"I'm just trying to help, the least you can do is listen!"

"Why do I have to listen when I already know that shit?!"

These arguments were becoming our only means of communication as Gajeel and I made our way into the capital city. What should have been a simple exchange of information turned into an argument of who had done a better job at gathering intel. As Gajeel had made a connection with his counterpart who would be helping us along the way, he believed he had been the most successful. I had other feelings on the matter.

"It's common courtesy! I listened to you!" I exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction. "We need to have a clear picture on the situation and who we're up against. We have to be on the same page or else we're bound to mess up."

"Yeah, okay. I'll start to care when ya say something interesting."

"You little-!"

Our so-called truce wasn't exactly working the way it should've. I couldn't say that I was without fault in the problems we were having, but Gajeel wasn't helping the situation much either. All either of us could manage to do was bicker which led to minimum productivity. As we neared the capital city, we were still working to get on the same page.

I would give anything to have Phillip, Hayden, anybody around to make this easier. Then again, most of the options would have likely let us argue in order to try and sort everything out. I couldn't count the amount of comments Hayden made about Gajeel and I needing to clear the air. Likely by the time we got out of Edolas, nothing would have changed and this whole partnership would have been pointless.

The thought of Hayden had been bothering me quite a lot. Specifically his counterpart and the story that came along with him. When explaining the captains of the royal guard to Gajeel, telling him about Hayden and Erza was more difficult than I was willing to admit. When it came to Erza, it almost made sense that her counterpart was an enemy based on her personality on Earthland. If Edolas was supposed to be our opposite, then Erza was bound to be a threat.

Hayden was another story. No matter how backwards things got, having him as an enemy felt wrong. Especially when he started out as a member of Fairy Tail in Edolas as well. To have him make such a hasty decision wasn't something I could see him doing at all, no matter how different my Hayden and Edolas' Hayden were.

What led him to make the choice in the first place almost hurt. My counterpart had led him to make that choice and I couldn't wrap my head around the whole situation. It made my heart sink every time the thought crossed my mind.

"That boy loves you and you threw that love aside for nothing. You two were so sweet together… Now he's gone and left too…"

I had tried to throw the thought aside in the moment, but it was a thought that I couldn't shake. That feeling, that disgusting emotion. Love. A word that people through around at random moments without truly understanding the consequences. I couldn't understand it. The only love I understood was the love I had for my family. Phillip, Aquafina and Rogue were the only people who needed to hear that word from me.

No matter if she was a counterpart or not, no one who shared any comparison to me should be throwing that word around. Love is pain, it's not meant to be shared. The farther that feeling gets shoved down the better. I kept trying to repeat those thoughts in my head, reminding myself what love had gotten me in the past. Love had led me to loss and fear, I couldn't allow myself to ever be controlled by it.

Despite my clear confusion and frustration with the emotion, I still found my heart aching. How was it that others made that feeling seem so easy? I had seen people show their 'love' for others and I could never quite understand it. What even created such an emotion? I couldn't be the only person who had this problem.

Maybe I was reading a little too deep into the issue. This whole situation had to do with other people, I had nothing to do with it. It didn't matter that we shared names, Edolas' Cece was not me. Whatever feelings she feels are not ones that I need to understand. This was something I tried to repeat in my head in order to shake the confusion, but it didn't seem to work.

"Wake up, pipsqueak."

Gajeel's voice pulled me from my thoughts as I hadn't even realized our conversation had faded. "Oh." I hummed, bringing my attention back to my own reality. "Forgot about you."

The Iron Dragon Slayer scoffed at my comment, but didn't say anything to insult me back. "I wanted to ask, that brother of yours," my shoulders tensed at the topic change. "Didn't realize you had one."

"It's none of your business." I snapped, glaring over at him from the corner of my eye. "So don't even ask."

"Touchy." He commented, crossing his arms. "Just curious. Since no one else seems to know either."

I gritted my teeth to fight back the urge to cuss him out as I turned my gaze away from him. "I said, don't ask."

"I haven't even asked my question yet."

"Then don't."

I could hear the man scoff as the air went silent. The other members of Fairy Tail didn't need to know I had a family. The fact that Gajeel now knows the bare minimum was an inconvenience. Now, I had a burning sensation in the back of my head that was telling me that he would ask the others about it which would only open the door for them to talk to me. The amazing part of me opening myself up to the guild is that I only let them see what I want them to see. Nothing more.

If the question of my family were to ever come up, I typically dodged the question by simply saying I had no family. It was how I liked it. I should have never mentioned Rogue to Gajeel, I should have given another excuse for my distaste towards him and I wouldn't have even needed to question this.

"Where is your brother anyways?"

The question ripped through my head and I had to bite down on my tongue in order to hold myself steady. "No where."

"Sure he is." Gajeel rolled his eyes. "Spill it already. What? Is he a piece of shit or something?" He questioned and my teeth dug deeper into my tongue, threatening to break through. "No, let me guess, he kicked your sorry ass out because of your poor attitude. Can't say I blame him. You really are a piece of wor-"

My next movements happened rather quickly, I didn't even have a chance to rethink my actions. Both my hands and feet surrounded themselves with water and I twisted on my feet to face Gajeel. I seemed to have caught him off guard as I began to throw a barrage of attacks his way. "You have no right to ask questions about things you don't need to understand!" I exclaimed, as my anger fueled attacks continued to fly his way.

For a moment, all Gajeel did was hold his arms up in defense, crossing them in front of himself. The expression on his face shouted that he wasn't nervous about my actions. He simply took each hit without flinching. This only infuriated me more and I found myself focusing on feelings and impulses that I had left behind weeks ago. The desire to be seen as something more than a coward and a weakling. I kept throwing my attacks his way, cussing him out along the way, but not once did he fight back.

I raised my fist once more and began to throw it towards Gajeel, only to have a flash of a memory stop me. Just as my fist sat mere inches from his face, the man in front of me shifted into that of Rogue. The image only lasted a moment, but it was enough to make me stop in my unneeded actions.

The water that once surrounded my hands and feet faded away and my focus quickly fell on my racing heartbeat and heavy breath. It felt as if there was a boulder pushing down against my chest as I lowered my hands back to my side. My emotions were getting the better of me and I had let them take control.

"We.." I muttered out as I watched Gajeel finally lower his arms out of their defensive position. "We should go." I turned away from him and began to trudge forward, in hopes to avoid furthering this topic.

My heartbeat echoed in my eardrums as I tried to ignore the increasing levels of anxiety in my chest. I should have never mentioned Rogue even in the simple terms I had. I had made a mistake. In that moment, it seemed like a good idea, but looking back, I realized that I was growing soft. I was beginning to let everyone in too much and this only proved it.

What if it got back to Saber that I told Gajeel I had a brother? Master Jiemma would be angry and only god knows what he would do with that anger. Telling Hayden was one thing, I had trust in him and after all this time, he had proven to be the right person to put my trust in. Gajeel was the one person I didn't trust in the slightest and I still felt the need to share this part of my life. I was an idiot.

"Kid, slow down." Gajeel's voice pulled me from my thoughts for a moment as he was following close behind me. "You're going to hurt yourself if you don't stop."

"I'm fine." I spoke, my voice getting caught up at the end as I felt the need to take in a deep breath that didn't want to hold firm.

I attempted to keep moving forward, but Gajeel's rough hand took hold of my arm. "I'm not kidding. We're stopping before you decide to stop breathing."

I tried to pull away from him, but his grip proved to be just as strong as Hayden's. "We don't have time to stop." He tried to jump in and speak up, but I didn't let him get a word in. "There's too much at stake, do you not see that?!" I found myself shouting out. "Everyone is stuck in some stupid rock and they'll die if we don't do something to save them! I'm so tired of dealing with your stupid questions and passive aggressive comments! Everything that I have worked so hard to build is on the verge of being lost and you want to poke the bear? Think again, dumbass!"

Gajeel didn't even flinch as I shouted at him. He stared down at me with an unamused expression. "You done? Or are you gonna keep crying like a baby?"

My brow furrowed in confusion as I hesitantly reached up to touch my cheek. Sure enough, tears were rolling down my face and I hadn't even noticed. The thought of showing this side of myself to Gajeel of all people was enough to help me catch my breath. My heart still continued to race, but I was able to get my breathing to a normal rate. Yelling at the other dragon slayer may have helped to let my emotions out as well.

"Look," Gajeel began. "I don't get why you're so pissed off about this, but clearly you have some secrets up in there." He gestured to his own head before continuing. "I won't push it. Not my business anyways. But you need to pull your shit together or we're not gonna get anything done."

I hated to admit it, but he was right. This entire time, I was allowing myself to get lost in my thoughts and I was beginning to lose track of what was really at stake. I was starting to become engulfed in my emotions that I wasn't even keeping a calm head about what was to come. If I was going to be any help to the rest of Magnolia, then I would need to calm down and not let everything get to me.

Being with Gajeel was bringing my focus to Rogue more than the present and that was my downfall. I was falling into my normal habits without even realizing it. Gajeel's poor attitude wasn't helping, but I couldn't let others dictate how I act. I needed to focus on what was really important and that was bringing everyone home.

"Sorry." I mumbled under my breath as I reached up and wiped my tears against my wrist. "Can we just pretend this never happened?"

Gajeel stared at me for a long moment and I found myself shrinking under his gaze. Why did he have to look as if he were ready to start a fight at any moment? He heaved a sigh and started to walk past me. "Pretend what never happened? Not like any of those hits actually could leave a mark for anyone to ask about."

I took in a sharp breath at his comment and I gritted my teeth in frustration. Talking to this ironhead was like talking to a brick wall, completely useless.

The moment my feet landed on the cobblestone of the capital city, I found that my focus was on nothing but getting to the lacrima. I would have rushed straight to it if Gajeel hadn't taken a moment to remind me that we were supposed to be discreet. We had a meeting with his counterpart before we could think of making any moves.

Gajeel and I stood outside of a small local tavern, the other dragon slayer having his hood over his head. I felt that it looked more obvious than if he would have just tried to blend in, but I wasn't going to try and change his mind. After my breakdown earlier, the tension between the two of us felt different. The air didn't feel as heavy, yet it still felt like something was wrong. I didn't want to push the wrong buttons and see what the tension had turned into.

"Ah, I heard you had picked up a traveling partner." A male voice entered the conversation and I glanced over to see a man who clearly was Gajeel's counterpart approach us. "Felicity Ellis," he spoke as he leaned forward to place his chin against his knuckles. "No, that's not quite right. I wasn't greeted with a warm smile, so you're of the other world."

I looked between him and my own Gajeel and sighed. "This is ridiculous…" To think I would have to talk to two Gajeel's instead of one. "That's far too fancy for me, please, just call me Cece."

"Alright, Cece." He nodded in my direction before reaching into his jacket to pull a notepad out. "Let's get down to business. I've been asking around. Seems the lacrima has guards on all sides. We'll have to scout around to see how we can break through the crowd and the guards without any disruption."

I hummed in understanding. When Gajeel and I had arrived in the city, we made sure to locate where the lacrima was. Where we were standing was just a few blocks away from the crowded square. Guards had been stationed around the entire area so neither of us were comfortable getting a closer look until we had met up with his counterpart. "Then there's only one logical thing to do."

When they both looked at me, raising an eyebrow, I almost forgot what I had been about to say. This world was supposed to be polar opposite to our own, yet these two seemed to share very similar mannerisms. "We'll split up for now. Gajeel," I gestured to the Gajeel I knew. "Will get a bird's eye view and see what kind of access we can get from above." I turned my gaze to his counterpart. "And you, from what I hear, you've got a way with words. Go ask around and see if you can squeeze any intel from the guards. One of them is bound to slip up. I'll scout the area for anything out of the ordinary. The last thing we need is to be caught off guard."

"I can't help but agree." Edo Gajeel smiled softly and glanced behind him towards the lacrima. "I will send you both a signal when I find out what side you should attack from."

Gajeel nodded. "That plan is great and all, but it's got a few flaws. They'll be expecting someone to disrupt the extraction. We'll need a diversion."

Edo Gajeel reached into his jacket and pulled out a few metal cylinders. "I may have an idea."

I trudged through the crowd of cheering Edolas citizens, shoving past them as quickly as I could. We were running low on time. In just a short hour, the lacrima would be used to fuel magic in this world and sacrifice everyone along with it. If we didn't work fast, we would fail.

Just as Edo Gajeel had said, there were guards stationed at all corners of the lacrima. Even the entrance to the plaza was lined with guards. There was no way to easily get through. Then again, there likely was something that I was missing.

I glanced up and noticed Gajeel perched at a nearby tower, looking down at the scene. Our eyes met for a brief moment and he nodded in my direction, indicating that he knew where I was. Perfect.

My head moved around on a swivel as I tried to catch sight of anything that was out of the ordinary. As far as I could see, it was average security. Besides the added guards around the front of the plaza, there didn't seem to be any added precautions to keep the lacrima safe. That seemed odd to me as they had to know by now that there were people hanging around that wanted to stop the ceremony.

Something wasn't right. A chill went through my body as I felt as if someone were watching me. When I glanced at Gajeel, I could see his attention was elsewhere, so what was this feeling? I was certain now that I was missing something. Something important.

I took a hesitant step backwards before disappearing behind one of the surrounding pillars. If there was someone watching me, I needed to lose them before they caught up with me. Only question was how.

As I was beginning to develop a swift way to disappear until it was time to attack, I heard the sound of armor clanking against the cobblestone ground. My eyes widened as members of the royal guard surrounded me on all sides. I was just out of sight of the crowd so they didn't even take notice of the event.

"Hello boys." I spoke as if I was filled with confidence. Despite the fact that their weapons were raised, I still needed to try and get out of this without fighting. "What seems to be the problem?"

One of the guards spoke up. "State your name and business!"

I furrowed my brow. What was going on? I had blended into the crowd as best I could so they shouldn't have been able to point me out like this. "My name is Felicity Ellis, I was just coming to see the festivities. It's a pretty exciting day after all!" I grinned, trying to adjust to seem like my counterpart. There was no way they would be able to tell the difference.

"We have been given orders to detain anyone matching your description." I raised an eyebrow as the same guard responded. "Please come quietly or we'll be forced to use force."

"Force, huh?" My grin slowly fell as it seemed my facade wouldn't work in this situation. "With those weapons? I'd love to see you try."

Before they had the chance to move towards me, I took in a deep breath. "Water Dragon.." A bright blue rune appeared in front of my mouth as I let my attack fly. "Roar!" The water tornado swiftly took out each of the guards and sent them flying against the nearby wall. One by one, they each fell to the ground. "See? One attack and you're on the ground. I'd say a few more training sessions are in order if you expect to take on a wizard."

"A wizard, huh?" The male voice flowed through my ears caused me to soften ever so slightly as I found myself letting my guard down.

I slowly turned to my right to see a familiar face staring back at me. After the last couple of days, I would have killed to see those devilish auburn eyes looking back at me. "Hayden?" My voice cracked as I let out his name and for a long moment, I truly thought that the person I was looking back at was my Hayden. The boy that I hadn't been able to get out of my head since I arrived in Edolas.

But that's when I realized that my Hayden was stuck inside a lacrima, waiting for someone to save him. By the time the thought crossed my mind, it was already too late.

Hayden's counterpart didn't waste a single second after my gaze shifted from calm to on guard. He lunged forward slamming his elbow against my stomach causing me to double back in pain. Before I had a chance to recover, he had both my arms behind my back and was shoving me against the cold hard ground. "Stay down, you won't be able to fight back anyways."

I went to turn my head in order to see what he was doing as I felt a stringy substance wrapping around my wrists and ankles, but he placed one of his hands against my head and twisted it to the side to press it down. I felt an increase of pressure against my back as Edo Hayden leaned down. "Whatever you have planned in that pretty little head of yours, forget it. That trick where you try and pretend to be Ellis? Proved how stupid you really are."

I attempted to connect with my water, only to find that my magic was negated by whatever was around my wrists and ankles. If it was keeping my magic negated then I wasn't going to be able to fight back. "Hayden, please, listen to me for a second, this is insane-"

"I don't remember asking you to speak." He pushed harder down against my head and I could feel each individual pebble pressing into my cheek. "Your voice pisses me off."

His voice was dripping with venom as I could truly hear the hatred in his voice. The events that lead this world's Hayden to be in this position left him full of resentment and no remorse. And my counterpart was the one that had caused him this much pain, my face being a cruel reminder of everything he had lost.

I attempted to twist free of his grip to no avail, it was as strong as the boy I knew so well. "Gonna play it that way, huh? I'm not against shutting you up."

There was an immense amount of pressure against my neck as I felt Hayden's fingers wrap around my neck. Each finger tip pressed into my skin like a burning iron. Warm and threatening, the opposite of what I knew him to be. My heart was looking at this all wrong and I wasn't sure how to change my thoughts.

I watched as black dots began to make their way around my vision. "Hayden.. Please.." My voice trailed off as the darkness overtook my gaze.

Out of everyone that could have taken me down, it had to be the one who shared the face of someone I knew so well.