A/N: Hi guys! Sorry its been a while since I updated this, but I hope it was worth the wait. I know I've been inactive but luckily that'll be changing and I'll be more active on here! Also I apologize that this is mostly OC centric!

—

The meeting room was shocked into silence. They had just witnessed a friend, a colleague, and arguably one of the most powerful mages in the country be cut down by an unknown enemy. No one knew what to say. Especially to Miku, his 'daughter' who was sobbing beside her 'parents' after having relived what was probably the worst night of her life. Everyone just either stared up to where the memory had been shown, or they looked down in thought.

After a few more minutes of silence Miku dashed out of the meeting room, her sobs echoing down the hallway as she ran.

" Miku!" Brielle shouted as she went to give chase but her sister, Mizuki, grabbed her arm. The short silver haired girl just shook her head at her sister's confused look. Neva let out a soft sigh before turning to look out the doors.

" Don't worry, I'll go see if she's ok. Yuno," Neva turned to look at her friend and let out a soft gasp.

Yuno was pale, his eyes wide and staring down at the ground. There was a bit of sweat on his forehead, he had his hands clenched as he stared down at the ground beneath his feet. Neva gently placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the dark haired boy to jump and look at her, it had been a while since she had seen this look on his face; Yuno was afraid. It had to be shocking seeing yourself die but at the same time absolutely terrifying.

" I'm fine," Yuno told her softly after the two just looked at each other, the dark haired boy shook his head as though to clear his thoughts. " go make sure Miku's ok. I'll fill you in on the rest of the meeting later." He added with a forced smile. Neva knew he was lying but she knew better than to call him out on it, she gave him a small nod before following Miku out the door.

After the door closed behind the platinum blonde haired girl, Alistar let out a somewhat aggravated sigh.

" Well, that memory gave us absolutely nothing." He muttered as he rested his chin atop his clasped hands, the others frowned at him while the Witch Queen stared at him curiously.

" Why do you say that? Her memories gave us more information than what we had before, did it not?" Hikari asked with a small frown, Alistar nodded.

" It did. But it didn't give us the information we needed, such as who killed the King of Spade as well as wiped out the entire country, all it showed us was that they used a form of Shadow or Dark magic. If we go on that information alone it could be anyone," Alistar said in aggravation. " for all we know, from what little we saw it could easily have been anyone, including Captain Sukehiro, Vice Captain Nacht Faust, or even you Hikari." Alistar added, his tone slightly sharper than he intended.

" Hey Golden Boy, watch your tone." Yami warned with a dangerous look in his eye, Alistar nodded before sighing again. He wasn't accusing them of anything, he knew none of them would even think of doing something like that. But he was trying to make a point, he was trying to show that there was many suspects out there that could be the culprits.

" So basically, you put a 12 year old girl through hell for no reason? Sheesh I heard you could be cruel but I didn't know you were that cruel." Josslyn said coldly as she cut him a look, Alistar looked at her as well, his stare as cold as ice.

" Need I remind you who you're speaking to Josslyn?" He asked her coldly, Josslyn smirked and tilted her head.

" Do I look like I care?" She asked. " You made her relive the worst night of her life for nothing, you didn't see the person that took her family away, you didn't find us a way to get back home, hell you didn't even get us any closer to finding out why we were sent back!" The pink haired girl snapped.

" I already know why we were sent back!" Alistar snapped back, standing up and staring the younger girl down. He noticed the surprised look on her face and that's when he realized what he had said, he looked around the room and saw everyone staring at him in shock and surprise.

" You," Hikari started softly, her brow furrowed in confusion. " You knew why we were sent back this entire time, and you didn't say anything?" Alistar sighed in defeat before sitting back down.

" I told you Hikari, I would explain everything when everyone was together." He muttered.

" Well everyone's 'together' now, so start spilling." Yami almost demanded, causing the white haired boy to flinch at the harshness of his tone.

Alistar looked around and saw everyone staring at him expectantly. He looked down at the table in thought for a moment, he was debating how much he should tell them. There wasn't really a reason to keep things from them now, as far as his mission and what he knew. He looked up again and leaned back in his seat.

" The threat we saw in Miku's memory, the Captains and Wizard King all knew about it. Well, they didn't know about it, but they began to get a feeling something dangerous was coming when we lost touch with Spade and our scouts. So the Captain's, fearing the worst, decided to create a sort of 'safety measure'. A while back they found a Time Gate in the basement of the Clover Castle, and instead of destroying it they decided to keep it hidden just in case they would ever need to send someone back with it."

" Once the scouts confirmed that the Captains and Wizard Kings' worst fears were true, that some dangerous threat had wiped out the Kingdom and appeared to be heading to Clover, they enacted their safety plan. Which was to gather the strongest and smartest of the next generation and send them back in time, to a time before this 'darkness' appeared." Alistar concluded softly with his eyes closed.

" So our parents sent us back to stop this 'darkness' or whatever from happening in the first place, right?" Ezio asked nervously, Alistar shook his head.

" Funnily enough, no that wasn't the reason." He laughed humorlessly before opening his eyes and looking around. " They wanted to ensure our survival. If things were to go south and the entire Clover Kingdom were to be lost, they wanted to me sure we, their children, survived. That's why they sent all of us, the strongest and smartest of the kids, because they knew we would all survive."

The room fell into silence at the weight of Alistar's words. The children's parents knew the threat was bad and that there was a good chance they wouldn't survive, so they wanted to do whatever that had to in order to make sure their children were alive and safe. It was admirable. They all had only known their 'children' for a few days to a week at most, but they were all willing to do the same if they had to make a similar choice.

" I'm curious Alistar," Julius said calmly yet with a slightly curious tone after a few moments. " why would the Captains and Wizard King trust you of all people with this information? Plus, some of this information seems slightly confidential." He watched as the boys eyes widened slightly before Aloys Adlai, who had been silent during the entire meeting, let out a snort.

" Isn't it obvious? It's because he's-." He started irritatedly before he was suddenly cut off.

" How do we go back?" Hikari asked softly, surprising everyone.

" I'm sorry? Did you not just hear him, or see what happened to Spade? Whatever it was scared our parents so bad that they literally sent us to a completely different time! Do you really think it's a wise decision to go back there?" Ezio asked, his voice slightly going higher with each word. Hikari nodded.

" Yes I do. If we can get back to our time, maybe we can stop this 'darkness' or whatever it is before it reaches Clover, maybe we can help our parents defeat it." Hikari said hopefully, she knew deep down that it was probably too late for that, that her friends and family, her home were all gone. But she had to try!

" Hikari-."

" No! I won't have the people I love and care about sacrificing themselves trying to protect us and our home while I just sit here happy and safe in a completely different era when I can go back and help them!" She shouted, she clenched her hands into fists. She couldn't just let them die, if she had known about all of this, if her parents or Alistar had told her then she would have refused to go without hesitation.

" Hikari, your parents, as well as the others, did what they felt was the best option for all of you. You may not agree with it, but it was their decision and you have to know it was one they didn't make lightly." William said kindly.

" Goldie Guts is right," Yami pipped in before turning to look at his 'daughter'. " going back to the future now is only going to make their sacrifice in vain, I'm always up for a good fight, especially against a strong opponent, but I'm not going against something or someone I know nothing about."

" What if," Charlotte said thoughtfully for a moment. " what if we all go to the future, not to fight the enemy, but to figure out who or what it is? Like a scouting mission. We go there, gather information and identify our enemy, then we come back and defeat them here in the past." She suggested.

" Before they get the chance to become strong enough to wipe out entire kingdoms." Alistar agreed with a small smirk. " That's not a bad idea." Everyone around the room smiled and nodded in agreement, all but one.

" Are you sure you want to do that? For all you know it could be a trap, or the enemy could sense you before you even have a chance to get your bearings. You could be killed instantly. You're really willing to take that risk even though the mission could easily fail and you could gain nothing?" The Witch Queen asked curiously, her head resting on her open palm. All the Magic Knights in the room nodded.

" Whenever someone or something threatens our Kingdom, our home, the Magic Knights aren't going to just sit back and let it happen. I know they won't fail if they go on this mission, because they'll train, they'll get stronger in order to meet this enemy head on. They'll do whatever they have to in order to protect this kingdom and its people." Julius said proudly as he stared down the Witch Queen, who only smirked in response.

" You sound awfully confident," she remarked before her eyes turned dangerously dark. " almost overconfident. That will easily be your doom if you're not careful, Wizard King." Julius just smiled at her in response.

" Your enemy grows in strength every day, both now and in the future. You'll all need to train and grow stronger if you even want to have a chance at beating your enemy. How long do you think it'll take your people to figure out how to use the Time Gate?" The Witch Queen asked Julius.

" Hm, I would say a week or two at the longest." Julius said after a moment of thought.

" Hm, I thought it would take a lot longer with your men." The Witch Queen muttered under her breath. " Alright then. You all, both adults and children, will train for one or two weeks and try to get stronger than you already are." Everyone in the room looked at Julius, they only took their orders from him, and when he nodded in agreement everyone saluted him.

" Now I suggest you all go home and get some rest, the next few weeks are going to be busy for everyone. So do your best!" Julius encouraged with a smile as everyone nodded in agreement.

Alistar was one of the last ones to stand, and as he began to follow his 'father' out the door the Witch Queen held up a hand to stop him.

" You seem to be one of the, if not the most reasonable person in the room." She started before looking up at him with serious eyes. " So I'll only say this once, and I'll only say it to you." She leaned in closer.

" Not all of you are going to make it out of this alive."

Alistar paled instantly before the Witch Queen stood from her seat and walked over to Vanessa and Ezio. He stood there stunned for a moment at this information, he recalled Ezio telling him at one point that his grandmother could see the future, so was she hinting at one of his friends' fates? No, he shook his head, he was going to make sure all of his friends and their parents made it out of this alive!

" Are you alright?" William asked, his eyes concerned at the look on his 'sons' face. Alistar was pulled out of his thoughts and he nodded almost automatically. His warm smile appeared on his face again.

" I'm fine." He answered simply before walking out, William frowned as he watched him walk away. It was truly funny how much like him Alistar was, the mask that boy wore was just like, except William's was visible while Alistar's was not.

—

As the group walked out of the meeting room everyone talked softly amongst themselves about what they should do next and how they should start training. Yuno was the only one who remained silent as he stayed towards the back of the group, the image of himself dying, of watching as all the people he swore to protect attacked him and Miku, all of the memories played and replayed in his mind.

" Hey Yuno, you ok?" Asta asked as he slowed to walk next to his friend and foster brother, Yuno was pulled out of his thoughts and he nodded.

" I'm fine Asta."

" You don't look fine. I can't even imagine what you're going through right now. I mean watching that and then watching your own kid go through all of that horror on top of it. Y'know, it's alright to not be fine. I know for sure I wouldn't be." Asta told him kindly before he noticed his friend had stopped to look at something through the window. When Asta looked he noticed it was Miku and Neva sitting by a fountain. Neva was holding Miku, consoling her as it appeared the young girl was still crying. As Asta went to say something he noticed Yuno had a strange look on his face.

The dark haired boy had sadness in his eyes, but also something else, it was an emotion that Asta couldn't quite figure out. It was a warm look, one that Yuno only ever had on his face when he went back to Hage and was with the people he loved and cared about the most.

" Yuno, are you feeling alright?" Asta asked curiously, he watched as his friend's face suddenly turned a soft shade of pink before he looked away from the window.

" I told you I'm fine."

" Well I don't believe you!" Asta shouted loudly before the two friends began to bicker back and forth as they normally did.

Tomorrow they would have to start training again, just like they did when they confronted the Spade Kingdom and their devils. Except, instead of having six months, they only had two weeks.