Chapter 24: Nightmare

Beta read by Shigiya

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Dreams were weird, and not just for the obvious reason. Most people had one or two a night: vivid, unsettling, and sometimes downright scary. For those with dreams on the strange side, or maybe even weirder than that, it could be really bad news. Especially when it came to nightmares, Broly didn't like them at all.

Some would experience free falling from a high place, getting chased by some monster, getting hurt, or encountering some unexplainable entity watching them from the darkness. The Saiyan never feared any of these things. They mattered little to him as even his mind subconsciously knew that he couldn't get hurt from any of these, no matter the situation.

No, the nightmare he was having was far more peaceful and calm. The man found himself waking up in a cave on a blanket of fur and carapaces. The familiar stench of sulfur and dust filled his nose, the dryness in the air, and the heat — it felt like he was back on Vampa. The planet where the weak die to become food for the strong, a place he still to this day considered his home despite the conditions.

"Hm," he got up, keeping himself calm from the panic that was crawling into his mind. The floor was filled with the remains of his last meal, empty Vampa Beatles shells, and dried-up greens fluids. This was the home he grew up in since he was a child, eating the same food for decades.

"Father?" He called out Paragus, looking around and finding an empty bed beside him.

That was weird. He would usually be the one to wake him up for training or make sure to always guard the entrance from any surprise attack.

A foreign feeling settled in his heart. He was beginning to worry despite not having any reason to. His father was strong enough to survive against the creatures of this world. Even an Alpha Beatle wouldn't be able to kill Paragus as the latter could just escape — or he would have shouted his name. Yet despite knowing this, his heart started beating like a drum the longer he stood there, all alone.

"Father!"

No one answered again.

Walking outside the cave, he was met with the same old orange-tinted sky with not a trace of vegetation or water anywhere. An environment so dry and scarce with resources like water where one could only satiate their thirst by consuming other creatures. Despite all of this, there was a strange peaceful atmosphere amongst the hellish landscape. There wasn't much to do here aside from training. He scoured every corner of the planet hundreds of times yet never found a single being like him aside from different species of Vampa Beatles. He did discover creatures similar to Ba, but after what happened before… he did not want to approach them and have them die due to his actions.

Bang!

A loud explosion came from the distance, shaking the very earth beneath his feet. A large mushroom cloud made from blue Ki rose to the sky, its size dwarfing every mountain around him. And for a brief second, he thought he heard a familiar voice.

"—r—ly!"

That was Paragus!

Not wasting any time, he pushed his feet with pure force, shattering the ground and hurtling forward with a shockwave, moving beyond the speed of sound.

More explosions and beam attacks appeared in the distance, this time an emerald green light emerging against the blue Ki. Both were fighting for supremacy and overpowering the other. This felt weirdly familiar. With each explosion, his body ached, going so far as to even start bleeding from one specifically giant shower of blue Ki energy blasts. But he did not pay any attention to any of them, having his mind focusing on a single person and their Ki signature. It didn't take long before he found Paragus.

"—!"

The man was on the ground, clutching his bleeding stomach with heavy gasps. His eyes were half closed, showing signs of exhaustion, with strength leaving him and the sign of death slowly approaching him.

Broly's heart stopped, and he rushed next to him with panic settling in his guts. "I'm here! Let me help you! You'll be fine!"

He knew nothing about how to help him. Not a single of his techniques could heal wounds in the first place. Paragus never taught him anything like that and would just mention letting the body recover on its own. But this wasn't something that could be left alone, and I hoped that it would get healed like this.

As he tried to pick his father up, a warm and wet feeling came from his hands. Looking at them, his eyes widened in terror.

"—!?"

They were coated in blood…

"Ah… A-ah…"

It wasn't his blood. Weirdly, he knew where it came from. Paragus grabbed his arm before looking his son in the eyes, his eyes becoming glassy.

"W-why… Broly?" He whispered, hearing his voice after what felt like decades… something he missed dearly once again. But this one wasn't filled with the stern and angered tone he was used to, but confusion and betrayal. So weak that it was easily drowned by the fire of the battle spreading around the land. " Why… did you do this to me?"

Broly's eyes stung, growing blurry by the second before tears started to stream down his face. His breathing became increasingly ragged. He didn't kill him… he couldn't have killed his own father. It was impossible!

"I didn't—"

But the words didn't come out of his mouth. Instead, they were swallowed by the wind, his sanity breaking down bit by bit.

He saw Paragus' eyes slowly close before his hands went completely limp and fell down, lifeless.

"A-Ah…Ah!"

He now no longer was on Vampa, this time finding himself floating in the sky. His clothes were destroyed from battle, and his rage showed itself from the green aura around him.

Broly's mind went blank. Another loud bang echoed through the world and shook his entire being, sending a jolt of electricity through his body. It felt like he was falling away from reality, deeper and deeper into his rage.

It was his fault…

He never wanted this, the only family he had ever known was now dead, and he found himself drowned in sorrow and pure fury.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Deep emerald-colored Ki exploded from his body, expanding upon the land around him to a rate that enveloped everything in mere seconds. There was no more battle going on around him. His injuries have long healed, yet he couldn't feel anything but sadness and rage.

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"Ah!"

"Hey, Big guy! Wake up!"

His eyes snapped open in a stupor, finding himself no longer in either Earth or Vampa but instead inside a small wooden house.

But that was not all. He felt two weights resting on top of him, pushing down his arm and legs. He found a brunette sitting on his chest, her wet hair dripping water on his face and a towel that could barely wrap around her chest — threatening to undo itself at any moment.

But that was not important to him. He didn't even notice it, aside from wondering who this person was for a split second. Thousands of images come to his mind, Earthland, Erza, Lucy, Fairy Tail, and finally…

"Ca…na?"

Her worried face turned into a smirk.

"Finally, back to your senses, I see. You had us worried there with your growling and your body thrashing around. I guess you had a nightmare?"

We?

Looking down, he saw Lucy in her nightwear holding down his legs. She also looked very worried at him, panting heavily with sweat covering her face from trying to hold him down. Even Cana was sweating, with one of her hands holding a glowing card that had chains coming out of it to bind his arms.

"What… is going on?" He asked, slowly waking up from his previous state.

"We should be asking you that," Lucy said. "Cana and I heard you start to panic and scream in the living room. We found you literally scrambling around and shouting for someone. You wouldn't wake up when we tried and even started shooting magical attacks out of nowhere."

Oh, Broly closed his eyes and started remembering the nightmare he had. This was the first time he had experienced such a thing, despite how many years had passed since that day. Rubbing his eyes, he felt guilty for worrying Lucy and Cana.

"I'm… sorry about that." He apologized, hoping to never experience such a thing. "I promise this won't happen again."

Looking upwards, he saw a hole on the rooftop before sighing in relief that he still managed to hold back even during his sleep.

He gazed at Cana sitting on his chest, the chains having disappeared with the card falling to the ground. Thankfully, there were no injuries on any of the girls. He wouldn't have been able to forgive himself if all of these years of training were to be wasted just because of a single nightmare.

"Finally calmed down, big guy?" She asked, not bothered with her current lack of clothing and focusing on him, wanting to make sure he was okay. "Didn't notice you had green eyes. They're quite beautiful, I must say."

"—!?"

Broly closed his eyes, realizing that he hadn't fully calmed down. Taking a deep breath and forcing his drumming heart to calm down, he felt the turbulent Ki within his body become less agitated before becoming silent like the ocean. Opening them back again, he saw Cana looking at him in confusion.

"Did you just… change the color of your eyes?"

He shook his head, "They have always been black. What you just saw there was just my Ki reacting." That was the best explanation he could give without talking about his form and the Great Ape, and it wasn't exactly a lie either.

Releasing his breath slowly, Broly was back to normal. He looked at both girls, giving them a nod. "Thank you and sorry again, I had a… particularly bad memory of my past."

Cana looked at him for a bit before sighing. She ran her hand over his head, the water of her hair falling on his face. "There there, whatever you saw wasn't real." From her conversation last night, she learned that Broly was apparently somehow connected to Erza as the latter hugged him before crying in the middle of the guild. That was certainly a shock to the card wizard as she couldn't believe that someone had managed to make the holder of the title of Titania cry in the first place.

But for her to act like that only meant that Broly was someone from her past. Back when she used to be a slave in the Tower of Heaven and forced to build the damn thing until it was destroyed by the magic inside it losing control before exploding. Erza never talked about her past, always remaining quiet, even with Makarov.

Cana suspected the only way anyone knew anything was Mirajane, but those two had a special bond, so none would snitch on the other even with other guild members. Maybe if she tried to confront Erza directly about his past? She wanted to avoid becoming too intrusive in their past lives and meddle her nose in her friend's private affairs.

Meanwhile, Broly was caught off guard by her move. He expected the girl to react fearfully at first, but she didn't and even tried to comfort him instead — it was a gesture he appreciated despite not needing one.

"Oi, you can get off him now," Lucy said by the side, uncomfortable with how these two were positioned. Cana wasn't naked, but the towel that hugged her figure, coupled with the wet hair while she rested on his chest, somehow made the scene even lewder in her eyes! Even more than that time, Aquarius tried to tell Broly how to give a proper massage that looked a bit too intimate in her opinion.

'The man is far too naive and nonchalant with everything that it's more troublesome for some reason.'

"Hehehe, yeah, we may have shared a beer keg yesterday, but I ain't getting intimate with you, mister… yet~!" She got off, making sure to hold the towel that had to loosen up a bit. Cana looked at the hole in the roof, scratching her chin. "Let's hope it doesn't rain today, or else my things will get ruined."

"I'll fix it," Broly said, already having a plan and knowledge for such a simple task due to having done similar things to his old house. "And I'll make sure it won't rain, so don't worry about anything."

"Heh, what are you going to do? Punch the clouds away?" The girl joked, not expecting the Saiyan to take her words seriously, and nodded his head.

"Maybe not with a punch, but a single Ki blast should be enough."

"... What?" Did she hear him correctly? Didn't seem like it from what she heard.

"Yes, punching clouds away is hard as it requires my hands to hit fast enough to create a powerful shockwave. But even then, only a small amount is enough, and a regular Ki blast can perform far better. Though if you insist, I can try it." Maybe he could use strength beyond his base state for a bit. Possibly even used this opportunity to test his physical strength alone without the usage of Ki.

Cana just looked at the Saiyan with a dry stare. She couldn't confirm if this man was joking or not. This was something she expected someone like Natsu or Erza to say, not the newcomer. But then again, she'd seen many weird people as a wizard in Fairy Tail, and most of them were her friends.

"You know what? I'm not drunk enough to deal with this now… let's have breakfast! Who wants some beer?"

"You're drinking already!?" Lucy exclaimed in shock, wondering what kind of person could drink at this hour, especially after last night!

"Of course I am. The best way to deal with a hangover is with even more booze!"

 "That logic is flawed!"

{Break}

After having a quick breakfast which mostly consisted of eggs and bacon, all three of them left the house, with Broly having made some quick fixes to the roof.

"Man, I gotta make some quick money as soon as possible. I'm only short of half a million jewels from my savings to move to Fairy Hills." Cana said, casually walking through the streets of Magnolia with Lucy and Broly following her.

Lucy had the wind knocked out of her lungs with that large number. Half a million!? She came from a wealthy family with enough funds of her own, but that didn't change the fact that this was a lot of money! Heck, the money her father entrusted Broly would be gone in a single month!

"Ah, oops, the rent isn't that much. It's only a fifth. But I need the rest of it to move out and get new cards and clothes. Only Erza pays that much, that girl rents four rooms and plans to expand soon. Don't tell me how rich she is, it's one of the guild's top ten biggest mysteries. Sorry about the confusion, Haha!"

"Oh, thank god," Lucy said, sighing in relief. "I almost thought living here would have been harder than I expected. Only in the high-class neighborhood in Fiore do rents go that high and beyond." She remembered years ago when her father and mother went on a vacation to the capital. Though it had been years since then, she still remembered her time there.

"You want us to help you out?" Broly asked, getting a side glance from Cana. "I heard from Mirajane that people can make groups and go on high-paying quests together. We can split the reward between ourselves, and no one gets in danger." Given how dangerous the quest Macao took nearly killed the man, he wasn't so willing to let anyone he knew do such a thing by themselves.

"Aw~ you're such a gentleman." She was about to decline before reconsidering his words. Though they had just met, she and Lucy got along quite well. They talked a lot last night, and she learned many things from the blonde about Broly. He sounded like a very powerful wizard, and his magic attack back there only proved it. The man also wasn't a pervert who sought to get closer to her with hidden intentions.

'He reminds me of Natsu and Gray.'

He is very straightforward and honest with his words while maintaining a calm and quiet attitude. Even while she sat on him this morning with nothing but her towel, he did not even seem to care. Granted, he had woken up from a nightmare but still! Furthermore, she had a hunch that his nightmare was probably about his past as a slave.

Lucy never confirmed it or even hinted that he used to be locked inside the Tower. But his connection to Erza and how the redhead reacted yesterday made her believe that this was the case. She couldn't help but feel empathy for the man, and any doubt that he was a dangerous man slowly began to wither away. Not to mention, Cana needed to form a group sooner or later, given how the high-reward quests were quite dangerous.

Not anywhere near as deadly as an S-rank mission dangerous, but, nonetheless, it never hurts to have someone watching her back. Especially for someone like her who couldn't really defend herself like Natsu or Gray — even Bisca was better in combat than her.

"That's a great idea!" Lucy said, finding the aspect of forming a team very much exciting and fun. To finally go on a quest with a true Fairy Tail wizard she has dreamt of since her childhood. Granted, they did help Natsu two times, but those felt different and didn't contribute much, which bummed her out a lot. Broly did most of the heavy lifting while she just followed along. She wanted to be more than that.

"Hmmm, I'm honestly quite tempted by your offer. The last time I teamed up was with Macao and Levy-chan. And that was just reorganizing some books in a library. Ah, screw it. Let's form a team!" She exclaimed out loud, drawing a lot of attention from the people around.

"Yay!" Both girls gave each other a high five while Cana fist-bumped the Saiyan, who gently returned it.

Broly smirked. He hoped their next adventure would include a battle. That fight with the Vulcan made him… feel a form of joy he wasn't familiar with. There was no rage, no one to command him to endlessly battle, just his own choice to fight to protect others.

After a few minutes of walking and discussing their next plan, he and the girls finally arrived at the guild. The inside was bustling with noise and cheers as usual, with people chatting and laughing with each other.

The man noticed a weird scene in front of him, something that both Cana and Lucy did as well.

It was Natsu, his face filled with bumps and bruises while being held by his scarf by Erza. Happy was in the corner, trying to hide while everyone else was laughing at them. As the boy had his soul leave his body, Erza was focused on a quest paper. Broly saw her frown as if she noticed something she did not like in the content of the paper.

"I'm coming as well." She said sternly.

"E-Eh? B-But you're not exactly blon—"

"Are you saying I can't do it!?"

"No, Ma'am!" Both Happy and Natsu bowed down to the woman, not wanting to disagree with her anymore and incur her wrath.

Weird, she looked angered about something for sure, and given how her hands were clutching the paper, it was clear that it was serious.

The redhead noticed a shadow looming over her. Looking up, her frown immediately disappeared and was replaced with wide sparkling eyes filled with joy.

"Broly!" She wrapped her hands around him, making a few wizards who weren't there yesterday nearly choke to death or have their jaws fall to the floor. "How was your night?"

"Great, Cana's house is really comfortable and warm." He didn't want to bother her with his nightmare, it only happened once for the first time, and it probably wasn't anything major. "What is going on? You look very unhappy."

"It's… nothing." She hesitated a bit before showing the flier to him. "Just someone whose name I recognized from a quest I took long ago."

He grabbed the paper and gave it a quick read. It was apparently a retrieval mission about a certain book from a certain mansion belonging to a Duke.

As he was, he felt someone's hair brush against his arm, as it was Cana pushing herself next to him to have a look. "Oh, this looks interesting, and the reward ain't half bad for such a simple thing."

"You think so?" He still didn't have a good grasp on the value of money in this world. He lived all by himself all this time without having to worry about money. Hunting food by himself and building his own house, but he needed to learn as well. "Isn't a Duke supposed to be a powerful person?"

"Something tells me that you're probably confusing influential power with magical power." Having been around him for a short amount of time, Cana wholeheartedly believed that she had a good grasp of his personality. "I know this Everlue, a fat man with too much money and weird fetishes. You can't spend a week without hearing about some scandal with him and his servants. The guy is an honest to god super pervert with a strange taste. He's also not powerful at all, just has enough money to hire powerful people to protect him."

"Ooh, he reminds me of Lucy's dad. So, are you interested in taking the quest?"

"For sure, it looks simple enough, and we might even have loads of fun with this as our first teamwork." She said cheerfully, patting his arm.

While they were discussing animatedly with each other like they were good friends. Erza couldn't help but have her eyebrows twitch from this display in front of her. Cana was friendly with everyone, but the way they were interested felt… off. And what was this about a team? Had they decided to work together already!?

Now Erza truly started to regret living in Fairy Hills. That darn rule was proving to be a greater hindrance than she had initially expected.

"Hey, you two, you're forgetting something." She interrupted their talk and pointed right to the corner of the paper. "Read this."

"Hm? He's a famous womanizer, lecher, and pervert. He is currently searching for a blonde maid." He read it out loud, making Erza nod her head while Cana rolled her eyes. "Um… neither of you is blonde."

"Humph, I don't need to be blonde to have him kneel before me!" Erza exclaimed, confident in both her looks and power. "I have an entire collection of limited edition maid costumes, and I guarantee that no man will ever be able to turn me down." She used them in the past during a photoshoot with Mira, and they proved to be more effective than she expected.

'And I can show off a bit to him….'

"I don't know about that, Erza," Cana said, scratching her head, not denying her boast. Even she could appreciate a beautiful woman like the redhead, "I remember this guy being a real oddball. There is a chance he will ignore you despite your beauty."

"We can go together."

"While the idea of dressing up as a maid with you is quite attractive, I still think it won't be enough. I've dealt with weirdos like him, and they won't crack unless a girl meets their fetishism."

"Well, it's not like we have… anyone… else…."

Realization dawned on all three of them, and they slowly turned their head to look for a certain Celestial wizard girl currently in the middle of talking with Happy — the latter also trying to reel her in another quest of his.

"So you see, Luigi, if you help me catch a cage full of Winged Fishes, I'll be very grateful. They are an extremely rare delicacy, also known as Hanesaka. You can eat some for free as well. This type of food costs more than your future rent."

"You're not making a good effort to earn my goodwill, cat. At least try to learn my name, or else I'll feed YOU to the fishes." Lucy sighed, contemplating her desire to kick Happy across the guild hall.

"Aahh! Lucy's picking on me!" Happy cried, exaggerated tears falling down his face.

"No, I'm not!"

"Then help me capture these fishes? You'll make a perfect bait." He asked, looking hopefully at her with a large smile.

"No!"

Bam!

Unfortunately, his attempt at persuasion didn't work as expected, instead, just pushed the blond over the edge and Happy ended up being launched all across the hall with a strong kick from an enraged Lucy. His head ended up getting smashed inside the wall before falling off and hitting Gray's head.

That cat honestly was going to give white hair at a younger age, with how frustrating he could be! She even expected that he was doing it intentionally to get a rise out of her.

Shiver!

Suddenly, a dreadful chill ran up her spine. Like if she was dropped in the middle of a forest surrounded by predators. She looked around and found Erza, Cana, and Broly looking at her so intensely that it started to feel uncomfortable.

"H-hey, guys… what's the matter? What a-are you looking at?"

The three of them exchanged eye contact before nodding their heads.

"I have enough maid outfits for all three of us. No pervert will be able to resist our beauty." Erza said, freaking Lucy out.

"Can I have an outfit as well?" The Saiyan asked, wanting to be included with the group.

"Hmm, I have to pass an order for an extra large butler suit."

"Hooo, I'm kinda excited to see you in a suit, I never tried one in the past." He only saw them in magazines, some of Lucy's butlers wore them constantly and he had to admit that it did look nice. "But then again, I might tear them up by accident..."

They talked like normal while ignoring the horrified Lucy.

"Excuse me!?"

Just what happened while she wasn't paying attention!? The girl was left wondering just what kind of twisted quest they were taking for her to become a maid. Though wearing the outfit did make her interest peak, maybe it would look cute on her...

Natsu, on the other hand, felt like he was being overlooked by the bunch. Not that he dared to speak up in fear of Erza, but there was no way he would get a chance to fight strong opponents and Broly at the same time!

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.