defying ragnarok

"This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper."

In the end, they were the last ones left in a broken world. In the end, there were fewer than a hundred people left in Fiore. If there were other survivors that had once been their ally or friend still alive, they surely had scattered elsewhere. They do not know of anyone else but each other.

In the end, only Lyon and Meredy were left.

At first, they still had Jellal, even as much as a shattered man he was after his wife had passed. But then Jellal was gone too. Whereas there had been three before, now there were only two.

Lyon couldn't remember how he had come to travelling with the strange duo, only that he was lost after losing the last of his guild. Meredy became his best friend, his dearest sister. One half of the same soul.

It was Meredy's idea first. To turn back time, to rewind the past, to change everything. To save everyone.

After she had lost Jellal, she became desperate and angry and determined. She started scavenging for books and texts on ancient and lost magic. He had chalked it up to grief at first. He was worried, but he had not said anything. At least it gave her something to do.

Until she started talking about time travel. She tried to convince him to go along with her plan, and yes, he had been sceptical at first. But loss and longing eventually won out.

Meredy was right. What did he have to lose anyway?

"Ultear has a spell. It's called 'Last Ages'. She used it once. It was in the battle of the future Rogue and dragons during the Grand Magic Games." Meredy explained.

"I remember. For a second, I could see the future of the next minute. That's because of her, right?" he asked, realization settling over his face. "She saved Gray."

"Yes, she turned back the clock, but only managed to rewind the time for a minute." She nodded gravely. "But instead of one minute, we need to go back eight years."

He skimmed through the old texts on Arc of Time again. Time was a tricky thing. Very complex and extremely dangerous to toy around with. That's why it's a Lost Magic to begin with.

"From what it says in the book, it seems like the spell rewinds time for the world, at the cost of the user's life. But we're not sending the world back. We're only sending the user back." He frowned.

"Spell writing is not really my forte." Meredy said uncertainly, biting her lip.

He looked at her mildly. "Are you giving up already?"

"No way!" she said loudly, head snapping up in offense.

"Then we have no problem." He smiled slightly. "We're both smart, right? We'll figure it out."

She relaxed, the lines on her face easing. It wasn't fair. She was barely thirty-five, and she already has stress lines on her face.

"Now, tell me more about Last Ages." He said encouragingly.

It took two years. Two whole years breaking the spell down and reforming it to suit their needs. Two years trying to find a way to break the Rules of Magic, to break the barrier between time and space.

In the end, they needed to destroy the world. Needed to obliterate the future to remake the past.

It was the easiest decision to make. The world was already destroyed anyway. No plants regrew anymore. The climate was too harsh. They hadn't seen the sun for years. The two of them managed to survive for this long due to sheer will and stubborn determination. Food was scarce, water even less so.

Trying to decide who to send back was harder. It was impossible to send both of them back. For Meredy, it was the easiest decision to make. She chose to stay behind.

They spent weeks arguing, with Meredy throwing every damn reason out why Lyon was better suited to go back instead of her.

Oh, she wanted to see Ultear. And Jellal and Juvia and Gray. And all the people she had come to love and became friends with.

But she knew Lyon had more to go back to. She didn't say anything, but she was dying anyway. Sickness had catch up with her. Her time was running out. She knew it, and Lyon knew it too.

The only thing she could do was give Lyon back his past.

Then they journeyed back to the land that had once been the proud city of Magnolia. Now it was a burned husk of nothing.

But they weren't back for the city anyway. They were looking for the one thing that would power their spell.

Lumen Histoire.

Fairy Tail's greatest secret. And now, their one weapon.

They needed the vast magic to power the modified version of Last Ages. The Eternano in Lumen Histoire should be enough to rewind ten years of time.

"So this is it." Meredy whispered, the teal light of Lumen Histoire casting a strange, ethereal radiance over her. "After two years..."

He gently took her hand. Her fingers automatically entwined with his. She looked up at him with an anxious smile.

"There's a chance you could die, Lyon." She said softly. "We may fail."

He chuckled tiredly. "At the least we had tried. What do we have to lose?"

"Nothing." She giggled, eyes soft and hopeful. She glanced at Lumen Histoire again, her eyes glittering an unearthly green from the light. "I feel like I'm dreaming. Here I am, standing in front of Fairy Tail's light and darkness, at the end of the world, going to attempt something so absurdly stupid that will not only kill me, but could also kill you too. If Ultear was here..." Tears welled up in her eyes. "She would have screamed and slapped me in the face."

"And then she would tell you how proud she is of you for being so strong all these years." He said quietly. "I'm going to miss you, Meredy."

She looked up at him and took both his hands in hers.

"No matter if it's the me now or the me in the past, you're still my brother, understand?" she said firmly. "I love you. You're my family. And the younger me will learn to love you again. You just have to give her time, okay?"

As they speak, she gently led him towards Lumen Histoire, closer and closer until the sheer vastness of its magic started to burn through their clothes and scorched their skin.

"I love you, Lyon, never forget that. And you're going to tell little me everything we had gone through together, good and bad. You're going to tell her that you're my family, you're mine and it's her job to protect you since I can't do it anymore." Runes tattooed across Meredy's sleeveless arms as she stood serene despite the heat.

"Please don't do this to me." He whispered, his voice breaking. "I don't think I can do this without you, Meredy."

"Don't cry." She smiled. "Of course you can. You're one of the strongest men I ever know. You won't be alone. I will be here." She pressed a hand against his chest. "I'm not leaving you at all. Always, always remember that you are not alone."

He felt the world trembled under the weight of such ancient magic, the ground shaking beneath his feet. He glanced up and he saw time slowing down. Meredy's fluttering hair froze mid action. The small, broken debris soaring up towards the sky from the force of the magic paused and stopped moving.

He felt Meredy's shaking hands tightened around his, her green eyes wide and moist. His own eyes felt wet as he stared back at her, tears running down his cheeks shamelessly.

"Be brave, Lyon." She mouthed.

Time resumed moving, ripping everything to pieces. The chaos became a roar in his ears, the light around the couple glowing so bright he had to shut his eyes. Even then, he could feel the light searing his eyes behind the eyelids.

"Be brave." And then the world imploded.

So, what do you guys think? I actually wrote an entire draft detailing up till the Grand Magic Games' third day. But I decided to rewrite it as I have changed quite a few things, including the beginning. And started revising on the changes Lyon would make instead of blindly following canon, especially now that Tartarus was explained more fully in the manga.