Hello everyone! I'm Berry, and this'll be my first fanfic on here. I'm pretty excited about this, and I hope that you guys can be, too.
Before I let you guys get into this, I'd like to stress, I NEED SOME HELP with this! This is set with the next generation of Fairy Tail, so we'll be seeing a lot of the kids of the characters we all know and love.

I would absolutely love it if some of you guys could PM me or contact me somehow, and help me create their kids. I was just going to stick to my own guns and make all the characters, but I'm honestly really nervous that I'll do something wrong that a lot of people will disagree with.
For now, I know for a fact that I want NaLu kids, Gruvia kids, Jerza kids, and Gajevy kids, but I'm still not sure what other pairings I could see having kids of their own further down.

If I don't have any hits in a decent amount of time, I'm going to go ahead and introduce some of the kids next chapter, but I'd much rather have a helping hand in the mix! So please, if you read this, and enjoy it enough to be a part of it, contact me, I'd really appreciate it!

Hope you enjoy the start of the story!

Prologue

Snow settled on the forest floor. Everything around was under a thick coat of the cold, white substance. Soft sobs could be heard over the leaves that rustled in the wind.

A little blue-haired girl sat, her arms draped over the snout of a large, scaly beast, as tears flowed from her eyes. "Mama!" she cried. "I'm so-sorry that I couldn't h-help you. Pl-ple-please, don't le-leave m-me! Ma-mama, come ba-back!" She choked and coughed on her sobs. She looked at the beast through blurred vision, and looked at the thick, red liquid covering her hands and arms. She sobbed even louder. "I-I need you!"

. . . .

She traveled aimlessly for what felt like an eternity. She survived however she could. Her once brilliant eyes were now hollow and dead.

She questioned why she continued to live. Why any of this was worth the pain she had suffered. Was this really what she wanted? She stopped moving and stared ahead of her; a long road winded before her, leading to a place she didn't know. The girl hadn't had food in so long, she knew she wouldn't be able to go much further. She'd never make it to the next town.

Despite this, she continued forward. She'd at least get as far as she could. Her bare feet dragged over the dirt of the path, the rocks scrapped the bottoms of her feet. Her tattered clothes did nothing to protect her skin from the burning sun. Everything hurt. This was it.

She would finally join her mother again. So very soon.

The world faded around her.

. . . .

When she was conscious again, it was cold. So cold that even she felt the bitter sting. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, but it made no difference. Everything was black.

"You're awake."

The girl jolted upright when she heard the voice. She glanced around, looking for the speaker.

"Jenice Skymaw. I have given you a new life, a new meaning. From this day forward, you will listen to me, and do as I say. You will prove to be useful." A man came into her view; he was tall, and covered from head to toe in a worn, brown cloak. "You have become my Harbinger."

The girl scooted herself back as the man came closer; something about him terrified her. The magic energy that poured out of his body was unbelievable, and he had such an intimidating presence. He was the essence of fear. She couldn't escape the man; her back hit a wall and she was left there to shrink into a ball and cower.

The man stopped just a foot in front of her. He knelt down, and carefully grasped her chin to force her to look up at him. His eyes scanned over her neck, as a black line weaved around it. A smirk graced his lips before he released the girl, straightened himself, and dropped a black scarf on her head.

"I will contact you soon and give you an introduction to your new job. Now leave."

A small noise escaped Jenice's throat. She complied to his order, clumsily getting to her feet and leaving the tower. She ran for as long as she could, not looking back. She hoped to get far enough away from that sinister man, so that she would never hear his first orders.

. . . .

Lucy stretched her arms above her as she walked in the general direction of her home. She, Natsu and Happy had just returned from a week-long job, and she was dying for a shower in the comfort of her own home. Natsu and Happy went ahead to the guild to let everyone, mainly her and Natsu's kids, know that they had gotten home safe.

She half expected Natsu to follow her home, like he usually did, but she understood that he was excited to see their children. She was too, but she felt like she hadn't had a proper bath in days, and she also wanted to drop her luggage off at home. The blonde knew her kids wouldn't be at home, so at least she'd have a nice moment of silence, before returning to the guild.

Or so she thought.

Lucy paused when she heard what sounded like choked sobbing mixed with some sort of gurgling. She was a little shocked when the noise suddenly intensified before dying ever so slightly. Alarmed and a little on edge, her hand found its way to the keys on her belt as she looked around for the source of the sobbing.

Sitting in a alley, not too far from hers and Natsu's home, she saw a girl, one hand braced on the wall and the other clawing at her neck, fallen to her knees and doubled over. Blood had began to pool at the girl's knees, coming from her neck, seemingly self-inflicted. The girl's bright, blue hair was a tangled mess, and her emerald eyes were bloodshot from crying. The black scarf around her neck was dark and heavy with blood, and her what was probably once a cute, pink top was just as red as the ground beneath her.

The sight shocked the blonde as she stared, wide-eyed, watching the girl for a moment before she hurried over, and stopped the girl's clawing hand. She girl recoiled, trying to free herself from the stranger's grip, screaming, wide-eyed, and staring in horror at the blonde.

Lucy was startled by the outburst, but kept her grip on the girl's wrist. "Shhhh, shh." She kept her voice low and soft, but made no other move to touch the girl. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl's chest went up and down sporadically as uneven breaths caught in her throat. Lucy noticed, then, that her breathing sounded wet. Lucy examined the girl's face, finally seeing the blood that dripped from the girls mouth.

That explained the gurgling noises that accompanied the sobbing. How was this girl still alive. Conscious, even. From the looks of it, she had lost an absurd amount of blood. Lucy was sure even Natsu would have troubles staying as alert as this girl seemed to be, if he were in this condition. The girl had clawed all the way to her own esophagus, for god's sake.

"Are—are you okay?"

The girl flinched at hearing Lucy's voice again. She pulled as far away as she could, with Lucy still keeping her hold on her wrist.

Lucy frowned. "Sorry, that's probably not the best question to ask, you're obviously..." Lucy stopped, and frowned. "We need to go get you help." The blonde stood, and waited to see if the girl could stand on her own. She just stayed put, sitting in the puddle of her own blood. "It's okay, I promise, I won't do anything to hurt you," Lucy said. "You can trust me, okay? I really want to get you to someone who can help, I know someone who has great healing magic."

The girl examined the blonde's face, looking for any signs of deceit. Reluctantly, the bluenette got to her feet, wobbling only just a bit before the blonde put and arm around her for support. They began to move and spent just a moment in silence before the blonde started speaking.

"What's your name?" Lucy looked down at the girl and added, "And what happened? Is everything okay?"

The bluenette was silent for a moment. "J-Jen." Her voice was hollow, quiet, and gargled just as her shallow breaths did. Lucy was legitimately surprised the girl could even speak. "Nothing happened, I just…" The girl looked down.

Lucy took the following silence as a queue not to push any further for now.

Man, she had one hell of a story to explain, once she got back to the guild…