"I don't know why you need so many books." Gajeel complained as he helped me carry my books to the guild.

"They are reference material for Lucy's book." I explained shifting the books in my arms. "Besides, there is no such thing as too many books."

He huffed and rolled his eyes. Gajeel was going to make another comment, but he was interrupted by a loud crash and a bright flash of light.

"What the hell." He grunted rounding the corner.

In the alleyway was a pile of people. At the bottom of the stack was a young woman with dark blue hair. Draped across her was a boy with pinkish-red hair, who looked about the same age as her. At the top of the pile was a purple flying cat.

"What in the world are you doing?" Gajeel asked. Irritation was clearly displayed on his face.

The boy jumped to his feet like somebody shocked him, and when he turned towards us, he looked like he had seen a ghost. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to. I'm not sure how we got to be in that position." The boy quickly tried to defend himself.

"I don't care what you and some girl are doing. I just want to know why you're making so much noise."

The boy looked astounded at Gajeel's words. Before he could start up again, the girl stood up and smacked the boy. "Shut up, idiot."

He rubbed his arm where she had hit him, "I'm not an idiot."

The look on her face clearly said, "Yes, you are." She gave him a look that told him not to say a word. Then, she turned to us. She looked us up and down before addressing me. "Hello, I'm Abby. This genius is Zander. The cat is Prudence. Who are you?"

Her tone was clipped and almost grouchy sounding. It really reminded me of Gajeel, which made me smile. "Hi, I'm Levy. The grouchy one is Gajeel. We heard a loud noise and were worried something had happened so we came to investigate."

"I don't know what you are talking about," was Abby's only response.

"You don't know what we are talking about. You must be something special to miss that," Gajeel growled.

"We are looking for the Fairy Tail guild," Abby said ignoring Gajeel completely.

"What do you want with Fairy Tail?" Gajeel was getting more annoyed by Abby's behavior.

"Could you tell us how to get there?" She didn't seemed phased by his behavior at all.

"We could show you," I responded hoping to defuse the growing tension before Gajeel exploded.

"I'm not showing these people anything." He dropped my books to the ground and got into a squatting position. "Iron Dragon-"

"Oh, shush!" Abby walked up to Gajeel, reached around the back of his shoulder, and Gajeel dropped to the ground.

"Huh?!" I wasn't worried before, but watching Gajeel drop to the ground in a split second without any warning made me panic.

"Don't worry, Levy. I haven't hurt him. I just knocked him out for a second." Abby explained showing me her palms in a sign of surrender. "Here let me get your books." She bent over and started stacking the books.

"Why did you knock him out?" I asked still wary, but someone who took so much care with books couldn't be that bad.

"I didn't want to fight with him, and he is kind of hot-headed. My dad taught me how to do that. It's really helpful." She grinned at me and stood up again.

The grin looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place it. Instead of worrying about it, I found myself grinning in response.

"Hey, Zander, want to grab these for me?" Abby asked as she shoved the stack into his hands before he responded. As she walked back to me, she asked, "So, can you show us the way to Fairy Tail?"

"Um, sure. What'll we do about him?" I gestured to Gajeel. He was still out for the count, and I knew I couldn't lift him.

"Oh, I'll take care of him." Abby said. She grabbed the back of his tunic. "Ready?"

Nodding, I looked back to Abby's two companions. They were talking to each other in hushed whispers. At the word ready, they jumped to attention.

"The guild's this way," I motioned and started walking.

#######

It was an odd sight to see when the guild doors opened, and Levy walked in. Levy herself wasn't odd, but she walked in talking to a red headed boy that nobody recognized. Even stranger was the person behind the two: a short girl dragging a passed out Iron Dragon Slayer along by his shirt.

"Hey, Master, we have some visitors who want to meet you." Levy called out.

Master Makarov looked over the newcomers and fought back a laugh at their entrance. "What do you youngsters need?"

"We want to join Fairy Tail," The girl responded.

"What do you mean, Abby? We are already part of-" Zander asked confused.

"Shut up," she glared at him.

"We do like having new members, but I'm going to need a little more information than that before you can join."

Abby dropped Gajeel into a groaning heap and pulled a paper out of her pocket. "Here," she handed the paper over to Makarov.

He looked the paper over curiously. Like Abby, he could only read part of the job request, but what caught his attention wasn't the unknown words. He stared intently at the date stamp located at the top of the paper. The start of the date was the same as today, but the year was about twenty years into the future. With quick analysis, he determined that the date wasn't forged. The stamp had been made with the Master Guild stamp.

"Hmm," Makarov said glancing up at the girl, who had been joined by her two partners, "I have my suspicions, but can you show me…?"

Catching onto his meaning, Abby turned around and pulled her hair to the side careful to let only Makarov see. On the back of her neck partially hidden by her hair line was the Fairy Tail guild mark.

"Yes, yes, and you two?" He asked the other two.

"Hello, I'm Zander," Zander introduced himself to the Master. He removed one of his fingerless gloves to show Makarov the back of his left hand.

"I'm Prudence." The purple exceed flew in front of Zander and Abby, using the two of them to shield her mark from everyone else. She removed the forest green beret to show the mark on the top of her head.

The other guild members were craning around trying to see what the strangers were showing Makarov. Unfortunately for them, the three quickly returned to their former appearance hiding whatever it was again.

"I see," Makarov said contemplative. "You may join Fairy Tail. Let's go to my office. I left the guild stamp there." He started up the stairs and motioned for them to follow.

Once the office door was shut and they were away from prying eyes, Makarov started shuffling things on his desk. "Even though it sounds incredible, I believe you guys are from the future."

"Yes, sir, we are." Abby felt like she had done all of the talking for her team, but she figured it was safer for her to do it than Zander.

"Who exactly are you? How did you get here?"

"I'm Abigail Redfox, the daughter of Levy and Gajeel Redfox."

When she mentioned her parents, Makarov couldn't help but choke and cough. While they had seemed close recently, Levy and Gajeel as a couple was still unexpected.

"This is my team: Zander Dragneel, son of Lucy and Natsu Dragneel, and Prudence, our Exceed."

Makarov bit off a giggle at the notion of Lucy and Natsu. He saw it coming, but he doubted Natsu had realized his feelings.

"And as to how we got here, I'm not 100% sure. We were taking that job request, and when I read it out loud, we were transported here."

"You read the ancient script out loud?" Makarov clarified.

"Yes, I know it was stupid, but I couldn't help it." Abby said.

"Well, probably the first thing we need to do is figure out what the text says."

"I agree, but I can't remember what I read, and I can't read it anymore."

"Strange," Makarov stated, "There is probably someone in the guild that can help. Levy would be the most likely."

Before Abby could respond, a loud growling was heard from Zander's stomach.

Makarov chuckled, "Hungry?"

Zander nodded enthusiastically, "Starving, actually."

"Why don't we go see if Mirajane can make you something?" The master said as he escorted everyone out of the room. "We'll continue this talk later."