Chapter 24

"I Remember Now…"

Song: Sooner or Later, Mat Kearney "I swear, we're gunna make it."

A dull ache spanned over Naomi's entire body. She felt herself lying on hard rocks, and could hear someone calling her name. Opening her dark blue eyes everything was blurry. She blinked a few times and made out a figure standing over her. The man was covered in many black cloths, and had a few blue hairs escaping from his mask. He was calling her name. "Naomi!" She sat up slowly, blinking the rest of the blur out of her eyes and shaking her head back to reality. The man kept yelling at her. "Naomi! You need to use your magic to help this man, now!" Naomi shook her head, far beyond confused. "What? I don't have magic strong enough to bring him back, that's insane!?"

The man frowned through his mask. "Of course you do! The power of life and death itself, you're known all over Fiore for it. What's wrong with you!"

Naomi looked behind him to see Kashi bent over Kidd, who hadn't moved or visibly drawn a breath in the last 60 seconds. Her heart skipped a beat as she remembered what had just happened, and sunk when she realized her best friend might have just lost the most important person to her in the world. Time slowed as Kashi turned her head towards Naomi, tears streaming down her face and green eyes pleading. "Naomi…he isn't breathing…you have to remember…" Suddenly the red haired girl got dizzy and her head pounded with pain as memories came flooding back to her. People and places she couldn't recall took their rightful places back in her mind, and panic rose up in her throat as she remembered what she was born to do.

*flashback*

Naomi sat in a dark, damp corner of a stone room. It was nearly pitch black, and the only source of warmth in her cell were the rats crawling around the filthy cages. Her red hair was dirty and her blue eyes were clouded from lack of nourishment and sleep. A man who had been patrolling these quarters took painfully slow steps up and down the corridors, and this time stopped in front of her cell door. She heard the jingle of keys and the groaning of the door as it opened.

"Get off your ass, kid. You're moving in with the others."

Dragging her chains behind her, Naomi got up and followed the man a few cells down. He then proceeded to kick her in her back launching her into the new cell like a lost dog. She hit the floor with a dull thud and just lay there, listening as the man locked the cage and left.

A few minutes passed before anyone dared to move. Naomi peeked and saw a boy with blue hair and a face tattoo coming towards her from the shadows. She knew him as Jellal-they had met before while working. He reached out a hand and helped the girl up onto her feet. As she dusted herself off, her friend with red hair identical to hers left the shadows to greet her. "Hey, Naomi…" She looked down at Naomi's legs and saw a trickle of blood from where her leg scraped against the hard stone floor. "You're bleeding!" She bent down to look at it, and sighed. "It's not bad, but still…" Naomi sighed. "It could have been worse." Jellal ripped a strip of cloth from his shirt and tied it tight around her wound. He stood up, beaming a smile. "All better!"

Naomi thanked Jellal and Erza gave her a hug. "Finally you get to hang out with us!" They all laughed quietly, for footsteps were heard again down the corridor, coming in their direction. Erza and Jellal went back to their places against the wall, and Naomi found her own spot to hide. The man stopped in front of the cage, this time with a bowl of bread bites. He threw them into the cell as if he were feeding wild birds. As soon as he left the others came out of the shadows and helped pick up the pieces before they became wet and dirty. They proceeded to put them in a pile and divide them up evenly amongst everyone in the cell. There, she met Wally Buchanan, Sho, Simon, and Milliana.

As they ate and huddled together for warmth, Jellal spoke up. "So, Naomi, what's your name?" She looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Uh, Naomi?" He shook his head. "No no no, like, your LAST name! Mine's Fernandes!" She shrugged. "I don't really have one." Jellal looked shocked, then Erza spoke up. "I don't have a last name either." As he stared at her in astonishment, she added "What's so weird about that?" Jellal shrugged. "Well, I might forget your name if you don't have one!"

Erza and Naomi sat next to each other, looking at Jellal as he contemplated something. "I know!" He put his hands on either of the girl's heads. "Scarlet! You can both have the last name Scarlet, so I'll never forget! The Scarlet Sisters- I love it!"

Erza blushed and looked at her hair, while Naomi gave the boy a hug and then proceeded to give Erza a hug. "Ive always wanted a sister!" Jellal smirked and raised his hands in the air. "From now on you shall be known as Erza and Naomi Scarlet!" Everyone in the cell clapped until a yell was heard down the hall.

"Shut up you little rats!"

They all giggled quietly as they finished their food, and talked about how they would never forget each other, and how they would escape together.

*some time later, still in flashback*

Naomi's little legs ran as fast as they could across the work place. She heard Jellal had attacked some people, sending the guards running, and wanted to make sure Erza and her friends were okay. Turning a corner she saw her red-haired friend crouched on the ground over Simon, crying into his shirt. It was no lie that Simon liked Erza, and she knew it as well as anyone else did. She turned to see Naomi, her big brown eyes filled with tears, and spoke of guilt. Naomi stopped dead in her tracks, seeing a small pool of blood at Simon's head. Erza chocked. "N-Naomi…he's not breathing…"

Before she knew what she was doing she had pushed Erza out of the way and willed for life to come back to Simon. A few minutes passed and a purple glow surrounded Naomi's hands, and mere moments later Simon coughed up some blood, hurt but alive. Erza hugged Simon, looking up to Naomi. "You saved him! With magic!" Naomi looked down at her hands that gave life to a person - something nobody should be able to do. With it she knew she could do great things, and also very bad things.

Naomi snapped out of her flashback. To the man and Kashi's surprise she yelled out "Today is one of those good days!" She leapt up from her spot in the dirt and pushed Kashi away from the asymmetrical reaper. Instinct took over as she willed life to come back to her friend. A purple glow surrounded her hands as Kashi moved around to the opposite side of Naomi and held one of Kidd's hands. The glow soon surrounded the three as Naomi poured her full strength into this one person.

Moments later, Kidd sat up, coughing fiercely. Kashi gasped, and quickly wrapped her arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder. Naomi let out breath she didn't know she had been holding. Kidd coughed for a minute, and looked at Kashi, then to Naomi, eyebrows scrunched. "What happened?" Naomi opened her mouth to reply when Kashi's muffled voice replied. "I thought you'd died!" Naomi smiled as Kidd looked softly towards Kashi, and stroked her hair.

"I'm a reaper, I'm sure I would have been fine." Mistogan walked over to the three who were still sitting on the ground. "Actually, since you aren't in your world anymore, you lost your reaper regenerative abilities. If it weren't for Naomi, you would be dead right now." Kidd's eyes widened and Kashi sobbed louder at the comment. Naomi stood up, brushing off the dirt. "I can't believe I forgot about my magic…" She stopped for a moment, thinking back. Suddenly her heart ached, and she remembered the person Kashi had warned her about.

"OH MY GOD! NATSU!" Naomi frantically glanced around and started to run down the road when Mistogan grabbed her. "Calm down." Naomi tried to break free of Mistogan's grasp, clearly distressed. "NO! I HAVE TO SEE NATSU!" Mistogan held fast. "I need to explain some things. We can talk and walk at the same time." Naomi struggled some more before she gave an agitated yell. "Fine!" Mistogan let go and Naomi huffed. "Only because I have NO idea where I'm at! Let's go then." Naomi started walking before Kashi could even help Kidd stand up. Kashi had wiped away the remnants of her tears as they started walking. Kidd looked at the shoulder she had cried on. "This distresses me. Could you cry on my other shoulder too?" Kashi shook her head. "Crying? Who, me? Never…" Kid chuckled.

Mistogan took stride alongside Kidd and Kashi, and Naomi was within hearing distance ahead of them. "I have to apologize for all the confusion… I used the magic power from the dying Kishin in order to bring Naomi and Kashi back to our land. However, in the process I brought you with them." Kidd shook his head. "It just doesn't make any sense. How do I get back?" Mistogan merely blinked. "That's the problem. As far as I know, there is no way for you to return to your land." Kid nodded slowly. Naomi stopped and faced Mistogan. "But how the hell did we get to his land in the first place?"

"A land opposite of our land, called Edolas, had used an ancient magic to suck magic power from our world. It targeted Fairy Tail, and turned everyone into a giant lacrima. The strongest of the guild, you two and the dragon slayers, were left "alive" in order to power the cannon that would destroy the lacrima, bringing magic back to Edolas. Somewhere, the magic went wrong and sent you two to Planet Earth instead of Edolas." Kashi met eyes with Naomi. "What happened to everyone?" Mistogan smiled under his mask. "Thankfully, Natsu and the others were able to break the lacrima as I opened a portal back to Earthland, so everyone returned home safely. With a few new exceed friends." Kashi smiled. "More exceeds?! Maybe I can get one too!" Kidd glanced at Kashi, who's eyes were sparkling. "What's an exceed?"

Naomi huffed. "Man, we have a lot to teach you."

Mistogan chuckles. "Well, you have time. At this rate, we won't return to the guild until tomorrow."