"Wait, you've seen us before we even knew who you were?" Gray asked Aura slightly irritated, "When exactly did you arrive here?"
Aura placed her hand under her chin as she thought about how to answer the question. "I think it was about a month before Fairy Tail went to war with Phantom Lord."
"What?!" Lucy blurted out completely astonished, "You've been here that long?!"
"Yeah."
"But that was over 6 months ago." Loke added, his eyes wide.
"I know." Aura looked at the group confused. "For the first couple of months I wandered around aimlessly, looking for a clue to Draven's whereabouts; but without any money it was hard to get around. Eventually I ended up in Lumina and joined the Night Shade guild even though I knew of their reputation."
"If you knew that they were a dark guild then why did you join?" Levy asked confused.
"I needed the money that guild work provided and they happened to be the closest guild at the time, although I had no idea that we would fight Fairy Tail. I guess my coming shifted the timeline some, because in my future Night Shade ruled Lumina over until Draven awoke."
"I wonder what else has changed." Gray said to himself as he entered a thinking pose.
"Hey Aura," Wendy asked nervously, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure kid go ahead." Aura smiled, she had to admit being able to call Wendy a kid was a satisfying feeling.
"In Lumina, did you hold back against Lucy & I?"
Aura sat silent for a minute as she looked at Wendy & Lucy, she then sighed and scratched her head. "Honestly no I didn't. You guys beat me fair and square."
"You're lying." Wendy retorted a more serious look appearing on her face. "If you had used your Dragon Slayer magic, you would have beaten us easily. You don't have to lie for my sake I know I'm not much of a fighter."
Aura winced at the harsh tone Wendy spouted at her. You don't understand, I really couldn't have. Your two's strategy was near perfect, even with my Dragon Slayer magic I may have lost.
As she scanned the group of Fairy Tail wizards, the group began to loudly talk amongst themselves about Aura's recent words. Aura's eyes soon fell upon on Wendy who was looking at her comrades with confusion. Since the battle between Phantom & Fairy Tail happened before she joined she had no worthwhile input on the subject, but she managed to pick the other topics up well enough. She noticed Aura looking at her, and smiled at the time lost dragon. Aura couldn't help but smile back.
You never change Wendy.
After about an hour of excited chatter, things finally calmed down and the others resetting themselves.
"So what do we do now?" Gajeel asked looking at Aura determined.
"Well the first thing we have to do is wait until Natsu & Erza return to the guild." She then turned her attention to Levy, "What's today?"
"Today?" Levy asked thinking to herself, "Today is the 17th."
"Ok, that means we have about a month or so before my parents return to the guild."
"Ok so what do we do in the mean time?" Gray asked looking at Aura expectedly.
"We train. We train until they get back and we train when they return. We also we tell everyone at the guild about Draven."
The whole group sat stunned at Aura's battle plan. "How do you know they'll even believe us?" Lucy asked.
"I don't but we have to try, we have to be ready to take him on; otherwise countless people will die." Aura answered her face solid.
"What about you?" Juvia began to inquire, "Won't you be destabilizing time even more if you tell too many people about your origins?"
"Don't worry." Aura reassured her, "I can tell the others what's happening without revealing myself."
"Ok well how long do we have?" Loke asked his tone serious.
"Draven won't be awakened for 6 months, but we're going to take him out in 4."
"How are we going to do that?" Juvia asked slightly worried
"Like I said before we train. Although Myself, Gajeel, Wendy, Lucy, & my parents are the keys in this fight."
Lucy & Wendy's eyes opened in astonishment, looking at one another as the looks on their faces turned to looks of anxiety and fear. "Ok I get why you and the others are important but why me?" Lucy nervously asked as she pointed to herself.
"You inherited your mother's keys, so you have the power to seal Draven along with our Dragon Slayer Magic." Aura replied confidently.
"But I'm not as strong as my mother was." Lucy said crestfallen as she looked at her keys, "I don't how she managed to seal him away." She looked at her keys even more depressed until she felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Loke's.
"Don't worry about it Lucy, me and the other spirits will help you figure it out. I'm sure Capricorn and Aquarius know the spell." He reassured her smiling.
She smiled back at him, "Thanks Loke."
"I hope you guys are ready," Aura began to tell the group, "This will be the most brutal battle you've ever faced, you may not make it out in one piece." She looked at the group of Fairy Tail wizards, slightly happy that they showed no signs of wavering.
"Man who knew Natsu's & Erza's daughter could be so gloomy." Gray said mocking a smirking Aura, "This isn't anything new for us ya know." He added putting his arms behind his head.
Oh Gray you're so cool. Juvia thought as she stared at him swooning.
"Yeah," Gajeel added clenching his fist, "We'll kick this Draven guys ass and send Oracion Seis back to the hole they crawled out of."
Loke & Lucy looked at one another and nodded as Wendy & Levy looked at Aura and nodded determined. Aura looked at the group of wizards and smiled once more, "Thank you. Thank you all so much." They then began to speak about different things well into the night.
…
Inside of a tower in the southern tip of Fiore, another meeting was being held; one of more dreadful aims. At the top floor of the tower, inside of a huge room lit only by the light of giant star shaped seal stood five figures, each of them possessing incredible magical power.
"Looks like one of the points of the star has disappeared." A woman said as she flicked her hair behind her.
"Yeah, looks like one of the disciples has been taken out. This is all happening kinda fast don't ya think?" Another voice spoke.
"Doesn't really matter how they're defeated, as long as the seal gets broken." This time the voice chiming in was a shrill one.
"That's right. We get closer every day. There is an order to this." Yet another voice spoke as a snake slithered beside them. "You really think it was a good idea to make yourself the last seal?" the voice asked an unknown source.
"Well we wouldn't want anyone to break the seal prematurely." Said a voice answering the previous one.
"What about the new guy? Wasn't he supposed to be here?" One of the previous voices asked annoyed.
"He's still making preparations at the temporary base."
"To be honest, I don't think that guy will last very long with the attitude he has. He's too cocky."
"Agreed, but he is quite the skilled wizard. So he'll serve his purpose for the time being."
"You think we'll run into them again?" the woman asked the rest of the group.
"I'm sure we will, but by the time they figure out what we're up to it will be too late." The figure who answered her then placed their hand on the magical seal as they looked inside to see a lone figure suspended in a crystal like shell. "Soon you will be free Draven, and we will plunge the world into darkness." A sadistic grin appearing as they spoke and psychotic laugher could be heard emanating from the lone tower.
…
Aura sat by the window of the girl's room, looking outside at the moon shining high in the cloudless sky. Turning her attention to her roommates, Aura found herself content at the sight of all of them soundly asleep. Lucy and Wendy were sleeping in the same bed, smiles on their faces as sweet dreams entered their minds. Juvia & Levy also shared a bed, but found themselves a bit less comfortable as the Solid Script wizard found it hard to sleep with Juvia constantly moving around as she dreamed of Gray.
Aura smiled at them as she looked back at the sky. I wonder if I did the right thing telling them about the future, she pondered to herself. I mean at least they know what's coming so they can prepare, but what if I messed up the time stream? Her brain began to fizzle as she thought of the possible ripples and rips in time. Argh! I've never been good with thinking about that kind of stuff. She continued to fret in frustration but her thoughts soon quelled when she looked at the crest on her forearm.
She gazed at it for a few moments, squeezing her forearm as if she didn't believe it was real before looking out of the window one last time. She then closed her eyes and slept against the window. A few moments after she had fallen asleep, Wendy opened her eyes and noticed a couple of tear drops coming from Aura's eyes as she slept.
…
Aura awoke the next morning yawning and stretching as she tried to wake her body up along with her mind. She stood up but felt a slight tug next to her. Looking down, she felt and saw a blanket covering her, but what was even more surprising was that Wendy was sitting against her chair sleeping.
Aura smiled as she yawned one more time, taking care not to wake the sleeping girl as she stood up slowly. She looked around the room to see the rest of the girls sleeping as she made her way to the bathroom to wash up.
About an hour later she emerged from the bathroom, her body wrapped in a towel as she walked out. The rest of the girls were just waking up as Aura sat on a nearby chair. She slipped on her panties under the towel, once they were on she unwrapped the towel, letting it fall to the floor with her back facing the rest of the group.
The rest of the girls opened their eyes in shock as they could clearly see the scars covering Aura's back in the sunlight as she searched for a bra. Even though they had seen some of them last night, it was a vastly different experience to see them in the sunlight.
That's horrible. Levi thought as she covered her mouth.
Once she had found her bra she put it on and faced the others as she put on her pants. She saw how the others looked at her as she returned with a confused look.
"You guys ok?" She asked putting on her shirt, and grabbing her scarf wrapping it around her head as she did every day.
Lucy broke out of her trance, "Oh yeah we're fine, sorry for staring." She answered with an uncomfortable smile.
"O, ok. You guys should get ready, we're going back to the Guild today." She said with a smile.
How can she still smile after everything she's been through? Juvia thought as she continued to look at Aura.
"You're right," Lucy retorted. "Wendy you can get ready first." She said looking at the young girl.
"O…ok." Wendy said with a hint of worry in her voice as she made her way to the restroom.
A few hours later, all of the girls were ready for the trip back to Magnolia as they walked out of their room and headed downstairs to the entrance of the inn. Once outside, they noticed that Gray & Gajeel were already waiting for them.
"What took you guys so long?" Gajeel asked with an irritated look on his face, "We've been waiting for hours."
Aura scratched her head and smiled as toothy as her father, "Sorry about that, you know how girls are in the morning." She turned and looked at the rest of the group, "Is everyone ready?"
Everyone gave a determined look to one another as Aura asked the question, they knew what they had to do once they returned to the guild. A war was coming, and they had to be prepared to stop it at all costs. With a renewed vigor, the wizards began their trip back to Magnolia. Aura looked at her comrades and smiled as she looked up into the bright blue sky.
Mom, Dad; I hope you're safe.
…
Natsu & Erza stood at the entrance of Auron perplexed. They looked at one another as if they were asking the other for an explanation of the strange phenomena, but neither could come up with an answer that would satisfy the other.
"Strange." Erza thought aloud as she placed her hand under her chin. "Even though the town is small, it shouldn't be deserted in the middle of the day."
"Yea this is kinda weird." Natsu added as he scratched his head in confusion. He then looked at Erza with a determined look on his face. "Let's check it out."
"Agreed, there's definitely something wrong here." Erza nodded and followed behind Natsu into the ghost town.
…
Next chapter is up I know its way shorter than the previous ones forgive me. Pieces are starting to be fall into place as Aura finally begins to make plans against Draven. Next chapter we finally get to catch up with Natsu & Erza to see what they are doing as well as see how they get back into the main story. As always thanks for reading and let me know what you guys think :)