Hey there!

Looking back on the chapters, I realize I messed up more than once. I'm sorry I know this is way overdue. One part I should mention is about the fighting festival arc. Specifically the bandits Evergreen used to keep Hope away from Magnolia, yeah, if you remember the part where they call Hope an oracle? Yeah, those guys have their information a bit messed up. The oracle is actually a reference to a big shot in Aetheria who's actually the same person that wrote the book Freed mentioned in Chapter 30. He's a distant relative of Hope's, like a cousin thrice removed. The bandits just thought he'd have to be the one using the pendant. Except they don't know he gave it back to the person it was entrusted to before that person gave it to Hope. Yeah, there's more to the pendant than you might think. The reason Hope worked out how to use it better than most is...well, there's actually two reasons, one is how much he tried to learn and examine it so he can fix it. Reason number two is its magic, which basically relates to the person who made it. He's an important part of my plot, who also has a connection to Fairy Tail. I will start explaining about him after the Tenrou arc because I need Mavis around to help.

Now to the second thing I forgot to explain. Victor did actually see Hope in Aetheria. But that was way back, they never actually met but he happened to see him there. Except neither of them know that, because Victor's under the mistaken impression that Hope just looks like the kid in his memory and Hope never remembered to question him about that. The third is regarding the sieve lacrima. If you remember the palace which got attacked in the recording, it's Mercurius. Hope actually lived in Crocus before the whole mess with Demon Fang went down so let's just say this will affect the Grand Magic Games arc. It's a stepping stone for him, so to speak. I haven't fully plotted the arc yet but that's when I'll start getting into Hope's forgotten past. There's plenty and Hope's family plays a big role in the story. About them...Let's just say that's an entirely complicated deal on its own.

Sorry about the long note, here's Chapter 35!

A violent blizzard surged forth, caused by another of Byro's liquid. The scientist wasn't really a fighter but he was tricky and coy, knowing what to use to get away from their enemies. Unfortunately, time was on the Royal Army's side and Byro knew it. All their king needed was time to complete the coming phase of their plan. If they could do away with their enemies, all the more better.

If being a really big word here, of course.

"Gate of the Azure Wolf, I open thee, Lupe!"

Seconds later, a humanoid wolf with deep blue and white fur appeared. She wore a dark green and white tunic with matching boots along with silver gauntlets and knee pads.

Byro merely sneered "What's that going to do? All you did..."

Lupe charged up power before slashing the air before her. Two light blue waves of magic appeared and slashed through the blizzard, dispersing it. The spirit smirked at her gobsmacked enemy "You were saying?"

Lucy grinned "Way to go!"

Hughes barely managed to evade Erza's attack by using his wand to manipulate the rubble around him as a shield. He did manage to see Natsu charging at him next but presumed that his makeshift shield would ensure his safety.

Rebecca remedied that problem by casting a Cluster Blast up close to decimate the shield and Natsu sped in just in time to strike him.

Hope was about to load a bullet in one of his weapons when he heard Endymion call out a warning. In response, he quickly cast Aegis around himself and his friends. His partner's concern was well founded as an energy beam descended on the field and collided with the Aegis, which nullified it at once.

The one behind was none other than Erza Knightwalker, holding a spear at the ready.

"I'm surprised you reacted so quickly."

"You're finally here." Hughes remarked.

Natsu, Wendy and Carla were the only ones among their comrades (who either knew beforehand or were told by Riley) who had no idea that this world's Erza was a member of the army.

"E-Erza?!" The first blanched while the girls stared, wide-eyed.

Before any of them had a chance to react, she attacked, her weapon held high. Hope met her charge head on, stopping in its tracks before changing one of his blades to the gun form and blasting her with a bullet of light magic.

She jumped back to dodge it before it nailed her stomach "You're not bad." Her eyes narrowed as she took a good look at her adversary, remembering the last time she saw that face. "You're Chris Laramie's other self. Hmph, you're just as much of a fool as your counterpart."

"You're the only fools I'm seeing here." Hope retorted. He felt uneasy about the possibility of this happening after Riley told them about Knightwalker. He didn't want to fight any of his family, but all he could do was remind himself that they were different people. Listening to her was definitely helping, there was no way the Erza they knew would agree to any of this. "What gives you the right to put so many lives in danger?"

"I wouldn't expect people like you to understand but it's simple. Sacrifices must be made for a greater goal, we fight for our King."

Wendy glared at her "You're right, we don't understand. In fact we don't want to understand how you can believe in such a cause, Sky Dragon's Roar!"

Cameron had arrived just moments after Knightwalker and was now fighting Gray, Erza, Rebecca with Sugarboy. It took him a couple of minutes to get a bunch of silver knights like the ones that attacked Lily to help their fight using the magic in his bracers. Hughes had taken to using some of them on his side and so got more confident as he watched the knights in front of Cameron through their lances towards their enemies.

"Ice Make: Shield!" And all the weapons clattered harmlessly against the large icy construct.

Sugarboy barely evaded a Photon Slicer by using his sword to make the ground around soft, glancing at Cameron as he spoke "The cannon could have saved your friends too." He remarked, after failing to hit Gray with a couple of punches.

"Oh, come off it, we know what you're up to!" The ice mage said, unfazed.

"We'll figure things out on our own." Rebecca added before using her staff to smack a silver knight's weapon away.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Hughes merely used his wand to move one of the knights to defend him. His expression changed into one of surprise when Natsu merely smirked and used fire to propel him, nailing the captain with a hard punch to the face.

"Gate of the Maiden, I open thee, Virgo!" In a flash, the pink haired maid spirit appeared. "Try to corner him!"

"Understood, Princess." Virgo replied before she ran towards Hughes from another direction. Seeing the captain pulling himself up, Lucy hurried to knock his wand away with her whip. Unfortunately, Hughes jumped back to avoid the strike.

Once she caught up to her, Virgo gave her something "Princess, this is a whip from the Celestial World, Fleuve d'etoiles. I'm sure it'll help you."

"Thanks, Virgo. Let's give this a test run!"

"You just won't stay down..."

Hope glared back at Edo-Erza as their weapons clashed again, watching her scowl. She was the stronger and more experienced one but Hope was faster and he made sure to utilize that advantage as much as possible. She found it frustrating that he kept getting in her way and her temper was starting to affect her fighting style.

She jumped back and changed her spear's form but her next attack was stopped by a lightning blast from a cannon Riley had picked up from a fallen soldier.

"You're persistent, but this is a waste of time." Knightwalker remarked as she tightened her grip on Ten Commandments.

Thinking fast, Hope quickly froze her and began preparing to attack, noticing Wendy doing the same from the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, the earth started shaking, throwing them off. If they had gotten to look nearby, they would've seen it was because of Sugarboy and his sword.

Smirking, the captain heads off to strike Erza, who was the nearest to him. Moments later, stalagmites rose to obstruct his path forcing him to change tact and quickly use Rosa Espada to soften the quickly drawing collision.

Surprised, Erza looked back and saw Rebecca running over. "I got this, you go and help the others."

Nodding, she adjusted her grip on her sword and took off.

Since Sugarboy's trick got her enough time, Knightwalker managed to break free of the memoria magic forced on her and continued the fight. She was about to continue attacking when someone stepped in and stopped her. Her eyes widened when they met with her counterpart who pushed her back at that moment.

Erza glanced back at her friends, seeing Wendy, Carla and Riley helping Hope, who was on his knees after Knightwalker's lance struck him. "Are you all all right?"

The three answered positively and Hope did the same after a few moments. Riley looked at him "What're you..."

The words died in his mouth after noticing the silver glow around Hope's hands which he kept over the recent cuts on his chest and arm. It took him a moment to realize that the injuries were fading away.

Recognizing the spell as Athena's Veil, Erza kept going "Good, then leave her to me."

"All right..."

Knightwalker scowled as they left, turning her glare to her new adversary. "So you're my counterpart. To think you're with Fairy Tail..."

"And I'm proud to be." Erza declared fiercely, interrupting "Get ready!"

With that the two charged at each other.

Sugarboy used his sword to soften the three rocks Rebecca had tossed at him "It's useless."

The girl merely scowled, hiding a wince from his last attack. She saw the captain sliding towards her again and waited till he was close enough to dodge. Then she smirked as an idea came to her.

"Earth Shaker!"

Rebecca watched in satisfaction as Sugarboy yelped in alarm as the seismic waves made him go out of control. "Thanks for the tip! Now..."

She used a rocky lance to send him into the air before striking him again and again with her staff, then she spun it around, hitting Sugarboy repeatedly again. Rebecca then jumped back, waving her hands in a circle before making a slashing motion. "X-blast!"

With that, two criss crossing waves of magic hit Sugarboy and knocked him out.

Rebecca grinned "That's a wrap!"

"He lost?!"

"You don't have time to be worried about him!"

Hughes cried out as Lucy's new whip wrapped around his arm before the blond tugged, making him fall forward and Virgo took the chance to kick him.

He scowled, picking himself up in time to see Natsu rushing towards him and tossed a bottle Byro gave him earlier, it released a water cyclone.

"Now why don't you get past this?"

Natsu tried using a Roar to evaporate it but they couldn't tell if it had much of an effect. Lucy tensed "Maybe I could try getting Aquarius..."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Princess, there's nothing stopping him from manipulating her water the same way he's using this one." Virgo pointed out. "Leave it to me."

With that, she began to dig as fast as she could. Almost a minute later, the earth around the cyclone turned up and slowly a trench was forming near it. Thinking fast, Lucy used her whip to knock Hughes' wand to the ground. The girl smiles as she realized Virgo's plan, watching the cyclone change course until it collided against a wall before taking the chance to hit the shocked Hughes with her whip again.

"Good going, girls! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu smirked as his opponent was sent reeling from the up close strike. "And for the final touch, Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!"

Hughes cried out again, slamming against the ground. Virgo came up then "I see that's done."

Natsu and Lucy shared a high-five at their victory.

"Oh man, this world's Erza is strong like the one we know..." Gray trailed off, noticing the two redheads battling in the air.

"Pay attention. We've got enough to worry about." Lupe warned with a stern tone.

"Right, sorry. Ice Make: Ice Impact!"

The spell served to get of plenty of the knights surrounding Cameron. Gray stared when he realized that Cameron was completely unaffected. The man merely gave him a look "Surprised? My gauntlets don't just make those knights, they fortify my own abilities too."

"Yeah? Doesn't matter, you're still going down!"

"Aren't we confident?"

"That doesn't have anything to do with it. Our guild mates' lives are in danger!" Gray pointed out. "So there's no way in hell you're getting away with this."

Lupe kicked a knight away from her "Make your 'mission' sound noble all you want, it doesn't change the fact that you're selfish, you just hurt people to get your way."

Cameron scowled "Shut up, you don't know anything."

Gray's eyes narrowed as the man prepared to punch him, he cast Cold Excalibur in time to meet his strike and pushed him back with a kick. Unfazed, Cameron sent a few knights after Lupe. The spirit cast a spell, before a myriad of black lances landed around her attackers. She proceeded to punch, kick and slash then, effectively clearing out a crowd. She made sure to throw one knight at Cameron when he attacked her, though it did little to stop him and his combination left her cringing.

She pulled herself up quickly, though. "Sorry, I need to leave. At this rate, Lucy will run out of magic power."

"Gotcha, no worries I got this covered," Gray assured, barely seeing her leave in a flash of light before turning use icy lances to take care of the knights near them. Unfortunately, this left him open to a series of punches and kicks from Cameron who then knocked him to the ground.

"So much for that." The man moved to attack again...

"Ice Make: Shield!" Gray quickly created a shield that was enough to cover his torso. He quickly pulled himself up and used it to bash Cameron's head before giving him some punches that pushed him back. "Don't count me out. It doesn't matter what you do, Fairy Tail never gives up, least of all now."

Cameron's fist clenched "For all your all self-righteous talk did you ever consider that there's a lot at stake for us too? That's why this is our only choice!"

Gray gave him a cold look "There's no way that's true. It's funny that you're complaining about us being self-righteous. It's easy for you to talk but what about all the people who get caught up in your plan? Does this make it okay to just step over them? The end doesn't justify the means, you know!"

The captain stiffened as this made him remember something, a distant memory from over a year ago.

"You...you're actually going that far?"

"Yeah, so what? Those...are my guildmates you're going after, and my friends that keep getting hurt...thanks to you all. I don't care what your problem is. Since when did the end justify the means anyway, huh?!"

A familiar feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy filled Cameron with anger once more as he stopped reminiscing. "I came too far to drop everything now, this would all really be for nothing if I do that...it's too late..."

Gray frowned, seeing the conflict in his opponent's face. "...You're an idiot."

He froze the ground around them before proceeding to skate over towards Cameron. He easily froze the knight Cameron tried to send at him before stunning the man with a powerful punch to the gut.

"Now let's wrap this up. Ice Make: Seven Slice Dance!"

With that, Gray had his battle won.

Byro grimaced as he realized how badly things were turning for them. "This can't be happening!"

He quickly tossed a liquid that conjured a big wave that surged towards Wendy, Carla, Hope and Riley. The first split it in half with a well timed Wing Attack. Wendy frowned as she saw the soldiers approaching the battlefield, who were having trouble getting close because of all the debris in their way.

Carla scowled "We don't have time for this!"

Upon seeing one of them dangerously close to Coco (who had managed to stay away from the battles for the most part) Riley grabbed a discarded lance and hurled it towards the soldier, who was knocked out as the weapon hit his helmet.

Riley picked up a shield as Coco ran over to them "Stay close to us, this just got more complicated."

The girl nodded before stepping behind him. Natsu looked at them "You watch out for her, Riley. We'll take care of those guys."

"Right."

"You've been lucky so far but you can't possibly win against all those numbers." Byro pointed out before tossing a liquid towards Riley and Coco, it released a burst of flames that forced them to step back.

A second later, a shield of light formed to protect them. After ensuring their safety, Hope turned to Byro "Your opponents are right here, coward."

Tensing, Byro stepped back to activate a hidden mechanism in the wall which opened a hole. Harpoons shot from that side towards but Wendy used a Roar to take care of the ones on her side while Hope used a Maelstrom to destroy the ones on his end.

'Wendy, Carla, you should go help them head those soldiers off. We'll be there as soon as we're done.' Endymion suggested.

Wendy saw Hope nod to this before turning to her partner "Carla..."

The exceed nodded back before they flew off.

"You shouldn't have done that, boy." Byro remarked before tossing the first of the two last liquids he had, creating a tornado of flame.

Hope loaded his guns with magic before calling out "Pulse Bomb!"

With that, an array of light blasts appeared before Byro's eyes a second later before they burst, destroying the tornado within seconds.

"Hm, I admit I'd love to conduct some tests on you." Byro grabbed a bottle. "I never had a chance to truly examine those dragon slayers but I'll start with you. I'm sure my findings would be interesting to say the least."

Hope started, not because of Byro's words but because of the wave of anger he felt after the scientist finished. The man didn't know it but Byro had really ticked off someone he would not want to mess with. (AN: Let's just say Endymion is one very protective guardian.)

"Now this liquid here is the fruit of my work, it will give me the powers of the legendary Kraken!" Byro drank it and in a second, transformed into said creature, sneering at Hope. "Do you see this power? You're finished, boy."

"Hardly, but since we're talking legendary creatures..."

Everyone who didn't know about him stared in shock as Endymion took over. None were so shocked as Byro. "Th-this can't be possible..."

"Oh it very well is, scum." Endymion's eyes narrowed. "You're about to pay for helping endanger our friends and threatening Hope, Nova Blast!"

Byro yelped as the spell hit its mark. He tried grabbing the phoenix with his tentacles but Endymion just let an aura of light surround him before going into a spin and sending Byro flying before striking him with a wing and then using a spinning blast of light to knock him out.

"Having fun, big guy?" Natsu grinned.

"Oh, much more than you think." The phoenix replied before they proceeded to knock out the soldiers near them.

"I think Endymion-san might have a mean streak." Wendy mused.

"What do you mean might? Still, it's not like the old man didn't deserve this. He handled that better than I expected, all things considered." Carla remarked, thinking that their friends dealt with people like Byro enough as it were.

"Wow...remind me never to get on his bad side." Riley told Gray, who laughed.

"That's something we agreed." He informed. Yeah, it didn't take them long to figure out that hurting or troubling Hope was a fast way to get on Endymion's nerves.

"They broke through!" Coco warned, eyeing the approaching soldiers.

"All right, this'll be a cinch!" Gray smirked.

Happy had left to warn the exceeds, leaving Gajeel and Lily to try and stop the lacrima. None of them knew how the King pulled this off but it definitely worked. The island was moving slowly but definitely towards Extalia. The problem is, they couldn't seem to stop it.

"Lily!"

Said captain started before turning his head to see a legion approaching them fast with Endymion right next to him, Coco riding on the former.

He couldn't help noticing the guild mark on Endymion's wing "So...you're a member of Fairy Tail too?"

"And proud to be," the phoenix answered without missing a beat.

"I'm glad you're okay! We took care of the key so...wait..." Coco quickly realized the problem.

"Yeah, Faust found a way around the key. I wish I knew what." He admitted, sounding frustrated.

Coco looked alarmed "No way, so it's still heading to Extalia?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Hey, where's Happy?" Natsu asked Gajeel.

"He went to warn the exceeds."

"What? Why would he..." Carla began.

"What're you saying, Carla? They should know about this! Let's go help him," Wendy looked at her.

As soon as she said it, Carla began to regret her words, she just couldn't help the resentment she felt towards the exceeds. But that didn't mean she wanted them to die. With that in mind, she took Wendy and they flew off.

Wendy and Carla were glad to do this, as they were quick to find that no one was listening to Happy. The exceeds were in fact completely confident that Queen Shagotte would protect them and they still kept up their haughty and arrogant attitude.

"I don't even know why you came here, Fallen!" One of the exceeds spat. "Oh and there's the other one too. With a human, pathetic! Did you think you can scare us or is this some trick and you're here to beg us to forgive your crimes?"

"We haven't done anything! We're trying to help you!" Happy retorted, scowling.

"He's right! You're not doing yourselves any favors, the army's already getting their plan under way. We're fighting them, but you're in danger..." Wendy began.

"Stupid human, weren't you listening? Your kind can't do a thing against our queen's powers!"

"Yeah, we're perfectly safe!"

Carla frowned "You can talk all you want, but that won't change the situation. Extalia is your home, you should do something to defend it instead of just saying such useless things! I don't want this country to be destroyed, it's my home. Don't throw everything away!"

"Who are you to tell us what to do? We're..."

"This isn't about humans or exceeds!" Wendy cut the speaker off. "That doesn't matter. We're people, living all the same. This is about doing what's right!"

"Well said, Wendy." The girl looked up in time to see Endymion flying to them. The phoenix ignored the reactions his appearance stirred, keeping attention on his friends. "Panther Lily said you might have a hard time but this was worse than I imagined." He looked at the crowd "Everything they told you was true. You think yourselves above us all but it's that mindset that could get you killed. From what we've seen, the army is mobilizing and very well on its way. If anything, all you're doing now is what's truly pathetic. If you'd truly listen and try to fight for Extalia, you're welcome to join us. What do you all think?"

"Sounds good!" Happy responded while Wendy nodded.

"Carla?" Endymion tried.

"It's okay," Wendy piped up, sensing her partner's anxiety. "We've come this far, let's make sure to do this right. Our friends are already working hard, let's go."

'You've done all you could.' The white exceed started at Hope's voice, hearing it in her head the same way Endymion's used to. 'No one said this would be easy but we can do this if we give it our all. Don't go giving up on us, okay? Why don't we go proving how wrong they are by proving how well our team works together?'

Carla smiled to herself. 'They're right.' Then she spoke "Yeah, let's not waste more time."

"Aye Sir!"

As they left, Happy could have sworn he saw an exceed who looked like Carla face the crowd but they were out of sight before he could think on it.

After that, the group of five quickly returned to the floating island, unfortunately learning that their friends had no success on their end either.

"They wouldn't listen at all?" Rebecca said when Happy finished telling her everything. "Just great. So..."

Hope stopped walking when a familiar sensation swept over him, his eyes widened as he realized the only thing that could be. But how...

'What is it, Hope?' Endymion was confused but judging from his charge's train of thought, he doubted Hope heard him.

"Hey," the templar looked at Lily. "do you know what this back up plan is supposed to be?"

Lily raised an eye at the question but answered "Apparently, it's a booster of sorts the king found a while ago. It did seem surprisingly powerful for such a plain thing. I'm still not sure what it's supposed to be."

This made Gajeel realize that he'd never actually seen a thing that even looked like it could be the booster. So what was it supposed to be? "What's with the sudden interest, Bird Boy?"

"...I think I found out what it is." He admitted before releasing his clenched fist which was holding the pendant.

Endymion's eyes widened as he saw that the item was glowing 'But that means...'

"I thought that thing lights up when there's a..." Gajeel stopped when it all clicked.

"Of all the places it could be..." Erza trailed off.

Natsu went to the edge of the island, squinting at the chain until a green glimmer caught his eye "Hey, I see it! That totally looks like one of the shards."

Riley was trying to make sense of this "Wait, so that thing's yours, Hope?"

"More or less, yeah. This actually works in our favor, the king's moving that chain by forcing the shard's magic out to break through. I can stop that and maybe turn that magic against them. But it'll take some time." Hope explained.

"Then go right ahead and get started, we'll take care of things on that end." Erza said at once.

Hope nodded, watching them leave before he concentrated on his magic...

The group all began pushing against the island, trying to keep it from Extalia with all their might.

"Oi, kid!"

Happy opened his eyes at Lucky's voice, seeing him and Marl flying over. "Hey, you're here to help us?"

Marl nodded "So it's true, the army wants to destroy Extalia..."

"Yeah, but we're definitely going to stop them!" Happy said at once.

Lucky grinned "About time you show some spine." Happy grinned back. "All righty, let's get to work!" With that, he and his wife joined the effort.

Needless to say, it was quite a terrible strain on them. Lily never understood everything Hope said before they left until he saw the glow surrounding the chain. It seemed to intensify for a moment before a silver blast of magic hit it, the chain shook almost immediately as if in response and the glow seemed to waver. So this was the force behind their problem...

Endymion wished he could go help them but he knew it was taking all of Hope's concentration and a good amount of magic to get the shard's power under his control. He watched as everyone strove to do their part, realizing through their connection that Hope planned to attempt reversing the island's time to before it got so close to Extalia, which shouldn't be too problematic with the shard's magic. The fact that he'd never done something like this before made it harder, though it made the phoenix wonder how Hope sensed the shard the way he did. Something a little similar happened during their job at Forza City...

A flash distracted Endymion's thoughts and he concentrated on Extalia, seeing a figure shoot towards the island. With his sharp eyes, he was able to see it was an exceed, who immediately started pushing with their friends. Not expecting this, Endymion kept his eyes on Extalia and was surprised to see numerous other exceeds following the first one's lead.

He wasn't the only one thrown off by this.

Natsu blinked at the exceed that landed near him "You guys..."

"We're going to save Extalia!"

"Yeah, if we work together, we'll pull it off!" Another said.

"Everyone, keep pushing and don't you dare stop!"

"No worries, we're giving this a 100 percent!"

Natsu grinned while Happy smiled "Now you're talking!"

"Come on, we can do this!"

"Let's go!"

And then amazingly, it worked! With everyone's combined efforts, the island was pushed back.

Seconds later and just as the chain began to move forward again, Hope pulled off his part and cast the magic before seeing the silver spell circle flash and the island go backwards a good amount before the chain fell apart.

Cheers resounded at their success, with the exceeds particularly pleased at the effort.

"We did it!"

"Aw, yeah!"

"Extalia's saved!"

"I didn't think you'd show up but I'm glad you did." Rebecca told a female exceed nearby.

"Yeah, let's just say the queen helped us see the truth." She blinked, seeing something green float towards them. "Say, what's that?"

Hope spread a hand open, watching as the shard landed on his palm. "And this makes three..." He trailed off, placing it on the pendant. It glowed before fitting around the lower part of the star.

Coco cocked her head "Wait, so a piece did all that? What is this thing?"

"I'm trying to figure that out, actually..."

"There's no need to keep it now, right?"

They looked at Carla, who was watching Riley. The white exceed explained that his hood had fallen off in the chaos but he had been quick to hide his face and he seemed a little reluctant to change that.

"She's right. You did promise to tell us about yourself when you could, why not now?" Erza questioned.

"I guess...but..."

"Yeah, why not? Just show us," Natsu said.

"You remember what I said about helping you? Well, I stand by it. Just tell us how." Hope added.

Riley didn't respond, only looking up when Lily placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right, I think they should know."

The boy exhaled "All right..." and he pushed the hood back, watching the observers' expressions change into surprise and bewilderment.

Why?

Riley was the missing Chris.

"Whoa, what?"

"You're..."

"No way!"

"What's going on?"

Natsu and Rebecca couldn't help but note that Riley's features were similar to Hope when they first met. He had caramel colored hair, one of his eyes was a vivid purple color while the other was a shade of silver.

"What gives? Half your guild probably thinks you're dead," Gajeel stated.

"Yeah, I...guess ended up making use of that." He said at last. "You know about that attack a year ago, right?" There were confirmations and he continued. "Well after that, I remember somehow making it to a town...and Mystogan found me. It took a while but he helped me recover so...I thought it would be okay. That I could get back to the guild...then Byro and Cameron found out about me. They said my choices were either to spy on Fairy Tail or our friends from the other guilds would die."

"What?!"

He had to admit, it was satisfying to hear and see the outrage from them. Boy did he know what that felt like...

Hope stared at him, wide-eyed. He couldn't imagine what being stuck in the situation was like, which left him to wonder "What did you do?"

"...The only thing I could do. I fed them some outdated info and went off the grid. That's around the time I met Lily." He admitted, glancing at the exceed in question.

"Yeah, I didn't want believe they'd sunk so low. Riley didn't want to hear it back then but I had no intention of helping them." Lily began. "So I helped him hide and he decided to become a spy and learn about the army to get in their way. He wouldn't stay down."

"So this is why you never said anything back then," Carla said, sympathy welling up for the boy. "I can't believe you stayed like this for so long, don't they know anything about this?"

Riley bit his lip "They didn't find out until Faust revealed that lacrima. Hibiki and Sherry found me in Royal City. They made me promise to do whatever I can to change things because...it just has to. I'm not sure how much of this I can take but I couldn't risk it. If they found out...then all our friends would have died. They barely survived through everything the king put us through and now this? No way I'd let that happen..."

"No wonder you were so secretive...and we just gave you a hard time. I'm so sorry, Riley!" Erza exclaimed.

"Yeah, man...you've had it rough," Gray said, looking guilty.

'That's an understatement. But you have handled things well, Riley.' Endymion couldn't help but think that he truly was like Hope. Riley was just thinking of his friends as he went at it alone all this time.

"I wonder...I'm still stuck, remember?"

"Not for long." Natsu assured. "You should have told us before. This gives more of a reason to beat the king and stop the army!"

"...So what happens with your friends? Seeing as they told you this, they must have something in mind." Lucy remarked.

"Yeah, they're going somewhere far off to hide." Riley sighed. "I wish they wouldn't have to but..."

"There's no need to worry." A new voice cut in. "That's been taken care of."

A second later, Mystogan made his way over to them.

"Mystogan!"

"You finally showed up!"

Riley ignored the others, concentrating on the young man's words "What do you mean?"

"I was just with them. Your friends certainly are resourceful." The S-class mage gave him a reassuring look. "It just took a while to make sure they would be all right. They specifically asked me to tell you that you shouldn't worry about them and concentrate on getting through this safely."

Cheers sounded at this while Riley sighed, his body relaxing in relief at the news "...Thanks."

"No, you have my thanks for going so far to protect them all." Mystogan responded.

Hope patted his counterpart's shoulder "Good to hear that's worked out. Plenty of hard times are over, we'll help you get through this."

Riley smiled "Yeah...thanks, Hope."

"Thank you, Prince." A just as relieved Lily said, Mystogan smiled.

"Prince?" Natsu and Gray repeated.

Riley blinked "...Oh yeah, you guys wouldn't know. Mystogan's just the name he settled for on Earthland. Here he's actually Prince Jellal."

"Seriously?!"

Mystogan looked down for a moment "...I've abandoned that name a long time ago."

Riley began to respond, stopping when he saw the lacrima glowing. "Er, what..." His eyes widened when it disappeared. "...what just happened?"

"I've sent it to Earthland. Thankfully, I found a large enough anima for that. Everyone should be all right," Mystogan answered.

Wendy smiled "That's great!"

"It certainly is. So now all that's left to do is deal with the king." Erza stated.

Mystogan nodded "And end this battle for good."

And we're done!

Well, I'm guessing some of you might have figured out who Riley was. I never meant to keep it a secret, it's just that way because of what he explained. For the record, Hope looked exactly like Riley before the experiments' effects settled down.

Next up's the final battle against the army where Faust shows up. And...oh, damn...I had something to tell you but I forgot...Ah, yeah! Well, I'm not really sure how to describe this but Hope's more in tune with the pendant's magic than he thinks. That's why he can use its power better than a bunch of the people before him. Well, for now I'll just say that it'll get back to its normal power after all the shards are returned, just two more left.

If there's anything that I forgot to put in the chapter, or anything generally that's confusing, let me know and I'll gladly explain as much as I can.

Thanks for reading and reviews will be appreciated. Hope you liked the chapter!