A/N: I'm so sorry about not updating yesterday. My laptop broke down and I'm currently uploading this from a friend's laptop. Updating might be slow until I can get my laptop fixed, but I'll do my best to be on time! Enjoy this chapter, please, I'm sorry it's short.

They managed to make it outside before too long, the fresh air helping to calm down Seph's flaring anxiety. They found the Eclipse Gate, along with many soldiers including the Minister of Defense, Arcadios and the Princess herself. It looked like they were opening the portal…

"There's no need to hide. Come out." Arcadios suddenly said, shocking them a little bit and making them tense. They weren't too sure… Happy jumped out of the bushes anyways.

"We didn't do anything wrong!" He declared firmly before the Minister responded quickly.

"Various circumstances have changed." He told them, in which they all cautiously climbed out of the bushes to stand in front of the three supposed leaders of the Eclipse at the moment.

"You have my deepest apologies. Owing to our current emergency situation, I'll give you a formal apology at a later date." The Princess sighed, looking very guilty and ashamed for what she had done. She had basically sent them to their deaths, so… it was appreciated, sort of. "Also, congratulations on winning the Grand Magic Games."

They brightened up at that, Seph considerably, all of them exchanging looks and words. Seph even found herself high-fiving Lily because they had complete faith in their partners and it had paid off. They were cut off by the sound of the Eclipse working its way to opening up, in which Lucy spoke.

"Why are you opening the portal?" Lucy asked a little worryingly. "The dragons aren't here yet!"

The princess had a small conversation with Arcadios on the fact that they were aware of the situation before they were questioned about the future Lucy, in which they couldn't reply right away. She was murdered, by another man who came from the future. That was the proper way to say it… Lucy informed them of the false claim her gave of her interfering with the portal, but she was only wondering why they were opening the portal when the dragons weren't there at the moment. Apparently, it took time for it to fire. They wouldn't have time if they waited for the dragons to appear.

They couldn't say with any certainty that the Eclipse Cannon would be able to stop all of the dragons, though… but the Princess was sure that his Majesty was also taking measures to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

All Seph could think about was if Laxus and the Raijinshuu were safe… She really hoped that they were. She was sure that she was going to see them again, but anything could go wrong. She didn't want to think like that, but perhaps… that was the realistic way of thinking. It didn't really matter. She knew that, with whatever dragons were left after the Eclipse Cannon's firing, all of the Mages would most likely be fighting. That included her partner and her team, and her Guild all together. So, it didn't matter. They would still be fighting, so maybe she would end up with them in the end.

The Eclipse finally ceased, slowly pulling its doors open and revealing a bright light from within it. It steamed from within as well, and it pushed the dust from the ground into the air at the slightest movements. The portal was opening and the city's bells started to ring, indicating that it was now midnight. It was a new day, July 7th of x791. The moon was red and far beyond creepy, a lunar eclipse, but hey… dragons were appearing on this day. Anything went without saying now. The Eclipse was powerful by being so tall and strong, but also because it was full of seven years worth of magic. You could just… feel the magic power being blown at you with the strong winds from the doors that were pushing open. They might've had a chance at exterminating the dragons with this much magic power… all of it in one place…

The future could be saved with this.

Lucy suddenly started to walk towards the portal and everyone tensed, unsure of what she was doing. Wendy called out to her, but she didn't reply.

"No…" She mumbled, confusing them. What did she mean by "no"…? "The portal mustn't be opened…" What…? Of course it had to be opened; they needed the cannon to defeat the dragons! "I need to close the portal now!" No, she couldn't do that! She said she wouldn't! Why was she going back on her words? She had promised them that she wouldn't close that Gate! "Close the portal! Now! You mustn't open it!" What was wrong, all of the sudden? Why…? "Please! Close the portal!"

"We can't! This is our only weapon against the dragon swarm!" The Princess argued against her. "If we close the portal now, we won't be able to fire the Eclipse Cannon!" Lucy merely walked forward, staring the Princess down.

"There is no Eclipse Cannon!" Lucy told her, laying a weight down on all of them. What did she mean by that!? "That's a portal! It's a portal that's connected to the time stream!"

"And by releasing its accumulated magic power, we can fire the Eclipse Cannon." The Princess reminded her, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"You're wrong! That's no weapon!" Lucy argued, in which Arcadios took a step forward.

"That's enough. You're speaking to the princess of this country." Arcadios said, sounding a little threatening. Lucy didn't back down, though.

"That portal is connected to four hundred years in the past!" She yelled before there was a sudden rumbling, almost as if something large had stomped its foot down.

They were powerful tremors, one after another, so powerful that a couple of soldiers, the Princess and Happy had fallen over. Everyone fought to stay balanced on their feet, turning their attention towards the Eclipse Gate. That's where they sounded like they were coming from… It couldn't be, they fought against believing it until it was straight in front of their eyes.

The portal wouldn't stop the dragons. The dragons came out of the portal, one at a time!

The first dragon let out a roar that probably wasn't even within its full capacity, and it threw everyone off of their feet. Multiple soldiers were hanging on by a thread, their spears in the ground to keep them from flying away. The ground tore up into pieces, concrete flying everywhere, and statues broke apart from the strength of the dragon's roar. Seph found herself barely able to keep herself from flying away, hanging onto a piece of broken-up ground that had yet to go flying. She hoped it would stay that way, or she was going to end up as a pancake somewhere.

The dragon put its foot down and it tore up the ground powerfully, sending a tremor in a straight line all throughout the city. It tore everything up as if it was nothing. To it, it probably was nothing. It was huge, so this wasn't too much of a surprise, but everyone was in shock because they had messed up. They shouldn't have let the Gate open! They couldn't let it stay open! There were more dragons coming out from behind the first one by the second, every damn second they were leaving that Gate open and staring in shock at their mistake.

"Lucy-san, how did you know!?" Wendy asked over the sound of dragons roaring and the power of the wind blowing from said dragons. Lucy was working on closing the portal, but the lever wouldn't budge.

"It wasn't me! Old Mast Crux was investigating the whole time!" Lucy replied with a strain in her voice as she pulled on the lever. It just wouldn't budge… "He just finished his analysis of the portal a couple minutes ago! This device combines the magic from the Books of Zeref with Celestial Spirit Magic! Normally, you'd be able to set the time coordinates and travel through time… but today is different! That moon is throwing off the magic! That's why we can't control the portal! It's connected to four hundred years ago… in other words, an age in which dragons existed!"

That… sort of made sense, but that made this all the more awful. The dragons were already making their way out into the city… Everyone was able to make it back onto their feet, a couple of them on their knees instead just so they didn't have to feel the power of being knocked over again, but that didn't mean much. Lucy wasn't able to close the portal! Why wasn't it closing!? It needed to be closed! Was there not enough Celestial Spirit Magic with Lucy alone…?

Luckily, just in time, Yukino came running over with Mira right behind her. They could use the twelve Gold Keys to seal the portal and prevent more dragons from coming out, and then there would only be so many dragons that they would have to fight. They did just that, combining Lucy's ten keys with Yukino's two keys and summoning all of the twelve Zodiac Celestial Spirits to shut the Eclipse Gate just in time to avoid another dragon coming through, although it had tried very hard. It only got shut out, though, which was a good thing for them. They only had a moment to celebrate that the Gate had been closed before having to think about how many dragons got through, and then taking notice to approaching footsteps from nearby.

"You foiled my plan, Lucy and Yukino." A familiar voice spoke, bringing them all around from celebrating to being worried and angry. It was the future Rogue, just like they had thought. "But seven dragons are still plenty." What had happened to Natsu? "To be honest, I couldn't control 10, 000 of them."

"What are you talking about?" Mira asked on everyone's behalf, although it was a little obvious by now. This was his aim all along and he lifted his arms into the air, smiling wickedly.

"Listen well, you ignorant peasants!" He yelled. The dragons had taken off into the air moments before his arrival and a couple of them were touching down nearby. "I'm here to tell you that the world you know is coming to an end. The age of dragons is upon us!"

He gave the dragons an order and they took off, obeying him. His aim was to control them and destroy the entire country… He killed the future Lucy for a selfish reason. One of the dragons put a foot down to pick him up, but then took off into the air, while he left a green dragon he addressed by "Zirconis" to deal with everyone by the Eclipse Gate. There were only seven dragons… They would be okay, right? The dragons were tearing up the city, though…

Seph decided that this was honestly not the right time to be thinking and getting all anxious. This dragon was more chatty than violent like the others, it seemed, so it wasn't like they were going to get totally trampled all over. Maybe that would come later.

"Look at you people with your terrified faces. Am I that scary?" Zirconis questioned, still wearing the grin that he had shown up with. "If you want to escape, you'd better do it now. Although I'll pursue and devour you…" Oh, so he didn't exactly trample, he ate people… Well, that was so much better, wasn't it? Hint the sarcasm. Wendy stepped forward and addressed him, as she and some of the others had encountered Zirconis' spirit before. Seph didn't know the full story, but… "What is it, young lady? You wish to talk to me?"

"What is it you're after!? Why are all of you doing this!?" Wendy asked, and even confused, Zirconis kept his grin. Maybe that's what made him so scary…

"Why? Ask the ones over there." Zirconis responded, pointing a finger in the direction of the dragon that had taken off with the future Rogue. "The one that's flying, Motherglare… The little man riding on top is dishing out orders. Well, I'm doing what he says because it's fun in its own way." What purpose did he have doing this, though? If dragons destroyed the world, there would end up being no place for them, either…

It didn't take long for them to notice flames erupting off of Motherglare's back, the dragon crying out in pain and dropping down in the air a bit. Through its roar, the voice of none other than Natsu Dragneel rang out into the air.

"Can you hear me!? Dragon Slayer magic can take down the dragons!" He was always so loud… It was pretty much a gift at the moment. "We've got seven Dragon Slayers here! And seven dragons! Out magic exists for this very day! Dragon Slayers exist to fight this very battle! Let's go…"

More flames erupted off of Motherglare's back as it fell even lower out of the sky.

"Dragon hunting!"