Ultear bolted up with a shuddering gasp. What had just happened?

"You okay, Ul?"

She managed to swallow past the lump in her throat and turned to the man to her left. Gray was looking at her, his features twisted with concern. His eyes were...not the dark blue, almost black, ones that he'd had before. Not the ones that always had the faintly haunted quality in them or the ones that occasionally dimmed in somberness.

Now, they were a clear, almost glittering ultramarine that showed nothing but innocence. They made his face look far more childlike than before. The difference was almost unsettling, really. As she scrutinized his face further, the look of concern deepened. "Are you feeling sick again?" he asked, reaching out towards her face. She jerked back and batted his hand away. "No," she told him, "I'm fine."

They stared at each other a moment longer before Gray sighed. "If you say so," he muttered. "If you're feeling alright, then get dressed and come downstairs already. It's already past time," he said. He rose from the chair he'd been resting in and began to walk towards a doorway on the far side of the room. Ultear momentarily wrestled with whether or not she should risk asking what the hell was going on or play along. The closer Gray got to the doorway, the more her unease about the situation increased. Right as he was about to exit the room, she called out to him.

"Hey, um…" she trailed off as he turned back to her. She'd gotten his attention, but what was she supposed to ask, exactly? 'Why are you acting so different? Where am I? What happened?'

She let out a breath and met those sparkling eyes again. They really were odd to see. "Remind me, what exactly is the plan for today?" she asked cautiously. A question like that shouldn't arouse too much suspicion.

He rose a brow at her inquiry. "Well, we're supposed to go to the market, then stop by the guild to see everyone," he explained. With every word, she fought to keep her eyebrows from raising in surprise. "Ah, I see. Right. Well, I'll meet up with you in a bit. Let me get dressed first," she said with a forced smile. Gray returned her smile with a bemused look. "Yep. Don't take too long or I'll leave you behind. Possibly sick sister or not, you know that girlfriend of mine takes no excuses!" he said with a sudden cheerfulness. With that, he turned heel and left only the sound of his footsteps in his wake.

Alone, Ultear gaped at his words. Sister? Girlfriend? Guild? What in the world was he talking about? She put her head in her hands and tried to parse through all of this new information. He and her were now...siblings? And he had a girlfriend? She struggled to wrap her head around it all.

While it was true that she'd occasionally daydreamed about Gray and her being a family, raised under her mother together, she'd always shaken herself out of it with a crushing sense of bitterness and guilt. After all, that was...impossible. The "ultimate magic world" she'd fantasized about as a child with Hades was nothing more than that - a fantasy. She'd always scolded herself for the fleeting feelings of familial love she felt for him after her rebirth at Tenrou Island.

But when she'd finally met Gray again after thinking him dead for nearly a decade, she couldn't help but be relieved, just for a second, in the same way she imagined that a sister finding her lost little brother would be.

Snapping herself out of her musings, she tossed away the blankets she'd been tangled in and climbed out of the unfamiliar bed. She took a moment to fully take in her surroundings. She was standing in a small, mostly barren room with walls painted pale blue. The only furniture was the bed, a dresser, a mirror, a closet, and a nightstand with a lamp on it. From the lack of decoration or personalization, she guessed it to be some kind of guest room.

After a brief stretch and a few deep breaths, she walked to the window just a few feet from the bed and parted the curtains ever-so-slightly. Outside was an unfamiliar neighborhood covered in snow. Children played and adults strolled by in the streets not far from the structure - the house? - she was in.

She straightened and nodded to herself as she came to a conclusion. 'I have no idea where I am, how I got here, or why I'm here. I'm probably in another world, somehow, with no knowledge on how or if I can get home or this is a very, very vivid dream.'

She sighed in defeat as she walked to the dresser and began trying to get ready for what was going to be a very, very long day.

"Come on, Ul, we've gotta hurry!"

Ultear tore her eyes from the scenery to look at Gray who was practically jogging in place waiting for her up ahead. Despite her earlier decision to try and blend in, she kept finding herself looking around in amazement at the town bustling around her. She'd learned several things in the short time it took her to navigate the house she'd woken up in and depart with Gray.

Firstly, this was Gray's hometown. The same hometown that had been decimated by Deliora almost twenty years ago with only one known survivor. The hometown that, as far as she'd known, was nothing more than a graveyard and a pile of old rubble.

Secondly, in this world, Gray's parents were alive and well. Meeting his parents had been quite the shock. From the small conversations they'd had before all this, he'd told her about his life in bits and pieces. From those fragments, she'd understood that his parents, who seemed to be very pleasant people, were long dead and had been killed in quite the violent manner. From her short interaction with them, she quickly concluded that she was not their daughter, thankfully. While they seemed nice enough, she wasn't sure she could handle the thought of her own mother suddenly being a stranger, even if in another world. Her not being their daughter complicated the idea of her and Gray being siblings, she'd thought. She'd wondered what exactly their relationship in this world was.

Thirdly, this Gray was very different from the one she'd known. Her Gray had been snarky, mostly coolheaded, maybe a little subdued sometimes, and a little playful. This Gray was...well, he was a child. He was impulsive, energetic, and just a little too talkative. While there certainly were shades of her Gray in there, she wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this other Gray who was acting more like Natsu than anyone else. It was draining, honestly. She vaguely wondered how Gray and the others dealt with being around someone like this all of the time.

She sped up her pace to catch up with him.

"Jeez, what took you so long?" he huffed as he held the shop's door open for her. "You're acting like a total tourist."

"Yeah, sorry," she said as she glanced around the small shop. All kinds of trinkets and tools littered the shelves along the walls. She recognized a few magical objects here and there, but most of it looked like outright junk. Gray weaved his way between the stacked shelves with a clear focus. "What're you looking for?" Ultear asked curiously as she stalked behind him. "Some kinda device to amplify sound. I forget what it's called. Some kinda phone...thingy," he muttered as he scanned the shelves. "Oh, there it is," he said as he turned suddenly and reached for something on a high shelf. "A phonograph," Ultear said, looking at the bulky object with interest. "What do you need that for?"

He looked at her in puzzlement. "Don't you remember? Mary's birthday is in a few days. We need this for the party."

Ultear morphed her expression into something resembling apologetic. "Right. Of course. Just had a bit of a brain fart just now, don't mind me," she said lightly. Gray narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion for a moment, making her shift in mock discomfort. "Did you get her a gift?' he asked. Ultear met his gaze evenly. "Of course I did. Did you?" she said. He looked away and readjusted the bulky object in his arms. "Yes. Sort of. Mostly," he said. He pushed past her and headed back to the front of the shop.

Ultear stared after him. Just then...had he been blushing?

Ultear trudged up the stone path, looking up at the large building looming just ahead. For the most part, it looked like an ordinary townhouse. The only odd thing about it was the enormous emblem at the front and center of the building. She guessed that it was some kind of guild logo. She also guessed that the building before her was a guild hall. Judging from Gray's giddy expression, she figured that inside this building would be more people she didn't know that knew all about her. She sighed at the thought.

Gray burst through the door with a cheerful "I'm back!". There was a chorus of greetings from the dozens of people inside. Ultear quietly slid in behind him and looked around. There were all kinds of people - a girl whose hair seemed to defy gravity, someone in a full suit of armor, and more. Some were sitting and chatting, some brawling, and some drinking at the bar at the back. The atmosphere reminded her a bit of the Fairy Tail guild.

A girl with long, dark pink hair ran up to Gray with a wide smile. "You got the phone thingy!" she chirped. He grinned at her. "Sure did." He set down the phonograph with a thud. She practically radiated affection as she brushed the dirt off of his coat. "You're reliable as always for the heavy lifting, but you should work on your cleanliness," she scolded lightly. He caught her hands, still smiling. "Well, I don't need to worry about that sort of thing if I know you're always going to be here, fretting over me like you're my wife," he said. The girl blushed and quickly pulled her hands away with a flustered cough. "Th-that's...How can you say that if you haven't even proposed yet?" she practically squeaked. Gray laughed. "Oh, so we're getting married? In that case, I'll let you handle all the wedding arrangements, Mrs. Mary Fullbuster," he teased. The girl's - Mary's - face reddened, but she only grumbled a complaint about him being late as he slid past her to head over to a crowded table in the corner.

Ultear had watched the interaction with great interest and even greater amusement. It would seem that this girl was in fact Gray's girlfriend. Ultear couldn't deny that she'd been a little curious about what kind of girl would really capture Gray's heart. Judging from his interactions with the other Fairy Tail mages, she'd deduced that he'd had no interest in the kind of unsettling, love-obsessed Juvia, the cute-but-possibly-into Natsu Lucy, or the definitely unavailable Erza. At least, from what she could tell from the few days she'd been able to observe them. And yet, somehow she'd still expected, just a little, for him to maybe fall for Juvia at some point. If what she'd heard from Meredy was true, that pairing seemed to have the post passion in it, even if it was one-sided.

This Mary girl seemed like a strange combination of all three. She looked like Erza and Lucy and, so far, acted like Lucy with a touch of Juvia's cheerfulness. In addition to that, she had mildly unsettling golden eyes that seemed to literally sparkle in the light. It was...interesting, to say the least. She vaguely wondered if this Gray had the same tastes as her Gray.

Ultear was so deep in thought that she almost missed the person approaching her from behind. Almost. The second she sensed someone about to touch her, she whipped around and caught their hand. The owner of the appendage yelped and looked at her with wide eyes. "Um...hi," the woman said. Ultear released her hand. "Hi. Sorry about that. You surprised me."

The woman eyed her with uncertainty for a moment before smiling hesitantly. "No, it's alright. I should've said something," she said. "I just, uh, wasn't expecting such a reaction. Usually, you aren't so...jumpy. Is everything alright?"

Ultear opened her mouth to respond, but by the time she got the words out, everything was already gone.

Ultear was floating.

She was in a black void of nothingness….again.

Except, it wasn't quite the same nothingness as before. Now, there were little lights glittering in the distance. Each of them of slightly different colors and of varying luminosities, twinkling like stars in the night sky.

What is this?

"It's nowhere."

Suddenly, she was aware of someone next to her. At least, she thought it was a person. It looked like a mass of faintly glowing dust in a form that vaguely resembled human. She couldn't make out anything as distinct as facial features or hairstyle, but the silhouette told her it was a person.

"This is...a void between worlds. The space between time. The time between space. Nothing."

Ultear felt sickened at the thought of that. Nothing…

How did I get here?

"It's all gone wrong..."

I don't understand.

"You...You're not supposed to be here."

"You okay, Ul?"

She managed to swallow past the lump in her throat and turned to the man to her left.

What the hell was that? She'd been standing in a guild hall, then...

Gray was looking at her, his features twisted with concern. "Are you feeling sick again?" he asked, reaching out towards her face. She didn't stop him.

She'd been forced back into that void. Was forced even the right word? Had she somehow fallen there by some kind of freak accident? Twice?

His cool hand pressed against her forehead and stayed there. He hummed in contemplation. "It doesn't seem like you have a fever or anything," he muttered as he slowly retracted his hand.

She stared at him. "What...What's today? What's the date?"

He gave her a bewildered look. "It's June 1, 784. Are you sure you're okay?"

784…

Not 792.

"Almost ten years," she muttered. She shook her head and looked up at Gray. "I'm sorry if I worried you," she said quietly. "I'm fine now."

The concern on his face didn't fade. "You've been acting kind of weird lately. Maybe you should stay home today," he said. "No, no, it's fine. I can still go to the guild and everything," she told him as she pushed the sheets off of her legs. He gave her an odd look. "We're going to Sensei's house today...remember?"

She froze. Her mother's cabin? That place should be long abandoned by now. What could possibly be there? "Why?" she asked. She'd never liked answering a question with a question, but she did not feel like trying to reassure him right now. She'd only woken up and she was already tired.

"Well, I figured it'd be nice to check up on Lyon and Sensei every once in a while and maybe brush up on training a bit," he said casually. Ultear forgot how to breathe. "Sensei...you mean...my mother…?" she asked dumbfoundedly. He looked at her like she'd just asked the most oblivious question in the world. "Who else would I be talked about?" he asked.

She sprang out of bed, making him jump. "W-What?" he sputtered as she practically dragged him out of the bed room. "Go get ready, I'll meet you outside in five minutes," she said before slamming the door. Her mother was alive! Alternate timelines or dimensions be damned, she couldn't pass up this chance. Even if it wasn't the same woman she remembered, she still wanted to at least be able to see her face.

The snow crunched underfoot as the pair plodded along.

Ultear's heart was thudding away in her chest.

She thought of the years of work and research she'd put into trying to see her mother again. Her time with Hades, with Grimoire Heart, with that accursed magic research facility.

She thought of that day she'd escaped and managed to run back to her mother, only to see her with her pupils. When she'd leaned against that tree and cried at the sight of her mother's happiness...God, she wished she'd just said something, anything back then. She could've fixed everything, saved so many lives, prevented so much hurt if she'd just taken a few more steps forward.

The cabin came into view, looking exactly as she'd remembered.

She ran.

She faintly heard Gray's cries to wait behind her.

She didn't know what she'd say or do when she saw her, but it didn't matter. She finally stopped in front of the house. The lights were on inside and smoke poured out of the chimney. She slowly climbed the stairs, catching her breath. She stood at the door, too scared to knock, too invested to turn back. She finally took a deep breath and lifted a hand.

At that moment, the wooden door creaked open and a very familiar woman blinked at her in surprise.

She couldn't breathe. Couldn't blink. Couldn't move.

Ur smiled warmly at her and leaned against the door frame.

"There you are, my tear."

Author's Note: So, as it turns out, the logistics of locations in Gray's backstory are a nightmare. Where's Isvan, where Gray and Ur are from, on the official map? What's Gray's hometown called? Where is it within Isvan? Where's Ur's house in relation to that? How long does it take to get from Isvan to Fiore? How do you get there? Do you need a boat? Hello?

To Lieutenant Myst: Thank you for your review and following. To answer your question...well, yes, but also, no. I've never heard of that fic, but feel free to DM a link if you can remember it.