Sorry this took awhile. Updates; I moved Lucy Heartfilia and the World of the Gods to the crossover section. So if you want to read it, it's under Percy Jackson and Fairy Tail crossovers. And, you know, you could always go through my profile. Just saying. Sorry this chapter is a bit short; the next one should cover most of the memories.
Also, to the multiple people who asked; as far as I know, I created the whole Heir Mark thing. I know that I did not create Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Magic, as I have found several fics mentioning them after I started writing them, but I don't know if that's a fanon thing or a Mashima-thing.
Chapter One Hundred and Six - A Mistaken Memory
"I'm assuming I'm not dead?" I asked dryly.
"That's not what you assumed last time," God said, amused. "Why are you assuming it now?"
"Mostly because it would really fucking suck if I died like that," I admitted.
She smiled. "No, you're not dead." She gestured to a chair across from her. Rather than a table and chairs, there were two armchairs in front of a fire, which appeared out of nowhere. I approached and sat down in the other one, and the bed I had awoken on vanished behind me.
"Care to explain what happened?" I asked.
She sighed. "I'm not quite sure. But aren't you happy to see Amber again?"
I glared at her. "I still don't know who Amber is."
Her eyes widened and she vanished, leaving me alone.
"A – are you kidding me? Really?"
After what felt like forever (but was probably only a few seconds) she reappeared and sat down with a sigh. "I understand what happened now."
"Care to fill me in?" I asked.
She nodded. "Do you remember me telling you that your past wasn't exactly the happiest?"
I nodded.
"They were set to slowly release so they didn't overwhelm you, and you didn't have to deal with too much trauma at once," she continued.
"But that didn't happen," I said. "I didn't get any memories."
She nodded. "So it wouldn't be too much at a time, they were set to release after you had adjusted to them. Unfortunately…" she ran her fingers through her hair, a surprisingly human gesture for the controller of the universe. "…because of Ivan and your...recovery from those experiences, your memories were continuously put off."
'Too much trauma at once'. So if I haven't had to deal with Ivan...
I stared at her. "So…that explains why I didn't get any memories. But what happened with the baby?"
She sighed. "I thought you'd like the surprise. There's a large amount of children coming, now that you've brought so many couples together, whether by accident or not. So I figured this would be a nice surprise, being reunited. But since you didn't get any memories, seeing Amber triggered the release on them, and they overwhelmed you."
"And that's how I'm here?" I asked her.
She nodded. "Until you get your memories in order, you'll still be in a coma. We'll have to go through the traumatic memories one by one in order for you to handle it, which is why you still don't remember as you are now."
"Great," I grumbled. "Will I at least wake up in time for Laxus's birthday?"
"If we hurry," she said. "The question is…are you ready?"
I swallowed. It seemed weird to be scared of my own past. But that didn't stop the fear from rolling around in my stomach. "No. But I can't really put it off any longer."
She nodded in approval, took my arm, and the world shifted around us.
Gajeel was not okay.
Then again, most of them weren't okay.
Elle wasn't exactly normal, yes, but helping someone give birth and then passing out was far off the mark even for her.
Now the infirmary was blocked off, with only a small (compared to the rest of the guild) amount of people; Makarov, who was overseeing everything. Gildarts, Mari, and the creepy baby with too intelligent eyes, who were resting a few beds away. Mavis and Zeref, the ultimate ghost couple. And Laxus, Erik, Macbeth, Lucy, Jellal, Freed and Juvia, who couldn't stay away from their 'sister' (with the exception of Laxus) if they tried.
So Gajeel wasn't exactly sure why he was there.
"Can someone tell me why the hell I'm here?" he asked.
"You spent the longest amount of time with your dragon," Macbeth explained, while Erik and Laxus leaned over Elle, studying her.
"So?" Gajeel asked.
Freed interrupted. "According to Ella-sama, everything tends to come back to several things; Zeref-"
Zeref raised a hand. "Here."
"We're not taking attendance," Laxus growled at him, annoyed.
Freed sighed. "Everything tends to originate from several things. Three things in particular; Zeref, Stellar Magic, and Dragons."
"Since you're the only slayer who was actively raised by a dragon, you might have more information on this," Jellal finished. "Plus, you look at Elle like a sister, too."
Gajeel looked away, trying to stop from blushing. "No I don't."
"Tsundere," Laxus muttered.
The kids snorted. Elle stayed asleep.
"Damn," Laxus said. "I was hoping that'd wake her up."
"Why would that wake her up?" Erik asked.
"So she could yell something like, 'you're one to talk'."
Lucy giggled. "Laxus-nii just admitted he's a tsundere."
"I'm not a tsundere!" Laxus said.
More silence as they all stared at Elle, who was still sleeping.
Laxus sighed and continued. "But she always replies to that, so…"
The mood turned somber.
"Well, that didn't work," Gajeel said. "Any other brilliant ideas?"
"Could you be more sarcastic if you tried?" Macbeth snapped.
"I dunno, can I?"
"This is serious, Gajeel!" Macbeth said.
"I know that, Beth!"
"I told you, only Erigor gets to call me that!"
"Quiet!"
The two froze and slowly turned to face Juvia, who was tapping her foot as she stared at them angrily and impatiently.
They gulped.
She glared at them. Then;
"No fighting in the infirmary! You could hurt Onee-sama."
When she said nothing more and turned back to Elle, the two of them breathed sighs of relief.
"Idiots," Jellal muttered.
"Lucy," Laxus said randomly.
Everyone turned to him, then her.
He had been tuning out the fighting and was deep in thought.
"Can you summon Phoenix?"
Lucy's eyes went wide. She didn't want to summon Phoenix – she didn't want to use her magic at all – but this was for Elle.
"Uh…" everyone turned to Erik, who was staring directly above Elle, at a glowing timer that was counting down.
Everyone stared at it quietly before -
"That's not foreboding at all," Gajeel said.
Erik snorted. "Did you just say 'foreboding'? Someone's been hanging around with Levy for too long."
Gajeel started to blush. "No. No, I said… 'foreshadowing'! Yeah, that's right. I said foreshadowing."
"How is that foreshadowing, Gajeel-san?" Freed asked with a sigh. "You do know that foreshadowing is a literary device?"
"I know!" Gajeel said defensively. "But it's…yeah, it's foreshadowing…that something's going to happen when it finishes counting down!"
He stared at them all triumphantly.
"You've been spending way too much time with Levy," Erik said with a snort.
"Shut up!"
"No fighting!" Juvia said with a growl, and she hit both of them in the face with a wave of water.
"What do you think it's counting down to?" Laxus asked. He had stayed quiet the whole time, simply looking at the countdown and squeezing Elle's hand.
"Maybe it's when she's supposed to wake up?" Jellal suggested.
"But it's days from now!" Laxus cried, staring at the timer.
Erik shrugged. "It's still less than a week."
Then the timer stopped.
They all stared at it.
Slowly, the seconds began counting up, before moving faster and faster, speeding through and adding over a week's worth of time.
"At least it's still before your birthday," Erik said with a shrug.
The timer added two days before Laxus had a chance to shout, "SHUT UP!"
They were all quiet, staring at the timer.
It started again, but this time it was counting down like it was supposed to.
They still stared at it.
It continued counting down.
Slowly, they started to relax.
Just as the last one of them exhaled, a burst of fire appeared and they all jumped several feet in the air. Juvia threw a ball of water on it, and the fire went out, leaving a sputtering, dripping wet Phoenix in its place.
"Not cool," he said, shivering and starting up his fire again. "You shouldn't be able to put out my fire."
Juvia just shrugged. "Blame Onee-sama?"
"Why?" Freed asked.
"Well, it is usually her fault," Macbeth muttered.
"Anyway," Phoenix continued, ignoring them. "I'm here to tell you what this is all about. Elle is fine; she'll wake up once the countdown is done, and you'll see her again soon, alright?"
"Where did the countdown even come from?" Laxus asked.
Phoenix grinned. "I suggested it! I thought it might reassure you if you knew when she'd wake up."
"Reassure us; I thought Elle might explode," Macbeth muttered under his breath.
"I'll see you guys later! Bye!" Phoenix continued before bursting into flame and vanishing.
After several seconds of silence, Makarov sighed.
"Well. I think that's enough excitement for one day."
There was a crash from the adjoining room and he sighed. "Maybe not. Come on, let's go bail out Ur."
"I thought Silver-san was in charge, too?" Juvia asked.
Gildarts snorted. "Sure. Silver. In charge. That's funny."
"We should let Elle rest in peace," Mari told them.
Slowly, with the exception of Mari and Gildarts, who were still cradling their child, everyone got up and began to leave, until there was only Laxus who was sitting by her side.
We were in a hallway made of clouds.
Or at least that's what it looked like.
"Would you like me to accompany you?" she asked.
"Please," I said.
Does that make me weak?
She smiled gently and moved forward, leading the way. I trailed behind her, looking at the fluffy iridescent clouds and bubbles around us.
"These are the memories you'll gain again when you sleep over time. We still don't want you to get too much at once," she continued saying. "But we're going to go to the point where your life probably started changing from what you believed happened."
"Okay…"
"It started when you were six."
The clouds had slowly been turning darker, and the scene formed in front of them.
"Am I watching this in third person?" I asked.
"Yes."
It was weird, looking at myself. Especially because I still had my brown hair.
I looked at my own hair, but it was purple even in this dreamworld.
I looked back up and watch as I played with a toy I'm pretty sure I was given at the school.
"Why is the memory such an odd color?" I asked God.
"It means that it's a tainted memory. That doesn't mean it's a bad memory – bad memories aren't tainted, they're just bad. If it was tainted, you originally looked back on it a different way; usually fondly."
"So I used to like this memory?..." I trailed off.
She nodded. "Yes. But looking back on it, it became less pleasing for you, and you got a darker outlook on it."
We turned back to the scene, where I (or mini!Elle?) was being approached by the orphanage's Matron, followed by an odd couple.
The couple introduced themselves as Katie and Alistair, and spent around an hour talking with the younger me about inconsequential things, before the memory faded.
"What?" I asked, turning to God.
"There are three of these, I think, before things start taking a turn." As she spoke, the scene shifted to another day, where I was busy coloring and talking to Katy and Alistair as I drew pictures for them. It shifted one last time, where I was on Katie's lap as she was reading me a book.
Katie nodded at Alistair, who was speaking with the Matron (I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the fact that I didn't remember her name, or the name of the orphanage, especially considering that I didn't run away until I was twelve).
Alistair turned back to the Matron and started filling out papers, and an odd mix between dread and hope was filling my stomach. Because that never happened. Right?
And finally, they approached me and Katie, and the Matron tried to explain things to me.
The younger me wasn't getting it. (I had only been six, so cut me some slack). But I understood what was happening (even though it didn't happen like that, it hadn't) even before the Matron had sighed and said, "Eleanor, this couple just adopted you. They're going to be your new parents."