"Good thing we weren't impaled by that thing," Romeo commented, looking up at the point of the castle spire that he and Asuka were holding on to.
Asuka looked down. "Right. Can you be quiet while I figure out the safest drop?"
"Sorry." Romeo looked at the gun Asuka had given him. "You don't suppose it might be a better idea to use fire magic rather than wind? I'm pretty sure we'd get more thrust."
Asuka pointed a finger at Romeo in acknowledgement. "Good point. Plus, then you could help."
Romeo nodded. "You know, I could use my sticky flames to lower us safely."
Asuka shook her head and pointed out at the city below. "We want to land out there, and we're at the center of the castle right now."
"I see," Romeo realized.
"Anyway," Asuka grabbed onto Romeo, letting go of the spire, "we should get down. On the count of three, we jump, and you use your gun to thrust away from the tower."
Romeo nodded.
"After that, we'll both point our guns down and slow our fall. Again, we can't slow ourselves down very quickly, so the landing's going to hurt. A lot. Ready? One…"
Romeo removed one hand from the spire, and reached for his gun.
"…two…"
He pointed his gun in the direction of the roof.
"…three!" Romeo let go, shooting fire out of his gun, and both wizards pushed off from the roof, propelled by the flames toward the city below. As they shot over the city, Asuka pointed her guns in the direction they were moving, and pulled the trigger on both of them. Romeo then pointed his gun in the direction Asuka was aiming, contributing to the thrust. They descended toward the ground, tumbling hard into the cobblestone. As he hit the ground, Romeo felt something break, and he sprawled on the ground, clutching his left ankle in pain.
Asuka got up, wincing as various places on her body hurt. She was probably going to get quite a few bruises from that. She looked over at Romeo, who was still lying on the ground, holding his ankle, and she stood up, walking over to him.
"You okay?"
Romeo shakily turned his head toward Asuka. "Y-Yeah," he grunted. "I think I broke my ankle, though."
"I see…" Asuka knelt down, sliding her hand under him. "Come on."
Romeo sat up, then winced in pain as he put an arm around Asuka's shoulder, allowing her to pull him up. "I think I cracked a rib or two as well."
Asuka sighed, then they both looked around and saw where they had landed for the first time.
Surrounding them was a mass of people, many of who were armed.
"What?!"
Romeo looked where Asuka was looking as he heard her shocked exclamation.
Standing among them, differently dressed from what either of them could ever remember her wearing, was none other than Nashi.
"Your… d-dad?" Laxus stammered. "Acnologia is your…?"
Akane nodded.
"More importantly, Acnologia is alive?!" Laxus turned and pointed a finger at Acnologia. "We watched you die!"
"You watched me dematerialize," Acnologia corrected. "I did deserve to die, after all of the grief and despair that I caused. There's no question about that. Natsu's seven-dragon attack on my soul, combined with Fairy Sphere paralyzing my body, should have obliterated me. I still don't know how it sent me to Edolas."
"Yeah…" Laxus stepped over to Acnologia, grabbing him by his cloak and pulling him close. "You should have!"
"I'm sorry," Acnologia put simply, not resisting Laxus's hostile gesture.
Laxus's eyes widened in surprise. He let go of Acnologia. "W-What?" he stammered.
"You heard me. Now kill me if you want. Just because it's been twenty years doesn't mean I no longer deserve to die."
"You… apologized…"
"What of it?" demanded Acnologia. "I'm right here, waiting for you to take your revenge, so just take it!"
"Yeah," Laxus agreed, regaining his composure. "It caught me off guard, that's all. I mean, you of all people, apologizing?"
Acnologia nodded. "Everyone I loved was killed by dragons, and I overreacted, deciding that all dragons were inherently evil. And as I became more powerful, it drove me mad, and I devastated the world, not just dragons."
Laxus stood there, taking in everything Acnologia said.
"Anyway, the best I can do now is say I'm sorry," Acnologia finished. "None of those lives I destroyed are coming back."
"Damn right they aren't," Laxus fumed. "You expect me to accept that apology?"
Acnologia shook his head. "The apology was the best I could give. The last thing I expect is for you to forgive me just like that."
Laxus looked around at the farm, the house, then at Akane. "You say he's your dad?"
Akane nodded nervously.
Laxus looked back at Acnologia. "So you started yourself a family?"
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with…?"
Laxus cut him off. "Then you have something to live for. I'm not going to touch that."
Akane smiled. "Thanks, Laxus!"
"I still don't forgive you though," added Laxus. "That's never going to happen."
Acnologia nodded. "I understand."
Laxus looked around. "Nice place, though."
Acnologia smiled. "I know, right? It was just a run-down shack when Anna and I got started on it."
"Anna?"
"My wife," Acnologia explained. "The Edolas version of your Anna. She's also a former immortal. But we've both put that behind us."
"I see." Laxus was then distracted by the sound of irregular footsteps. He turned to see Hisoka stumbling towards them, carrying what appeared to be some rough sketches. "Uh… are you alright?"
"That four-wheeler is going to be the death of me…" Hisoka mumbled. "I can't believe I have to use transportation."
"Ah…" Laxus realized why Hisoka was behaving this way and gave a sigh of relief.
"Huh?" Hisoka looked up, saw Laxus, then jumped to attention, dropping the sketches on the ground and turning to Akane. "When did he get here?"
"Just a few minutes ago," replied Akane. "We've been discussing the fact that Acnologia's still alive."
"Ah, that." Hisoka looked at Acnologia, then at Laxus. "Well, as you can very clearly see, Acnologia is still alive."
"Yeah. I kind of got that," Laxus replied. "Anything new?"
Hisoka grinned. "As a matter of fact, Uncle Laxus, yes, there is."
Laxus's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. "U-Uncle?" he stammered.
Hisoka's response was to burst out laughing.
Laxus turned to Akane. "Th-This is some kind of joke, right?"
Akane shook his head. "We found out two days ago. Would you like to meet your brother?"
"Brother?" Laxus looked over to see another man who was now standing next to Hisoka.
"Onii-san?" Aaron queried.
"A-Aaron?"
Aaron smiled.
"But how?"
"Anima, I'm guessing," Aaron theorized. "After all, I'm not the only one who got caught up in that."
Laxus nodded. "When we thought Lisanna had been killed, she actually ended up in Edolas."
"Lisanna?"
"One of our guild wizards. But how did you not get sent back by the reverse Anima?"
Aaron shrugged. "Possibly because I don't actually have any magic," he replied. "I inherited the gene for it, which explains Hisoka here, but I don't have any myself."
"Anyway," Hisoka added, "now we know why Nashi thought we smelled similar."
Laxus gave a nod of confirmation.
"More importantly," Hisoka continued, picking up the sketches, "I think I know where to start looking." He pulled out a sheet of paper with what seemed to be a panoramic view of the horizon sketched on it. There were a couple of lines drawn at one point in the sky. He then spread out the sheet on the ground and, looking back at the distant village, reoriented the paper. He then stood up and pointed in the direction that the lines indicated in the sketch. "we need to go that way."
"Hold on a minute…" Akane interrupted. "This isn't within walking distance, is it?"
Hisoka's heart sank as he realized the grim reality of what his friend had just said. "No," he whimpered, and pointed at the four-wheeler. "It's about two days even in that thing."
"You've got to be joking…" Laxus trailed off.
"Oh, yeah," Hisoka realized. "You're a dragonslayer, too. But the thought of you of all people getting motion sickness…" He snickered a bit.
"Shut up!" Laxus warned, giving Hisoka a condescending glare.
"Right!" Hisoka immediately stopped laughing. "Anyway, yeah. We're going to be riding… in a vehicle… for two days…" he trailed off as he reminded himself of how they had to get there. Then he snapped back to attention. "Anyway, Dad, it'll have to be either you or mom who drives us."
"Is that really how you ask a favor of someone?" inquired Aaron.
Hisoka realized what he had said. "Please?" he asked. "First of all, we don't have a vehicle, and also, none of us could drive if our lives depended on it."
Aaron nodded. "Fair enough. But I'll need you to give me directions."
"Uuuhhh…" Hisoka started to say something, then realized the problem with this. "My sense of direction doesn't work properly when I'm motion sick."
"I see…" Aaron paused to think. "How long would it take you to recover after the vehicle stops?"
"Not sure…" Hisoka thought back to other times he'd been motion sick. "I once spent two weeks on a boat, and it took me about two hours to recover from that.
"I think that should work," Aaron replied. "We can make four two-hour stops – two per day."
Hisoka nodded. "I'm going to need to memorize the direction before we leave." He looked up at the sun and the various moons in the sky, then in the direction they needed to go, memorizing their relation to one another. "If I memorize where we're going in relation to the sky, then I can use that to reorient myself when I'm recovering."
Aaron nodded. "I'll go pack some supplies. Any of you are welcome to help."
"Well, then…" Nashi pulled up a chair next to the pole where Romeo and Asuka were tied up and sat down in it, "…where should I start? There are so many things that the kingdom now has to explain itself out of."
Romeo chuckled, despite the intense throbbing in his ankle. "You know, I actually briefly thought you were our Nashi."
"Same," Asuka agreed. "Edolas really is an interesting place."
Nashi raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'your' Nashi?"
"The Nashi that we're here to rescue," explained Asuka. "To put it simply, your Earthland counterpart."
"Yeah," Nashi snorted. "That's super believable." She walked over and gave Romeo's left foot a kick, causing him to grunt in pain, then knelt down to his eye level. "Now, would you mind telling me exactly what the king is hiding? I will warn you that it's going to take a lot to talk yourselves out of this, considering you just flew from the castle and attacked us. With magic, no less!"
Asuka huffed in annoyance. "We didn't 'attack' you. If we were attacking you, we would have easily taken you down. We were just trying to get down from that castle spire."
Nashi looked across at Asuka, then stood up and walked over to face the dark-green-haired young woman. "Uh-huh." She stroked her own chin in mock consideration, then looked down at Asuka. "And I suppose you just magically appeared on that spire?"
Asuka rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I'm not sure what's so hard to believe about that, but yes. For your information, that's exactly what happened."
Nashi burst out laughing, then returned to her chair while Asuka and Romeo twisted themselves around so that they could both see her. "True, teleportation is possible. However, I don't really believe that two people would just randomly appear on top of a castle spire and not know how they got there."
Asuka groaned in exasperation. "We came through an Anima."
"Yeah," Nashi continued. "You just came through an Anima for no reason and landed on top of the royal castle."
"We're here to rescue our friends, who got sucked into a randomly occurring Anima by accident," Romeo pointed out. "One of them is your Earthland counterpart. You may have noticed our reaction when we first saw you?"
"Not really," Nashi replied. She then got up and headed for the door. "You're not going anywhere until you start talking." She exited the tent.
"Ideas?" Romeo asked Asuka.
Asuka shook her head. "They took our guns, so we have no means of using magic. We'll have to look for something in the room that can help."
Romeo nodded, then looked down at his legs. "And this ankle isn't making things any better."
"Yeah. Nashi could have at least helped with that. It's not that uncommon to provide first aid to prisoners."
"Maybe she just hates magic-users that much," Romeo suggested.
Asuka shrugged.
"Well, according to Mystogan, there are a bunch of civilians rebelling because they think the kingdom is secretly withholding magic from the public. I guess she's one of them."
"Not only that. She seems to be a rebellion leader."
"So, not that different from our Nashi?"
Asuka laughed. "Well, our Nashi isn't exactly a leader. She just pushes on without caring much if other people follow."
"True," Romeo acknowledged.
"Huh?!" Nashi exclaimed.
"I know," Lucy acknowledged. "It would be a bit weird for you, just like it was a bit weird for me when I first saw you."
"Oh, it's beyond weird," Nashi corrected. "I would really like to kill Edo-me at this point! Soiling my reputation like that…"
"What's going on?" Edo-Emma asked as she and her Earthland counterpart entered the guild hall.
Nashi turned to them. "Apparently, my Edolas counterpart is the one leading that rebellion up at the castle."
"That is strange," Earth-Emma agreed. "However, it's not as strange as finding out that my Edolas counterpart is straight."
"She's what?" Nashi looked between the two of them, surprised.
"Still," Earth-Emma continued, "I can totally see you running a dumb rebellion like that."
"Huh?" Nashi strode over to Earth-Emma and grabbed her by the shirt collar. "And what do you mean by that?!"
"Nothing in particular." Earth-Emma grinned and head-butted Nashi in the forehead, causing her to reel back in pain, clutching her forehead. "And just so you know, I may not be able to use magic, but I still have an iron skeleton."
"You are sooo going to regret that!" Nashi lunged back at Emma, tackling her to the ground. The two dragonslayers exchanged blow after blow while everyone else watched in exasperation.
"As perfectly fine I am with most of our differences," Edo-Emma commented, looking down at them, "that hotheadedness I could do with less of."
William sighed. "If that's what my sister is like in Earthland, I dread seeing what I'm like."
Edo-Emma walked over to her sister. "Yeah. I imagine she's probably something like this."
They sat at the table in silence for a bit. Then Emma spoke up.
"Merlin's still alive in Earthland."
William looked over at her. "Seriously?"
Emma nodded and indicated her Earthland counterpart, who was still fighting with Nashi. "She told me."
William gave a weak smile. "That's good to know."
"Alright! Enough already!" Lucy stepped into the fight and slammed her hands into a specific point on the backs of Nashi's and Earth-Emma's necks, causing them to both collapse, unable to move. "I gave you permission to stay in our guild, but you need to behave! That means not destroying our guild hall with these fights!"
"Aye…" Nashi said weakly, trying to move her hand, and succeeding in making it shake weakly.
"You'll be able to move normally again in about a minute," Lucy informed them. "Also, no fighting in my guild hall. Understand?"
Nashi and Emma both managed a nod.
Edo-Emma glanced at this scene, then looked back at William. "Well, anyway, it's comforting to know he's still out there, right?"
William shook her head. "He may be Merlin, but he's not our brother. It just reminds me of what happened to our Merlin."
Emma placed a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder. "Hey. What happened wasn't your fault."
"Mm…" William stared off into space.
"Yo! Gajeel!" Gajeel strode over to the bar counter to meet his Edolas counterpart.
Edo-Gajeel's eyes widened in surprise, then he broke into a smile. "Long time no see."
Earth-Gajeel nodded. "Twenty-one years."
"Twenty-eight," Edo-Gajeel corrected.
"Maybe for you," Earth-Gajeel acknowledged. "I, however, was in suspended animation for seven years."
"How did that happen?"
"Long story short: a dragon attack and a protective spell. Anyway, how've you been?"
"Well, I got married, had a few kids, even got an apprentice. Also, you grew a beard? And got a haircut?!"
Earth-Gajeel grinned. "What do you think?"
"It's interesting," Edo-Gajeel replied. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure Levy would approve of me growing one."
"You married Levy?!" Earth-Gajeel exclaimed. "Me, too! Well, Earthland Levy, to be exact."
"Intriguing…" Edo-Gajeel then remembered something. "By the way, may I introduce you to my apprentice?" He led Earth-Gajeel over to a table, whose eyes widened in surprise at the person already sitting there.
Earth-Gajeel looked back at Eallesander, then over at Edo-Gajeel's apprentice. "Now, that's an interesting coincidence."
"Earth-me, this is Alex. Alex, Earth-Gajeel."
Alex looked up at the two, and their eyes widened in surprise. They looked at Edo-Gajeel, then at Earth-Gajeel. Then their eyes fell on Eallesander. "You're… me?"
Eallesander's pupils dilated to an inhuman degree. "Wait… I have an Edolas counterpart?"
Earth-Gajeel nodded. "Humans, exceeds, even dragons… all living creatures have counterparts between the two worlds."
Eallesander opened their mouth to argue, then shut it, realizing that arguing with that would lead to them having to tell Gajeel what they were, which they weren't ready for. They looked over at their Edolas counterpart. "Alex, right?"
Alex nodded. "That would be me."
Eallesander stiffly stuck out a hand. "I'm Eallesander. Nice to meet you."
Alex looked down at the extended hand, then extended their own hand and shook. "Um… you seem a bit nervous."
"Do I?" Eallesander queried. "Well, I maybe it's that I just ended up in a completely different world and I'm meetingabunchofnewpeopleandtheresnobodyIknowhere-andIjustmetacopyofmeandIdontknowhowtohandlethisand…"
Alex placed their hands on both of Eallesander's shoulders. "Calm down," they reassured. "Why don't we go somewhere alone?"
Eallesander nodded nervously, and the two walked out of the bar and onto the street. Alex looked around and spotted an unoccupied dwelling. The two made their way over and entered the building.
"H-How did I do?" Eallesander stuttered.
"Honestly, it could have gone worse," Alex replied.
"I get nervous around people." Eallesander sat down on a nearby staircase.
"I can see that," Alex acknowledged. "Is this better?"
Eallesander nodded. "I just need a few minutes. Then we can meet back up with those two."
Alex sat down next to them. "So what's Earthland like?"
Eallesander shrugged. "Full of magic."
Alex rolled their eyes. "I was looking for some interesting details."
"Well…" Eallesander thought for a moment. "Well, for one thing, magic can exist outside of lacrima. In fact, it's scattered around the air. It gives me a sort of tingling sensation, and the absence of that from being here feels weird."
"What about the world itself?" Alex specified. "Not just the magic there."
"Well, it's a lot like this one. We have kingdoms, guilds, all sorts of different kinds of food… there are a few differences, though. Earthland is a planet and not a moon, for one thing, and it even has its own moon…"
"Wait… wouldn't that mean an unbreathable atmosphere and crushing gravity?"
Eallesander shook their head. "It's not a gas planet, like Edolas' host planet. It's small and rocky, just like Edolas, and its moon is even smaller."
"I see…" Alex pulled out a notepad and started taking notes. "And what's life like there?"
"The truth is," Romeo began, "we were summoned out of Earthland by the kingdom."
"Yeah," Asuka agreed. It wasn't technically a lie, even though they were trying to deceive Nashi. "And if you imprison us for too long, you will anger the king and he will cause us to explode with unimaginable power." That, on the other hand, was a lie. "You should release us before it's too late."
"Right," Romeo agreed. "And our guns will do the same thing."
"And what if I just kill you?" Nashi speculated.
Romeo's eyes widened as he tried to come up with something.
"That," Asuka broke in, "will just cause it to happen instantly."
"Yeah."
"You'll have to do better than that," Nashi glowered. "You're wearing my patience thin."
"Well, we had to come up with something," Romeo retorted, "since you wouldn't believe us when we told you the truth."
"What truth?" Nashi asked mockingly. "I didn't hear any truth."
"You're not the only one whose patience is wearing thin," Romeo fumed.
"And what do you expect to do?" Nashi asked.
"Get incredibly impatient," Romeo put simply. "Do I have to be capable of doing something about it?"
Nashi shook her head. "Admittedly, no, and I won't let you. you can stay there until you're ready to fess up."
"You okay back there?" Aaron asked.
Hisoka whimpered unintelligibly.
Suddenly, something slammed into the windshield. Aaron turned the steering wheel in surprise and slammed his foot on the brakes. "What the hell?!" The three dragonslayers in the back were knocked around, groaning in discomfort as the four-wheeler swerved and skidded to a stop. The gray shape dropped to the ground, and Aaron jumped out to see a gray, fluffy exceed getting up, regaining her bearings, and flying back up to eye level. "An exceed?" Another door opened, and the dragonslayers tumbled out of the vehicle in a heap. They then got up, and Hisoka looked over at the exceed. "Henri! Are you okay?"
Henri nodded. "I'm fine. What about you? Both your skin and Akane's skin appear to be glittering a bit."
Hisoka looked down at his arm, and realized what Henri was talking about. He could just barely make out tiny particles of lacrima embedded in there. He looked over at Akane and saw that he was experiencing the same effect. "Uh, I'm not sure," he lied. He didn't want Aaron, Henri or Laxus to be worrying about him and Akane. "Some sort of Edolas effect, I'm guessing."
Henri gave Hisoka a worried look. She could tell something was wrong, but she knew she wouldn't get anything out of him.
Akane looked up past Henri. "Is that… the missing beach resort?"
Henri nodded. "Thomas, Merlin and Panther Lily are also here."
"Panther Lily," Hisoka inquired. "So he's back from that mission he was doing with the other exceeds?"
Henri nodded. "As a matter of fact, we've got something to say regarding that, as soon as we get back to the rendezvous point."
"Right…" Hisoka reached into the four-wheeler and got out two bows and a pair of quivers, handing one of the sets to Akane.
"Bows?" Henri inquired.
Hisoka nodded. "We can't use magic, so we need some way of fighting."
"What about Laxus?"
"I have plenty of physical power," Laxus replied. "And it seems I have a limited reserve of magic that I can still use."
Hisoka turned to Aaron. "Well, dad, thanks for taking us this far. I think we can travel on foot from here."
Aaron nodded. "I hope to see you again one day." He got back into the four-wheeler, started up the engines, and drove back the way they had come. The dragonslayers covered their noses to block out the exhaust fumes."
"Well, then," Henri gestured for the others to follow and turned toward the beach resort, "let's go."
This chapter may have been a bit of a mess due to all of the alternating points of view. Tell me what you think. And as always, hope you enjoyed!
