Chapter 124: Alternate Dimensions and Politics
Fairy Tail Guild Hall, Magnolia Town
Kingdom of Fiore
X777
Per usual, the Fairy Tail Guild Hall is loud, chaotic, and with a brawl taking place on the first floor, especially with Erza's absence due to being away on a mission. Near the middle of the brawl Jason can be found punching a blond haired boy while not far from him Gray can be seen freezing a pink haired boy inside an iceberg, and Erik is punching a black haired boy that his friend, Cubellios, has ensnared with her serpentine body. In the front of the room, seated on the barstools are the adults, peacefully enjoying their drinks as if the brawl is not currently happening while Cassandra and Juvia sit near them to enjoy a meal. Just as the brawl seems ready to escalate however the doors are slammed open by a seemingly distressed Jellal.
"Mordred is coming!" screams the boy at the top of his lungs.
For a few seconds it seems that his words are not registered, until an abrupt silence falls over the entire building and everybody stops in their tracks.
"Didn't you go on a mission with Erza and Sorano?" asks Gray.
"We were coming back when we stumbled on Mordred on her way here." answers Jellal as he shuts the door behind him and begins to clean the guild hall.
Realising that not only will they have to deal with Mordred but with Erza also the members of Fairy Tail hurriedly begin to clean up while erasing any signs of the brawl happening.
"Oi! Where are you going? I'm not done with you yet!" exclaims the pink haired boy as he frees himself from Gray's iceberg and launches himself at the mage with a fist encased in fire.
"You flamebrain! Are you crazy?!" questions Gray as he easily dodges the punch. "Mordred AND Erza are coming back. I don't want to get in any trouble." he says as he launches the boy into a wall with a well placed kick to the chest before returning to cleaning.
"You're scared of a girl?" questions Jason's earlier opponent as he sees Jason also cleaning up.
��If you knew them then you would be scared too." answers Jason as he takes a broken chair to Cassandra who easily fixes it with her time magic without even bothering to look up from her meal.
"They sound powerful! I want to fight them both!" excitedly claims the pink haired boy as he approaches Gray with two flaming fists. His words cause another bout of silence to fall over the guild as they process his words.
While asking to fight Erza can be considered sane, suicidal but very much still sane, asking to fight is downright insane, stupid, sucidal and would only be suggested by someone without a sense of self preservation, an idiot, or just someone ignorant.
"You can't be serious." says Gray as he looks at the boy's starlit eyes. "You can't even land one hit on me, Erza would massacre you." explains Gray, earning nods of agreements from Jellal, Jason, and Erik as Cubellios releases her prisoner and returns to her human form.
"She can't be that though." says the black haired boy, Cubellios' previous prisoner.
"Gajeel's right, they can't both be that though." skeptically suggests the blond haired boy, Sting Eucliffe.
Before any of the experienced members of Fairy Tail can answer them the door to the guild hall opens and Mordred walks in along with Arturia, Erza, and a boy who completely covers his body in clothing, only allowing his dark eyes to be seen. Surveying the guild hall, Mordred spots remnants of broken tables and chairs and narrows her eyes. Standing next to her Erza also sees the same thing and a sword appears in her hand with a flash of light.
"Gray! Who broke the furniture?" questions Erza as she points her sword at him.
Panicking, Gray points towards the figure closest to him.
"It was Natsu." hurriedly answers Gray as he points towards the pink haired boy.
"Oi Lady, are you Erza?" asks Natsu as he ignores Gray's accusation and approaches Erza with an excited grin that showcases his predatory canines.
"Yes I am, and who are you?" answers Erza with narrowed eyes as she processes Gray's answer.
"Fight me!" screams Natsu as he ignores her question and launches himself at Erza with a flame encased fist despite the earlier warning from Gray.
With absolutely no effort Erza nonchalantly tilts her head to the side to dodge his punch before sending him flying to the second floor with a kick to the stomach.
"No fighting inside the guild hall." orders Erza with a frown as her sword vanishes in a flash of light and she follows Mordred, Arturia and the boy further inside the building.
"Tch, I told him not to." mutters Gray as he strips of all his clothes but his underwear.
"Put your clothes on Gray." says Mordred as she walks past him, prompting him to nervously pick them up from the floor and to hurriedly put them back on.
"You must be new guildmates. Welcome, I'm Erza." introduces Erza as she reaches Gajeel and Sting and extends her hand out for a handshake while Mordred and Arturia continue towards the bar, and the boy tags along with Erza.
"I'm Sting, Sting Eucliffe." answers Sting with a grin as he shakes her hand. "Grumpy over here is Gajeel, and this is Rogue Cheney, my best friend." he says as he points to Gajeel and another black haired who has been hiding in the shadows up until now.
"Nice to meet you. I am Erza, and this is Mystogan." says Erza as she points to the boy while Gajeel reluctantly shakes her hand and Rogue simply nods back in greeting.
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Reaching the bar, Mordred and Arturia seat themselves near the adults
"What brings you here on this day? Last I checked Fairy Tail has been on their best behavior lately." asks Morgan. "Although you do seem stressed, is there anything we can help you with?" she asks as Mordred groans and rests her head on the table.
"Politics and alternate dimensions." answers Mordred with a louder groan.
"Politics? Sure, but alternate dimensions? You have to be more specific dear." replies Morgan as she fondly caresses her daughter's head.
"This kid that I came with…" says Mordred as she points towards Mystogan who is mingling near the back of the children's group. "…he's from an alternate dimension called Edolas. They're running out of magic so they created a system that will drain magic from Earthland and give it to Edola."
"Interesting." comments Morgan as she observes the boy. "He decided to give his status as a prince and to take it upon himself to stop his father's scheme because his moral compass wouldn't allow him to do otherwise." she says as she takes in his entire history with a glance.
"Yea, he's a pretty good kid. Just a quieter version of Jellal to be honest, and doesn't help that he looks EXACTLY like Jellal, down to the same red tattoo under his right eye." informs Mordred.
"And how exactly does he plan to stop his father?" asks Ambrosius
"He plans on finding all of the Anima portals, the magic portals used to drain the magic from Earthland, and closing them." answers Mordred.
"How ambitious, I like it." comments Azula with a smirk.
"That's it!" excitedly claims Mavis from her place next to Azula.
"What's it?" asks Makarov.
"I've been thinking about giving the kids a project to work on. You know, to teach them responsibility and while spreading the name of Fairy Tail's next generation to the public. This is perfect." explains Mavis. "We can have them help Mystogan on this and depending on their performance we can use it to promote them to S-Class."
"That is a viable idea. I estimate that if they work together it should take them around seven years to figure out how to properly travel to Edolas and permanently stop Anima." says Ambrosius.
"In the meantime they can travel the country to stop any Anima portal that opens." agrees Morgan.
"Is this wise? They have only trained for one year." asks Arturia.
"Three actually." corrects Azula. "Using time magic we turned one year of training into three. As of now they cannot get any better with training and need experience. It's why we're allowing them to take missions." she explains.
"They don't look any older." observes Arturia.
"Of course not. We wanted to train them, not make them grow up faster." replies Azula.
"That makes sense, but who are the new kids?" asks Mordred as she points to Gajeel, Sting, Rogue, and a recovered Natsu.
"Those would be our resident time travelers and dragon slayers. Gajeel the Iron Dragon Slayer, Sting the White Dragon Slayer, Rogue the Shadow Dragon Slayer, and Natsu the Fire Dragon Slayer. There is one more, Wendy, the Sky Dragon Slayer, but she, Canna, and Scáthach went shopping with their caretaker, Anna Heartfilia." answers Makarov.
"Time Travelers and Dragon Slayers, an interesting combination." comments Mordred.
"Yes it is. Now tell us, what political help do you need?" asks Morgan.
"The Alvarez Empire is becoming increasingly bold. The more I stop their attempts at sabotage, the bigger their target becomes." explains Mordred.
"No doubt they want to see whether you can keep up or not. They might even be escalating to force you to reshuffle your forces and unintentionally leave an opening in the country's defenses." says Mavis.
"I figured out that much, and unfortunately they're right. I don't have enough manpower to mount a proper defense everywhere. Not even if I start hiring the guilds since that would cost money that's being used to revamp the Rune Knights." replies Mordred. "I had to let many of the knights go to their incompetence and unwillingness to put in the work needed to become competent. As of right now we're understaffed to properly protect the entire kingdom." she explains.
"Leave a major opening that will make them mount an assault out of the shadows." suggests Azula. ��Make them overconfident enough to declare war against Fiore."
"The only way they would do that is if the Fiore Branch of the magic council doesn't have Etherion to protect the country." answers Mordred.
"The council would never agree to this." says Arturia.
"The members of the council also are not the ones tasked with protecting the country." rebutes Morgan.
"They're just a bunch of foolish old goats drunk and blinded by their power." adds Azula with a roll of her eyes.
"Father, what do you think?" asks Mordred as she looks towards her father.
"You're mother is right. While you may be subordinate to the magic council, you are also in charge of the Kingdom's protection. As such you will have to decide when to go beyond them." he tells her.
"I don't really have a problem with going against the council if necessary, but without the Etherion cannon Fiore's defenses will be crippled, and the Rune Knights aren't ready yet to face the eternity of the Alvarez Empire without it." argues Mordred.
"Whoever said that you will only have the Rune Knights at your disposal?" asks Morgan with a smirk. "Should the Alvarez Empire take the bait then the six of us will be there to meet their assault."
"Just like old times." adds Ambrosius with a smirk of his own.
"Old times you say, then that means nothing after the Nasuverse." suggests Azula.
"You're being generous. I say that we could easily handle the entirety of the Empire with only melee combat, no magic, and no enhancements that put us above their most powerful physically." rebutes Morgan.
"Oooh I like that challenge." says Azula with a smirk. "In fact I'll even make it more challenging. Everyone gets one mundane weapon, and no powers whatsoever. That means no runes, no magic, no bending, just weapons or hand to hand combat." she suggests.
"That's enough you two." says Ambrosius with a shake of his head and an amused smile on his face. "Anyway, my advice still stands. It's up to you to decide what to do." he tells her as he fondly pats her head.
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AN: Here's another chapter. Some of you have noticed that these chapters are a bit shorter than usual and that's because I'm honestly not used to writing chapters that focus mainly on character interactions with nothing else. Once I get better the length should increase again. As usual constructive criticism and opinions are appreciated.
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