I breathed in the fresh air, sucking in a deep breath of the rain soaked air and relishing in the taste of it. We were home. Already I could feel the natural ethernano of the atmosphere beginning to replenish my magical energy and wrap itself around me like a cloak. My hand was still holding Erza's and neither of us let go, glancing around to see everyone as they groaned and began to pick themselves up off the ground. "Is everyone alright?" My sister questioned as we all caught our breath and organised our thoughts until suddenly, everything came rushing back to them at once.
"We're alive!" Natsu and Happy yelled loudly, leaping up into the air in celebration before whirling around and pointing to the city of Magnolia which lay stretched out before us, completely mist ridden and painted silver by the rain. "And there's Magnolia! Everything's back to normal!"
"We did it!"
"Wait, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We should not celebrate until we know that everyone is okay." Erza reasoned maturely, however when a voice spoke from above our heads we all looked up to see an entire hoard of flying cats in the sky, grinning at us.
"They're just fine. We got here a while ago so we went ahead and checked on them for you." One of the Exceeds informed us as all of our jaws dropped in shock. The cats. What the heck are the cats doing here?!
"We flew through town real quick, all your friends are doing great!"
"Earth Land is great you guys, it's got tonnes of magical power!"
"What are they doing here?!" Carla demanded sharply, equally as shocked as the rest of us as we all stared at the flying cats as they played and soared through the rainy air. "It's not right, the Exceeds do not belong in Earth Land. We cannot allow them to stay here, they are far too dangerous. They should return to Edolas at once!" She declared indignantly as her arms folded. Wow, Carla could be pretty harsh for a cute cat.
"Play nice." Happy encouraged softly as Wendy crouched down to talk to Carla.
"Their homeland's gone so they have nowhere else to go. I think that we should forgive them."
"Never!" I glanced to Erza, glad to see that she was just as baffled and confused as I was. Good, at least I'm not the only one who's totally lost here. I guess that whatever had just happened, the magic from Edolas had been sucked out or forcibly ejected, so anything that contained magic must have also been pulled back to Earth Land as well, which meant us wizards and the Exceeds who were able to use magic to fly.
"We apologise for throwing rocks at you lady."
"We're really sorry."
"We have nowhere else to go now that Extalia has been destroyed, we promise we'll be nicer to you from now on." Crunching an eyebrow in a spark of rage, I suddenly appeared behind Carla and Wendy with a menacing aura, arms placed firmly on my hips as I glowered down at the Exceeds who all squeaked and reared backwards.
"You guys threw rocks at such cutie pies? How could you hurt such pretty and adorable little faces?! This is absolutely unforgivable, you should all feel ashamed of yourselves!" I began to rant, going off on a tangent until my sister cracked her fist down on my head to shut me up, making me wail in pain and grip my head as I fell to my knees. "That hurt big sis!"
"You're not helping." She scolded me bluntly so I turned my weepy eyes up to her as my bottom lip trembled.
"But big sister, those mean kitties said they threw rocks at cute little Carla and Wendy. Such an atrocious act should never be forgiven!"
"It is not your place to forgive them or not, that decision should rest with Carla and Wendy since they were the ones who were mistreated." Erza reasoned with me so I pouted and folded my arms unhappily, knowing full well that my sister was right. Giving me a big smile, Wendy thanked me for being worried about her and Carla, giving me an adorable grin which made my heart flutter at the overload of cuteness.
"This has nothing to do with you children! It's her! I am angry because Extalia's Queen and her advisors sent me to Earth Land on a mission to kill the dragon slayers!" Carla finally yelled, causing me to blink in shock as I stood up once more. This was news to me, guess I'd missed a few details during our excursion to another world.
"I know! The Queen ordered us to give up all our eggs! How can she be so heartless?!" One of the Exceeds yelled angrily as a number of the other Exceeds proceeded to murmur in agreement and note that the Queen had not properly explained herself.
"I can assure you that the Queen had a justifiable reason for all of this." One of the advisors spoke, so we all listened to the entire story. It was quite unbelievable, though when I thought about it, I had just been to another world and not only met an evil version of my sister but crazy and completely whacky counterparts of all my own friends, I really shouldn't be surprised by things anymore. To think that Queen Shaggot had the ability to foresee the future, it was quite incredible. Due to a vision of Extalia's destruction, she had ordered all Exceed eggs to be sent to Earth Land under the guise of having a mission to complete. To kill the dragon slayers.
"I have to say, I'm impressed you were so willing to part with your own children in order to save them." I spoke after a while, the story having been completely revealed so that no misunderstandings remained. "It takes a lot of courage to make a sacrifice like that, and although lying about it probably wasn't the best idea, you did it with good intentions. We understand the position you were in, so there's no hard feelings here." I waved a hand as Lucy nodded her head with a smile, agreeing with me as Erza did the same.
"We made use of the human's anima in order to successfully carry out our operation. However, something completely unexpected happened with one of the eggs." Queen Shaggot began to explain further, bowing her head before us all as she spoke. "We had no idea that you, Carla, possessed an incredible power. As it turned out, you possess the same prophetic power that I do. Unfortunately, you did not have conscious control over it, as a result, it clouded and confused your memory. Of the one hundred Exceeds that we sent away, only you had this gift." No way, Carla can see into the future too? Gah, this day just keeps on getting crazier and crazier, I just want it to end already! "I suspect you began to see scattered fragments of Edolas's future. That gift caused you to mistake that information for your personal mission."
"Wait, does that mean…?"
"The two of you were never given a mission." Queen Shaggot confirmed with a nod towards Happy. "It was just a way to try and make sense of all the strange thoughts and images in your head. You were sent here because we wanted to protect the next generation. Nothing more."
"So that means, those were all…prophecies?" I felt for Carla right then, looking down with sympathy but keeping back as the Exceeds continued to explain themselves and apologise once more, asking for Carla and Happy's forgiveness before declaring that they would go out into the world and search for each and every one of the four hundred Exceed children they had sent away. It was wonderful to see the Exceeds all rise up into the drizzling sky with widespread wings, rising up and flying above us all as Carla exhaled deeply.
"Very well then I forgive you." She finally decided, folding her arms rather proudly as she looked suspiciously towards Queen Shaggot. "But tell me this, how did I end up with the same prophetic powers as you do?" The queen and all of her advisors all rather suddenly became interested in other things, dodging the question entirely and I had to giggle as we all settled into a more comfortable atmosphere. Natsu and Gray were both doing a weird arm thing with one of the Exceeds, however when a yellow faced Exceed suddenly appeared behind Erza, she squeaked fearfully and I saw a shiver ripple through her body.
"Such a lovely…such a fragrant perfume! I just can't get enough of it. Please miss, allow me to enjoy your perfume a little longer!"
"No, knock it off…get away!" With a powerful punch, Erza sent the Exceed flying and I watched as he arced through the air before crashing into the ground, making me stare in surprise.
"Um, Erza? Was that really necessary?" I asked however when my sister turned a deadly and rather disturbed expression on me, I quickly held up my hands. "Okay sorry I asked! My bad." Erza flinched, quickly turned around and apologised to the cat.
"I'm sorry! You just reminded me of a very forward acquaintance." Scratching my head, I tried to think of who that could be but nothing came immediately to mind. Lifting my head upwards as the Exceeds bade their final farewells, I lifted my hand and waved to them as they began to fly away into the rain, becoming smaller and smaller the further they went.
"Alrighty then! What'd you say we head back to the guild?" Natsu suggested energetically, grinning as we all grouped together.
"Sounds good, but what are we going to tell the guild?"
"Nothing. Since they don't have a clue what happened, why bother telling them?" Gray answered Lucy as they all stood facing my sister and I, shaking their fists up and down like that strange long headed Exceed had done consistently all the while I had seen him. Was it contagious? Oh crap, now I've joined in!
"It's a good point but I think we should tell them about Mystogen, don't you?"
"Hey, what's up with your arms?" Wendy asked and I grinned at her, inviting her to join in as strangely, it was rather fun and a little relaxing.
"We got a problem." Gajeel announced, making us all turn around to look at him. You know, I had totally forgotten that he was still here with us.
"It ain't a problem! It's actually a lot of fun you should try it!" Natsu yelled back to Gajeel with Wendy chirpily agreeing, encouraging Gajeel to join the fun.
"I'm not talking about your fist pumping you morons! Where in the heck is my cat? Don't tell me those flying felines took Lily with them!" I feel like I've missed something else here. Jeez, I'm going to have to sit down with everyone and try to fill in all these blanks. Who the heck is Lily? Wait…wasn't he that giant Exceed that got shot back in Edolas? Now I feel bad, I completely forgot about him too.
"Are you blind? I'm right here." A deep voice announced, making us all drop our hands to see a rather tiny black cat with rounded ears standing a short distance away from us. Wow! So cute! "Unfortunately, it appears that my previous physique was not suited to Earth Land." Lily explained to us all after everyone else had exclaimed in shock.
"Yes, obviously. This doesn't bother you?" Carla questioned curiously, equally as surprised as the rest of us.
"Well normally it would, but right now all I want is to join the guild that took care of my prince. You promised me! You said you'd get me in, Gajeel. Can you?" Lily pointed directly at Gajeel who remained as stern as iron, however when he glanced to Erza who gave a smile and a nod of her head, the usually stoic iron hearted dragon slayer suddenly flung himself forwards and wrapped his arms around Lily, hugging him tightly whilst crying tears of joy.
"Consider it done buddy! Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Okay, now this day could not get any weirder. Gajeel was crying? I think I must have seen it all now.
"Put me down! I am not to be cuddled in this manner!" Lily stated proudly, struggling to break free until finally he hopped adorably onto the ground and dusted himself off. "Now, on an unrelated matter, I happened to come across a suspicious person." He informed us all, tugging on a length of rope he'd somehow picked up.
"What an over achiever, you're definitely my cat alright." Gajeel grinned proudly as the rest of us watched Lily pull on the rope until a girl came tumbling through the bushes, her wrists tied in front of her.
"Hold on! It's not what you think, please let me explain!" She pleaded, falling to her knees and wincing. "That hurt!" Lifting her head, I felt my entire body suddenly go very still as I stared at the pale haired girl as she shot a look at Lily. "I'm not suspicious, I'm a member of Fairy Tail too." Natsu was staring in stupefied shock, staring at Lisanna as the rest of us who knew her, and knew the tragedy of her death two years ago, could do nothing but look on in shocked silence. "There's no need to be so rough with me, cat! Wait, are you an Exceed?"
"The name is Pantherlily."
"If you've got a problem with my cat then you'll have to take it up with me lady!" Gajeel declared defensively. I was at a loss for words. There was no way any of this made sense. Could the Lisanna from Edolas accidentally have ended up in Earth Land with the rest of us? But then how did she pass through the anima? Without warning Lisanna suddenly flung herself at Natsu, looping her tied arms over his head and hugged him with all her might as the two of them crashed into the rain sodden ground. Could it be…our Lisanna?
"It's been so long since I've seen everyone, this makes me so happy!" I drew back with a shake of my head.
"No that's impossible. This is crazy. You can't possibly be our Lisanna, right?" I looked around desperately at everyone else, trying to make sense of this. "Our Lisanna died two years ago, she couldn't possibly still be alive but, since you're here…you had to have been pulled through the anima…Lisanna, are you…really real?" With a warm blush on her cheeks, Lisanna nodded her head. Quickly grasping at my hammering heart, Lisanna explained to the best of her ability how at the moment of her supposed death, she had been pulled through the anima which linked our world to Edolas, where the anima had tried to fill the void that the Edolas Lisanna's death had opened. It made logical sense, but still, it was difficult to swallow, but the more I looked at her, I could not help but see that she was the same Lisanna that I had known since she had first joined the guild.
All of us stared at her for a moment longer until finally, myself, Erza, Gray and Natsu all piled onto Lisanna to embrace her with everything we had, crying and proclaiming happily as she blinked back at us. This was a miracle, the best kind of miracle, it wasn't every day somebody came back from the dead, so to have Lisanna back alive and well was the best kind of ending to this crazy day I could ever have hoped for! We have to get back to the guild right away and find Mirajane and Elfman, I cannot wait to see their faces when they reunite with their long lost sister. Honestly, there was nothing better in life than seeing the joy and shared love of others. To me, that was the most powerful feeling of them all.