july 7, year: X777
Deep underground.
The stone walls of the Abyss Palace beneath the royal castle of Crocus were freezing cold. Layla Heartfilia stood on the edge of the pedestal, her face pale. She coughed softly into her hand, her breaths shallow.
All around the stone platform, her servants were checking the seals, their faces full of panic. Spetto was crying. Zoldeo was backing away, staring at the gate. Grammi was gone. The Aquarius key was thousands of miles away across the sea. The twelve-key seal was broken. The door wouldn't open on its own.
"Milady, please stop!" Spetto screamed, grabbing her hands. "Without the last key, the gate will just tear your container apart! Step down!"
"No," Layla said, her voice shaking. "Four hundred years... the ancestors gave everything for this day. I'm not letting the mission fail."
She stepped right into the center of the platform. She gripped her remaining golden keys tight. She closed her eyes, took a heavy breath, and forced her magic container to open completely.
The gate hit her like a wall. It pulled from her. Hard. Layla gasped, her knees buckling as the extreme strain violently hollowed out her Ethernano pool. It burned straight through her life force just to act as the twelfth missing anchor.
A blinding flash of golden light hit the cavern. The massive stone doors of the Eclipse Gate burst open.
Five huge columns of light shot straight out from the portal. They tore through the ceiling, blasting into the sky above Fiore. Five kids were launched across different corners of the kingdom in a flash.
Layla collapsed backward, her body cold. Spetto caught her, sobbing into her robes. The gate slammed shut behind them, the ancient arrival protocol finished.
By afternoon, the sky over Magnolia looked strange. Heavy and dark grey.
Merlin sat alone on the roof tiles of the Fairy Tail tavern, leaning his chin on the top of his wooden staff. His gold eyes hit that swirl. Sha Naqba Imuru cut through the heavy clouds, tracking the exact trajectory lines cutting across the kingdom.
One specific, pink-haired Ethernano trail had just crashed straight into the thick forest a few miles outside town.
Merlin spun his staff around, slid down the roof, and walked into the trees alone. He didn't say a word to the old man inside.
Deep inside the muddy woods, the bushes were ripping apart.
"IGNEEL!"
A seven-year-old Natsu Dragneel ran through the thick briars, crying his eyes out and screaming for his dad. He was filthy. His face was covered in dirt, and a heavy white scale scarf was tucked into his vest. He sobbed so hard he couldn't see where he was going. His boot caught a thick tree root.
He fell face-first into a muddy puddle, rolling over onto his back. He let out a loud, miserable wail into the empty trees.
A pair of clean white boots stopped right in front of his nose.
Natsu stopped crying for a split second. His nose twitched. He sniffed the air, blinking through the mud on his eyelashes. He didn't smell a regular human. Something was different about the guy standing over him.
Natsu scrambled up in the mud, his little fists bursting into bright, roaring flames as he yelled through his tears.
"Where is Igneel?!" Natsu screamed, charging forward. "Did you eat him?! Tell me where my dad is, you white-coat jerk!"
He threw a wild, flaming punch straight at Merlin's stomach.
Merlin didn't move his staff. He just tilted his torso an inch to the side, letting the tiny fire fist pass right through the empty air. Natsu growled, spinning around to throw another punch, but Merlin just leaned his head back, completely bored as the kid frantically swung his arms.
Before Natsu could burn his own clothes off, Merlin reached forward and tapped the blunt end of his staff straight against the kid's forehead.
Thwack.
The fire on Natsu's fists went out instantly. He blinked, his eyes rolling back as his legs went totally wobbly. He collapsed forward. Merlin caught him by the back of his vest, picking the filthy, unconscious kid up with one hand like a scruffy stray kitten.
"Well," Merlin chuckled, looking at the kid dangling from his grip. "You're a loud mouth, aren't you?"
Inside the guildhall, the tavern doors were kicked wide open with a loud slam.
Makarov jumped on his barstool, nearly spilling his cider as Merlin strolled into the room. Erza and Gray were sitting at a nearby table, their eyes widening as they saw the absolute mess Merlin was dragging in.
Merlin walked right up to the center table, tossing the filthy, snoring pink-haired kid straight onto the wood right in front of Gray's juice glass.
"What in the world is that?!" Makarov yelled, pointing a finger at the table. "Merlin! Who is this dirty brat? Why are you dragging stray kids into my guild!"
Merlin shoved his hands behind his head, leaning against the counter with his usual lazy smirk.
"Found him crying his eyes out in a bush," Merlin said. "He spits fire and won't shut up, so I figured we should keep him."
Natsu snorted in his sleep, rolling over on the table. His hand flailed outward, his fist hitting Gray's glass and knocking the orange juice straight into Gray's lap.
"HEY!" Gray screamed, jumping up from his bench as his face turned bright red. "He spilled my drink! Get this weirdo off our table!"
Erza dropped her fork, stepping closer to inspect the white scale scarf around the kid's neck, her single brown eye narrowing into a sharp squint.
Natsu slowly blinked his eyes open, looking at the loud room, then immediately locked eyes with Gray. "Who are you calling a weirdo, underwear boy?!"
"What did you call me?!" Gray yelled, his fists immediately freezing over.
The two brats instantly pressed their foreheads together, screaming insults at each other, while Merlin just grabbed a mug from the counter, completely amused by the instant chaos.