Awaken the Stars Song

Chapter 2

A/N: I don’t own Fairy Tail’s cannon characters because they are Hiro Mashima’s darlings. I own obnoxious twerps my plot bunnies devise for tormenting cannons. As always a full length chapter to share.

CHAPTER 2

    Bedlam descended upon Magnolia during the midday shopping period. Metalicana’s massive shadow raced across the streets, and slithered up buildings as he glided past. The sudden appearance of his shadow lifted every human eye toward the sky. Screams rent the air as people identified that he was spiraling in lazy circles above their heads. Street vendors and customers alike fled from all open spaces in a blind panic.
    Metalicana found the howls of terror, and panicked scurrying of the ant sized humans below amusing as he tried to determine his adopted son’s location based upon the wispy threads of scent reaching his keen nose. So far he was having difficulty sorting through the sheer number of smells warring for his attention. Humans really did like to stink up their environment the dragon decided. Metalicana snorted over a particularly unpleasant whiff of garbage that his nose had the misfortune of finding.
    The metal dragon rumbled deep in his chest, thinking about his mission. ‘Why did Gajeel decide to live among so many people? Things would be so much easier if my fledgling had sense enough to live in the wilds where he could be easily found.’
    The need to get higher so he could do another glide across the next section of the city forced Metalicana to beat his wings in rapid succession. Debris swirled, somewhat obscuring his bird’s eye view of the streets below as he climbed higher.
    The dragon’s one wing caught a small warm updraft. It was nowhere near the strength needed to ease the strain upon overextended wings, but Metalicana could still use it to his advantage. The metal dragon snarled, mind spewing a vow that nothing would ever again convince him to fly three days straight, including the world coming to a grisly demise, as vicious pain shot down the length of his left midline wing bones. He had to land, or risk crushing buildings, and breaking his wings and limbs, due to increasing muscle spasms. Seeing a small clearing, Metalicana swooped in for a landing. He tucked his wings to drop fast toward the grass below, only shifting the tilt of his wings open enough to hard land, rearing back on his hind quarters with front legs thrust outward to slide to an abrupt halt. He snapped his wings closed as Metalicana’s head turned to survey the scene before him.
    Shrieks and pounding feet grew in volume as small humans scattered at top speed. The chaos entertained Metalicana as his amused gaze swept in all directions. The dragon noted a haphazard array of odd human creations dumped on the grass during the mass exodus. Most of the humans in the small clearing seemed to be children unless he had forgotten the general size of the creatures. It was disappointing that Gajeel had been unable to teach these silly humans that not all dragons were their enemies. It was yet another thing he would have to talk to his adopted fledgling about when he managed to find him.
    Stretching his neck, the old dragon tried to filter Gajeel’s scent from the fear tainted majority filling his nose. He finally caught a recognizable trace flowing on a slight north-westerly breeze. Ducking under a pair of overhanging tree branches that obscured his path, the large dragon strolled forward, keeping his nose busy tracking Gajeel. His head continued to twitch and turn as Metalicana caught every scent, moving forward with greater confidence despite his dislike of confining spaces presented by narrow human streets. He was closing on Gajeel according to his nose. The scent was stronger with each short tease of that specific faint breeze. A surge of pleasure flowed through Metalicana’s system at the prospect of seeing how much his human fledgling had grown.
    It had been years since Metalicana was coerced into making that stupid agreement to leave all humans alone. All pro human dragons had agreed that it was necessary to prevent a second dragon war. All of the trouble was caused by Weisslogia making his adopted fledgling assist in his suicide. Such a foolish action had forced Metalicana, Igneel, and Grandeeney to abandon their small human fledglings to the mercy of other humans without so much as a goodbye.
    The anti human dragons had used Weisslogia’s death as a basis to declare war on the humans, unless all dragons went into exile at the farthest reaches from human habitation. Along with the others, Metalicana had agreed, and left. The parting had happened long before Metalicana had become bored with his human fledgling’s inexplicable antics. All dragons who had taken human children were forced into a corner to protect their adopted sons and daughters, so Metalicana was not alone in his simmering resentment. All of the drama and pressure had stemmed from a single, sick old fool’s stupid decision to end his life by coercing his Slayer to do all the dirty work of killing him.
    Metalicana snorted as he squeezed his broad chest into a narrower roadway trying to get to Gajeel. His scales were abrading both sides’ buildings, and would most likely end in the buildings getting damaged. It would take a bit of maneuvering to get his haunches around the corner.
    “Silly humans really need to spread out their buildings more,” Metalicana grumbled.
    The dragon’s right eye picked up motion so he swung his head to settle on a small group of humans charging toward him. ‘Guess I could ask for my fledgling to be brought to me before I get irreversibly stuck between these fragile human buildings. If I break their puny buildings, the humans will never stop shrieking. Much as I hate the idea of asking anything of a human, I don’t have the time to waste on my normal way of dealing with things. We have to find the Star Singers and get them to safety.’   
    Metalicana cocked his head as he studied the small group racing toward him. Dropping his nictitating membrane to see fully, Metalicana’s nose told him beyond doubt that it was Gajeel and a pink haired, shorter male in the front. A rather large, pale haired male and a blue haired female were racing close behind them. A sibilant purr escaped the dragon’s throat as his nose and eyes took in the much bigger version of his adopted fledgling.
    Smirking in pleasure, Metalicana roared a greeting to his long missed fledgling. “About time you showed yourself! Why can’t you live in a sensible place where I don’t have to sort through countless reeking smells to track you down when needed?”
    “Metalicana, what the fuck are you doing here? Don’t you realize that you’re scaring the shit out of this city’s population?” Gajeel roared right back with his fist upraised as if he thought he was finally big enough to hit his father.
    “Would you rather I left you to die instead of bringing you a much needed warning, fledgling?” He bellowed as his nose dropped close to the ground, fangs shining in a draconic grin.
    Skidding to a stop, Gajeel stared at him with a frown. “What are you talking about, dad?”
    “An ancient troublemaker is getting help from many dark human mages to escape his prison, fledgling. If the nightmare does get loose, there aren’t enough of us to stop him from killing all life in this world the way he wishes.”
     The pink haired male scrubbed the back of his head as he blinked up at Metalicana with a huge grin on his face. His voice was fast, and driven as he began chattering. “So you’re Metalicana, right? Awesome that I get to meet Gajeel’s pops. Hey, have you seen Igneel recently? Is he okay? How about Wendy’s dragon, Grandeeney? Oh, and why did you all vanish on the same day?”
    With a heavy sigh, Gajeel drove his fist down into the hyper active male’s skull to shut him up. “Not now, Ash Brains. We need to get Metalicana out of here before the City Council demands that the king disband the Guild because of my stupid parent!”
    The rather bulky blond man grabbed the shorter, pink maned male in a head lock and snarled his own reprimand. “It won’t kill you to wait, Flame Brain. A dragon seems to be taking the time to warn us about something big, so you need to shut up and let him get on with it. Got it?”
    “Where will you guys go? I’ll go tell Master that we have an important visitor whom he needs to meet.” The small blue haired female grabbed Gajeel’s sleeve as she spoke.
    Comprehension flashed in Metalicana’s head and a sparkle glinted in his eyes. “Well, you must be Grandeeney’s fledgling. Wendy isn’t it?” The dragon asked with a soft wheeze of humor.
    The small female grinned with a snappy nod of her head. “Hello, Metalicana-sama. Is Grandeeney well?”
    A rumble rose up from his chest. “Both Igneel and Grandeeney are well despite being furious with the anti human dragon faction. They both send their regards and love. However, it is not time for discussing family. Dangerous things are happening, and I must insure all Dragon Slayers and your allies are prepared for their quests.”
    “Quests?” The pink haired fledgling’s eyes lit with inner fire as he repeated the single word.
    “Not now, Idiot! We gotta get Metalicana out of town before things get out of control! Can you back out to end of this street and back into the park, Dad?”
    “My home is in a clearing not far from the park so we can meet with Gramps there.” Igneel’s fledgling bellowed as he pumped his arm in the air. “Until Gramps arrives, you can explain why all of our parents vanished.”
    “Forget it! After we know what this warning is about, you can all get the details about your adopted father. It would be damned rude to make Gajeel’s dragon keep repeating himself. I’m sure Wendy would appreciate hearing about what happened to her dragon also, or have you already forgotten about her, moron?” The scar faced, bulkier man barked.
    Wendy blinked a few times as the smaller Natsu began throwing his fists at the much larger man who was denying him his way. The petite girl child shrugged and headed at a flat run in the direction from which they had come. Watching as the two males fought right under his nose, Metalicana could not help but give Gajeel a Draconic grin as his son shook his head at the antics of his friends.
    “Never mind Natsu, Dad. He only has eating, sleeping, and fighting contained in that piss poor excuse of a brain most of the time. He gives all new meaning to the word dense some days.”
    “Hey, metal head, take that back!” Igneel’s feisty fledgling shouted as he ducked under the larger man’s arm and shot fire magic at Gajeel. In a matter of moments the trio were in an all out brawl. The three males slammed into a wall. The structure began to concave under their combined weight and power which would no doubt be blamed on himself the old dragon realized.  Flinging the other two off of his body, the bulkier male began crackling with lightning. Entertaining as he found the situation, Metalicana knew that the hot heads needed to be stopped immediately. He slammed one forefoot over the pair who were reeling toward the middle of the street. His other forefoot caged the electricity clad male and pushed him flat a few steps from the damaged building.
    “I was under the impression that I’m supposed to be escorted from the area before the other humans panic. So, show me the way back out of this narrow and confining place. You can all play to your hearts’ content after getting me free of these constricting buildings!” Metalicana snarled at the trio of squirming males.
    Once the pair of dragon raised males settled down, Metalicana removed his heavy clawed foot to let them stand. The lone male beneath his other claws extended paw continued to fight against his metal scales which did nothing more than annoy Metalicana. He could not recall any of the four living lightning dragons having trained a human Slayer, so it was possible that this one was one of the artificial ones which had been mentioned during the dragon conference.
    Gajeel walked over to the struggling male’s position, leaned over to look between his finger joints while barking in a harsh tone, “Knock it off, Laxus. Metalicana won’t let you up until you stop fighting even if you manage to do damage. Far as my Dad’s concerned, we’re all acting like fresh hatchlings so he’s dealing with us the same as he would any other newborn brat. Pin us until we’re worn out enough to behave like reasonable children is how any prime aged dragon would respond to our brawling right now.”
    A muffled torrent of human curses drifted up from beneath his forefoot. At least the biggest male was no longer trying to shock him, nor pounding on his palm. Satisfied that the third fledgling had learned his lesson, Metalicana lifted his front talons and allowed the last one to stand. Struggling for several moments, the dragon managed to straighten his legs to attain his full height in spite of the abraded spots on both his shoulders. He turned his snout in his adopted son’s direction. “So lead me out of this blasted narrow place already.”
    “Fine, Dad. Yeesh, you’re always so damned impatient. I’ll have to be your eyes as we back you out of this street I suppose.” His fledgling quickly slipped beneath his chest, and trotted beneath his stomach to slide out from underneath his body.
    Metalicana felt his fledgling grab onto his tail and start tugging. With a growl, and a snort, he jerked his massive body backward with a loud scraping noise coming from the buildings. He took in a deep breath once free of the previously constricting space. Irritated by the fact his tail was being tugged, Metalicana flicked the appendage up and twisted his head back to glare at his fledgling who should have known better. “Is there are reason you think you can yank on my tail?”
    “I’m just trying to guide you, damn it! It isn’t like you can see the ground clearly to back up safely any other way.”
    His fledgling actually made a reasonable point. Metalicana could not see the debris on the ground behind himself in such close confines. Nor had Metalicana gotten a chance to teach Gajeel dragon vision merge before getting forced to abandon his very young Slayer. “Agreed. However, there is a more dignified way to go about this, fledgling!”
    “Oh, and how do you figure that, Dad?” Gajeel asked as he dropped onto his back, and trotted along his spine to face him.
    “Dragon vision merge comes to mind. It’s easy enough to use, and effectively gives us both extra eyes to see from all angles.”
    Before Gajeel could respond, Igneel’s fledgling was laughing as he landed beside Gajeel. “I know how to do that. It was one of the first spells Igneel taught me. I’ll be happy to be your extra eyes, Uncle.”
    The pink haired Slayer’s palm landed between Metalicana’s eyes, a familiar warm tingle asking for permission to enter his thoughts. Curiosity got the better of him so Metalicana opened his mind. Immediately he saw his own eyes from the boy’s perspective. He wheezed a draconic chuckle as the grinning fledgling’s emotions washed through him. Igneel’s Slayer absolutely adored all dragons. The second thing that flashed into his awareness was how powerful this youngster’s instincts were overall.  In a flash the young Slayer was behind him showing him the way as Gajeel frowned in obvious irritation.
    “Don’t be so glum, fledgling. I’ll teach you as soon as we are out of this city. I always intended to teach you the spell, but never had a chance to do so. It can be disorienting if you’ve never shared sight before, so this works to everyone’s benefit.”
    A sharp nod was his son’s only response as Gajeel followed his human friend onto the ground. It took several minutes, and Gajeel arguing with what Natsu’s mind identified as Rune Knights to get Metalicana liberated from the constricting street. Whirling once his shoulders were free, Metalicana shook off the mild cramping that had started to build in his hind quarters. He had maintained his determination not to destroy buildings since he did need to remain on good terms with the humans for the moment. It had been a while since he had pushed his patience quite so far, but considering the Slayers had gotten the Rune Knights calmed down, Metalicana supposed it was worth the sting to his pride.
     “Shall I presume that a representative from you knights will also be involved with hearing the news I have brought to your kind?” Metalicana demanded as he stood in the small clearing he had landed in earlier.
    One of the darker haired men stepped forward and gave him a sketchy bow. “I will be honored to listen to your news, Mighty Metalicana. My name is Dorenbolt, and I am an officer of the Rune Knights who answers to His Majesty, Toma E. Fiore, our King.”
    “Excellent news. I believe his bloodline is one of the remaining Star Singer Lineages that are in grave danger. The Abyss Lord’s little puppet seems to have a lot of control over all the dark magic using wretches that have been spawned in recent centuries.” Metalicana spoke as he began to head through the park at a leisurely pace. “Hurry up, Fledglings. I have no idea where I’m supposed to meet your guild master.”
    “My place is this way, Uncle.” Igneel’s boy hopped from foot to foot in front of his snout with a huge display of tiny teeth. The boy’s emotions and instincts were fused into a bundle of genuine love and happiness much to the Metal dragon’s surprise. Atlas Flame had mentioned being given the honorific of uncle, and it seemed the impertinent child assumed he could adopt all dragons without considering their power types. Igneel needed to be warned that his fledgling had no concept of consequences. So far this group of humans, which his fledgling had found, were proving quite capable of amusing him if nothing else.
    “I’m not a fire dragon, Fledgling. Atlas Flame is an acceptable uncle to you, but I am not. It was expedient to share vision to get me out of that blasted confining city, but that is no longer needed either.” Metalicana grumbled, breaking the vision merge as he followed the carefree bundle of roiling instinct.
    Natsu laughed as his hands laced behind his head, continuing toward the tree line. “Glad I could help you get unstuck. I still think it’s okay to call you Uncle because Gajeel is part of my Fairy Tail family. You’re his dad, so that makes you my uncle too.”
    Gajeel snorted and released a short growl of irritation. “Like I said before, Flame Brain is an idiot, Dad. I’ll kick his ass later so you don’t have to waste time on him. I just need to wait until Dorenbolt’s gone. I’ve gotta protect Fairy Tail so I can keep eating.”
    Gajeel’s sour expression coupled with the strange conversation added to Metalicana’s amusement. “Is this Fairy Tail something other than a Magic Guild?”
    The biggest of the trio of Slayers responded from his other side. “My grandfather is the current Guild Master. His name is Makarov Dreyer. He always says that he considers every member of our guild to be his children. He kind of insists that we all treat each other as siblings. Dumb ass takes my grandfather’s words at face value, so can be really obnoxious, Metalicana-sama.”
    Igneel’s fledgling had felt anything but human to the metal dragon when they shared the vision merge. Pondering the oddity he had felt, he also weighed the increasing information abouot Igneel’s fledgling which the artificial Slayer divulged. Combined with things he gleaned during their short vision merge, Metalicana was getting a mental image of the pink haired Dragon Slayer. Metalicana had sensed how hard Igneel’s fledgling was fighting to keep his instincts in check.
    The Fire dragon fledgling’s iron will was strained almost to the limit of his thinking processes, or so it had felt to Metalicana. The things said by the other two Slayers added to the impression that Igneel’s youngster was fighting an exhausting mental battle that should not be happening. Why was Igneel’s fledgling so focused on curbing the one thing that set Dragon Slayers apart from all other humans, and gave them great power? Why was young Natsu strangling his unusually sharp instincts so hard? Was he avoiding the use of the element within his being that increased his dragon power to curb a physical transformation already?  His energy did not strike Metalicana as being vast enough to pose any such threat. Still, the pink haired human did seem to be overflowing normal energy, and was completely incapable of staying motionless. Perhaps he thought curbing his instincts would lower the amount of regular energy his system naturally produced?
    The dragon glanced a small house with a tree growing out of the near facing corner of the structure between other trees. Although Metalicana was no expert on human dwellings, this one appeared to be on the verge of collapse where the tree’s branches broke through the side and roof.
    As the pink haired fledgling whirled to stand in front of the rickety structure, his teeth were again gleaming in a huge grin. Metalicana was startled as Gajeel suddenly grabbed the smaller Slayer’s arm.  “Flame brain, how’s Bunny girl doing? Is she feeling any better yet? It’s been a couple weeks since she caught that weird cold.”
    The grin was gone in an instant as the pink haired boy’s face drained of color. “Shit, I got side tracked when you guys started screaming about a dragon attacking the city. I forgot that Luce told me to go get Wendy for her because she was having chest pains that were giving her trouble breathing.”
    “How the fuck can you forget to mention something that important, moron?” Gajeel screamed with genuine fury.
    “Considering how much damage a dragon can do to a city, I thought making sure the one supposedly attacking Magnolia never got anywhere near Lucy’s place! It was a little more important to keep her from getting crushed or burned to a cinder, Metal Headed Freak! Fuck! I still gotta grab Wendy and see if old lady Porlyusica has something to help Luce breathe easier.”    
    Something Sertatsie had said during the dragon convention rose to the forefront of Metalicana’s mind.  “Would this ill friend happen to be what your kind call a Celestial Mage by any chance, Fledglings?”
    “Huh? How did you know Bunny girl was a Celestial Mage, Dad?”
    “Sertatsie’s warning may have come too late. I’m going to link our minds, and you’re going to get to your sick friend as fast as you can. If she’s glowing and phantom chains are coming out of her torso, we have less than fifteen minutes to throw her into full stasis.” Metalicana’s tone brooked no arguments.
    Head dropping so that his eyes were level with Gajeel’s, Metalicana thrust his powerful thoughts into Gajeel’s mind, aligning their thoughts and magic. “Don’t fight me or my power if I have to use your body to gain enough time to get the female’s core stabilized! You have to trust me without fail, and let me do what has to be done if she’s glowing or you see the chains. Run like you’ve never run before or we may all die if this is one of the two mages that hold the keys to keeping the Abyss Lord imprisoned! Do you understand me?”
    Gajeel’s eyes widened dramatically as Metalicana allowed the truth to flow into his son’s mind. “Got it, Dad.”
    “Move it!” Gulping hard, his son whirled and hotfooted his way toward the city, the pink haired Flame Dragon Mage racing hard on his heels.
    “What exactly is going on?” The blond Slayer demanded with hands on his hips as he faced Metalicana with an angry glare.
    “I’d love to know also, Dragon.” The man who called himself Dorenbolt added, arms crossed over his chest.
    “You’re Guild master will be here soon. I will explain everything once I am certain that this sick female Gajeel mentioned is not the same Star Singer Sertatsie sensed was dying because the power needed to stabilize the astral prison is too great for her body to produce. The Star Singers must not come to any harm. Now be silent so I can contact Sertatsie since she’s the only one who knows how to save the Star Singer’s life if this is the one our eldest Queen sensed has begun to fade, Humans.” With those words, Metalicana created a thought orb and hurled it in the direction of the Ancient Dragon while maintaining his connection with his Slayer who was speeding down the still empty streets of Magnolia.
~~00O00~~