was too easy to spot, especially for a predator such as him. It was already back in his hand. Strength was on his side as he rained blow after furious blow down upon Laxus. Laxus's borrowed blade was too short for a sustained swordfight, his weapon skills rusty, his reflexes as sluggish as a lizard in the cold.
In one desperate attempt to end this before the oncoming stampede closed the window of opportunity, Laxus lunged – and overreached. His blade cut nothing but air. He barely had time to curse before Shan Yu's sweeping blow knocked the weapon from his hand.
Grinning wildly, Shan Yu raised his sword with both hands. A salute to his foolish enemy's demise. An execution in view of both armies.
An unsurprising outcome, Laxus thought dully. Why had he ever thought he would be able to do this? Even this world didn't want him in a meaningful role. He'd had one chance to do something that mattered here, and he'd bungled that too.
The light rebounding from the sword's surface cut a beautiful arc through the air – and broke apart into a scattering of sparks with a great metallic crash. Erza was there, blocking a blow that would split mountains with her unparalleled resolve.
"What are you doing?" she yelled to Laxus, as the focus of Shan Yu's aggression fell on her. "Get back into formation! We have more of a chance if we all stand together!"
"We have no chance," he corrected her darkly. "We can't defeat the Hun army. But we can send them into disarray by taking out their leader. It'll break the unity of barbarians such as these."
"But not before they tear you apart in vengeance!" Erza retorted.
"Yeah, well."
"Dammit, Laxus! Why are you so eager to sacrifice yourself?" she snapped, going blow for blow with Shan Yu as the horde drew ever closer. "If you'd told me, we could have taken him together!"
Together. Yeah, right. She was clearly handling the battle just fine on her own.
His swordsmanship was clumsy at best, but Erza moved like a master, sliding through the snow as though it were mist and whipping her sword around with mind-bending flexibility. Being in a world without magic barely hindered her. Gone were the days when he was looked up to as the strongest of their generation, the most famous, the most feared, the most respected. Heir to the best guild in the land, a dazzling future at his feet. Not any more.
He was almost glad when Shan Yu scored a lucky blow, knocking aside Erza's defence and disarming her. At least she wasn't finding this an easy battle either. Nimbly, Erza leapt out of the way of his follow up, but annoyance was evident in her snappish movements.
"Laxus!" she shouted. "Throw me your sword!"
He glanced around. The ground was shaking under the charge of Shan Yu's men, and the snow shifting; he could catch no sight of the tell-tale reflection.
"The one you're wearing!" Erza commanded.
"It doesn't work." Honestly, he wasn't even sure why he was still carrying that sword, other than the fact that it had been magically added to his outfit between leaving Magnolia and appearing in this world. It had been given to him; it proved that he was supposed to be here. No matter how useless it was, he couldn't bring himself to discard it completely.
But Erza simply held out her hand behind her, so certain he would do as she asked.
And he would, of course. He didn't want to see her come to harm. Wouldn't do anything that would endanger his fellow Fairy Tail mage.
He gave a half-hearted tug on the hilt of the sword, which as usual, refused to budge. Maybe there was no sword at all, just a hilt superglued to an empty scabbard.
So he did the only thing he could: unbuckled his belt and threw the whole thing over to Erza, scabbard and all.
She took it in her stride. One hand on the hilt, one on the tip, she blocked Shan Yu's decapitating strike with the sheath itself. It was surprisingly sturdy, holding up with a jarring clang even though the force sent Erza sliding back through the snow.
Gracefully, she swept into a practised stance and tried to draw the sword.
She couldn't.
Laxus let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
She tugged at it again, to no avail. "What is with this thing?" she muttered, before another swipe from Shan Yu forced her attention back to him. She blocked again, twice, wielding the still-sheathed blade handily, even with the belt buckle swinging from the end like an oversized ornament.
But the army was almost upon them. It was their last opportunity to take out Shan Yu.
"Come on," Erza hissed, as she pulled at the sword with all her might. "We have to win this. To salvage the story – and return to Fairy Tail!"
There was a thunderous crack, as though the bright blue sky had been split by lightning right above them.
Light glimmered on an inch of steel, now visible between the hilt of the sword and the top of its scabbard.
Erza was shaking with the strain of separating them just that much, the determination carved into her face. "Fairy Tail will not – be stopped – by the likes of you!" she declared, forcing another inch of steel out into the open.
It wasn't just Erza trembling, now. The ground was vibrating, the snow starting to roil and flow around her. The looming peaks groaned with it. Agitated currents spiked through the air. Shan Yu pounced in desperation towards Erza, but he lost his footing, and could not regain it atop the shifting ground. His horsemen were no longer charging all-out for them. Those that had tried were stumbling, falling; those who were smarter clung to the nervous beasts' backs as they fought to keep their balance.
Another humungous feat of strength from Erza, another fraction of steel revealed, another step closer to the world's end.
There was a light in the sky, and it put the sun to shame. Beneath its sheer pressure, the death throes of Tung Shao Pass drowned friend and foe alike.
The sword was special. But not in his hands. In Erza's.
Raised high above her head in shaking, resolute, ardent hands, that short stretch of bare steel radiated enough light to blind a phoenix.
And in a burst of light and cold, the mountains fell in on them, and the whole world ceased to be.
The palace was the size of a city, and it sat at the heart of a city that was somehow larger still.
Though Cana considered herself rather well-travelled, even she could not help stopping and staring at the sheer audacity of the building before her. True, a good chunk of said travels had comprised of pub crawls, and any pub crawl from which she could remember more than the first three pubs was automatically deemed a failure, but she was sure that this city dwarfed any she had ever seen. Crocus was a populous city, but it wasn't large; thin roads looped between small buildings stacked on top of each other in teetering yet resilient piles, while the towers of Mercurius spiralled in on themselves like a huge gordion knot of architecture.
By contrast, the Imperial City – so she had overheard it called – sprawled. It had no need to build into the nooks and crannies, for it owned all the land in sight. The buildings were long and low, statements of space built on foundations of glory.
Largest of them all, the palace towered before her, topped with layers of wide roofs which curled up ornately at the corners, requiring the support of an army of deep crimson pillars to stay aloft. A mountainous staircase offered the only way in or out of the huge red wall that would likely have taken all the inhabitants of the city within its sheltering embrace had anyone ever dared to attack them.
It didn't look much like the castle Cana remembered from Sleeping Beauty, now that she got a good look at it.
Well, it had been a while since she'd seen that film. It had been banned in the guildhall ever since Natsu had discovered that the dragon dies at the end. Even after he'd stopped watching movies with the rest of them – Natsu hadn't exactly been the kind of child who could sit still for an hour and a half – the Master had still refused to rent it as a sign of respect, despite Cana's reassurances that the dragon was an evil fairy in disguise and very much the villain of the story.
While she was here, though, she might as well check that she wasn't misremembering. Finding her castle had become doubly important since Lucy's kidnap. It wasn't just about meeting her mysterious Prince Phillip and reaching the end of her fairytale any more. Sleeping Beauty's Castle was almost certainly where Maleficent had taken Lucy, and Cana was determined to get her friend back.
Even if it meant climbing an ungodly number of stairs to reach this huge-ass palace.
She was almost surprised it was still daylight by the time she reached the top. And disappointed, too; she had seen the unlit lanterns lurking like bats beneath the eaves, and suspected that the castle would become a spectacle of fiery light during a festival night.
Shaking the thought away – even in a fairytale, there was still a time and place – Cana approached the guards who stood on duty in front of the impressive gates. "Hey, guys," she said cheerfully. "I don't suppose you're missing a princess, are you?"
One guard took a look at her and sniffed. "Servants' entrance is round the back."
"Servant?" Cana echoed. "Uh, excuse me, have you seen this dress? Bona fide princess right here!"
His eyes swept dismissively over her pink Princess Aurora dress – which to be fair, wasn't looking as great as it had when the Good Fairies had gifted it to her. Trekking across multiple kingdoms in a confusing mix of fantasy worlds would do that to an outfit.
Unimpressed, he met her gaze again, not moving from his post. "A woman shouldn't be walking this close to the palace unaccompanied. Where's your husband?"
"I've not found him yet, have I?" Cana retorted. "That's precisely why I need to reach my kingdom and meet my True Love!"
That statement probably deserved the dubious looks it earnt her, so she tried to explain. "Look, somewhere around here, there should be a kingdom whose king and queen gave their baby daughter away about sixteen years ago, to protect her from a curse that Maleficent placed upon her. I take it that's not you guys?"
The guard's silence did not temper the judgemental nature of his stare in any way.
"Alright, alright, it was always going to be a long shot," she muttered. "Still, it would have been nice to own a palace so big that not even Natsu and Gray could trash it in one day. Ah well, guess I'd best keep looking…"
Just as she was turning to leave, someone whipped past her so quickly she almost lost her footing.
"Urgent message for the emperor!" the culprit gasped out. "I've come from Tung Shao Pass!"
The guards, recognizing one of their own, began calling up to their comrades to winch open the enormous gate. Meanwhile, Cana's mind was whirling as urgently as the gate's gears. Tung Shao Pass? She knew that name. Though she personally preferred the older films, Mulan was an enjoyable enough story, and the design of the palace in front of her suddenly made a lot of sense if she'd wandered into Mulan part-way through. But if one of her friends had been caught up in that disastrous snowy struggle against the Huns… especially if they hadn't known the trick to stopping them from the original story…
"Wait!" she exclaimed. The messenger had no choice – gates of that size did not open quickly – and the full force of his desperate glare was unleashed upon her. Now that she knew which fairytale she was in, the appropriate lie slipped like liquor from her tongue. "What happened at Tung Shao Pass? My brother was in that unit sent to intercept the Hun army, and…"
"I'm sorry," came the terse response. "There was an avalanche in the pass. It caught both sides unprepared. Shan Yu, his Hun army, and our brave troops are no more."
"No, no, no," Cana overrode him. "That's not what happens in the story. The good guys survive – Li Shang throws Mulan out of the army for being a woman, and he and the others ride back to celebrate with the emperor, only for Mulan to follow and warn them that Shan Yu is after the emperor! Thanks to Mulan's brave idea, the whole band of soldiers escape Tung Shao Pass alive!"
"I wish it were so," said the messenger grimly. "But they were all wiped out. The new recruits and their peerless general gave their lives to halt the Hun advance and save the kingdom. Now, I must inform the emperor."
The gates had finally inched open enough to allow him passage. Before Cana could ask any further questions, he was gone. Gone to tell the emperor his urgent, tragic, and yet ultimately positive news for the rest of the kingdom, for the Huns were gone and the only cost was a single unit of barely trained soldiers.
It wasn't positive news for Cana, though. If her friends had been cast into Mulan the way she and Lucy had been cast into Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella – and it had to be Erza; who else? – then that meant…
Oh, who was she kidding? Erza could survive an avalanche just fine.
Probably.
As the gates clanged shut once more upon a palace that no longer held any appeal for her, she briefly considered heading to Tung Shao Pass, but decided that it was too late for her to do anything there. Erza against an avalanche was much better odds than Lucy against a dragon.
With a sigh, Cana retraced her steps down the unnecessarily long staircase, more determined than ever to find her own castle.
A/N: After the ridiculous note that the previous chapter ended on, this one is going in a much more serious direction. Cana's right that an avalanche isn't going to take out Erza and Laxus, but the avalanche is also among the least of their worries... ~CS