Summary: A new theory that's been niggling me since chapter 465. There were five Dragon Slayers that came through the gate on 7/7/X777 but there was six children who were actually there that day.

Pairings: Natsu/Happy friendship, implied brotherly Zeref/Natsu, implied parental Layla/Lucy, Gajeel/Levy, general family and friendship feels throughout, and, of course, Natsu/Lucy.

Author's Note: Thank you all for giving me over EIGHTY SIX HUNDRED reviews!

"Natsu!" Gray shouted as Happy dropped the Fire Dragon Slayer safely back on the ground. "What the hell happened?"

Natsu looked around and became keenly aware that they were no longer alone. Not only was Fairy Tail gathered around them with varying degrees of worried expressions etched into their faces but the supporting troops from Sabertooth, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel, and Quattro Cerberus were also milling around.

"I couldn't do it," Natsu confessed, his lips numb as he felt entirely, the words just spilling out without a second thought, "Zeref told me-"

"Natsu is from the past!" Happy burst out. He immediately flew in front of Natsu's face covering it from everyone's eyes before he shot Natsu a stern glare. Don't tell them, the glare said. "Zeref sent Natsu through the Eclipse Gates four hundred years ago."

"And I'm not the only one," Natsu said slowly, wondering exactly what Happy was up to, "he also sent Gajeel, Wendy, Sting, and Rogue through."

"WHAT?!"

"Zeref was apparently good friends with our parents."

"We were born over four hundred years ago?!" Gajeel repeated. "I'm over four hundred years old?! Gihi," he smirked, and preened slightly before Levy. "I look good for four hundred and something. What do you say, Shrimp? Can you live with dating an older man?"

"Age is only a number," Levy smiled lovingly, "if I can live with the fact your maturity is roughly nine years old, I can definitely deal with the fact you're technically four hundred and something."

Gajeel just smirked. "My maturity is still older than Salamander's," he said unbothered.

"This doesn't make any sense," Rogue said as he rubbed his temples, "we remember it being X777, I have memories of learning recent history, we knew all of the current events, especially about guilds, how can that be if we only just arrived from four hundred years ago?"

"Well it's rather obvious, ain't it?" Wakaba said as he lit himself a cigar. "We taught you everything and then manipulated your memories."

"WHAT?!"

"Oh yeah," Macao rubbed his chin, "I remember now…..why am I suddenly remembering this?"

"Because all of your memories were manipulated and they're now being triggered," Makarov explained, "I had Mest do mine as well before he did his own."

The four male Dragon Slayers turned furious glares in Mest's directions. Wendy, however, just smiled sweetly at him. "I'm sure there's a good reason," she said softly.

"Oh there is," Makarov said, "just that I can't remember it right now."

"How long have you known?!" Natsu demanded to know. "And why did you do it in the first place?"

"I have known since Wendy joined the guild," Makarov confessed. "That was my memory trigger, three dragon slayers at Fairy Tail. At first I thought it was a prophecy but ever so slowly my memory started to come back. The last few memories have slotted back into place these last couple days. As for why I did it," He looked at Natsu with the saddest, most apologetic look, "Mavis promised Zeref she would look after you." It might have been just because Natsu was a little sensitive thanks to his so-called brother's revelations but it felt like that that particular sentence was directed solely to Natsu. Not only were Makarov's eyes fixed on his face making Natsu feel distinctly like his very being was on show, but Mavis, silent, solemn, and uncharacteristically quiet, was staring at him too. She knew what he was, he realised with a shudder. "When she obviously couldn't, she left the plans with Hades, and when he could no longer be there, it was my turn. We helped set up the Gates and waited for your arrival and once we had you somewhat settled we gave you quick lessons on what you had missed."

"Then I erased your memories of time-travel," Mest jumped in, "and manipulated the last memory of your Dragon Parents to make you think they had abandoned you or you killed them before finally placing a suggestion that you should all join a guild."

"A very vague suggestion," Makarov said sternly, "you were all supposed to come here."

"Come on! I was a teenager!" Mest protested. "The fact I was able to manipulate their memories without accidentally making them forget how to breathe was a great achievement especially since we were working under pressure. So what if they didn't all come to Fairy Tail? They ended up here eventually…..well," he smiled sheepishly, "most of them."

"It's not something to brag about," Gajeel growled, "I ought to have you arrested for manipulating the memories of five children, you creepy pervert."

"Six," Mest corrected absentmindedly, "I manipulated the memories of six children."

"Erm, no," Sting blinked, "pretty sure there's only five of us here."

"Zeref said only five Dragon Slayers came through the gates," Natsu agreed, "not six."

"Yeah," Mest said slowly, "five Dragon Slayers came through the gates but there were six children actually present that day."

"The Celestial Mage," Macao murmured to himself, "she brought her kid with her. To help. And then….Christ! Shit!" he looked utterly horrified and in pain as his memories rushed forwards. "He killed her! Zeref came and killed the Celestial Mage!"

"Someone was murdered in front of us!" Wendy squeaked. She had witnessed a lot of horrors in the last couple years but no one had actually died in front of her. "That's just….horrible," she finished weakly, unable to find a better descriptive.

"Yes, understandably you were all traumatised," Mest said gently as he took in the horrified expressions of Gajeel, Rogue, Sting, and Natsu. Natsu couldn't prevent the shudder. His brother had murdered someone. On purpose. Someone who helped him. "Aren't you glad I manipulated your memories now?"

"NO!"

Mest flinched at Gajeel, Rogue, and Sting's bellow. The older men also flinched but that was mostly due to their oncoming headache from their memories resurfacing.

"Why?" Natsu asked. "Why would he kill someone who helped him?"

"The kid," Wakaba muttered, "it was for the kid."

"What was?"

"Zeref was angry, he felt betrayed," Makarov sounded distant as he seemed to be recollecting the memory this very moment, "the Celestial Mage's child…..she was dying, she had too much magic much like young Ultear," at this he nodded to Gray, who grunted, the rest of the guild had fallen silent as they listened to the unbelievable truth, "and it was burning her up from the inside out. The little girl was permanently ill and the doctors predicted she would die before she reached puberty, her mother was understandably desperate."

The hairs on the back of Natsu's neck prickled. "What did she do?" he grounded out.

"She bonded her daughter's life force to a book," Natsu's eyes widened, horrified, no…..no….not that book. "And through that book to Zeref's life force….he lashed out. I don't think…..I don't think he meant to kill her."

"So if we were to kill Zeref….?"

"We would kill the kid too," Wakaba said grimly.

"One of the reasons why we didn't stick around and fight for the Celestial Mage," Macao added, "though we wanted to. Instead we just grabbed you lot, Gildarts did most of the heavy carrying, and ran to safety. Then it was lessons, trying to comfort six traumatised kids, and manipulating everyone's memories."

"So you're telling me," Natsu said angrily, "that there's some girl out there who-"

"No, not some girl," Happy interrupted tearfully. "Think Natsu! Remember what Zeref said about that Celestial Mage."

Natsu had honestly forgotten until now. His mind was still hung up about the whole most evil wizard in the world being his brother, and how Igneel lied and deceived him, and how he was a fucking demon that will die if he kills said evil brother.

Some Celestial Mage that wasn't Lucy wasn't even going to make it to the list of things he would be thinking about on a normal day.

But then he thought about it.

In the future, a Celestial Mage named Layla opened the door of Eclipse that was July 7th of the year X777.

Layla.

There was only one Celestial Mage named Layla that Natsu knew. She also happened to be alive round that time too.

Layla.

And she had a kid. A kid who was all grown up and a Celestial Mage in her own right.

Layla.

Layla Heartfilla.

"Where's Lucy?"

"Lu-Chan?" Levy tilted her head. "Yes," she nodded, "Lu-Chan would know about Celestial Mages, I think she went up to the infirmary for some-"

Natsu didn't hear the rest as he already ran towards the stairs the moment 'infirmary' was uttered. His heart raced as his blood pounded and his stomach lurched. Please let him be wrong, please let him be wrong, please let him be wrong, please let –

BANG!

"NATSU!" Lucy shrieked as she tried to cover herself up. Her top and bra had been abandoned on the bed and there was a tub of pain-relieving salve left opened on the nightstands. "What the hell?! Have I taught you nothing about knocking?"

He was not wrong.

There were dark, violet-purple, bruises in the same spot he had felt agonising pain when Zeref had stabbed the Book of END.

She had felt it too.

She had been in pain too.

Which meant she would have died as well if Happy hadn't pulled him out in time.

He almost killed his brother, himself, and the woman he loved with one strike. Did that make him a monster or just the biggest screw up in the world?

Lucy caught his gaze and smiled a false, over-cheerful, smile. "It's nothing," she tried to reassure him. "I must have hit the bath or something when I was fighting Brandish."

There was something false about her voice, about the way she stood, and the fact there was no one helping her with her bruises, that she told no one about her pain, that no one seemed to have seen her double over or heard her scream, and she should have because Natsu certainly did, it all clicked into place.

"How long?" he croaked. "How long have you known?"

She didn't ask what he meant by that. She didn't try to deny anything. She didn't look confused.

She just ducked her head down shamefully. "Since the Grand Magical Games," she murmured. He supposes it was better than from the very start. He wasn't sure if he could cope if she had known it from the very start. "My future self…..she left her diary for me and in her timeline Zeref told her everything," Lucy explained softly, she turned away briefly and picked up her top, hastily covering herself. "I didn't believe it at first but then this last year….."

He grimaced.

"Hey."

Lucy approached him slowly, her hands took his, and for a moment he almost calmed at the feel of her soft, warm, delicate fingers entwining themselves between his.

He took the little hand, it was soft, warm, and delicate, he never held a princess' hand before but he was sure this was it. "Don't worry," he reassured the feverish, trembling, girl, "everything is going to be all right. Your Mama will tie you to me and I will protect you."– No! He shoved a memory he never knew he had back into the back of his mind as he focused on the Lucy in front of him. He didn't want it to be real. He wanted it all to be a lie, or a joke, or some sort of cruel prank.

He wanted it to be the way it was before this nightmare started.

"Hey," Lucy repeated softly as she squeezed his hands comfortingly, it was then he realised he was trembling. "Don't worry," she smiled, a more real, sadder, smile. "Everything is going to be all right. We'll figure this out. We'll find a way to save everyone, even ourselves, and then we can go back to having adventures. Natsu," he met her brilliant, defiant, eyes, "I promise you," she swore, "everything is going to be all right."

It was all too much.

He had just had everything he had known, everything he had loved, shattered and he didn't know how to fix it.

He wasn't who he thought he was, his childhood had been a lie, his family was something from a horror story, and the woman he loved was probably going to die because her mother was so desperate to save her she tied her life force to the greatest evil and the greatest moron in the world.

It was all just too much.

He couldn't stop the sob from escaping his lips and when it did the damn broke and he found himself weeping in Lucy's arms as she ran her fingers through his hair and kept reassuring him that everything was going to be all right.

But how could it? Nothing can ever be the same again.