Chapter 26

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Lucy's eyes widened as she stared at someone who she had not only seen in her dreams, but in the memories that Aquarius had shown her and Brandish.

"Yes Lucy, it is me."

"But how...you're….what?"

The woman sighed, "Oh goodness, I really thought that appearing to you in those dreams and visions would really help to lessen the impact of my physical appearance. It seems that I was not successful. Hm, must have been some sort of miscalculation, but if I had come earlier it would have thrown off my entire plan."

"Wait! Wait! Wait," Evergreen said. "I'm confused, who are you?"

"Oh I am Anna Heartfilia," The blonde answered.

"So is she like a cousin Lucy?" Evergreen asked.

"No," Lucy replied. "She's my ancestor."

"What!"

"Don't scream," Porlyusica said. "The injured people need their rest."

"Right, sorry." Anna Heartfilia kneeled down and gazed at Natsu.

She sighed, "Oh you poor, poor boy." She pushed Natsu's bangs off of his forehead. Lucy watched this exchange.

"Wait, you know him?" She asked.

"Of course I do," Anna told her. "I was the one who made this for him." She had up the scarf around Natsu's neck.

"But I thought Igneel gave that to him," Happy said.

"Yes he did," Anna agreed. "But I put it together, nice to see that it has held up all these years." She touched Natsu's forehead again and frowned.

"I will tell you, this child has a lot on his plate, arguably more than the other children do," Anna continued and she looked over at Happy. "I believe that you know what I am talking about Happy." Lucy's watched as the exceed's face changed and he seemed on the verge of tears.

"Happy, what is she talking about?" Lucy asked.

"If….If Natsu kills Zeref...he'll...he'll die." Everybody who was conscious gasped at the news. Lucy looked down at Natsu and for a moment she wondered if they could even save him. They couldn't kill Zeref. What were they going to do?

Anna stood up, "Lucy and Happy the exceed I would like the two of you to come with me please."

"What?"

"No, I'm not leaving Natsu!"

"Neither am I?"

"What I am about to show you will ultimately end up saving Natsu," Anna countered and that through the two off guard. "Don't worry, he will be fine here. He's in good hands."

"So there is nothing that we can do for him?" Brandish asked.

"For now, leave him be," Anna instructed. "It may not look like it, but he is facing a life changing decision." With one last look at Natsu, Lucy reluctantly stood up.

"Well, if it's going to help save Natsu…..then I'll go with you," she stated. "Plus, I have a lot of questions."

"Which will all be answered."

Lucy glanced down at Happy, "Happy?"

He nodded and whispered, "Natsu, we'll be back. I'm not going to let you die." After saying goodbye to their friends, they left the room and walked up the steps. They then started on a path through the ruins.

Lucy walked behind Anna and watched as her long ponytail swung back and forth.

"I really thought that appearing to you in those dreams and visions would really help to lessen the impact of my physical appearance."

So she was the one causing them huh? Lucy thought.

It also occurred to her that this was the first time in a long time that she was within distance of a relative. Anna had to be her oldest relative though, yet she didn't look a day over 35.

"Here," Anna declared as she stopped in one particular spot after walking for 20 minutes.

"Here?" Lucy asked as she looked around, they were in a clearing.

"I just want to make sure that we are not interrupted," Anna replied. "I am trying to account for the battles going on right now."

That's right, the war.

"Is this going to actually help Natsu and the rest of our friends?" Lucy asked. "We really don't want to waste time and-"

"Lucy," Anna interjected. "Believe me, this will not waste your time. This will help your guild. Now the two of you, please sit down." Happy and Lucy looked at each other before sitting down with Anna. The three of them were in a circle. Anna reacted into her robes and pulled out a small lacrima. It wasn't marble small, more like orange small. She placed it in the middle of the three of them.

"What are we going to do with this?" Happy asked.

"We will be using this lacrima as to travel back in time," Anna replied.

"What!"

"Well, actually we will be going through my memories and the memories of others that I have acquired," Anna specified. "Think of it as something similar to the eclipse gate."

Lucy peered at the sphere, "So this can be activated using celestial spirit magic?"

"That's correct."

Lucy instinctively touched her keys, "But I don't have all of them. We're missing three."

"Do not worry about that, I made sure to prepare this lacrima years ago," Anna answered. "Meaning that it's already been activated using the keys. It just needs the two of us to touch it."

"The two of us?"

"The two of us."

"What about Happy?" Lucy asked.

"Oh he can just hold onto you." Happy jumped into Lucy's lap, as if he truly believed that Lucy was going to let him get left behind.

"Alright, are the two of you ready?" Anna asked. Lucy glanced down at Happy.

"As ready as we'll ever be," She replied as she took a deep breath.

"Once you touch the lacrima, just focus on the magic power coursing through you," Anna instructed. Lucy nodded and brought her finger down onto the lacrima. At first she was just feeling how cold the sphere was, then she began to feel a warmth spreading through her and it started at her finger tip. Her eyes widened when she saw Anna start glowing in front of her. Her ancestor smiled at her and Lucy looked down. She saw that she was glowing that same gold color as well. The warmth engulfed her body and then everything went black.

When Lucy came to, she opened her eyes and saw that she was staring up at tree branches. The backdrop for these branches was a bright, blue sky.

Trees? Lucy thought. A forest?

As she sat up, she felt and heard leaves crunching under her. She also managed to wake up a certain exceed as well.

"Awww, is it morning already?" He asked. He had been laying on her stomach.

"Time to jump back into reality Happy," Lucy stated. Happy completely woke up and looked around.

"Whoa," He exclaimed. "Are we still in the clearing?" A soft wind blew through and shook the branches.

"Something is telling me no," Lucy replied. "Those trees weren't there before."

"You are right Lucy." They were joined by Anna, who looked ready to go and not at all disoriented.

"The lacrima worked, though I shouldn't be surprised since it was my contraption. You just can never be sure what kind of effect 400 years has on a magic tool and-"

"Uh, when and where are we exactly?" Lucy asked as she and Happy got up.

"Fiore, 400 years in the past," Anna replied. "I believe that in your time there is a bakery where we are standing right now.

"You couldn't just have us land in the same spot?" Happy asked.

"No can do, this is my memory, which means that we are around where I was 400 years ago," Anna replied.

"Around where you were?"

"Yep, follow me," She instructed. "I will show you where I am." The three of them walked a short distance to a space that was completely free of trees over head. It was huge, as this spot had been purposely cleared out to fit multiple dragons.

Speaking of dragons, at that moment, one flew over their heads. Happy and Lucy jumped. You would think that they would be used to seeing dragons by now given what they've been through, but Lucy had come to believe long ago that this was something that was tough to get used to.

"Everything is alright," Anna assured them. "Remember, this is a memory. Nothing can hurt you."

Lucy sighed, "Right, of course." She straighten herself out and saw a familiar blonde woman walking towards them.

"That's you?" Lucy guessed.

"That's me." Anna looked exactly the same, the only real difference was her clothing. She was wearing red and white robes instead of blue.

"Hm, I am glad I stuck with blue, red just doesn't seem to suit me," Anna commented after taking a good look at herself.

Wait, she's worrying about her clothing right now? Lucy thought

"Hey Lucy, she's just like you," Happy whispered.

"What's that supposed to mean stupid cat?"

"Oh look there they are." The three of them watched as a dragon came into view and it landed a few feet away from Anna of the past. This dragon was covered in silver, iron scales that almost looked like armor. It could only be….

"Metalicana," Lucy said.

Anna nodded, "Correct." Metalicana got down low enough, so the kid on his back could have no problem sliding off.

Don't tell me….

"Gajeel," Happy and Lucy exclaimed. They weren't surprised about the fact that he was with Metalicana, they knew that he was his foster father. What they were surprised about, was his appearance. He still had that same black hair, only not as much of it. He had those round studs on his face even as a child and wore a surly expression that they had definitely seen on Gajeel at one point.

"Thank God we're not late or else you would have seen the tail end of it kid," Metalicana stated.

"Shut up Dad you're annoying me," Gajeel replied.

"What you just say to me? I know that you did not just get an attitude with me! We could go right back home, right now and do some iron drills!"

"Hello Metalicana. Hello Gajeel," Anna said pleasantly.

"Hello Anna," Metalicana responded. "Gajeel."

Gajeel rolled his eyes, "Hello Anna."

"He is going through a rebellious stage I see," Anna implied as she chuckled.

"No, unfortunately he is always like that," Metalicana said.

"Around you maybe!"

"What you say!"

"Gajeel is a unique case," Anna informed Lucy and Happy. "In a sense that out of the five of them, he is the only one that had some memories at this point of his biological parents."

Lucy's eyes widened, "What do you mean?"

"Well, his parents were both merchants in a village up north," Anna explained. "This village was ravaged by a disease which ended up killing half of the population. Those who survived got out as fast as they could, including Gajeel's family. Unfortunately, both his parents became sick from that disease on the way to the next village and ended up dying on the road. That poor boy had to leave his family and continue that the trek on his own. Metalicana found him in a small camp that he had made for himself."

Lucy frowned, "Oh…"

"Shame isn't it? In a world where everyone was worried about a dragon attack, what ends up killing you is a virus."

"How did you find that all out? Did Gajeel tell you?" Happy asked.

"Not really," Anna answered. "And Metalicana knew as much as Gajeel had told him. I went and did my own research. Although, there were not a lot of records out there on the poorer people in the world at this time."

"Right, but I thought it was just a case of not a lot information surviving from such a chaotic time," Lucy said.

"I can see why they would think that, but it was more along the lines of what were the most important things to write down and save," Anna explained. "Oh here is another arrival." Lucy and Happy looked up to see a dragon with a white body flying above them. Its scales almost looked like bird feathers.

"Grandeeney! Wendy," Past Anna called. The white dragon landed and a little girl slid off of it.

"Wendy," Happy exclaimed. Wendy Marvell had the same blue hair and big eyes as they'd always known.

"Welcome you two," Anna said as she went over to the two of them.

"Thank you Anna," Grandeeney responded. "Metalicana. Gajeel." The other two in attendance said hello.

"What was Wendy's background?" Lucy asked.

"Hm, well since she was born, Wendy lived in several orphanages in Crocus," Anna answered. "Apparently, she was moved around a lot because of bad behavior."

"Bad behavior?" Lucy asked. "We are talking about Wendy right?"

Anna nodded, "A few of the people who worked at the orphanages that Wendy was at said that she would do things like yell a lot, talk at inappropriate times, and take things from others."

"Wow, I can't believe that," Lucy commented.

"Consider this though," Anna said. "She was one of the smallest children in they orphanages with 30 other kids at best. How else are you going to make sure that they don't forget to feed you? That they don't forget to give you a pillow and blanket? Her size did help her, as she was adopted eventually by a family. A little while later this family had gone out to go fishing in the woods and poor Wendy managed to get seperated from them. That's how she found Grandeeney and according to her foster mother she gave her such a fright."

"Such tragic stories," Lucy said.

"And unfortunately at this time there were many others like them," Anna added. "Despite the fact that there was a dragon civil war going on, many tried to live as peaceful a life as possible. Sadly, that life wasn't without any hardships." Seeing her descendant's sad face, Anna placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," She continued. "But like I said before there is a reason that you need to know this in particular."

Lucy nodded, "I understand." Just then, two more dragons arrived. One dragon was light-colored with feathery almost angel like wings. The other one was covered in pitch black scales from head to toe.

Past Anna greeted them, "Welcome."

"Skiadrum and Weisslogia," Grandeeney stated as they landed. "Did you two come here together?"

"No we did not Grandeeney," Skiadrum replied. "We simply ran into each other on the way and got into a discussion."

"What kind of discussion?" Metalicana asked.

"One that we will talk about once everyone gets here," Weisslogia answered as a blonde haired boy slid of off his back.

"Hello Sting," Past Anna said.

"Sting Eucliffe was a very rambunctious little boy," Anna stated. "He almost rivaled Natsu in that sense."

"Not surprising," Happy commented and Lucy nodded in agreement.

"Sting had lived with his much older brother after his parents had died," Anna said. "I had found out his name….what was it? Oh that is right, it was Lector."

"What!"

"Which is why I found it interesting that he met an exceed with that exact same name," Anna added. "Anyway, Lector perished in a fire in their village, leaving young Sting homeless and without any other family. Despite his age, he managed to survive on his own for a little bit before he met Weisslogia."

"It's nice to see you," Past Anna stated as she knelt down to speak to a little boy with black hair.

"Rogue, known as Ryos at this point, was a very quiet boy. He was very stoic. He was born to a young mother, who actually left him at an orphanage in their village with a note explaining her situation," Anna told Lucy and Happy. "She had only had him for a year, before she could no longer take care of him. A few years later, according to the people running the orphanage, he disappeared. Skiadrum explained to me that the boy had told him that he ran away."

"Wow."

"Yes." Lucy observed all four dragon slayers and their foster parents. They had come from such sad situations, yet managed to find loving parents in the end.

"Wait," She said. "Where's Natsu and Igneel?"

"They're late aren't they?" Metalicana asked.

"They should be coming," Anna replied. "I don't think that Igneel would miss a meeting without notice." As if on cue, a large red dragon appeared in the sky.

"There they are," Grandeeney said.

"We apologize for being late," Igneel stated as he landed. "Right Natsu?" A pink-haired boy slid off of his back.

"Right," He replied as he rubbed his eyes. "But I wanted to sleep some mo-"

"Natsu."

"I apologize."

"What was Natsu's life like before he met Igneel?" Lucy asked Anna.

"Hm, well in this case it is better if I show you instead of tell you," Anna answered.

"You knew Natsu before he met Igneel?"

"I did not. What you are about to see, are memories from his older brother."