Happy flies as fast as his wings will carry him, lifting Natsu straight up the steep slopes of Mt. Hakobe. Carla is right beside him, carrying Wendy along and looking as determined as he's ever seen her.
"I don't hear him anymore!" Wendy shouts over the wind. "Do you?"
"No! Hurry buddy!" Natsu shouts again.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" Happy swears.
"They're over to the left!" Wendy shouts when they pass the third major peak.
As Happy glances that direction and changes course, he finally catches sight of Gajeel. The iron dragon slayer is sitting directly beneath a huge shaft of sunlight, as if he's trying to help them find him instead of hiding. He's in his pants and boots, but strangely despite the snow and bitter cold, his overcoat and shirt are off. Gina is lying against his chest without moving. Ming is lying in the snow in front of Gajeel's knees, and it almost looks as if there are tears frozen to Gajeel's face.
Happy sets Natsu down right in front of Gajeel, and Natsu seems frozen for a moment, just staring at them.
"She didn't want you here, Salamander," Gajeel mumbles without even looking at them. His face is pressed to her ashen curls, and his eyes are unfocused.
"Put her down," Natsu replies in a tone colder and more terrifying than the wind around them.
"Natsu…" Wendy whimpers. "We need to let Gajeel explain…"
"PUT HER DOWN!" Natsu screams, throwing off a huge amount of flames.
"I can't do that," Gajeel growls, finally making eye contact. "Not yet."
Happy catches sight of Erza, Gray, Lucy, Levy, and Pantherlily running up behind them.
"Erza," Gajeel grumbles. "I need you to come here. Requip those flame pants things you wear though."
Happy knows the outfit he is referring to is what Erza has come to consider her Clear Heart battle gear. They offer no armor defense at all, allowing her to focus exclusively on offense. It is a simple pair of loose-fitting pants with flame print coming up from the bottom, paired with a chest wrap for the top. Erza requips without hesitation, but approaches Gajeel cautiously. Gajeel very carefully transfers Gina into Erza's arms and moves her to sit in the spot he has been sitting in; leaning Gina against the bare skin of Erza's arms and chest.
"Can you feel that?" Gajeel asks, just before Natsu hits him from behind like a freight train.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Natsu screams in a rage, slamming Gajeel into the stone rock face to their left. "I'LL TURN YOU TO ASH! I'LL KILL YOU!"
"SHE DIDN'T WANT YOU HERE!" Gajeel roars back, slamming an iron bar into Natsu's stomach and hurling them both down the next bluff face. "I MADE HER A PROMISE, AND I'M GONNA KEEP IT!"
"GAJEEL!" Erza shouts from behind them. "YES! I FEEL IT!"
"Feel what?!" Levy asks, running over to Erza, placing her fingers against Gina's neck.
"I don't know," Erza says with a confused look and teary eyes. "I can feel my magic… it's like… like she's absorbing it somehow. She's not dead! She can't be!"
"What?!" Happy shouts flying over also.
Happy's chest hurts, and he's afraid to believe it, but he's terrified of how much Natsu is hurting. He places his paw against Gina's forehead and he feels a strange pull against his magic too. He looks back over and he can see Natsu and Gajeel in some kind of arm lock, both partially transformed into their dragon force second state. Natsu's skin has turned to scales in places, and Gajeel's have turned to iron scales. Their canine teeth are elongated and they're flashing them at each other like a couple of rabid dogs. Gray is trying to run interference between them and get them both to listen to reason, but they are completely ignoring him. They are switching back and forth between some kind of strange deadly wrestling match and throwing blinding punches at one another.
"Have you found a cure?" Gajeel asks with bared teeth.
"No, we haven't," Gray shouts from the sidelines, "but there might be a way to save her!"
"BUT YOU BROUGHT HER OUT HERE TO DIE!" Natsu screams, blasting Gajeel with wings of solid flame. "WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A PROMISE IS THAT? YOU SICK FREAK!"
"I'M STILL TRYING TO KEEP HER ALIVE!" Gajeel roars back, dragging Natsu's hardened face along the rock wall. "BUT I PROMISED HER YOU WOULDN'T WATCH HER DIE!"
"Gajeel!" Happy screams, flying over and tugging at Natsu's shoulders.
"Put me down!" Natsu screams.
"Erza can feel Gina drawing magic, and so can I!" Happy tries again.
"What?" Natsu looks back to Gajeel in confusion, then turns and leaps towards Gina.
"I can't let you do that!" Gajeel shouts, hitting Natsu from behind and knocking him back away from her.
"DON'T YOU DARE KEEP HER FROM ME!" Natsu screams, blasting Gajeel with a roar straight into the side of the bluff again.
Before Gajeel can reorient himself and leap back, Natsu has scrambled over and ripped Gina out of Erza's arms and into his own. Gajeel kneels down in front of them in a defeated posture; seemingly unwilling to let Gina be harmed amid the scuffle.
"Gina, baby," Natsu whispers, touching her face softly as tears begin to stream down his face. "I need you to wake up. Please." His face crumples for a moment and he clenches his still-elongated teeth as he presses his tears into her throat, but he tries again. "Come on, baby, just open your eyes. I know you can do it."
"Gajeel," Levy breathes, placing a careful hand on the scales on his shoulder, "Why is she drawing magic from us?"
"That has to do with her illness," Gajeel grumbles. "I didn't discover it until we were part way here. We only thought that Natsu was the only one who could feed her magic power, but any of us can do it."
"Well, I can't," Gray contradicts.
"It's probably not safe for me either," Wendy says. "Air is still an element."
"She says it will never be enough," Gajeel sighs, "The weaker she gets, the more energy she seems to need."
"But together, we might be able to keep her alive just long enough," Erza says, standing to her feet. "There's no time to lose. Everyone get moving. We'll pass over the mountain to the other side and keep heading north."
"What are you talking about?" Gajeel asks, standing to his feet himself.
"I'll explain," Levy says.
Natsu doesn't even respond. He just lifts Gina into his arms, and heads down the mountain at a dead run - still in dragon force second state.
Gina begins feeling her face again just before the magic inside her chest shudders violently. She's being bounced around and jarred terribly, and her chest aches as she gasps for breath with lungs that have been still for too long. She struggles to remember where she is and what is happening through a disoriented haze. I was escaping…
"Gajeel…?" she mumbles, struggling to open her eyes.
"No such luck, babe," Natsu's voice growls in a tone so angry she can barely recognize it.
"Oh shit…" she groans.
She doesn't even want to open her eyes now. She failed. Gajeel failed. There is just no way to escape him.
"Gina, look at me," Natsu growls again.
Gina ignores him.
"LOOK AT ME!" he screams, without even breaking stride.
His anger startles her so much, that she obeys him. Her breath catches in her throat. She's never seen him look like this before. His eyes are staring straight ahead as he continues running at a blinding speed, but they have morphed into a reptilian appearance. The skin around his eyes appears to have hardened into scales and his canine teeth have lengthened. He looks more lethal than she ever really imagined him.
"YOU HAVE REALLY PISSED ME OFF, GINA!" he keeps shouting. "WHEN THIS IS OVER, YOU'D BETTER SWEAR TO ME YOU'LL NEVER DO ANYTHING THIS STUPID AGAIN!"
When this is over…? she wonders. "Where are you taking me?" she croaks out.
"There's a village up ahead," Natsu says, much more calmly. "I think there is something there that can save you. It's from a job that just came in after you took off."
Gina feels her heart sink and then realizes that she can feel a draw from his magic that is terrifying in strength. She's not sure if it's the intensity of his emotion, or this new form of magic he's using that's the cause of the increase. Either way, his system was nearly exhausted when she escaped him last and there's no way he can keep this up.
"I'm not allowed to die, but you are?!" she musters up the strength to shout at him.
"What the heck are you talking about?!" he shouts back.
"I'm sucking the life out of you!" she screeches, trying not to sob. "I know you can feel it! If you don't put me down you'll die!"
"Don't get your panties in a twist," he says with a roll of his eyes. "You should have TOLD ME you could draw magic from more than just me."
"She has a point, Natsu!" Gina is surprised to hear Erza's voice call from somewhere beside them. "You should let me carry her for a while. You've already run more than halfway there. If she's awake she must be doing better."
Natsu slows to a stop briefly and hands Gina over to Erza before she even has time to think about their new knowledge. She is surprised to feel a strong draw of love from Erza; barely existent in comparison to Natsu's but just as strong as Gajeel's. Erza begins running as soon as she's steadied her grip, and Gina is also surprised by how physically strong the young woman is - not to mention how little armor she is wearing.
"You've really frightened him," Erza says after a little more distance.
"It is better for him to be afraid, or in pain, than dead," Gina groans.
"Is that why you ran away?" Erza asks.
"I don't understand how he's recovered so fast," Gina admits. "He had no strength left at all when I escaped him at home..."
"Porlyusica gave him a potion to restore his magical energy at an accelerated rate," Erza informs her, "but I think most of the strength that you see is his anger. Natsu's magic has a strange ability to increase exponentially when he's enraged; especially if people that he cares about are being harmed."
How odd… Gina puzzles over it for a few moments. She's never heard of a phenomenon like that before. In the long run, however, it is still irrelevant.
"Erza, he can't keep this up forever," Gina tries to reason with her.
"All of us will help now," Erza answers. "We'll see what we find in this village, and…"
"If you two would cut the chit-chat, you could run faster!" Natsu barges in again from the sidelines. "Gina you need rest anyway. Let's just get there as quick as we can!"
"Aye!" she hears Happy shout from somewhere above them.
Natsu runs straight up to a crowd of people in the center of town. This place is so small it barely qualifies as a village. There are small cabins and little huts of varying sizes spread around with only a couple of larger buildings. The sign on one of the larger buildings seems to indicate that it is the bathhouse, while the other appears to be the village's meeting hall. The small crowd of people, about five men and two women, seem shocked at his abrupt entrance.
"I'm here about the job!" he shouts at them. "Who can I talk to about it?"
"Look!" one of the women shouts, pointing right at him. "He has a Fairy Tail guild stamp!"
"Yes, but is he real this time?" the man beside her says.
"What the heck do you mean, am I real?!" Natsu shouts back at them.
Instead of answering him, the man takes the walking stick he's carrying and pokes it directly in the center of Natsu's chest. "Well, he seems real enough."
"Ow! What the heck was that for?!" Natsu barks back at them again. The rest of the Fairy Tail group begins piling in behind Natsu as he continues to shout at the villagers. "We're here about the request you sent for the ghost hunting job! So, just tell us who we have to talk to!"
"We're sorry," a short man says from the sidelines, "but you must understand. There's been a lot of folks with that guild mark around these parts, and not all of 'em are always really here."
"Yeah, we read about the problem you've been having from the paperwork you sent," Gray says with a sigh. "We're sorry about that, but we don't know what's going on either."
"Please describe to us in as much detail as possible," Erza says, shifting Gina's weight in her arms, "exactly what's been happening here since the first member of Fairy Tail appeared to you."
Before the villagers have a chance to respond, a huge shadow is cast over the village. Natsu readies a fireball as he looks towards the sky. He is shocked to see that the aircraft named Christina, used by the Blue Pegasus guild, is hovering in the sky just above the village.
In a manner of seconds, Hibiki Lates is standing in front of them. Hibiki is about the same height as Gray, with dark eyes, crazy-long eyelashes, and dirty-blonde hair. He's a classic pretty boy, and usually overdressed like he is today; wearing a fancy vest with embroidered wings on the front, blue slacks, and a pink dress shirt. He addresses Natsu immediately.
"Natsu, I came as quickly as I could," Hibiki says. "I followed your directions exactly. I have Christina and brought only myself. Now, will you please explain what on Earthland is going on, and why you need my help?"
Everyone turns to look at Natsu in surprise, but he feels even more surprised than anyone else.
"What are you talking about?!" Natsu shouts at him. "I didn't ask for your help!"
"Maybe he got a note like you did," Levy says from the back of the group. "You said the note was signed Natsu Dragneel wasn't it?"
"Yes," Hibiki says, looking very confused. "A messenger delivered a letter from Natsu saying that he needed my help here as quickly as possible. Are you saying that wasn't sent by you?"
"No! It wasn't!" Natsu says, running his hands through his hair in frustration.
Levy suddenly runs to the front of the group and points her finger at Natsu, addressing the villagers. "Have you seen him anywhere in the village before now?"
The group seems to scrutinize his face for quite a while. "Now that you mention it…" One of the men begins mumbling, "I don't think I've seen his face before but his voice is definitely familiar."
"His voice?" Lucy echoes in confusion.
Suddenly, the ground around them begins to tremble like a small earthquake. Gajeel catches Levy up against his chest, and Erza widens her stance to prevent dropping Gina. After a few moments, the rumbling stops and a huge cloud of dust seems to burst into the air from just to the right of the village.
"Oh no!" a young woman shouts. "There must've been a new cave-in at the mine!"
The villagers all begin running that direction, and the Fairy Tail crew follow in their footsteps. Natsu quickly gets impatient with their pace, however, and runs ahead; aiming for the plume of dust. The entrance to the mine is not very far from the village itself. He reaches it quickly and can see a dozen or more men scurrying to exit the mine as quickly as possible.
"This is all Fairy Tail's fault!" an elderly man shouts as he toddles up behind the group.
"Our fault?" Gray says an offended tone. "How the heck does a cave-in have anything to do with us?"
"We've been having major and minor tremors throughout the area pretty constantly since the ghosts from your guild first showed up about a month ago," a young gangly man begins to explain as he crawls his way out of the entrance and begins dusting himself off. "They've created a huge amount of instability inside the mine. We've had a couple of small cave-ins, but nothing serious yet. The mines are the first place that the ghosts started appearing. Scared the hell out of the work crew. Then they started appearing in the village. Sometimes the middle of the street. Other times in the middle of people's homes. Sometimes, they seem as real as you or me. They sound confused, like they don't know where they are, but we can touch them and they can talk to us. Other times, you can see right through them, and they're carrying on like they're not even aware of who you are or where they are. A couple of them have even been having battles right in the middle of town."
"This sounds nuts," Gajeel grumbles. "Have you heard of anything like this before, Short Stuff?"
"No," Levy sighs. "It seems like it could be time magic, but it's hard to say."
"What we need to do is find me, and fast!" Natsu shouts. "Erza, give Gina to me."
Gina looks like she can barely keep her eyes open as Natsu pulls her into his arms. He feels an immediate, and incredibly strong, draw from his magic. Now that he's shifted out of his second state of dragon slayer magic, he feels a little weaker and more tired, but he's not going to back down when they're this close.
"Well, who's the lovely lady?" Hibiki says, cutting into Natsu's awareness again.
"Hibiki, this is Gina," Erza says. "She's family to Master Makarov, and she's been running with our group for a few months now. She's very ill right now, and we're hoping that there's a cure for her somewhere in this village."
"That's ridiculous," Gina mumbles, barely above a whisper. "There is no cure for…"
"Shut up, Gina," Natsu says for what he feels like must be the millionth time. "You just rest until we prove you wrong."
"Perhaps we should find a place for Gina to rest, while we start checking things out," Erza says.
"No way," Natsu says shaking his head. "She's too weak. We need to find me, or find the cure, or both. I'm not letting her leave my side until we find it."
"Well, I don't really understand what's going on," Hibiki says, rubbing the back of his neck, "but it sounds like all of this trouble originally started in the mines, and I'm not one to leave a damsel in distress. It seems like it would be a good idea to start there."
"Hibiki's right," Levy says. "I think we should divide up into teams. Are there any maps of the inside of the mine?"
"No maps," the elderly man scoffs. "This mine is the lifeblood of the town. All of us know it like the back of our hands, or we don't go in at all. We've done some surveys from time to time, and we do have records, but nothing that you can take with you for reference."
"Then we'll need guides who know the mine well," Erza says.
"I have a better idea," Hibiki says. "If I could be allowed to view the records you do have, regardless of where they are, I can upload them to the archive. Then I can provide a direct mental upload of the map to all the members of the team."
Hibiki uses Archive magic which allows him to upload and download data directly to the minds of the members of his party. It also allows him to look through the historical records of various towns and villages that are connected to the Archive, or that other individuals who use Archive magic have uploaded before on previous missions. While he doesn't specialize in any form of powerful combat magic, his support in the field can be invaluable in the right circumstances.
"I will take you straight there," the old man says.
In the meantime, Natsu decides to get Gina into a better position for carrying. With some quick help from Happy, he moves her around into a piggyback position. Instead of wearing his overcoat, he keeps her against the bare skin of his back, and uses the overcoat like a tie down around her waist and his. Then he uses his scarf to hook under her arms and tie around in front of his chest. She keeps mumbling nonsense about him being ridiculous the entire time, but he just decides to ignore her for now.
Erza is barking out orders the whole time they're waiting, dividing the group up into teams. Erza intends to go with him and Happy. Gajeel is partnered with Levy and Panther Lily. Wendy and Carla are partnered with Lucy and Gray. They all expect Hibiki to provide support from outside of the mine, but after a moment, they hear his voice ring through their minds like some kind of internal loudspeaker. Natsu nearly jumps out of his skin. Hibiki's done this to him before, but it's been quite a while since he experienced it. It still freaks him out a little.
"The instructions that seemed to be coming from Natsu before indicated that I need to stay with the group wherever you go," Hibiki explains. "It makes me a little nervous to think that it didn't actually come from Natsu, but so far the rest of the information I was provided has been accurate. I'm not sure whether it's a good idea to deviate from the instructions I was given."
"Did they tell you to stay with anyone specific?" Erza asks.
"Actually, yes," Hibiki says. "It told me to stick with him like glue. With Natsu himself."
"But what if it's talking about the other me?" Natsu says.
"We still don't know that there actually is another you," Gray complains. "This could still just be some jackass pulling our strings. We need to be careful, but at least you can handle yourself with whatever happens to pop up and surprise us."
"I agree," Erza says, requipping a giant set of neon paint markers into existence, and beginning to pass them out. "I will be in Natsu's team as well. Together, we should be able to handle whatever situations occur. For now, team B will be Gajeel's Team. Team C will be Wendy's. Head into the mine, and when you divert down a unique path from each other, leave writing on the wall that indicates which direction you've gone in, so we can cover as many mineshafts as possible. If you encounter a ghost, enemy, or anyone else while searching, inform Hibiki immediately so that he can get the information to the rest of us. Natsu and I will wait for Hibiki, and enter the mine when he's come back."
Teams B and C stare at the fork in the mineshaft. There are small signs on the wall that seem to name the path in each direction, but the names have no meaning to anyone in the groups. Hibiki hasn't uploaded a map yet.
"Well," Gray sighs, "I guess we just split here, and then see how things go."
"We'll take the left," Gajeel grumbles. "Lev', you got that marker? Go ahead and put our scribbles on the wall for Erza. You guys take the right. I'm not sure what exactly we plan to find in here, but there may be a point later on in the path where we can meet up and regroup."
"Here's hopin'," Gray says, turning with Lucy, Wendy, and Carla to head down the dark mineshaft.
"Light," Levy says, as the word light appears in the center of her hand and illuminates the mineshaft all around them.
There does appear to be a crude lacrima lighting system strung throughout the mineshaft, but it doesn't afford a huge amount of light to work with. Overall, the shaft is dark and creepy. Gajeel finds himself trying to pick up on sounds, but the echoing inside of the shaft system just manages to give him a headache. They've walked at least 100 yards down the mineshaft before the earth around them trembles again slightly.
Gajeel snatches Levy by the back of the sundress and pulls her tight against his chest. He braces his other hand against the wall and readies himself to put a shell over them if the ceiling starts to give in. Spurts of dust dance around them, raining down from the ceiling, but the small quake doesn't shake anything loose of any significance. However, a glimmer directly in the center the shaft up ahead of them catches Gajeel's eye.
"Do you guys see that?" he asks, straining to get a better grasp of what he's looking at.
"I only see dust in the air," Panther Lily replies.
"I don't know how you guys can even see that with how dark it is," Levy sighs.
Gajeel leans down cautiously and picks up a small stone before chucking it towards the strange shimmering he still can't define. The stone passes right through it without seeming to have any effect.
"What are you doing?" Panther Lily asks.
"I don't know what I'm lookin' at," Gajeel mumbles, "There's something weird about the air up ahead. It's like…"
Before he can finish his sentence, a figure emerges from the darkness.
"Erza?" Levy says, addressing the figure. "What are you doing here? I thought…"
Gajeel slaps his hand over her mouth quickly. He leans down to whisper in her ear, "That's not Erza, Short Stuff."
As the figure gets closer, it's very clear why she could be mistaken for Erza. She's not as tall, but she has a similar build. She's also wearing armor that is strikingly similar to Erza's Flame Empress armor. Instead of having a swimsuit-styled body like the empress armor, however, this one has a skirt-like bottom with knee-high leggings and wings that are much more scaled and dragon-like. In fact, this woman looks exactly like one of the sketches that were provided by the villagers. The closer she gets, the more clear it becomes that she looks more like a ghost than a real person.
"Don't get any closer!" Gajeel yells to the woman.
The woman doesn't respond as if she's even heard him. She just keeps walking straight towards them. She's walking slowly, and as if she's on guard. It's unclear of whether she's just being overly cautious, or whether she's actively looking for something. She doesn't act as if she sees them any more than she could hear them when Gajeel shouted. Panther Lily takes a bold move forward and tries to touch the woman's arm. His hand passes straight through her body. Levy begins to tremble beneath Gajeel's hands.
Gajeel pulls himself and Levy back against the mineshaft wall, not wanting the woman to pass through their bodies the way that she did to Panther Lily. She continues on her way, and then disappears again a short distance down the mineshaft, as if she was never there in the first place.
"Okay... ghosts," Levy says after Gajeel drops his hand from her mouth. "Got it."
"Unfortunately, that didn't give us any additional information," Panther Lily notes.
"Hey everybody," Hibiki's voice suddenly breaks into their group consciousness, startling all three of them. "Sorry for the delay, but we finally got that map for you. I'm uploading it now."
The map reveals that the mine is much larger than any of them originally assumed. There are dozens and dozens of mineshafts, twisting and turning and interconnecting at random points along their routes. It's obvious that the miners have created the shafts in response to various finds throughout the years; instead of planning any straightforward design from the beginning.
"This is going to be impossible," Panther Lily mumbles.
"Not impossible," Hibiki's voice comes back in. "I'm having Archive label your current progress on the map right now. Team B will be the blue line. Team C will be the green line, and Team A will be the red line once we head into the mine as well. That way, even if we have to double back quite a bit, we should be able to know where we haven't been within the mine."
In a moment, the colored lines begin to appear, and Gajeel feels a pang of relief to at least have a frame of reference for where they are, and where they've been.
"You should let the rest of the team know," Gajeel says to Hibiki, hoping the strange telepathy really works that way, "that we've run into one of the ghosts. It was the chick that looks like Erza, but isn't Erza. She couldn't see us and she couldn't hear us. We can see her, but we couldn't touch her. She passed right through Panther Lily's body as if he wasn't even there."
"Yikes," Hibiki says. "I'll relay the message. This sounds like it's going to be tricky."
Gray feels thankful that Hibiki was finally able to upload the map. The route they chose to take seems to be twisting and turning all over the place, and he was glad to get confirmation on Wendy's theory that they crossed their own path more than once. However, he's not sure what the hell to make of this...
"You think I can't hear you punk?! Show yourself!" a voice shouts at them from out of nowhere. It's not the first time it's shouted at them either.
"What do you mean, show yourself?" Gray shouts back. "We can't see you either, Dumbass!"
"You better watch your mouth!" The man shouts back again. "You obviously have no idea who the hell you're talkin' to."
Suddenly, a very large man steps straight out of the wall of the mineshaft and into the walkway. However, his face quickly morphs from irritation into sheer and utter confusion. He glances around wildly, as if his eyes are having a hard time adjusting to the light. Gray immediately positions himself between the women of his team and the new mystery man. There's something eerily familiar about this guy, although Gray would swear he's never seen him before.
The man has short cropped, thick, navy blue hair that hangs long on one side of his face. He looks incredibly strong, with a build somewhere between Gajeel and Elfman. Gray would guess that he's somewhere around Laxus's age, around early 20's maybe. He has bright crimson eyes, and a healthy amount of piercings in his ears and through the center of his nose. The man also has a small solid black Fairy Tail guild stamp just behind his left ear at the top of his neck.
"So who the hell are we talking to?" Gray asks with a threat clear in his tone.
"The names Moorwen. Moorwen Redfox," the man spits. "Now who the hell…"
"Wait a minute... Redfox?" Lucy says. "Are you are you saying you're related to Gajeel?"
""No way…" The man seems to mumble almost to himself, squinting at the whole group of them. "Gray... Fullbuster?"
"Damn right," Gray says, forming a ball of spiked ice in his hand.
Moorwen shakes his head as if to clear it. "This has gotta be a trick," he says. "Of course I'm related to Pops. I'm his youngest son and you full well know that. Now why the hell do you look so young? What the hell is goin' on?!"
"Young?" Gray asks.
"It would seem…" Carla suddenly says, padding up between the two men, "that our earlier theory about time magic might be correct. Unless Gajeel has full-grown adult sons that I am unaware of."
"Time magic…" Moorwen suddenly mumbles. "Holy shit! This is what Old Man Fullbuster was talking about!"
"Old man?!" Gray objects.
"Yeah," Moorwen says, grabbing his own head in apparent excitement. "You told me about this a couple'a years ago! I thought you were nuts. You said you finally decided to tell me when I pierced my nose. I was going to get sucked back in time or some shit, but that it wouldn't last very long. Geez man, you're a baby-faced kid!"
Lucy starts to laugh, and Gray can feel his annoyance climbing.
"Did he tell you to give us any specific instructions?" Carla asks.
"Yeah, you did!" Moorwen says with a nod of his head, losing some of the intensity in his smile. "You told me not to tell you anything about the future. Except, you said I could tell you about what was going on right now."
"So, tell us. What the hell is going on?" Gray asks.
"You said we would be standing in a giant time distortion," Moorwen explains, crossing his arms over his chest and glancing around. "You gotta be really careful. The whole place is unstable. You're going to run into a bunch of people like me," he says pointing to his chest. "The whole thing is being caused by a giant freakin' time magic device. The people and the stuff that you'll see are all elements of the timeline from a single person."
"Who?" Lucy asks.
"I'm not supposed to say," he says, shaking his head. "You'll find out soon enough."
"Why the hell can't we know who's timeline we're dealing with?" Gray asks.
"Trust me," Moorwen says. "The last time I saw you, you are an old man being a pain in my ass. Like usual. You said, though, that too much information at the wrong time could bring about something pretty close to the apocalypse. If we screw up this particular timeline, it'll affect hundreds of thousands of people. You said the important part, didn't have as much to do with who you are meeting, as when you are meeting them from. You said that the timeline that I'm from has already been altered... whatever the hell that means... and that if things don't play out the way they're supposed to, I won't even exist. Existin' is kinda important to me."
"Well that's certainly understandable," Carla says with a sigh.
"All right, fine," Gray says. "Where the heck should we head from here?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Moorwen says with a shrug of his shoulders. "You said I wouldn't be with you guys very long."
"Are you getting this Hibiki?" Gray suddenly asks into the air.
"Yes, and it's fascinating," Hibiki replies through the Archive link to all of them. "I'm trying to use Archive to see if I have any information of something similar happening in the past. So far, I haven't come up with anything."
"Well…" Gray says with a sigh. "I guess we just keep moving."