YEAR X765, Near Rosemary Village
Irene Belserion lay exhausted near a secluded lake with a crying infant, both wrapped in nothing but simple clothes. Her scarlet hair had become a mess of red sprawling across her from her chaotic few minutes, or had it been hours? She couldn't tell. It had been an arduous task.
But however long it had been, it was nothing compared to the hell she had been put through. It's finally over...
Three years tortured and abused by her own kingdom, her own husband. Neglected from seeing her own son. Another four hundred years trapped as a dragon, isolated from the world trying to cure her cursed body, only for someone to miraculously change her back.
She finally thought she had found a way to appear as she once was, but it was nothing but a lie. Her body wasn't a replacement but a disguise that could hide the truth from others, only reflecting how fraudulent they were to the one wearing it. Her senses were wrong, things that should be natural felt impossible.
Food didn't taste like it should taste. Motion sickness had become a constant companion of hers.
But she finally had the key to her agony and it had been along with her this entire journey. She swept back her hair, finally getting a look at the life she held in her hands and seeing a small mop of crimson color mirrored on its head. On her head.
"It's a girl…..I am so glad.." The sorceress huffed. After all this planning, it would have been awkward if it was a boy again, or worse looked just like her father. Like him….
But beggars couldn't be choosers.
Not that it would matter for much longer. She would shape her in time, just to be like herself, a little copy. This was a chance to put all of that heartache behind her. A chance at a real life.
"She will be my new body. My new life!"
"Once I enchant myself into her, I can bid farewell to this cursed body forever!"
"I have waited four hundred years for this moment! Now you will be my vessel!!"
Everything went quiet. The baby had ceased to cry, finally recognizing the one holding her as her mother. She simply lay there, staring up at Irene with a simple smile, oblivious to the dark thoughts clouding the one cradling her.
Irene couldn't help but stare back, just as mesmerized. But the moment was over as soon as it began, the newborn's face contorted and grimaced, beginning to wail again.. Something seized inside Irene's heart and she acted without thinking. She quickly but gently began rocking her arms, bringing the bundle closer towards her.
"No, no, it's okay. Everything's fine." She began speaking softly, completely distinct from the almost maniac muttering that had recently overcome her. What am I doing?
She couldn't believe she had acted like that. But after the baby had calmed down and began smiling again, she couldn't help but return the gesture.
'That's right! The reason I waited all this time, and tried to go back to being human for so long, was all because of her.' This baby wasn't her property to do as she pleased but was her sole reason for living through this hell. So that her child wouldn't have to live through the same.
It was almost as if seeing her child had strengthened her heart. Yet there was also a decision to make. She had to protect the child. And she knew that if she kept the child with her, she would be in constant danger.
'That's right, we are different.' They were different and so was their lives. The only way to protect her was to keep her away from herself. She believed that soon her love for her newborn daughter might just fade away and she would again try to enchant herself into her daughter.
As a mother who had already lost a child, she was not going to rob the future of the other.
Using her magic, she made a small basket out of thin air and put the child in it after she had stopped crying. Then she walked down to the nearby village, firmly holding the basket. Reaching the church, she put down the child on the doorway.
"Goodbye, Erza." She mouthed before walking away. She wasn't sure where she would be going now but wherever it will be, it will be far, far away from her daughter.
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Present Time…..
"What favor is that?" Makarov replied through telepathy. Whatever favor Rades wanted from him must be more crucial than just taking care and giving shelter to Wendy and Carla. And something the young man wanted to keep between themselves, otherwise he would not have used telepathy to communicate.
He would respect his wishes.
"The girl, Erza." Rades spared a quick glance at the redhead. "I want to know where she's from."
"If you don't mind me asking, why?"
Rades's inquiry puzzled the guildmaster. Erza's life before arriving at Fairy Tail wasn't pleasant at all. She had seen and suffered too much for her age. It took a lot of time for her to open up, much more than any other child in the guild. Gray was the first she opened up to, that too after way too much pestering from the Ice wizard.
Several questions ran in Makarov's mind as he tightened the grip on his staff. Was this young man connected to her past? In that wretched tower? The very place where his old friend, Rob sacrificed himself so that Erza could live.
Was he a fellow escapee just like Erza?
Or was he…
The guildmaster had not ruled out the possibility of Rades being associated with the cult of Zeref either.. In his long tenure as a guildmaster, Makarov had learned the hard way to not judge people as good or bad too quickly.
Not when his own son, after being excommunicated for his own actions, turned to the dark path and ended up becoming the founding guildmaster of a dark guild.
"She bears a striking resemblance to someone I know." Rades answered. In his voice, Makarov could sense not just the truth but also a sense of longing and grief. Perhaps this boy was telling the truth.
Before the guildmaster could press any further, Rades beat him to it.
"My mother." The young man felt like he owed the guildmaster the truth at the very least. Despite getting to know the old man just a few moments before, Rades felt like could confide in the old man without worries.
Ever since he laid eyes upon Erza Scarlet after setting foot inside the guildhall, he couldn't shake off the nagging feeling. The feeling that he was supposed to know her.
Then there was that uncanny resemblance with his mother. The same crimson hair, those ferocious and focused eyes, that could burn her enemies in a single gaze, but at the same time held immense love for her family and friends.
How can two people who have no relation to one another, share so many similarities?
Did his mother somehow survive the destruction of the palace because she was imprisoned underground, then she escaped, fell in love with someone and had a child with them? And Erza was their descendant?
That would make them distant relatives.
Sort of.
But that could only be possible if his mother had survived that destruction. He knew for a fact that his father did not survive. The only survivors Rades knows off from that unforgettable birthday of his was he himself, the blue dragon that saved him and the crimson dragon that was the cause of his family's demise.
The more he tried to wrap his brain around the uncanny resemblance between Erza and his mother, the more questions he ended up with instead of answers.
"Rosemary Village." Makarov's response broke him out of his thoughts. "That's the place Erza grew up in. Maybe you will find your answers there and I hope you do."
Makarov Dreyar did not lie when he said that he was hoping Rades finds out whatever he was looking for. Because all of the new generation children he has in Fairy Tail have lost their parents, their families and friends in one way or the other.
Natsu was abandoned by the dragon that raised him. It would seem the same could be said for Wendy. Gray's parents and his mentor, both met their ends at the hands of the demon Deliora. Cana was still looking for her father after losing her mother, the Strauss siblings had no one but themselves to rely on.
And Erza? She grew up in Rosemary as an orphan all her life until she was taken away from there.
So if there was any chance that even one of these children would get to know about their families, about who they are, and that they are not alone in the world, then Makarov would do anything in his power to make sure it happens.
If she had a family outside the guild, then she deserved to know it.
"Thank you Master Makarov." Rades replied with gratitude. "I will let you know what I find."
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One Month Later…
Dust swirled along the dirt paths of Rosemary Village as Rades walked into the heart of the village, his jacket flapping around the breeze. The village seemed like a shadow of its former self. Most of the houses and settlements were burnt and empty. Only a few of the houses seemed repaired and occupied.
Something must have happened here for the village to be this empty and desolate. It would seem like the majority of the villagers had left the village for some reason and those who remained, were simply those who wanted to cling to their old lifestyle or spend the remaining days of their lives right here.
Rades approached the church that stood tall in the middle of the village. He entered inside to find just a single priest, wiping the floor. It seemed like he was the only priest in this church and thereby the only resident in the church.
"You need something young man?" The priest stopped with his cleaning as he noticed Rades approaching him. From one look at him, the priest knew that this boy was not from around these parts. And if he was here, he was definitely looking for something or someone.
Otherwise why would anyone bother coming down to this village?
"Yes, I wanted to know about someone." The brunette confessed with a nod. "But before that do you mind me asking what happened here?"
"The cult of Zeref happened." The priest's demeanor turned solemn. "They are followers of the Black Wizard. They attack defenseless villages such as this one, plunder them, and take away all the children. Anyone who tries to stand against them is killed then and there."
'Cult of Zeref ... .definitely something to look into.' The younger man made a mental note in his head.
This was his first time hearing anything about the black wizard having a band of followers. Judging by the name of the group, he was sure that this cult worshipped or revered Zeref as some kind of God.
"And they attacked here…."
"Four years ago." The priest completed Rades's statement. "They came here, slaughtered most of the adults and then took the children with them."
"Was Erza Scarlet among those kidnapped children?" Rades asked.
"Yes she was. Why do you ask?" The priest raised his eyebrow upon hearing a name he had not heard since the last four years.
Thirteen years ago, a newborn Erza was left at the church's doorstep, by a woman whom the priest assumed to be Erza's mother. The woman had not noticed him, but the latter very much did. She had the same scarlet hair like that of her daughter and her eyes held the motherly compassion when she put down the basket that held her child on the stone steps of the church.
After that the woman was never seen in Rosemary.
Despite being an orphan right from her birth, Erza grew up to be quite the bright child. She made many friends in her age group and would get fiercely protective of them. Anyone who was foolish enough to try and bully her friends would often end up with multiple bruises on them. Erza did not even care that she injured herself or got dirt on her. She used to just shake off her own injuries as nothing, with a toothy grin.
But on that unfortunate night four years ago, she was taken along with the many children of the village, never to be seen again.
"Well she's part of a guild now. Fairy Tail." Rades informed. "And she's happy."
When the priest talked about Erza or how the cultists had turned the village into this desolate landscape, he noticed how sad and full of regret this old man was. He regretted being powerless, regretted being unable to do anything to protect those children that were forcefully taken away from their homes, from their families.
Which was why, Rades felt obligated to let the priest know that at least one of the children he couldn't save, was now safe and sound. And most importantly she's happy. He noticed how the priest's stiff shoulders eased a little, as if some part of the massive weight that was crushing him, was finally lifted.
"You said you wanted to know about someone." The priest said, bringing both of them back to the matter at hand for which Rades had traveled all the way here. "I assume that someone has something to do with Erza?"
"Yes I want to know who left her here." Rades answered, The urgency and curiosity in his voice did not go unnoticed by the priest.
"I only got a glimpse of the woman that left Erza on the church's doorstep." The priest pointed to the door.
Rades stayed silent as the priest elaborated on the woman's description, from the brief he had caught of her. The woman that abandoned Erza. The only striking characteristic was the scarlet hair, other than that Rades found no such resemblance to his mother from the priest's description. Because he refused to believe his mother was alive after all these years.
Under normal circumstances, no person can be alive for more than a hundred years. There was only one such exceptional case and that's Zeref. Rades's own circumstance fell into that of the unusual category. Being frozen had slowed his aging which was why he was struck being sixteen for four centuries.
"Did you find what you are looking for?" The priest asked after a brief silence had befallen between the two of them.
"I don't know. Just more questions than answers." Rades answered with a troubled expression. "I will keep looking. It is what I can do for now."
"If you don't mind, humor me about what your relation with Erza is?" The priest asked. "Or more like what is your relation with her mother? Because from what it seems, you are looking for her."
'Why are all the old folk I meet this intuitive?' Rades clicked his tongue before spilling whatever was going in his head. There was no harm in letting another person, who is connected to Erza, know the fact that she may have a real family.
Alive and looking out for her.
"Erza bears a striking resemblance to someone close to me." Rades confessed. Maybe it was because this was in a church and he was literally talking to a priest. Telling him about all this made his chest feel a little lighter.
"I don't know if we are actually related or not. I guess that is what I am trying to find out." Rades added with a shrug.
"I hope you find what you are looking for, son." The priest replied with sincerity in his voice.
"Thank you. I hope that as well." Rades said before turning to the arrangement of chairs in the church. His gaze was fixated in one of the rows not too far away from where he and the priest stood. "Now that we are done with our business. Why don't you come out, whoever you are?"
The priest stared at Rades with confusion at his sudden change of voice and attitude. But his confusion was cleared when a little girl of around ten, with long, straight black hair cut in princess style, with a white headband on her head and hazel eyes nervously stepped out from underneath the chairs.
"Kagura? What are you doing here?"
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