Author's Note: This story assumes the celestial realm and Earthland reality's time frames match. From what I can tell, that's how the series was written until the episode where the main group was training for the Grand Magic Games. The way the time differential was written just smacks of retconning and lazy writing for the sake of giving a reason to bring Jelall and his bunch in last second. Plus, it just doesn't make sense given the relationship between celestial spirits and the celestial wizards in Earthland. I mean, what's the point of Lucy asking when the spirits are available or not, as she's shown doing with Plue, if she has no way of knowing when those dates match up?
That's not to say all realities will match up. Different time flows are a part of the multiverse theory, so it works. Anyway, I hate retconning on principle, so I'll be sticking with the original cannon.
*** In case it isn't obvious, I do not own Fairy Tail in any way, shape, or form. I'm just playing with the characters to have a bit of fun and practice writing skills. ***
Natsu stumbled off the train. It'd stopped a couple minutes ago, but he still felt unsteady on his feet. He swallowed back the bile trying to rise as the ground seemed to tilt and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
"Come on, Natsu," Happy said as he floated a couple feet away. "I'm hungry."
"Don't talk about food," Natsu groaned.
He held onto the straps of his backpack like they'd help steady him. Why did he think taking the train would be a good idea again? The way they moved was bad enough, but having to walk through the station just made things worse. All those people moving around made his head spin. A wiff of obnoxious perfumes and stale sweat from too many bodies in an inclosed space hit him, and it brought on another wave of nausea.
Natsu clamped his jaw and kept trudging forward. The exit wasn't far away now. Once he got out into the open air, he'd feel better. No stupid motion sickness was going to get the best of him!
"That's easy for you to say," Happy chided. "You got to eat."
"Just flames," Natsu said. He pushed the station doors open and stepped outside. Once the door swung back shut, he took a deep breath as a breeze ruffled his hair. The fresh air felt great and did a lot to ease the sick feeling that lingered after a long ride.
Happy flew ahead a few feet, eager to get to the guild and the fish Mira always kept in stock for him. Natsu grinned and picked up the pace. As the nausea faded, he was starting to feel hungry too. Food sounded good again.
The pair wove their way through the streets of Magnolia. After five years in the city, they felt almost as familiar as the woodland where Igneel raised him. He knew the sights, sounds, and smells almost as well as he did those around his house. So when he caught a wiff of a foreign scent a few blocks from the guildhall, it peaked his interest.
Natsu stopped walking and started sniffing. He followed the weird smell to an alley off the main road. A magic circle glowed against one wall.
"What's the matter, Natsu?" Happy asked as he walked back to the alleyway.
Natsu motioned toward the odd circle just as something came flying out of it with a shriek. What or whoever it was slammed into the opposite wall with a meaty thump before dropping onto the cobblestones.
"Woah!" Happy exclaimed. "What was that?"
The two trotted over to the crumpled figure. It turned out to be a woman, heavy set and a lot older than them. Her arms were red and scraped, and her pants were worn where she'd hit the brick wall. She wore a pair of glasses that'd seen better days, and there was a nasty gash over her left eye.
"Hey lady, you okay?" Natsu asked. She didn't move or answer, causing Natsu to frown. He could hear her breathing, so he knew she wasn't dead. She seemed to be out cold, but wizards could take way worse hits than that. If she came through a magic circle, she had to be a mage, right?
Natsu knelt to try and shake the woman awake when her back arched up, and she started convulsing.
"Oh crap!" he yelped. "Go get help, Happy!"
"Aye sir!"
The back of the woman's head rapped against the cobblestones hard. The sound of bone hitting rock sent a chill down Natsu's spine as he hurried to drop the pack on his back. He didn't want to try and move her when she was having some kind of fit like this for fear of hurting her worse, but he knew he needed to protect her head somehow. His pack would have to work.
Natsu lifted her shoulders as best as he could and shoved his pack under where her head had been before lowering her back down. With as hard as her body kept pulling the rest of her in toward her navel, Natsu figured it was only a matter of time before she lost her lunch. He didn't want her to choke if she did, so he rolled her over on her side. It wasn't easy with her convulsing. She was surprisingly strong for an old woman!
Her lips and face started taking on a blue tinge, ratcheting up Natsu's panic just a bit more as he realized he couldn't hear her breathing anymore. He froze, not knowing what to do.
Then the convulsions stopped as fast as they'd started. The woman's muscles were still tense, but they began to relax. She started breathing again, taking in big, deep gulps of air.
Natsu sagged in relief. He thought about scooping her up and just carrying her to the guild's infirmary, but he was worried she'd have another fit. He'd caught the odd elbow or knee while trying to hold her on her side in case she got sick. He didn't know if it was just the fit or not, but the woman could pack a wallop! If she had another one halfway there, he didn't want to drop her or get beaten up by some old lady who wasn't even awake. He'd never live it down!
A jolt hit Natsu's knee, making him jump. It felt like when you shuffle your feet over a carpet and touch something metal, but he hadn't done anything like that. He looked down to see tiny sparks snapping over the woman's clothing and body. The miniature storm fizzled out in seconds, leaving Natsu even more confused than he was before.
"They're over this way."
Natsu could hear Happy directing someone over to help from a street or two away as the lady's breathing started to return to normal. Her color was better, and she hadn't started barfing. Those all seemed like good signs, but she wasn't waking up.
Master Makarov entered the alley behind Happy. Erza and Elfman followed behind, carrying a stretcher. Natsu stood and backed out of their way as they loaded the woman onto it. He picked his pack back up, and he noticed a small, black bag as he did so. He slung his pack onto his shoulders, and then he scooped up the bag, stuffing a few items that appeared to have fallen out back into it.
Natsu spent the trek back to the guild answering Makarov's questions as well as he could.
"You did well, my boy," Makarov praised. "I sent Macao to fetch Porlyusica, and from what you've told told me, it seems I made the right decision."
The woman had another fit of convulsions followed by a shower of sparks that burned out in several seconds on the way. It happened again two more times before Porlyusica arrived, and again a few minutes after she got there. The fits Porlyusica called a seizure all seemed about the same, but the sparks kept getting a bit bigger and lasted a few seconds longer each time.
As soon as the latest one sputtered out, Porlyusica kicked everyone out of the room. Natsu glanced at the unconscious woman as he left. She was gulping in air again like he inhaled flames still a bit blue tinged from her last seizure as the healer started digging through her bag for medicine.
Natsu went back out into the pub. Happy had ordered their usual dinners, and the food was waiting on him at one of the tables. His friend waved him over, not bothering to put his fish down in the process. Natsu trudged over to the table and sat down. He tucked into his food without his typical zeal as he puzzled over the oddity of what happened that afternoon. However, hunger soon overrode his confusion, and he woofed down his dinner.
Porlyusica made her way downstairs right about the time Natsu pushed his plate back. He stayed where he was but focused on listening to the hushed conversation she had with Gramps.
"How is she?"
"Stable, for now," Porlyusica answered. She handed Gramps several small vials. "There's not much more I can do for her until these spells work themselves out, so I'm leaving you with the potions you'll need to keep her from seizing. Administer a dose every three hours until she's gone five hours without doing a sparkler impression. Then you send for me again."
"What's happening to her?" Makarov asked.
"That, I'm not sure," Porlyusica said. She sounded annoyed and worried at the same time, and it made Natsu's stomach feel like it was full of rocks. "She's showing signs of magic deficiency syndrome, but then her magic spikes and sets off sparks. It's almost like her inner well never developed."
"How's such a thing possible?"
"It's not!" Porlyusica sighed, "At least not in this world. A babe born without an inner well would die without its mother's sustaining it."
Makarov paled. "An alternate?"
"That's what I suspect, given the symptoms." Porlyusica looked toward the infirmary with a frown. "I can't be certain until I talk to the girl."
"So she'll live?"
"Would I be leaving if my patient was on death's door?" Porlyusica snapped. "Really, of all the things to say!"
Gramps chuckled, and Porlyusica crossed her arms and glared at him.
"One dose every three hours until she doesn't spark in five," she repeated. "I'll return before you run out, so don't send any of your brats to my house unless she's improved." She harrumphed and hurried out of the hall leaving an amused Makarov behind.
Natsu sighed. The woman they'd seen thrown into a brick wall was sick, but she wouldn't die. Relief burned away the last of the adrenaline he'd been coasting on, and Natsu felt wiped out.
"Come on, Happy. Let's go home."