Laxus freaked out when he saw us, of course.
It was justified though, we were all still wearing the clothes that we had had on in Fairy Tail, and Juvia looked like she had been mauled by a bear.
"It's all right, Laxus," Erza said, hands out in a placating manner as he rushed toward us. His face was white.
"It's not as bad as it looks." Juvia said, taking a tentative step forward. "Juvia's fine, Laxus. Really."
His eyes remained on the wound for a moment before slowly moving to her entire attire, then to Levy's, Lucy's, and finally Erza's armor. "Where did you get those clothes? And what the fuck are you all doing in here?! I expect this kind of thing out of myself but not from you three."
"We can explain." Levy tried, but Laxus merely shot her an incredulous There's-No-Explanation-for-Trespassing kind of wild fury look.
"Hear us out, Laxus." Erza reasoned.
Laxus hesitated, but crossed his arms nonetheless. "Start talking."
Of the three of them, Laxus was more likely to hear out Erza since he respected her the most.
And she told him everything, how we'd put our hands on the prints in the tomb—prints that seemed to be our own, they matched so closely—and how it had taken us back in time, to a different dimension.
Laxus's eyes got bigger and bigger, his expression telling us that he thought we'd all gone crazy. "Did you hit your head?" he asked, eyeing each of us and scanning our heads for blood.
"No, Laxus," Lucy said, stomping her foot in irritation. "Listen to me. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe us! Look at what I'm wearing! What we're all wearing! Where in this entire country would Erza have been able to smuggle an entire plate of armor?"
To his credit, Laxus seemed to be giving our story half a chance, but they could see his eyes that he thought it was like a fable that had to have some sort of real basis, a foundation that would make it all make sense.
"Laxus, there are two castles within two miles of this site. The one we pass every day, on our way in here, and the one over the hill, past the tombs."Levy tried reasoning. "We've been in both. But they were whole—full-on homes for people. Lots of people. One was inhabited by a man who fought for Phantom Lord; the other by a family who was loyal to Fairy Tail."
Laxus stared at them in complete shock, his jaw moving like he wanted to say something but no words would come out. He looked half ready to yell out for security.
Panicking, Juvia lifted the edge of her shirt and showed him her wound which was now nothing but a white scar on her skin. "Look, Laxus. Check out the length of it. See how it looks old? Like Juvia got it many years ago, right?"
He blinked rapidly, as if he was seeing things. Trying to make sense of it all.
Juvia dropped her shirt and gestured to the bloodstain, directly over her scar. "It's bloody because Juvia was bleeding like crazy, just a half hour ago. Juvia got the wound in that castle," She said, gesturing in the direction of the Phantom Lord ruins, "There's something about the tomb, coming through time, that heals. It healed Juvia. How else could Juvia have gotten that scar? Without you knowing about it?"
"It- it makes no sense." He breathed, his eyes flitted between us and then down at his hands, back and forth, still trying to puzzle it through.
If only Mavis were here…
She had always been more impulsive, she followed her heart. She always managed to get Laxus to let loose because Laxus liked to consult his brain first, and there was no way that our story was going to be figured out logically. No way.
Laxus looked up at us then, unblinking. "Show me,"
"No," Lucy said, shaking her head. "We just got back."
But Erza and Juvia were nodding.
"I need to go back." Erza said.
"But there's so much we don't know, guys. What if Juvia gets sick again if we go back?"
"Juvia won't get sick again. Juvia was healed. Time has passed, both here and there." Juvia said with certainty.
"You don't know that." Lucy countered.
Laxus held her hands up, silencing us both. "No one's going anywhere," she said. "I simply want you to show me exactly what happened."
"Has Gildarts noticed we're missing Laxus? How long have we been gone, Laxus?" Levy suddenly asked.
Laxus paused a moment, "About twenty minutes I think. He hasn't noticed yet."
"We spent about twenty days there if you count the week Erza and Juvia were there alone, so if we were to go back now, a month has already passed." Levy murmured.
Laxus's eyes moved from their faces to their clothes again, as if he was trying to remember that there was some base to support their story. Otherwise, he probably would have dismissed it as some wild dream.
"Do you want to know how she got hurt," Lucy said. "I mean, technically she got hurt in a battle and Levy had to stitch her up, but she's in love with a guy who already had a girl. And then that chick poisoned Juvia!"
Lucy whirled around to face Erza, hands on her hips. "You really want to go back? Back to where we almost lost Juvia? Because I won't be able to take it. Not after Mavis. I'll lose it, seriously lose it, if something happens to any of us."
"Nothing is going to happen to anyone," Laxus said, stepping up beside us.
"Laxus, just give us a chance. Let me show you how it happened." Erza pleaded.
Laxus was still staring at us, assessing.
"Fine then," he said finally, uncrossing his arms. "Show me these handprints you keep mentioning."
Lucy and Levy backed up a couple of steps, as if they didn't want us cascading back in time by accident.
"Over here," Juvia said, pointing to the wall behind them.
Laxus stared silently at the stone wall with clenched fists. "I thought you said there were only four handprints."
"There were," Levy voiced. "That other handprint was not there when we first got here. I'm certain of it."
"And it's much larger than any of the other handprints." Erza said, looking from her hand to the new hand print.
"All of the prints have something etched to the palm." Laxus said, leaning closer. "They all match our-"
"We know, why do you think we touched the prints in the first place?"
"Touch the new print. See if it's warm." Juvia said.
Laxus frowned, then after a second's hesitation, he touched it. He immediately ripped his hand away, looking from his palm to the wall in amazement.
"It's warm isn't it?" Erza said with a slight smile, reaching forward and placing her own palm in her print.
"Erza," Lucy growled.
"Calm down. I'm just checking. You know that nothing will happen without all of us," Erza said. "You tried, remember?"
They could tell from Laxus's expression that he was beginning to believe.
Levy bit her lip before voicing her thoughts. "What if we don't pull off the wall in the same time period, guys?" she asked, reading my look. "What if we go too far back?"
"Wait a damn minute!" Lucy voiced in outrage. "You're not seriously considering going back are you?!"
Levy pressed her lips together and twiddled her thumbs. "It's just that, Fairy Tail was so good to us and we just left so abruptly without even saying a proper goodbye! We just disappeared!"
"Yeah! That's what we wanted! They'll forget about us eventually!"
Levy shook her head. "Lucy, we were a vital part in the destruction of Phantom Lord, I think it's safe to say that they'll never forget about the four she-wolves and I don't think you'll ever forget those days either."
Lucy scoffed and looked away.
Levy glared at Lucy. "Or are you seriously going to stand there and act like you don't owe Natsu your life? Or have you forgotten that already?"
"Of course I haven't forgotten!" Lucy snapped. "Fine! Do whatever you want!"
"Really?" Juvia stepped forward, her blue eyes wide with hope.
Lucy grumbled a quiet, "Whatever."
Juvia immediately swept her up in a large hug.
"But let me make it clear we are not staying forever!"
But Juvia couldn't hear her over the loud squeals of 'Thank you' she kept shrieking.
"Um, but this still doesn't solve how we'll know when to release out prints…" Levy reminded them
Erza frowned, looking around the tomb, trying to figure out an answer. Then it came to her. "The light!"
"Huh?"
When I went back, this place was sealed up tight, right? There was no hole in the ceiling. It was totally pitch black inside."
"Juvia remembers! It was so dark you accidentally knocked over a vase!"
"Yeah! But we opened the tomb remember? Obviously, someone eventually rolled that rock back into place but Jellal or any of the others wouldn't have done that, not if they thought we were coming back. We just have to wait past that..."
"They might have rolled that stone back a hundred years after we left!" Lucy pointed out
"We have to try," Levy repeated.
"You're crazy," she said, eyebrows lifted.
"Please, Lucy. Just for a while. We have to go. I have to." Erza glanced at Laxus, probably wondering if he would agree to the journey.
"I'll go with you all," he said. His tone told me he was still a bit skeptical but the only way to prove themselves entirely was to take him there.
We heard voices outside and began to whisper.
"I don't even think we would have been able to make the leap without you," Levy said, bravely stepping forward and bracing her hand onto her handprint. "I'm ready when you guys are."
Juvia eagerly stepped forward and placed her hand in her print as did Erza. Lucy hesitated.
"Just for a little while, then we come back?" she asked tentatively, looking at each of them for a moment.
"For a little while," Erza said.
"And what if in returning, Juvia goes back to being poisoned? Bleeding?"
"We'll immediately return." Juvia said.
Lucy took a hesitant step towards the wall. "We have to pull off at the same moment, this time," she said.
"We're more prepared this round," Levy said, trying to ease her fears.
Lucy nodded, took a deep breath, and braced her hand on her own print. "Laxus be ready to pull your hand away the exact moment we tell you to.
"I really hope that you four aren't ill and dreamed this entire story up because the last thing I need is security finding all five of us in here." Laxus warned, eyeing each of us carefully once again.
"If you think they're bad," Lucy said, "wait till you meet some of the dudes ahead of us."
Laxus narrowed his eyes at her, but still reached forward and braced his hand against the stone wall.