Here it is, Chapter 3 at last! (-;

Chapter 3 – Downpour


The sun rose slowly over the horizon, lighting up the world in a way that Will hadn't seen for years. He stared almost directly at it for a good minute, lost in wonder before spots began to dance in front of his vision and he was forced to look away. He was in a small room that looked to be the infirmary, and glanced across said room to see Erza slumbering in a similar bed to his own.

The knight mage rose from the bed, conscious of the healing magic still flowing through his veins, and requipped into new clothes. Erza stirred at this, opened her eyes and said a quiet "good morning." How she was able to act so naturally around him after knowing him to be her son for only an hour the day before was beyond him. Sure, they were equal in power; their battle proved that; but she certainly had the stronger force of will.

He went to leave the door when it flung open, almost hitting him. Natsu burst into the room in all of his cacophonous energy and went straight to Erza, seemingly worried about her. "Hey, Erza! Wake up!" He began to shake her awake, to which she punched him in the gut, still only half-conscious. Natsu noticed Will only after being attacked by Erza.

"Good to see you up, Windowsill! It'll be me fighting you next, just to warn you. I might not be able to beat Erza, but I can't lose to her son as well!" Will didn't attempt to correct his drastic mess-up regarding his name, figuring he would get it eventually, just as Nash and Katy did back in the future.

"Oh yeah!" Natsu exclaimed suddenly, having gone back to Erza's side. Gray and Lucy walked in at this point, and Will could also see Juvia peering in from behind the door. "Jellal came by, said he had to talk to Erza. Mira said he was probably your dad, for some reason. Not sure why though," said Natsu in a rush.

"Idiot," muttered Gray. Will had to agree, though he didn't voice my opinion. Isn't it obvious? thought the knight mage to himself. Deciding to stop him before he reached the point of total confusion, Will spoke up on the matter. "Yes, Natsu, I am the son of Jellal, and I will hopefully be born in four years' time. It'll be weird to meet my child self, if that is how this future thing works. I think that I'd like to figure out what became of my friends before figuring out how the time travel actually works, though. I vowed to protect them when I became guildmaster, and that is what I shall continue to do. I won't pretend that some of them aren't stronger than me, however."

"I see," Erza said, sitting up in her bed. Jellal walked in just then, to which Erza bluntly stated, "Meet our child, Jellal." He looked a little queasy at this, but chose to ask for an explanation rather than just fainting there and then. "Allow me to explain," Erza said.

"This here is Will, our child from the future. He was mysteriously transported to yesterday from 20 years in the future, and has no idea why. I have no doubt he is my blood, though; I fought him yesterday and our magic matched one another's uncannily. I hope this is not too shocking for you."

Jellal seemed to regain his composure slightly. "It's… nice to meet you, Will. My name is… no wait, you know that already. I'm sorry; I just don't know how to address you… or the fact that you are the child of Erza and me. It does answer a few questions I had, however."

"What do you mean?" questioned Will, glad his father reacted relatively positively to the revelation. "Well," Jellal began, "I came to Fairy Tail to inform and possibly warn about an unusual phenomenon that seems to be going on throughout Fiore."

"Go on," said Will, already guessing what he might be talking about, hiding his excitement behind a serious face.

"Everywhere around the continent, I have been picking up strange readings of a magic resembling Ultear's Arc of Time. Hearing of your story, I guess they must be other people from the future, especially since one of the readings I picked up on came from here. Do you know why you travelled back in time?" Jellal said.

"I'm afraid I don't; in fact, I was in battle when it happened, or at least, that's the last thing I remember," Will stated disappointedly. "I do hope it's my friends, though. I don't know what I'd do without them."

"Aww isn't that sweet," came a voice from the door. A girl about the same as Will strode into the room with both confidence and grace. Her hair was deep purple, as was her long, flowing dress that reached her ankles. A golden necklace with the Fairy Tail emblem on it hung from her neck, and her golden eyes seemed to pierce through whoever she looked at.

"Katy!" exclaimed Will. "Is it really you? Are you from the year X722?"

"Slow down, I've only just got here!" she said. "But yes, I am the Katy you know and adore! Seen anyone else? I came straight here after my awakening, so I haven't really searched much."

"Arrrrrgh!" shouted Natsu after having stayed quiet for a record length of time. "This whole time-travel crap is messing with my head! I really need some fire and time to cool off!"

"Chill out, man! This is important stuff," reasoned Gray in a confrontational tone.

"I don't really get it either, but I assure you, you'll want to hear this," cut in Katy massively. "You are my father, after all!"

"What?" Natsu asked quietly. But the quiet was short-lived. "WHAAAAAAT?!"

"Calm down, you're more hot-headed than my brother!"

"You have a BROTHER?!"

"In hindsight, I shouldn't have mentioned that," finished Katy, obviously used to Natsu's unreasonableness. Natsu was at this point punched for the second time by Erza, and shut his mouth to allow her to explain.

"And as for my mother," Katy started, "I might as well come out and say it: Lucy, you are my mother, or at least you will be."

Lucy didn't react loudly as Natsu did, instead turning a deep red and looking tentatively at Natsu. He didn't say a word, just took her hand and dragged her swiftly out of the room. Will and Gray went to go after them, but Katy held out a hand to stop them.

"They'll need time to discuss this, as will all of the Fairy Tail wizards when they find out who their future partners and children will be, some more than others. We can't all have parents as strong as Erza and Jellal," said Katy with a hint of sarcasm.

Will sighed. A lot of people were in for a shock, assuming his entire future guild had travelled back into the past. None of the current members remained in the guild in the future, either as victims of the cataclysm or because they went to the front lines to fight Zeref, so hopefully nobody would have to meet their future selves, but still, it would be a pain to say the least.

Meanwhile, in the north of Fiore, a storm was raging. Rain lashed down on a small village of cultists, all devoted to Zeref, who hid in the mountains. A 17-year old boy walked alone through the village, seemingly unaffected by the rain. His brown hair stood spiked up, and no raindrops ran down his face or dampened his plain blue and white clothing. The most noticeable feature of the boy, however, was the black marks running up his arms and wrapping around his face, encircling one of his bright blue eyes. The marks pulsed and shimmered in the rain, and he walked in an almost zombie-like state.

Slowly, he extended one arm in front of him, and a magic circle the colour of oil-tainted water appeared before him. The rain instantly worsened, and all of the buildings in the village collapsed in on themselves. The villagers, all of whom wore cloaks with black magic runes on them, began clutching at their throats amidst the rubble of the houses, and began to collapse one by one, having been drowned in the immeasurably torrential rain. Soon, none of them were left standing other than the caster of the spell.

A voice that was half-human and half-monstrous sounded from the boy's mouth. "The cataclysm of the future… it will occur thanks to selfish human desire and want of destruction. I shall exterminate them all. So says the storm demon slayer. Prepare yourself, Fiore!"


Hope you enjoyed that one, it was great fun to write! See you next time! (-;