The Dragon Father

Acnologia's Tale

Everyone settled down and listened to Acnologia who stood telling his story. 

"It began in a small unnamed village far away from this continent," Acnologia began remembering the blurry images he had of his home. The wooden roofs and old stone walls that the ivy climbed up. He saw small birds pecking at the dirt trails and he heard a soft voice speaking words he didn't recognize. "I don't remember much of it," Acnologia admitted, "But I remember the day that the dragons came."

The dragon slayers shifted in their seats as they listened closely.

"The fire, the smoke, the roars of the beasts as they chased humans around like a dog to a rabbit. It was a slaughterhouse for every human living there," Acnologia explained closing his eyes and reliving the moment. "Dragon slayers had been discovered of course... The mother of all dragon slayers discovered the art of dragon slaying magic when she was in her early twenties and it spread like wildfire through the dragons who supported the humans. Many young inexperienced dragon slayers, teenagers that were far too young to die, ran to try and save the people... they too were slaughtered."

Now there were some horrified faces in the crowd, he heard Lucy breath in sharply. Serena and the other dragon slayers didn't look surprised.

"I alone survived because my small, unimportant village was attacked by the king of the dragons."

Now everyone's eyes were wide.

"His name was Tyregenium, the dragon of death and chaos. He had no great dragons to tie his bloodline to so instead he forged his crown in blood and fire. He was the most ruthless, the most heatless dragon to ever walk this earth... and yet I owed him my life." Acnologia chuckled at this.

"Why... why did he spare you?" Lucy asked.

"Because... he needed a weapon," Acnologia answered coldly, "I had enormous magic potential, greater then Zeref does... I don't know why and I don't think I ever will, but my potential caught his eye and he decided that he needed me as his attack dog."

"Why? Why'd he need a weapon?" Laxus asked.

"The dragons weren't united," Acnologia explained, "There were those that loved humans, the greatest being Igneel, king of the fire dragons and then there were those that thought dragons were the superior race and deduced that humans were their playthings to hunt, eat, and kill as they please. Tyregenium was on the latter side... but he recognized the danger in dragon slayers and realized that if enough were created, the dragons who stood against humanity would be slaughtered."

"But he raised a dragon slayer," Erik pointed out leaning forward, "He created the exact thing he feared."

"I believe you once said that if your afraid of something, sometimes you just have to become scarier then the thing you're afraid of," Acnologia said looking to Erik who looked forward in interest, "well that was his thought process... he'd raise me to be terrified of him and with that fear, he would be able to control me... and for the first few years it worked." Acnologia chuckled as he thought back to the torturous years of his childhood. "I trained with him, was marked by him, scarred, and outcasted by my own kind... until I met someone who was different from anyone I had ever met."

Lucy's mind flashed back to that moment with Aquarius when she had seen Anna... her ancestor dying in Acnologia's arms... and Lucy knew.

"Her name was Anna Heartfillia," Acnologia stated, all eyes went on Lucy, "She was Lucy's ancestor."

Gajeel choked, "What are you!? Lucy's great, great, something grandfather?"

"Gajeel get your head out of those gutters!" Serena cried.