The days flew into weeks and the guild continued to be as eventful as always. Wendy and Carla had settled into the flow of things and were able to experience some of the crazy antics that tended to ensue on any given day. They seemed to fit in quite well, at least, outside of the fact that Carla didn't seem too fond of Phillip or Happy. Her reasons were unclear, but she much preferred to stick close to Wendy instead of making connections.

I took Wendy out to train a few times a week and it was clear the child had a lot to learn. Originally, I tried to have our training daily, but her body grew too tired to be able to function so I had to cut back. I suppose my expectations of her were far too high and I should've taken her age and experience into account at the start. Though, she tried her best with anything I threw at her.

During the time we spent together, I learned a bit more about her. Wendy's dragon, Grandeneey had disappeared on the same day as mine and the other dragon slayer's dragons had. It raised a few red flags in my head that I typically ignored. As a child, I assumed that Aquafina and Skiadrum had simply left us behind. It broke my heart, but after I was kicked out of Sabertooth, I grew used to the feeling of being alone. Hearing that Natsu and Gajeel's dragon's had disappeared that same day made me question it, but Wendy only confirmed it for me.

The dragon's had left all of us on that July day for a reason. Whatever that reason was, I wasn't quite sure, but they wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. Natsu often went out looking for any signs of Igneel and all these signs pointed towards the pinkette wasting his time. There was no point in looking for a dragon that didn't want to be found.

I would give anything to see Aquafina again, to question her as to why she left me. However, it likely wouldn't change the events of the past. What happened wasn't going to change no matter what I wanted. If she thought it was better to leave me behind, then I didn't think I wanted to see her.

A couple of weeks after Wendy arrived, Gildarts returned as well and as the Ace of the guild had left for his 100 year quest before Hayden had joined, the redhead was shocked by the measures that the town took to keep Gildarts from destroying their homes. When I explained that Gildarts used Crush magic, Hayden was astounded. He clung to the older mage, constantly asking him questions as their magic shared similar properties.

Gildarts didn't stick around very long and his visit left Natsu in a depressed mood. Hayden had tried to cheer him up, but nothing seemed to work. Natsu managed to break out of the mood, it only took a couple of days. Though, something still seemed to bother him.

A loud yawn fell from my lips as the chaos of the guild roared around me. I hadn't slept well the night before and not even coffee could help wake me up. Once I had drunk my fourth cup, I felt more jittery than anything. My body was exhausted but my mind felt like it was ready to run a marathon. Phillip managed to convince me not to drink a fifth as I had been greatly considering it.

I sat across from Lucy and Wendy as my eyes wandered to where Phillip and Happy were attempting to converse with Carla. The white cat's attitude rubbed me the wrong way, especially since neither of the male cats were being rude to her in any way. Any time she snapped at Phillip, it took everything I had not to jump in and stand up for him. I knew my friend would be upset if I fought his battles for him, but my patience was growing thin.

Happy approached Carla with a fish in hand, holding it out to her. "Carla, I caught this fish earlier and brought it back for you."

The white cat sighed. "No thank you." She looked away from him. "I hate fish."

"Oh…" Happy was taken aback for a moment before his face brightened back up. "Then what do you like? I can bring you something el-"

"You're annoying!" Carla shouted, causing the blue cat's ears to fall. She got to her feet and hopped off the table. "Stop following me around."

Phillip got up as well. "Wait, he was just trying to be nice. What happened?"

Carla looked back at him with narrowed eyes. "You're just as bad as he is. Leave me be." She scoffed before heading towards the entrance to the guild hall.

A shiver of anger went down my spine and I glanced at Phillip to see his own ears were down as well. I reached over and brought him into my arms. "Let her go. If she wants to be that way then she's not worth your energy."

He frowned. "I just wanted to make a new friend who was like me…" His voice cracked and it sounded as if he could burst into tears at any moment.

"She really didn't have to be so harsh…" Lucy grumbled, eyeing Happy as his expression was just as saddened as Phillip's.

Wendy quickly got to her feet to chase after her friend, clearly upset that she had acted in such an immature way. Then again, I couldn't judge the cat too harshly. I had been quite similar not too long ago.

Happy went to follow after them and the three quickly disappeared through the doorway. I glanced down at Phillip once more, giving him a tight squeeze. "They'll be back. You didn't do anything wrong, okay?"

"I guess…"

It was times like this that I thought back to Phillip's brief time in Sabertooth. Both Rogue and Sting had cats of their own, Froshe and Lector. Phillip didn't mention them much, mostly because I shut down any conversation about Sabertooth, but I knew my friend missed the other cats greatly. Although he and Happy were close, Phillip still wanted to see other cats that were like him. Seeing Carla made him excited at the idea of a new cat friend, but she shot that idea down on the first day.

Footsteps approached our table and I glanced over to see Hayden with an apple in his hand. A grin was plastered on his face as he threw the apple at Phillip, who promptly caught it. "What's with the long face, kid? You know what they say, keep your face like that for too long and it may freeze like that."

Phillip simply looked up at Hayden before sighing and taking a small bite out of the apple. Seeing that he wasn't going to respond, Lucy hummed in disappointment. "Carla really is bothering you, huh.."

I wasn't really sure what to do. It wasn't normal for Phillip to get upset like this too often and even when he did, he tended to hide it fairly well. If he wasn't even trying to hide how he was feeling, then he must have been hurting quite a lot.

I ran my hand over his head and sent him a small smile. "If she doesn't want to be your friend, it's her loss. You can be friends with anyone, but you don't have to be friends with everyone."

"I suppose…" Another quiet response came from Phillip's lips, only emphasizing that nothing we said was going to help him feel better.

Seeing this, Hayden flopped down beside us and threw his arm around my shoulder. "How about this… Let's go take a job that's here in town to take your mind off that stupid cat. She's not worth the energy anyway."

At the sudden contact, I had to resist the urge to pull away from the redhead. I had a feeling he had only put his arm around me in particular because I was holding Phillip. Then again, I had been growing used to the feeling of closeness to the boy and there had been a few times I didn't even try to move away. I would simply allow him to hold me in such a way. It made me cringe at the thought, but we were friends after all.

I went to respond and express that the idea wasn't a bad one when the natural light the sun provided disappeared. My eyes glanced out the window as I noticed dark clouds covering the sky. Those clouds meant one thing only, rain. And rain gave me an opportunity that I wasn't going to pass up. I got to my feet and glanced down at my companion. "You can go if you want, but if it's going to rain, I want to train for a while."

After teaming up with Hayden, I grew curious of his ability to connect with the earth. I take any opportunity I get to learn how to do so with water as well and I found that training in the rain helped the most. The sound of the water bouncing against the ground gave me a better understanding of water itself. With any luck, I could learn how to produce rain as well. That would be a major improvement in my skills.

Phillip met my gaze for a moment before looking back down. "Going on a job does sound kind of fun…"

I smiled softly and placed him back on the table. "Then go. We can meet up for dinner tonight." I glanced at Hayden. "Whatever money you guys make will determine where we go."

Hayden's eyes lit up. "I'm invited to dinner too?!"

"Well.. Yeah. Only because you're paying." I rolled my eyes before holding a hand up in a wave. "See you guys later."

My feet carried me out of the guild just as the rain began to hit the pavement. The citizens of Magnolia rushed to get inside their homes in hopes to avoid the downpour that was set to happen. I was thankful for this as it was much easier to listen to the rain when there were no other sounds around.

As the sound of surrying footsteps disappeared, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to focus on nothing but the rain. Hayden had told me that he had to give the entirety of his trust to the earth in order to get it to guide him. If I trusted the rain to guide me, maybe we could connect in the same way.

The rain pounded against the ground in a harmonic melody, peaceful and content. I walked through town and listened as the rhythm changed depending on where I was. Different stone structures created a different sound than others, but the music was beautiful. It made me feel just as peaceful as it sounded. Rain truly was a magical being.

Only a few minutes passed before the tune began to shift. The melody didn't have any pattern to it and it sounded angry. I could feel the raindrops against my shoulders growing more intense with each passing moment. This wasn't normal. I tried to focus on what was causing the anger, but it was drowned out before I could figure it out. In defeat, I opened my eyes, looked up to the sky and my eyes widened at the sight.

The clouds above swirled in an unnatural motion, in a way that I hadn't even seen when tornadoes formed. This storm was… Different. Whatever was causing it was not of natural causes.

I opened my mouth and took in a mouthful of raindrops. The second they touched my tongue, I had to fight the urge to gag. It tasted vile, almost as if someone had managed to burn water. I placed my hand against a nearby building and spit the water up, desperate to get the taste out of my mouth. Every drop of water on this planet had a different taste to it, but I had never tasted anything as bitter as that.

The swirling motion above began to flash and multiple lightning strikes shot out. The clouds almost looked like they were forming a tunnel. I furrowed my brow as I observed the event. Many of the lightning strikes were directed towards Fairy Tail. My gaze went back towards the large building. What did this mean?

My feet struggled to keep their footing as the ground below me began to shake. An earthquake? No, this was different too. Pieces of the walkway and nearby buildings began to chip away and rise up into the sky. The pieces were small at first, but slowly grew in size. That storm above was going to destroy Magnolia before we even had a chance to evacuate everyone.

Wait. What the hell is that?! My eyes widened as I saw multiple buildings shift before glowing a bright white. One by one, the buildings disappeared, likely taking the people inside with them. "Can anyone hear me?!" I shouted in hopes that there were others witnessing this. Not a voice could be heard within the rubble.

My hair whipped around my face as I shielded my eyes from any debris. Down the street, the bright light continued to make its way towards me, taking everything in its path. I planted my feet firmly on the ground to try and keep myself from being blown back, to no avail. My legs were kicked out from under me and my body went flying with the wind. "Hey!"

I flew back until my head slammed against the ground. My mind went foggy as the world grew silent. It all happened so fast. Everything wasn't really gone, right? I questioned as my eyes fluttered shut. This all was just a dream… right?

"Hey, are you awake?"

My eyebrows furrowed together as a dull pain could be felt on the backside of my head. The voice above me was soft and tired, but one I didn't recognize. It took me a moment to remember what had just occurred and once I had, I was quick to open my eyes to stare back at the male above me.

"What happened?!" I sat up and looked around, my eyes wide in shock. The entire city had been leveled and there wasn't a single sign of life outside of the blue haired man beside me. My gaze turned up towards the sky to see the spiral clouds were still overhead. So it was all real. Everyone was gone.

At the thought, I pushed myself to my feet and stumbled as I tried to keep my balance. "Phillip! Phillip, are you there?!" If everything and everyone was gone, that meant that storm had taken Phillip along with it. I had left him only minutes before it happened, if I were there, could I have protected him?

As I shipped my head around, so desperate to find my friend, I had forgotten about the man who was with me. He reached over and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Everything is going to be fine, your friend is okay."

I looked at him, my heart pounding in my chest as tears threatened to build in my eyes. "How do you know? Have you seen him?" I reached over and took hold of the collar of his dark cloak. "Do you know where he is?!"

The man didn't make any move to pull away from me, simply looking back at me with saddened eyes. "Phillip is fine, Cece. He's with Natsu and Wendy."

His words caused me to flinch. He knew who I was? I narrowed my eyes. "Who are you?" His face was not one I was familiar with, but if he knew some of the members of the guild, I could only hope that meant he was an ally.

Upon closer inspection, the man before me did look oddly familiar. There was a bag over his shoulder with multiple staffs sticking out, each a completely unique design. His entire outfit was a discrete gray color as if he usually didn't want others to pay him any mind. But the part of him that looked the most familiar was the red symbol around his eye. I could have sworn I had seen that symbol on someone else, I just couldn't quite place who.

He frowned, glancing away. "I am Mystogan."

My eyes widened at his words. "Mystogan? You mean… You're actually real?"

"Uhm.. Yes?" He looked back at me, raising an eyebrow. "Did you not think I was? I have been a member of the guild for quite a long time."

I released my grip on his cloak and took a step back. "In all honesty, I thought you were just a myth that the older members made up." When his expression turned dumbfounded, I raised my hands up in defense. "Don't blame me. Not like I've ever actually seen you."

Mystogan heaved a sigh. "I suppose I cannot say anything against that."

If the situation was a bit different, I may have laughed at my simple minded comment. It wasn't often my reaction to something like this mimicked that of Hayden. Everything surprised him, but I was normally better at hiding my shock. Mystogan himself is a legend within the guild, I couldn't help but wonder if he were real or not.

"But.. Phillip, you said he is with Natsu and Wendy?" I moved back to the topic at hand. "Where are they? Or… Everyone for that matter."

Mystogan spared a glance to the sky. "Edolas." When I didn't respond to his simple statement, he continued. "This is.. Difficult to explain, but all of Magnolia was taken to another world called Edolas."

I cocked my head to the side. "I don't understand. Another world?"

"Edolas is a world parallel to our own." He began to explain. "The storm you just witnessed was called an Anima. It is used to collect magic energy and transport it to Edolas. Each person who was in the city was transported there against their will and.."

As his voice trailed off, I started to feel the anxiety that Mystogan had been emitting since he started talking. "And what?" He didn't respond right away and I resisted the urge to grab him again. "Tell me what happened to them!"

"They were… They were all turned into a lacrima that will be used to generate magic for the people of Edolas." He slowly spoke, not daring to look me in the eye. "They will all be reduced to nothing within days."

My mouth opened, only a single breath leaving as I looked at him in shock. As I tried to process the information, I looked around at the deserted area and remembered what it had looked like not long ago. Busy streets filled with innocent merchants, travelers, everyday people and finally.. The members of Fairy Tail. None of them had any idea this was going to happen and none of them did anything to deserve such a fate.

I had only just learned to accept them, I wasn't going to let them get away from me that easily. And more importantly, I needed to find Phillip and make sure he was safe. "Okay.. Then what about Phillip? Natsu, Wendy, where are they?"

"They are safe just like you." Mystogan finally looked at me. "Dragon Slayers are immune to the power of Anima. Phillip, Happy and Carla are immune as well, but that is because their kind is already from Edolas."

I furrowed my brow. "Excuse me?" The fact that Dragon Slayers were immune to a magical power such as Anima did not surprise me. There were many aspects of our magic that were unknown after all. But the cats being from Edolas? He had to be joking. "You're going to have to run that by me again. I found Phillip here when he was a baby. You can't tell me he's from a whole other world."

"Phillip and the others are what we call, Exceeds." His choice of words raised a few more red flags in my head, but I set my questions to the side as he continued. "Exceeds are a divine creature in Edolas and are regarded as Deities. Your friend was likely born on Earthland and does not recall his heritage."

"No…" I glanced up at the sky. "Now I know you're full of shit. Phillip is from this world. Nothing you say can change that."

"I don't know what else to tell you." Mystogan sighed. "It is all difficult to take in, I know, but you need to take a bit of faith in my words."

My arms crossed over my chest as I rolled through everything he was saying in my head. Of course, I didn't want to believe him, but it didn't seem that I had any other choice. Everyone was gone and if I didn't do anything to try and help them, they all would die. I never thought I would care so much for those that I had rejected for so many years. Now, I couldn't imagine what I would do without them.

Anger began to swell in my chest as I thought more about it. To be pulled from the life you know to be used as a tool for someone else's gain. It was inhumane. It didn't matter who inhabited Edolas or what their reasons are, there are other ways to combat whatever problem they may be dealing with. There was no need to sacrifice thousands of people in order to fulfill their goals.

"Alright…" I muttered, reluctant, but ready to listen to all he had to say. "Tell me how I can help everyone."

Bright light filled my eyes and I held a hand up to shield them. My feet had just landed on the solid ground after being sent through the portal to Edolas by Mystogan. The air around me felt far lighter than that of the desolate Magnolia so it felt incredibly refreshing. I tried to blink away the effects that came from the change in lighting as I thought back to the in depth explanation Mystogan had just given me back this world.

Magic was limited on Edolas and that was the reason they had used Anima to turn the people of Magnolia into a lacrima. They planned to use the lacrima to replenish the magic energy in the world, at least for a limited time. Although the lacrima would provide plenty of magic energy, it would run out eventually and they would return to Earthland in search of more magic. It was only a matter of time before another city suffered the same fate.

Mystogan was from Edolas as well, that was a bit of a shock. He didn't explain very much about it, but shared that his actual name was Jellal. When he had arrived in Earthland, he realized that the name was not viewed in a good light and decided to go by the name Mystogan. This explained quite a bit as I remembered the Tower of Heaven incident that Natsu and the others had dealt with weeks before. Jellal had been the one to organize the entire affair. It made sense that Mystogan had changed his name after hearing about our version of Jellal.

That was the most interesting thing, our version of certain people. It would seem that the people of Edolas were counterparts of people on Earthland. Each person I knew had a counterpart of Edolas. Our worlds truly were complete parallels to one another.

My eyes began to adjust to the change in light and I opened them to gain a better view of the area. They quickly went wide at the sight as it was far more beautiful than I could ever have imagined.

Edolas was a world of many floating islands, inhabited by colorful flora. The islands went as far as I could see, each one carrying different types of environments. If this had been anything other than a rescue mission, I would have been incredibly excited. But this wasn't a time for sightseeing.

I took a glance around where I had landed and found that I was on the edge of a smaller island that was nowhere near any important. Of course, this wasn't meant to be easy. The only question was, how did I get to the other islands? If I jumped from this height, I would die in an instant.

Kneeling down, I looked over the edge of the island to see if there was any easy way to move from island to island. There weren't any obvious ways and it made me wonder how the people of Edolas were even able to travel very far. Maybe they stayed where they lived and didn't even think to venture further than that.

I was about to give up on the thought of an easy path when something caught my eye. Connected to a part of the underside of the island was a floating river. The river flowed through the air and connected to a larger island nearby. A small smile crossed my face. Bingo.

Standing up straight, I took a few steps back and took in a deep breath. Somewhere out there, my friend's lives were in danger. Somewhere out there, Phillip traveled with others, likely scared of everything that he was discovering. No matter what this world had to offer, I needed to do my best to protect those I cared for.

My feet carried me forward as I sprinted to the edge of the island, jumping over the edge. The air around me made my entire body feel weightless. For a moment, it felt incredibly freeing. If only I could enjoy the feeling for a little bit longer.

As I neared the river's edge, I reached a hand out and allowed the water to surround my hand. One of my feet did the same and before I knew it, I was sliding down the river as if it were a solid surface. Any water was mine to control, this otherworldly river was no different.

A determined look appeared on my face as I concentrated on keeping myself secured to the water. This world had taken everything that I had slowly been learning to love. I wasn't going to let it get away with it.

They would pay for what they had done.