Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima, Tiamat is loosely based on Tiamat from Forgotten Realms which Belongs to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The traits of the chromatic dragons have been altered to match the dragon slayers in the Fairy Tail Universe. Drakan belongs to Surreal Software.
Chapter 23: Best Laid Plans
"Elfman, thank the Gods! I was so worried, where's Lisanna?", Cana put her drink down and looked behind the take over mage expecting to see the petite Lisanna appear with her bright blue eyes and cheerful smile. When this did not happen she took in Elfman's appearance more carefully. The robotic movements, the sweat that was pouring down his face. Something was wrong.
"Yeah, Elfman why didn't you contact us?", Warren asked. He had been trying to get in touch with them for hours and he was a little peeved that Elfman had worried everyone for no reason.
Elfman swallowed before responding. He couldn't look at his guildmates, not while knowing what he was about to do. Still, they deserved to know what had happened and a few more minutes surely couldn't hurt. He felt the compulsion running through his body, every muscle screaming at him to get on with his task. He was going to murder every single person in his guild. From little Asuka all the way to Master Makarov. He never would have thought this was possible. Fairy Tail had been a home to him since his parents had died, it broke his heart to do this but he couldn't kill Lisanna again. He just couldn't! He wished he was strong enough to fight Seylah's Macro, to tell his family what he was going to do so that they could run out of the guild and allow him to sacrifice himself and the building so that they could all live. But he had never been particularly strong, his manliness only a disguise he wore to hide his fear and regret.
"We were too late to save Former Council Member Yuri.", he paused for a minute pained by events that had led him here, "Lisanna was captured. I couldn't do anything to help her."
Gray had thought Elfman looked out of sorts but now that he knew Lisanna had been captured he understood, he imagined he didn't look any better. "It's not your fault, man. I'm sure you did the best you could."
Elfman winced. The kind words from one of his oldest friends felt like knife blades slicing through him. His best had not been good enough, not this time and certainly not on that fateful S class mission all those years ago. Both times Lisanna had been the one to pay the price while he looked on helplessly.
"Don't worry Elfman, Levy is calculating the location of Tartaros. Once we have it we'll go after all of them.", Lily told Elfman trying to boost his sagging spirits.
"What are you even doing here, Elfman? Why didn't you use your magic to go after her? ", Cana yelled at him, "Where the hell is your damn manliness now, coming here with you tail tucked between your legs?" This attitude of his was pissing her off, it was unnatural.
"Cana!", Gray yelled at his friend, "He already feels bad enough as it is."
"Look at him, he's acting strangely. You're so blinded by your own fear that you can't even see it! He's been gone for hours, Gray. Where was he all that time?", Cana snapped back, "Can't you see that none of this makes any sense?"
"That's enough Cana!", Master Makarov chastised her.
"No, she's right. I failed Lisanna.", Elfman walked off slowly looking at everything one last time. "I need to get some rest."
He made his way down the stairs.
xxx
"Wait, wait. You're telling me you're dating Gray?", Lisanna dissolved into giggles.
"What's so funny about that?", Natsu asked with irritation.
"I'm sorry, I just hadn't realized hell had frozen over. Oh wait, I guess it has!", she laughed even harder not noticing Natsu's expression.
Natsu muttered something unflattering under his breath.
"You realize, you're a horrible friend. I can't believe I cried when you died."
"I'm sorry. You're right, I just never expected that in a million years.", Lisanna held her laughter back when she realized Natsu was genuinely upset. "I guess there's a lot about you that I don't know now."
Natsu knew that was true and also mostly his fault. It had been very hard for him to get over Lisanna's death but eventually he had moved on. He'd made new friends and gotten comfortable in a new routine. If he was honest with himself this was probably the most time they had spent alone together since she had returned from Edolas. He felt a little bad about that.
"What about the necklace, why is it so important?"
Before he could answer they found themselves being strewn around their cell unexpectedly, everything around them shaking. They looked aorund trying to find a reason for this new turn of events but it soon stopped and they were left bruised and wondering what had happened to cause the strange quake.
"Natsu, look over there!" Natsu looked in the direction Lisanna was pointing and saw a large sword had shaken itself loose from its place on the wall and made its way towards the bars of their cell. They rushed over to try to get it inside their cell. They clumsily used it to remove their cuffs and with the return of their magic Natsu was able to melt the bars of their cell easily. They exited and made their way into the corridor.
"We need to find the others.", Natsu told her.
Lisanna nodded. "Animal Soul: Cat".
She threw her blanket at Natsu who took it gratefully and tied it around his waist .
"Let's go."
xxx
Igneel watched the young boy sleep with a smile. He enjoyed how Kai snuggled closer to him in his sleep, unconsciously seeking his warmth. It reminded him of Natsu. He could still remember him as a small child lost in the forest, how his sweet smile had immediately won him over. He wondered how different Natsu's life would have been if he had never met Igneel. He might have had a chance to be happy instead of becoming some tragic hero in a story that started over 400 years ago.
He mourned over the years Natsu endured Zeref's experiments, his only other companions demons that had been stripped from the innermost recesses of his brother's madness. The one thing Igneel would always be proud of was that he had been able to remove those memories and allowed Natsu to put that life behind him, albeit temporarily. Igneel's love was able to heal his spirit and return him to the boy he once was but it ended much too soon.
As he watched Natsu over the years, doing his best not to interfere, he'd held on to the hope that once he took care of Acnologia they could return to a semblance of the simple life they'd shared all those years ago. Igneel had planned on making it up to Natsu for all the years that he'd thought he'd been abandoned. He'd forgotten how short a human life's span was. In all those years Natsu had grown up without him. He had already found himself a worthy mate and now they would have a child. Natsu no longer needed Igneel and that hurt the dragon somewhat but it was one of those things that could never be avoided. Children grew up and away from their parents as they made their own way in the world. He was proud of the man his son had become. He was everything he could have wanted in the only son he ever had. He was strong and fiercely loyal. He was brave and loving and kind. He was the essence of a red dragon and Igneel loved him with all his heart. The road he still had left to travel would not be easy, but Igneel had no doubt Natsu was up for the task.
He'd not had enough time to train Natsu properly, leaving him to learn the more complex aspects of his dragon slaying magic on his own. Igneel had not failed to notice that even with the larger amount of ethernano available in this time and their undeniable power none of their foster children had been able to hurt let alone kill a single dragon they had encountered. He had already taught Kai all of the dragon magic that he knew, except for Dragon Soul. As soon as he woke he would teach him that as well. He hoped it was all enough to keep the boy safe once he was gone but there were a few other things that he never got to tell Natsu that he wanted Kai to know.
Kai awoke from his slumber and sat. Igneel smiled to see him rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He knew it took the boy a few minutes to really wake up. Once he was sure that the boy was alert he began.
"Kai, there are some things I have to tell you. I have mentioned some of them in the past but I haven't really gone into detail. I know that you are very young still but I will leave you soon and I won't leave you unprepared like I did your father."
Igneel took a deep breath and tried to organize his thoughts. "400 years ago there was a war going on in our world. The dragons were split into two factions. One side wanted to coexist with humans while the other wanted to destroy them. We fought for years but even though many dragons from both sides died we were locked in a stalemate. That's when our side decided to try something new. A few dragons cast an enchantment on some of our human allies and gave them what we now call Dragon Slayer magic. They trained them to fight against dragons using this power and they were so successful that more and more dragons began to do the same. To her credit, your mother stayed out of the war in the beginning preferring to let us sort it out amongst ourselves. She only became involved when she realized what we had done and as you can imagine she was not on our side."
"Our advantage was short lived. It was a new magic and we didn't realize the effect it was going to have on the humans that wielded it. As part of the original enchantmet something called a Dragon Seed was implanted inside of the human. Some of the humans became so corrupted by their new power that they began killing any dragon they encountered not caring whether it was a friend or an enemy as long as it would grant them more power. The more they used the magic the more the Dragon Seed would grow inside of them. They began to become more like us physically until eventually they would turn into a dragon. Acnologia was the worst of these men. He killed countless dragons making himself so strong that no one dragon could hurt him any longer. By that point our side was being hunted by Tiamat making it difficult for us to go after Acnologia. Then Tiamat suddenly disappeared and we got word that she had been banished."
"Many saw this as an opportunity to attack Acnologia as a group and destroy him once and for all. I had already taken in Natsu and enchanted him with my magic so I left him in the care of a human friend while I went to attack Acnologia with a group of four other dragons: Metalicana, Skiadrum, Weisslogia and Grandine. We fought against him but I am embarrassed to say that even the combined might of the five of us was not enough to defeat him. We managed to escape with our lives but he reaped our souls during the battle which left us weakened. We returned to our lairs disheartened with no idea on how we were going to defeat him."
"Our allies came up with a plan that would send five children to the future with us sealed inside of them. My four friends each took in a child and enchanted them with their magic. They trained them to become Dragon Slayers. We all hoped that our children would eventually become strong enough to finally put an end to that black death and succeed where we had failed. The elevated amounts of ethernano available in this time would allow us to heal the damage Acnologia inflicted on our souls and it would also create antibodies that would prevent our children from ever becoming dragons themselves." The technique is called Dragon Soul and it is the last magic that I have left to teach you."
Kai looked at him with wide eyes. "Can I cast the enchantment to create a Dragon Slayer too, even though I'm part human?"
Igneel thought about this for awhile. "I think you can. Even though you are part human you have an actual dragon form. Your Dragon magic is a part of you, it does not come from an enchantment. I also want you to remember that you have access to some godly magic as well. I'm sorry I can't help you with that but I remember Tiamat saying it was fairly instinctual. Once you have enough power to cast a spell you should know it."
"It's still hard to believe that you loved her once."
"Love is a funny thing. Anyway, Dragon Soul."
Igneel explained how to perform Dragon Soul and Kai nodded his understanding. He didn't really understand everything that had brought Igneel here but he was glad that his grandfather had been here when he arrived. He had no idea how he would have managed without him.
"There's a few things we need to talk about. I never got to tell Natsu these things and I think it's one of the reasons why he has so much trouble fighting dragons. I want you to train the dragon slayers once you are able to leave here. Go ahead and change into you dragon form and fly."
Kai changed into a dragon and immediately took off. He loved to fly. Igneel watched him for a few minutes and then took off after him.
"A dragon's eyes are placed in front like a human's. It gives us good depth perception but it also makes us vulnerable. We have to move our heads to see in any other direction. This creates blind spots that you can exploit."
He flew straight towards Kai and then changed course constantly causing Kai to become confused trying to follow his trajectory. Igneel used Kai's confusion and attacked him with his tail. Kai was hurled through the air but he caught himself and flew back towards Igneel.
"If they were to fight two on one they could have one draw the dragon's attention with a frontal attack while the other takes advantage of the blind spots. This would be more effective than the brute force attacks your father prefers."
"Our scales are strong like armor. They're not easy to pierce, you need to find a weak spot and apply multiple attacks to it until you penetrate it. I don't want to hurt you so we won't practice that one. Think of any part of your body that you instinctively want to protect. Those are your weak spots. Teach those to them."
Igneel continued teaching Kai how to help the dragon slayers and he did his best to follow along. He was saddened that he would soon be alone in this body but he tried to focus on thoughts of being with his parents soon. They would all be together then: Igneel, Kai, Father and Gray. Kai had finally learned the boy's name once Igneel had chastised him for calling the boy his mother. They took a break and raced across the sky. Kai had become more comfortable in this body and he entertained Igneel with his aerial maneuvers. Tired out he finally dropped to the ground.
"Grandfather, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what is it?"
Kai returned to his child form and looked at him excitedly. "Can I ride you?"
Igneel looked at him, amused by the request. "Why would you want to do that when you can fly yourself?"
"Father looked really happy when he did that, I just wanted to know what it felt like."
"Sure. Climb on and hold on!", Igneel took off as soon as Kai was safely on his back. The little boys squeals of delight made Igneel laugh. It had been a long time since he had let anyone ride him and he tried to remember the things that Natsu had liked. He started doing loop de loops and even flew upside down for a bit. He charged at a mountain at full speed evading it at the last possible second. Kai's screams of exhilaration egging him on to crazier stunts.
"I love you, Grandfather.", Kai whispered into Igneel's ear holes as he hugged him tightly.
"I love you too.", Igneel felt like his heart was going to burst at those words, how could these small creatures affect him so? "Now we need to talk about dragon mating."
"NO, gross!", Kai yelled in indignation.
Igneel snorted and told him anyway.
xxx
I had been planning on ending this chapter with everyone on Tartaros but there was too much jumping back and forth and it was confusing so I had to split into two chapters. Sorry :(. I swear we're almost there.