Chapter 2

Just as everyone had finished being roused, robed, and spoken to by the master, chaos broke out again as a discovery was made. Too focused on their own plight, it had taken the members of Fairy Tail awhile to start considering their surroundings. They were not yet allowed to leave the protective force field around them, but they did have a decent view of the large hall. Droy was the first to notice, pointing shakily at the destroyed bar.

"M-Master…"

Everyone turned to look, and it was awhile before anyone else could make out what he was looking at amongst all the dust and rubble. But after a few moments they all began to catch sight of it: pink, spikey hair poking up from under the ruined bar top.

Lucy gasped. "Natsu!"

Natsu, oblivious as ever, spoke up from behind her. "Yo!"

"Not you, idiot! I think it's another you!"

There was a heartbeat where Natsu didn't answer.

"Can't be," he finally said smugly. "I could smell anyone that close, and I smell me better than anybody! Don't smell anything." Somehow his giant grin was audible.

"You don't smell anything?" Lucy asked, her annoyance obvious.

"Nope."

"Well, didn't you just say you could smell *anyone* that close?"

Natsu fell silent.

"…Wha…? I…. Yeah…? Wait…."

Before anymore of this stupidity could continue, the master interceded. "The dome is currently blocking all means of detection, which includes ensuring smells aren't passing back and forth across the barrier. "

Lucy immediately made a run toward the motionless tuft of pink hair, but was seized from behind by a large cloaked figure that turned out to be Elfman as he reminded her, "Master said not to leave the force field."

The master nodded in grave agreement. "I apologize, but we cannot risk doing anything just yet, my child."

Lucy was indignant, and started helplessly kicking at Elfman, who had easily picked her up. "Master! We CANNOT just do nothing! LOOK AT HIM!" Lucy's anger was quickly turning to tears and desperation as she tried to free herself. She was nearing full-on hysterics, when a hand fell into hers.

"Luce," Natsu began, in a calming tone rarely heard from the bombastic dragonslayer, "it's okay."

At this, Lucy completely dissolved into tears and went limp. Elfman carefully passed the girl to Natsu, who held her closely, making slight rocking motions.

The master's face uncharacteristically looked its age as he sorrowfully regarded the sobbing girl.

"My children, I know that this is hard, and it will undoubtedly become harder. Clearly, something awful has befallen our guild in this time. But we cannot move forward until we know more and have a plan. I am truly sorry. But just as we place faith in the strength and tenacity of our comrades in our present, so we will have to trust in our future nakama to overcome—at least for now."

Silence greeted the master's words. Clearly, they all wanted to run to the rescue as much as Lucy, but they understood the truth of the master's words. This became even more difficult to swallow as they began to see more fallen members in the rubble.

Laxus's large form laid near the door, arms to his sides like a fallen soldier, Gray was partially visible behind an upturned table in the distance, and many more—some well-beloved, some unknown.

However, beyond the enchantment concerning smells, the dome seemed to mostly function as a sensory one-way mirror, and as the horrified members of Fairy Tail helplessly took in the grisly scene around them, they began to hear something: a slow jostling sound from nearby.

Eager to find some sort of life in all the wreckage, everyone turned toward the sound to find shifting wreckage.

No one said anything until the dirty and bleeding head of the master popped up from under a large shingle. "Master!" several people yelled in unison.

The other master, obviously unable to hear them, simply continued the arduous task of extricating himself from all of the debris. He made it halfway out before seeming to become too exhausted to continue, doubling forward and breathing laboriously. He muttered something to himself, but no one could hear what it was. The stress of the group at large almost reached a breaking point as they all began to clamor for the attention of the master that could hear them.

"But master!"

"Your heart condition!"

"Please!"

The master's hand, held up in a "stop" gesture, brooked no argument. A silent distress fell over the group once more.

But the mood soon turned to shock as the group noticed another person in the hall beyond their protective dome. One who was looking straight at them. It was Master Mavis.

She had appeared with no fanfare on what remained of the bar, sitting with her ankles crossed, and was smiling at them slightly, though her eyes looked sad and slightly weepy.

It seemed that no one could make their voices work as they watched Mavis turn to the side. No one had noticed them before, but there sat two large stones, one black and one white. The black one seemed to reverberate slightly, and small golden ripples pulsed off from it. The other lay apparently inert. Mavis grabbed the latter and lightly jumped down from her seat, quickly making her way over to the fallen master, who seemed either too tired to notice any of this or to care.

Still no one said anything as they gaped in silent awe while Mavis approached Makarov. She carefully set the stone beside him and then lightly set her small palm on the back of his head. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. But then a dull white sheen surrounded the master and he slowly raised his head toward the small woman, clearly having gained some vitality. "Thank you, first master." He nodded toward her. She nodded in return, and then gave another small smile as she turned her head toward the group under the dome. The master followed her gaze, and then a look of shock crossed his face as his eyes focused in on the group.

The other Makarov panicked. He looked toward the mage maintaining the barrier. "You said no one would be able to see us!"

"The barrier is working as it should," the other mage's voice came calmly, from under the hood.

The past master frowned and opened his mouth to respond, when little Master Mavis's light voice filled the room.

"She speaks true, fourth master." All eyes once again fell upon her as she addressed them directly for the first time.

"I have regenerated a small degree of your future-self's health, as well as given him the power to see and hear you. I cannot interfere much more than this, but I think that this small weight in your favor should be enough to give Fairy Tail a fighting chance at survival—both in the past and future." She then bent to whisper something in the clearly confused future Makarov's ear for a minute or so. His expression became more grounded and serious as the time passed, and when she finished he shakily nodded to her and murmured something, clearly still having much difficulty speaking.

Mavis rose up again and gave everyone a genuine grin. "I believe in you all—now you just need to believe in each other." And with that, she disappeared in a flash of light.

The group under the dome all turned to look at each other in awe, despite not being able to see each other's faces beneath the cloaks, and they began to murmur to each other. But soon, Mira's voice rose above the babble, "Shhhh! He's trying to say something."

The injured future master was staring directly at them and trying to speak, but it seemed that even with the energy that Mavis was able to give him, he still wasn't even strong enough to do that.

"It's alright, Master," Mirajane's sweet voice called out. "Don't push yourself too much—please." The future master smiled weakly at her and laid his head back down on the ruined pieces of the building around him, but slowly began reaching out a shaking hand. They watched in confusion as his hand inched closer to the white stone that Mavis had placed beside him. It was very close to him, and before anyone could question what he was doing, the room very suddenly went black.

Several people yelled out in shock, and almost everyone tensed up for battle.

Almost immediately, the area around them brightened again—in fact much more so than before, and there was way more noise as well…. WAY MORE.

They found themselves in the previously-ruined future guild, but now it was completely intact. And beyond that, it seemed that a party was in full swing.

"The barrier is down! Defensive positions!" the master yelled, and it was clear that this was so—the glowing dome was nowhere to be seen. Everyone jumped accordingly into ready stances, but it didn't seem that any of the partygoers were paying them any mind.

After a few moments of nothing happening, Erza confidently approached the nearest mage and brandished her sword at him.

"See here! Tell us when and where we are or—" the mage she was speaking to then walked right through her, and approached the bar, yelling for another round of ale.

…." What on earth….? Erza whispered, shell-shocked. "Master…" she looked toward Makarov, clearly unsure how to proceed.

"Hmm," was his only response, as he crossed his arms and looked downward, deep in thought.

"What the hell?" came Natsu's voice from the back of the group. He had set Lucy—who seemed to have composed herself somewhat—back on her feet, and now had his fists raised and at the ready.

"Why're they ignoring us?" he asked indignantly, apparently somehow missing the fact that the mage had literally walked through Erza. "... HEY! ICE PRINCESS!" he yelled, spotting a shirtless Gray in the crowd. "WHAT'S GOIN' ON?"

With that he leapt into the air, attempting to bring a fiery fist down on the Gray in the far crowd, who clearly wasn't paying him any mind, just like the rest of the partygoers.

"ROOOOOOHHH—oh?"

Natsu's fist went right through Gray's form and hit the ground with a very unimpressive thunk.

"YOU IDIOT," came Gray's voice from the cloaked group behind Natsu.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLIN' AN IDIOT?" Natsu yelled back.

Everyone else ignored the two as they watched what they assumed was the future master spectacularly fail at giving a drunken speech, fall, and then proceed to crowd surf around the room.

Then everything went black again and they were suddenly collectively repositioned, including Natsu who was suddenly back with the main group.

"WHA—!?" The dragonslayer began to exclaim, very disoriented by the sudden move and change of scenery. At least four sets of hands clamped themselves over the dragon's impressively-sized maw. "SHHHHHH!"

They then all watched as an unfamiliar mage in a cloak and mask held up two more-familiar stones and bragged about their abilities.

"Hmm…" intoned the master again, head still bowed in serious contemplation.

Everything went dark again, but then the scenes began to change more rapidly, and they were only able to catch rapid snapshots between darkness, like someone was opening and closing a camera shutter. More revelry, Erza kicking Natsu through the ceiling, morning, a cloaked figure, a battle…and then they were back in the ruined guild.

"Bl—blergh," Natsu had fallen to his knees in the background. "Natsu?" Lucy's hand fell onto his back with concern. "I just realized why…" the dragonslayer began before gasping and groaning a few times…"why they call it time- *travel*," with another "blergh" noise following this declaration. The group could almost hear Lucy's eyeroll.

The master, meanwhile, still had not moved from his thoughtful stance.

"So we know we were attacked? Helpful," Laxus commented sarcastically.

"We may have learned more than that, boy," the master finally responded, appearing to contemplate his now unconscious future self, who lay a few yards away, still lightly touching what they now knew to be a memory lacrima.