Chapter 3: Awakening

FTP: Hello everyone, and here's chapter three, I left the events coinciding and pretty much a what if the lie was that future Lucy is actually layla?So the forehead scene and such (squeeee) is included and after I diverge to my own story. Thanks for reviewing to sereneskydragonslayer and wildanimelover. I will continue this story to the end.

Layla: FTO owns only the fanfic plot the rest belongs to mashima-sensei!

The breeze lifted her blond locks behind her body and made her shiver in the delight of being in the outside world. Lifting her arms upward her palms directed towards the sky she allowed herself to sing about her joy.

"Welcome family, my heart, my soul and life...lalalalala," she began before continuing in a wordless symphony, she had never been much interested in words anyway. All that had to be done was give her voice to this world she adored and the inhabitants she could not live without. The trees, the wind and even the animals seemed to join the young girl around her as they rustled into life. The young girl passed a hand by her hair as she turned having sensed the presence of her friend.

The man frowned, noting the girl was dressed in her priestess outfit, a red dress that covered her right shoulder and continued over her well blossomed bust, sixteen years old and yet she could already be called a woman. The many responsibilities that she shouldered made sure to cut her childhood short.

"You didn't need to stop because of me," he muttered in his low tone returning to his usual meagre expressions, yet this man was a very powerful individual and her peer which made many older mages jealous. He was after all the genius wizard of the year x384*.

"How can I talk to you if I'm singing? D-did mother send you?" the smile that had formed was quickly replaced by a look of contempt.

"Layla, give your mother a chance, she only wants you to be strong so you can take care of herself,' red eyes met indignant chocolate brown and the boy was immediately silenced by the stare. His cheeks flared and he looked away a hand scratching at his short black hair.

"I need a mother not a mentor, Zeref," she spat before sighing, "I have to sing again today, as a priestess,"

"I know you're doing splendidly, Igneel and I saw your first performance yesterday, they call you the dragon priestess already," he smiled sincerely almost taking the breath away from the girl, he would only ever smile like that for her.

"I'd be honored if I'm chosen!" Layla laughed wondering if she was capable of appeasing the dragons. Grabbing the hand of her friend she ran towards the city, it was surrounded by an impenetrable wall. You could only force you way in by flight. The girl wondered what her future would be like, would she ever really meet a dragon and if so could she find the courage to tell him the truth about herself?

The scene froom her memory changed leaving her too look up at chandeliers of the castle's dining hall. Slowly getting up to a sitting position the woman was met by the awed expression of fairy tail. Layla couldn't even look her daughter in the eyes, after all a lot of what she had said to the man Jellal as she impersonated her daughter and what she was about to reveal to fairy tail, the white knight and the celestial mage Aguria was actually merely a twisted version of the truth.

Yet the son of Igneel would easily believe her just for being Lucy. She even broke into a small smile, a true smile, when she was scolded by the girl. What would Jude say if he was here? Ah, but this had nothing to do with her late husband, although it was probably time to tell Lucy the truth about him. When she revealed herself for whom she was, Layla would have to spill the beans about her and Zeref to Lucy and about her papa as well.

The warmth that overcame her as their forehead touched reminded her of the gentle soul that the fire dragon had been to her. Tears of loneliness, the joy of the moment and the accumulation of so many emotions flooded her eyes. And of loss, she watched as her daughter averted her eyes, smiling and blushing at the scene.

'So her heart already belongs to this man?' the older blonde determined, 'This makes everything more complicated, I'm sorry Lucy, you and Natsu will have to be apart for a time,'

Blinking them back before her resolve could crumble she suggested to meet with crime Sorciere. The castle was not a safe place, the dragons, the presence of eclipse and the return of Zeref could only bring trouble.

"Come with me," Layla murmured as she took the group as far away from eclipse as she could. The ability of absorbance the gate had was something that could cause their defeat. The group moved rapidly across halls and corridors without encountering anybody.

"i studied the castle well before returning from the future," Layla supplied half truthfully, it was true she knew this castle well enough but for entirely different reasons.

Oh how this place had changed, in the four hundred years or so she had slumbered, her memory wiped clean and her body had remained that of a sixteen years old. When she was was woken up by Jude's parents, finding her sleeping form inside the ruins of her birthplace, his family had given her a home and she had given up her keys whom had never left her side to the new friends she had made and trusted knowing the child that was to come, if the path of magic was chosen, would be in safe hands with those spirits. In time she had learned to live with her broken memory and a beautiful young daughter was born, that was when the memories started returning. The nightmares started plaguing her and soon even Lucy would wake up in the morning crying and terrified, only the when the mother would rock her back to sleep and remain by her side would she feel safe.

Lucy grew up into a healthy young child, and seven days after her tenth birthday, the memories that Layla had longed to recover, that had been longed placed on a shelf and forgotten returned all at once. On the 7th July x777, the last day of the Grand magic games festival she had been participating in, the day Zeref had entered her life once more. And this castle which was once her surrogate home as a dragon priestess.

Zeref watched as the sun began to fall. Titania was busy with the Lady of Sabertooth, he had never thought he could feel such malevolence in magic but his own. Gajeel was facing Rogue who was emitting an eerily familiar aura. Yet his mind clung to the ray of light inside the castle making her way to the dungeons. Next to that familiar magic very like his own was one that was almost twin to the womans. Whose was it? Who could hold magic so much like Layla's?

The woman had mentioned a daughter, with that man Jude. His fist tightened around his cloak at the thought someone else had touched Layla. Yet that man had brought happiness to both girls. The child's magic was similar to what he had felt at tenrou island, a distinct signature that had always been close to natsu whenever he tried feeling for it. At the time he had not noticed the similarities between the women magic power, perhaps because the child had yet to fully develop, she was not even using half of her capabilities, and the same applied to the dragon slayers.

Funny how they seemed to always miss each other, he had not even once glanced at the girl. If her magical feel was so similar to her mother, she must also look like her. It would make sense. He smiled softly, the smile almost reaching his eyes, there was already affection in his heart for the girl even though they had yet to meet. His heart that had stopped beating for the past four hundred years as he traveled alone the people he loved dead, by his hand no more or slumbering.

"Acnologia, Igneel, Metallicana, and Grandine, the dragons, Layla and Lucy, the dragon priestess and possible heir, the dragon slayers, Natsu, the only one who could kill me, Gajeel and Wendy, his companions and the young Sting and Rogue," Zeref murmured as he slid back into the castle, "Last but not least the dark wizard zeref, and the gate of darkness Eclipse, how could ten thousand dragons not be awakened to this manifestation,"

It almost felt like it was that first 7th July all over again, when he had allowed Acnologia to be born. had it really been four hundred years?

"Let the festival begin...,"

*this is 400 years prior the start of FT.

See you next chapter =D