Updating early for havarti2. You're welcome.

Also, I edited a picture of Elle for this chapter, using a still of Cana at eleven in the series. If you want to see it, check out this story on Wattpad or Quotev. And before anyone asks, yes I used Photoshop.

Chapter Sixty Two - Preparing for War

I was right.

Yukino and Kagura summoned me back and forth several times over the night. They both suffered from nightmares, and were scared I would vanish as easily as their siblings did. I ended up camping out in their room for the night, though I hope it doesn't have to happen again.

I was pretty tired the next morning, but I woke up and helped them (mostly Yukino) get dressed.

Oddly enough, Yukino doesn't wear a diaper, even though she should still be in the potty training stages.

Of course, this probably has to do with more of Mashima's stupid continuity problems, and that pissed me off.

While the two of them were eating breakfast, I managed to flip through one of the psychology texts I had gotten from the Magic Council's public library. Unfortunately, it was missing an entire section on child development, and I had a feeling that all of the information I had previously had about it was going to be useless.

Thanks, Mashima.

At least my sarcasm will never fail me.

I turned to Yukino and Kagura. "Are you guys ready to go to the guild?" I asked quietly.

They nodded, both nervous, and I pulled Yukino into the air. She settled comfortably on my hip. "Don't worry, they'll like you just fine. First though, we're going to go visit a special doctor, alright?"

They both nodded again.

"Now, her name is Porlyusica, and she can be very loud and seem very angry, alright? But she's on our side, and she won't hurt you."

I took Kagura's hand and jumped the three of us to Porlyusica's house.

I knocked on the door. "Porly? It's me, and I've got some young ones with me, and they'd appreciate it if you didn't yell. They recently went through some trauma."

The fact that I approached quietly was probably why Porlyusica opened the door slowly. "What's wrong?" she barked, though it wasn't as bad as usual.

"I had to save Kagura," I gestured to the dark haired child beside me, "and Yukino," I shifted the light bluenette on my hip. "It was early last night, and their village was raided by some crazy people. While running away, Yukino twisted her ankle. I healed it as much as I could, but I'm not as good with muscles as I am with bones."

The only thing harder for me to move than muscles was nerves. Bones were easy – they were already solid. And skin was pretty easy, as long as it could be stitched up in a reasonable way. A long cut from a knife could be healed easily, but if it was a oddly-shaped wound, or something bullet-like, it would be much, much harder.

Porlyusica sighed, nodded, and opened the door wider, letting us in.

I carried Yukino in and over to the bed, laying her down. Kagura hopped up on the bed beside her.

As Porlyusica looked over Yukino, Kagura turned to me. "Onee-chan, can you fight?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"I want to fight," Kagura said. "But I'm not sure what type of magic I could learn…"

"Well," I said, thinking back over her magic in the previous timeline. "You could learn physical skills, and use magic to help enhance them."

"What do you mean?" Kagura asked.

"Well, you could use a magic to speed yourself up, and fight with a sword instead. Or Gravity Magic to weigh your opponent down or lighten your own weight. In fact, if you choose to use a sword, I actually have one for you as you get older."

"Really?" she gasped.

I nodded.

Kagura looked down. "I want to learn how to fight."

"Alright," I said. "I'll see about starting to teach you how to use a sword. We can learn enhancement magic a bit after that."

"Okay," she said happily.

"Magic?" Yukino asked.

I turned to her. Had she been listening the whole time? And how much did she understand? When it comes to childhood development in this universe, I felt like I had to throw out any of my previous knowledge.

"Yeah, Yukino," I said. "Magic. When you're older, I've got some magic for you, too."

Yukino blinked, and then smiled.

Porlyusica returned with a potion, and Yukino drank it. In addition to that, Porlyusica wrapped up the ankle with a bandage soaked in a special brew.

"There you go," she said. "I would suggest you stay off of the ankle for most of today, maybe try walking a bit later for its support, but it should heal up quite soon."

Yukino nodded, smiling. "Fank you, Powyusca."

Porlyusica gave a small smile, and dismissed us. "You're welcome, child."

We waved goodbye, and I teleported us back to my house.

"Why didn't you take us to the guild?" Kagura asked.

"I want us to walk there together, so you know how to get back to the house," I told her. "Though that's only as a last resort. Try to stick with me, alright?"

They nodded.

We left and started down the path to Magnolia. Both girls were amazed by the city, unused to it because of their small village life.

"It's so big," Kagura muttered.

"You'll get used to it," I told her, and she clutched my hand tighter.

"Here we are," I said, arriving at the guild.

Unsurprisingly, most people were fooling around. "Come on, we're going to go to the training room in the back," I told them. "That's where the rest of the kids are."

We made our way to the back, and I was happy that the guild seemed occupied. I didn't want to put too much attention on the girls that suddenly.

We walked down the hallway to the training room. "Ready?" I asked the two of them. Yukino curled into me more, and Kagura clutched my hand tighter, but she nodded.

I opened the door.

"Elle?" Makarov asked, eyeing me. His odd tone of voice made the others stop their training and look at me.

"I thought you stopped stealing children," Laxus muttered.

I glared at him.

"Guys," I said softly. "This is Kagura, and this little one is Yukino. They're living with me for now, and eventually, they'll start learning magic."

My eyes shifted over to Jet and Droy. "Their families were killed and their siblings were taken by the same people who invaded your town."

Both their eyes widened, and they gestured us over to their spot on the floor, next to Levy.

I walked over slowly, with Kagura still tight by my side. "Guys," I said softly, speaking to Kagura and Yukino now. "These two boys also escaped from the same men that you did. They killed their parents."

"The same men?" Kagura asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, they worked for the same cult."

Kagura paused a bit, before sitting down next to the boys. Levy scooted over and hugged her.

"Kagura is six, everyone," I announced, squatting. "And Yukino is two and a half."

They nodded, and I settled Yukino down on the ground. "Are you two going to be okay if I leave you alone, here?" I asked them. "I need to talk to the Master, but it can wait if you want me to stay."

Yukino whimpered, her grip on me tightening, but Kagura put a hand over hers. "We need to let Onee-chan do as she needs. Or else it will take longer to get your sister and my brother back."

Yukino slowly nodded, and got off of me, pulling B to her chest and snuggling with it. I tossed my jacket over her shoulders. "Here you guys go. We're going to put up some rune walls so we can talk in here. You won't be able to hear us, but you should still be able to see me."

Kagura nodded, and I turned to Jet, feeling dread in my stomach over what I was going to ask. "One last thing. The name, of your neighbor. What was it?"

"His name was Sawyer," Jet answered.

My stomach lurched.

I should have opened that folder.

I backed away from the group and headed towards Makarov, passing over Freed (who had been listening in), who was putting down a rune wall for me.

He was quiet as he looked at me. "What is the matter, child? What happened with these children?"

"We…we should probably get Mavis, too," I said quietly.

"It's a good thing I'm already here, then, isn't it?" A giggle escaped from behind me, and I saw Mavis happily floating next to Zeref.

Zeref was not floating - which was good, because that wouldn't really fit his image.

Then again, Zeref seemed a lot more life-like than Mavis was, and you could actually still touch him, so...

"You guys are back earlier than I expected," I said, smiling at them.

"Earlier?" Makarov asked, mouth agape. "It's been almost nine months!"

I shrugged. "They haven't been able to do anything together for years. I thought they would have taken a bit more time."

"To be honest, we probably would have," Mavis admitted. "But Zeref sensed that something was amiss."

Makarov frowned as we both looked over to the Dark Wizard. "Zeref?" he questioned.

Zeref sat down quietly, thinking. "When I walked upon the earth as I did previously, I was unable to sense certain things. Being constantly surrounded by Ankhseram's Black Magic wasn't helpful, either. Now, though…" he hesitated. "I'm constantly astral projecting, and there's no Black Magic in the way. Something's amiss, and I'm unsure of what. A darkness gathering. One that reminds me of…well, me."

The four of us were quiet, and I took a deep breath. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about," I spoke, whispering.

All three looked at me, and I couldn't stop what blurted out next. "I'm sorry. I failed."

"Failed what, my child?" Makarov asked, his voice grave.

I started to cry. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. Things are different here, my math would've been right if this world just followed the rules."

"Elle," Makarov ground out.

"I thought I would have more time," I whispered. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I should have had until at least February!"

"Elle!"

"Some members of our guild were kidnapped by some cultists!" I cried. "And I was going to try and stop them but I got things wrong! And now they're trapped, in a tower, being tortured, and it's all my fault!"

I felt arms catch me as my knees began to collapse, and Laxus rocked me back and forth slowly. "Shhhh. It'll be okay, Elle. We'll figure it out, we always do."

I curled into his chest, wailing, as he shushed me and rubbed my back comfortingly.

When I calmed down, I pulled back and looked around the room. Freed had taken down the barrier, and everyone else had arrived and was looking at me for an explanation.

I began quietly. "I thought I would have more time. You see, a specific group of people I know ended up getting abducted the last timeline. One of those is Yukino's older sister, Sorano. But I was confused, because Yukino, in the future, clearly remembered her sister. And so I thought I would have until Yukino turned three, in February, to act."

"Why?" Makarov asked.

"Back in my original world, the human memory doesn't develop to a specific point until around three years of age. So it would be illogical to think it would be anything different here…except it is, apparently."

I took a deep breath. "These people are trapped, in a tower on an island around the border of Caelum. These people are slaves, starved and tortured. So I will go rescue them, even if I have to go myself."

I began to stand up, but before I could get too high, Laxus yanked me back down next to him. "Don't be stupid."

"Yeah, we'll come too," Cana said, and the kids nodded.

"Guess we have to go, now, to make sure they don't kill themselves," Macao said, shrugging, and Enno hit him.

"Yeah, there's no way I'd let Cana do something like that without me," Gildarts said, crossing his arms. "There's still no way I'd really let her do that, but she'll probably just do it anyway, so..."

"So, we'll go then?" I asked, trying to get up again, and Laxus sighed before shifting and practically trapping me in his lap.

"Stop trying to leave!" he demanded. "Jeez, this isn't like you! We need to think about things, we can't just go rushing in."

"Laxus is right," Makarov added. "I'd like to get them out of there before the end of the year, if possible, but is there a certain time you would recommend us by?"

I hesitated. "There's a revolution in the latter half of next year, and if we aren't there to interfere, lots of people will die. Including Rob."

Makarov choked on air. "Rob? Rob from…?"

I nodded. "Your Rob. I'm...I'm sorry."

"What was your plan?" Ur asked.

"Hm?" I asked, looking at her.

"Well…" she looked over at Jet and Droy. "From what I can tell, they took people from different villages. What was your plan going to be, to save the others?"

"I would make monitoring cards associated with the people I knew were taken," I said. "And when the attack took place, I would hopefully take many of us and we'd divert the attack, and then take the cultists hostage until we learnt more from them and they'd freed the others."

"The cultists…" Zeref said slowly. "They're some of mine, aren't they? You mentioned a tower…they're trying to build the R System, aren't they."

It wasn't a question.

"Mavis, hit him," I said.

Mavis turned and slapped him.

"Ow!" Zeref cried, holding his cheek. "What was that for?"

"Being an idiot," I said. "It's not your fault."

"It's not yours, either," he shot back.

"Well, why don't you come with us," I said instead. "And give those cultists the scare of their lives. After all…they do worship you."

Zeref actually got a bit of an evil grin on his face, and I couldn't really blame him since he was going to enjoy it.

I would enjoy it, too.

"Show them why they should fear you," I continued. "Not the Dark Lord Zeref...but Zeref of Fairy Tail."

And the joy that lit up Zeref's face almost made everything okay.

"So now what?" Silver asked.

"Now we commence a plan of attack," Makarov commanded. "And we go to war."

I switched out my polls again. This one is voting on the gender of Maggie and Rex's kid. Please vote, because the baby will be coming in a few chapters.

Also...I will likely finish the next chapter soon, especially because I have tomorrow off. Depending on your responses, would you like me to post the chapter as soon as I'm done, or would you like me to get a bit of a head start on the next one so you don't have to wait in agony?

And in case you haven't figured it out, the next chapter is: Chapter Sixty Three: Tower of Heaven, Part One.