Natsu POV
I was the last one up the stairs because the others said that they wouldn't be able to see where they were stepping if I went up first, and when I finally got up there, my fire lit up the room, letting us see what it looked like.
The walls were painted the same as they were downstairs, and there were two large rugs shaped like the symbol for Libra and Pisces on the floor. The Libra rug was dyed turquoise, while the Pisces rug was magenta. There were giant golden and silver keys up against the walls like pillars, and a big observatory telescope across the room with someone peering into it.
"Who's that?" I wondered, narrowing my eyes.
"I don't know," Lisanna frowned.
"Hm? Is somebody there?" the person asked. The voice sounded feminine, but hey, I'm not gonna assume genders.
They stopped looking through the telescope and turned to look at us with a happy smile on her face.
"Oh, hello there," she cheerfully greeted us. "Lovely night for stargazing, isn't it?"
"Isn't that...Yukino from Sabertooth?" Gray asked.
"It looks like her, but is she real?"
"She's real," Erza confirmed.
"How are you sure?"
"The other me said that there would be a victim here," she answered. "So this has to be the real Yukino."
Yukino was dressed in her pajamas, which consisted of a thin white tank top and pale blue pajama pants that had Sabertooth's emblem on them. She was also wearing a white scarf with a silver and gold colored key pattern on it.
"Did you all come here to look at the stars too?" she asked us with a jovial smile still placated on her face.
"No, we came to wake you up," Lisanna answered.
"Wake me up?" Yukino didn't appear to understand. "But I'm not asleep."
"Yes, you are...you're trapped here against your will by an ancient monster that's going to kill you if you don't wake up," Levy tried to tell her.
"Heh heh! Don't be silly!" she chuckled at our 'silliness'. "This isn't a dream and I'm not in danger. This is real life, everything is perfectly fine!"
"No, it isn't!" Levy tried again. "You have to wake up right now, Yukino!"
"Huh? Yukino?" the celestial wizard tilted her head in confusion as the smile disappeared from her face. "Who's that?"
"That's you...you're Yukino," I answered her question.
"Sorry, but I think that you have me confused for someone else," she apologized as she moved her head up from its tilt. "I'm not Yukino. I'm Star."
"No, you're Yukino," I corrected her. "And it isn't night, it's day."
"What are you talking about? I'm Star and it's night," she claimed. "Not only is it night right now, but it's going to be night minutes from now, hours from now, and even days from now!"
"But it has to be day sometimes," Juvia informed her. "It can't always be nighttime."
"Yes it can, because around here the night lasts forever," she beamed. "We can gaze at the stars forever and never have to hide our eyes from that big bright jerk called the sun; the moon's light is all that we need around here. Why are you trying to tell me that isn't real?"
"Because it's not!" Gajeel spluttered. "Go look outside if ya don't believe us! It's day right now!"
"You're beginning to get on my nerves," the celestial mage stopped smiling again. "Why are you trying to take away the beauty of night? What have I ever done to you?"
"Nothing, but-" Juvia was cut off.
"Exactly! Nothing! All I've ever done is stargaze and enjoy the night!" she frowned. "I want you all out of my observatory right now!"
"Wait a second!" Levy stopped her. "Can we at least say something before you throw us out?"
"I...I guess so," she said after a few seconds of thinking about it. "What do you want to say?"
"It can't always be night, Yukino!" Yukino looked like she was about to interrupt Levy. "Don't interrupt! You'll want to hear what I have to say!"
Yukino sighed and crossed her arms wordlessly, agreeing to not interrupt.
"It can't always be night, Yukino!" she repeated what she said. "That would only make people sad."
"What? Why would they be sad?" Yukino seemed surprised. "Night is the best time of day!"
"Because night is that one time of the day where everything is peaceful," Levy began to explain things to her. "People go to sleep, they relax after a long day of work, nocturnal creatures are able to go outside, and all sorts of other things."
"Shrimp, you aren't helping," Gajeel frowned at her.
"Just let me handle this...but day is also great because people wake up to feel the warmth of the sun shining in through their window, they can find their way around easily, look at the clouds, watch the sunset, and all sorts of things," Levy continued explaining.
"But day is nowhere near as beautiful as night," Yukino claimed.
"That may be true, but if it was always night, then plants wouldn't grow, flowers wouldn't blossom, animals that hunt in the day wouldn't be able to hunt because it would be too dark, humans wouldn't get enough vitamin D, and other bad things would happen too," Levy went on.
"You're...you're lying..." she didn't want to believe it. "That wouldn't happen."
"Yes, it would...daytime is just as important as nighttime, so there has to be balance otherwise bad things would happen," Levy stated. "Bad things would happen if it was always day or if it was always night."
Yukino was silent as she looked down at the floor, and Levy went over to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"So you see? It can't always be night, but it can't always be day, either," Levy finished.
"I-I see that now..." Yukino was frowning as she looked at Levy. "How do I fix it, though?"
"There's nothing that needs to be fixed...it's day outside of this place right now," Levy answered.
"It is? But when I looked through my telescope, it was always night," Yukino replied.
"That's because you're looking at outer space and out there, it's always dark," Levy explained.
"Oh..."
"We can bring you out to see it if you want, Yukino," Lisanna offered.
"My name isn't Star, is it?" she ignored Lisanna's offer.
"Yeah, it's not Star," I confirmed. "It's Yukino. Yukino Agria."
"That sounds right..." she was silent for a few seconds after that. "Yes...I'm not Star, I'm Yukino. But if that's true, then the thing about this being a dream is also true."
"Right, and you have to wake up before that monster kills you," Levy took her hand off of Yukino's shoulder.
"But I don't know how to wake up," she told us.
"Maybe you just need to see the sun?" I guessed.
"Maybe..."
"Then let's go."
Yukino began to walk across the room with Levy towards us, but just before we were about to go back down the spiral staircase-
"Little sister? Where are you going?"
We all looked back at the telescope only to see that Angel was standing in front of it and looking at us.
Isn't that Angel chick part of the Oracion Seis? Wait, no, she joined Crime Sorciere didn't she? Yeah, I remember now. But what's she doing here? I thought.
"Where the heck did she come from?" I didn't understand.
"Why are you asking us?" Gray looked at me in confusion. "We don't know either, man."
"Are you leaving me, Yukino? Why?" she asked sadly. "After all the fun that we've had together?"
"Because this isn't real, this is a dream," Yukino answered firmly. "And Yukino isn't just some nickname, it's my real name."
"But why would you leave when this place is so much better than the real world?" Angel didn't understand. "Here, it can be night all the time and you can look at the stars as much as you'd like."
"It can't be night all the time, Sorano...Levy explained to me that it can't," Yukino told her.
Oh yeah! Her real name is Sorano, I totally forgot about that. I thought to myself.
"Here it can though! This place is a paradise for you, remember?" Sorano reminded her. "Why would you want to go back to that horrible world of stress and disappointment?"
"Because I can't stay here," Yukino answered her.
"Yes, you can! You can stay here forever with me and all of the spirits in those keys downstairs!" she claimed, before coming closer and extending her hand to her. "Just take my hand and you never have to leave."
Yukino was quiet as she looked away from her sister.
"Yukino...come on..." Sorano took another step forward.
I got in front of Yukino, which made Sorano halt and lower her hand back to her side.
"Get out of my way," she commanded in a low voice.
"She doesn't wanna be here with you anymore," I didn't budge. "Let her go."
"I said, get out of my way!"
Sorano's body changed after she said that. Her teeth became sharp, the upper half of her face, her waist, her lower right leg, and her left foot became shrouded in shadows.
"It's the creature!"
Gray, Gajeel and Erza moved to stand beside me, ready to fight if it tried to attack.
"Yukino, stay back," Gray commanded, his eyes fierce and expression determined. "You too, Juvia."
"Shrimp, you stay back too," Gajeel commanded. "Same goes for you, Lisanna."
"What did you do with Wendy and the others?!" I asked, glaring at it. "Where are they?!"
"They're all taking naps right now, and I was about to take a nap too when Dragon showed up crying," it told us. "After I got him to calm down, he told me what was happening so I came here just in time to see you taking my Yukino away from me."
"Let Yukino wake up and take us to the others right now!" Erza ordered.
"You're bossy, you make people cry, and you killed Knight? It's no wonder that they choose me over you all," it frowned at us. "You're obviously absolute horrible people that no one could ever truly love!"
"WHAT?!"
"I may have lost Yukino to you wretched people, but believe me when I say this...I swear on my life that I won't let you take any of the others from me," it said in a promising tone. "And if I do, then let me be struck by the very person that you take."
After saying that, it disappeared, and the area we were in began to shake violently.
"Is this an earthquake?!"
"This place must be collapsing!" Gray yelled. "We have to get out of here!"
We sprinted down the spiral staircase as fast as we possibly could and ran out the door. I quickly noticed that Yukino wasn't with us and looked back to see her still in there, looking at the keys hanging from the ceiling.
I ran back and grabbed her hand.
"Yukino! We can't stay here!" I shouted over the noise. "Come on!"
I ran out of there with her hand held tightly in mine. The cave was coming down on top of us when we saw the exit.
"Brace yourself!"
I threw Yukino out of the cave and then dove for the exit, just barely making it out.
That was close.
"What took you guys so long?" Lisanna asked, looking at me with a worried expression on her face. It made me feel kinda guilty. "If you were in there any longer, then you would of been crushed to death!"
"Yukino stopped and I had to go back for her," I explained.
"Are you serious?" Gray asked, arching an eyebrow at me.
"Why would I lie about that?"
"Yukino, why on Earthland would you..." Juvia trailed off when she looked at Yukino. The celestial wizard was staring at the collapsed entrance to the cave with a remorseful look on her face. Her eyes were full of sorrow as she stared at what used to be the door.
"Are you okay, Yukino?"
"All of those keys, the spirits inside of them..." Yukino didn't address the question. "They're all gone...broken by the boulders..."
"But they weren't real, Yukino," Juvia reminded her.
"I know that they weren't real but..." she trailed off, shaking her head slowly. "Listen...can you guys go on without me?"
"And leave you here when that thing could show up at any time?" I asked incredulously. "No way in hell we're doing that!"
"I promise that I'll be fine, I'll come and find you guys once I'm done here," she assured us.
"You sure that you're gonna be alright on your own?" Gajeel asked her, doubt seeping into his voice.
"Of course I'm sure, now go...please..."
Very reluctantly, we left Yukino there to grieve over her broken keys.
Nobody POV
Once they were gone, a small plush that looked just like Yukino minus the scraf appeared in the grass, but she didn't seem to notice it.
It laid on the ground for a few seconds, before the white dove that had taken Knight's plush away earlier swooped in, picked up the plush, and flew away with it held in its talons.
Yukino didn't even blink.
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