Fairy Tail S

by ZenkaiPower

For two years after that fateful battle over Magnolia, the heroes of Earth resumed their daily lives as they await Gohan's return; while on Earthland, Fairy Tail and its allies struggled to survive against the greatest foes they will ever face. And with Gohan's training nearing it's end, forces both good and evil are preparing for the ultimate fate that awaits them. A Sequel to FTZ

10. Chapter 9

Chapter IX: Revelation

Early in the morning, on Earthland…

"Well, this is one hell of a mess…"

A lone wizard spoke to himself as he stared down at the massive crater that once was Akane Resort, which was mostly still dark as the sun had yet to rise over the mountains and forests to the east; and from his spot on a mountain just north of the crater, he could see both impressive sights from one angle.

"I hope no one I know was caught up in that." He added as the image of the giant hole in the ground won over his attention, since it was also something concerning to see; and he silently debated jumping down to inspect the area closely before actually doing so, with his focus being mainly on a patch of trees near the east edge of the crater.

"Hm… there's some scorch marks… I guess Natsu coulda done this, or someone of his caliber, at least…" He pondered aloud as he noticed the half-destroyed tree line; and as he actually neared the area of interest, he noticed a large area of the ground had been scorched as well, "No… I really doubt Natsu would've used his magic this recklessly; I mean, from what I heard, he kinda liked this place..."

As he finished speaking, the man finally noticed that there were some stray weapons laying around the immediate edge of the crater; and there was only one conclusion to make after seeing an assortment of shields, swords, spears, and staffs laying around.

"A dark mage did this," He said as he pulled his old and battered cloak closer to him, preventing it from distracting him with its flapping in the wind, "But what's worse is: I'm not the first to find this place; or whoever wrecked it…"

"Damn," He calmly swore to himself as he sighed and rubbed the right side of his forehead soothingly, "I guess I almost literally walked from a frying pan and into a bonfire. I never imagined I'd do all that work to keep the peace just to come back home and find a mess like this; but, here we are…"

Deciding it would be best to not enter the crater and stand out in the open, since all signs indicated that this battlefield was the site of a very powerful dark mage's victory; and instead of investigating it any further, he decided to leave believing that he had seen everything he needed to see.

"I've got to get back home, and quick," He muttered to himself as he started his long hike to the northwest while planning to find the nearest road back to Magnolia, "If there's a dark wizard blowing up popular places like this, Fairy Tail could easily be a target too."

Clenching his only remaining real fist in nervous tension as he picked up his pace, adding one final remark before going silent for the rest of the trek.

"And if something happened to my precious little Cana while I was away, I'd never be able to live with myself!"

About five hours later, on Earth…

Son Gohan grunted quietly as he slowly woke up from the feeling someone's finger gently prodding the side of his forehead, and he soon began to actually hear the words his wife was saying to him as she did her best to not lose her patience.

"-ohan, come on, get up; you're over-sleeping. Hello? Gohan, wake up!"

"Ngh…." was the only response he gave her at first, turning his face into his pillow to hide from her as he unconsciously tried to hide from her; but Videl was not going to give up that easily.

"Grr, stupid stubborn Saiyan," She started to berate him while planting both hands on his bare back and shoving strongly against him as few times while also shaking him, "And here I thought you dead guys didn't need much sleep!"

"Wull, yuh…." She heard him give a muffled response before lifting his head slightly as he started to come to, "But… it's more of a comfort thing, and I am pretty comfy at the moment…"

Videl shook her head at him dejectedly before crossing her arms in a vaguely impatient stance and speaking to him again.

"Well, gee, that's just too bad. Do you even know what time it is? You already missed breakfast."

She grinned when she noticed that her husband's ears had twitched at that last bit of news.

"Did I?" He replied with vague interest before finally starting to turn over and sit up, "That sucks…

"Where's Pan at?" He asked next while scratching the back of his head and fighting off the urge to yawn as he spoke, "I guess she was probably mad that I missed out, huh?"

"Surprisingly, not really." His wife informed him with a hint of amusement, "Your dad told her about your fight last night, so she got over it quick since she kinda knew that you needed the rest. When it was time to eat, she came in here and pulled on your ear a few times; but you just kept on snoring, so here we are."

"Yeah," The demi-Saiyan reflected honestly, "The Senzu Bean did its job just fine, but I definitely stayed up too long thinking about stuff."

"Why? Were you upset that you lost?" She asked with a little less tact than she intended, but her husband was not offended anyway.

"Against my dad? No way." He assured her with a weak smile, "Honestly, I'm amazed that I even came close to winning; but nah… the fight just gave me something to think about, that's all."

Videl did her best to not let her eyes linger over his mostly exposed body, although she was slightly distracted by the bright red guild mark on his left peck and the small assortment of old scars and burns; and she somehow managed to pay attention to his words as he finished answering her.

"My new power and bag of tricks might be a strong combination; but lately I've been focusing too much on all the technical parts of my technique, and the abilities of my transformations.

"If I want to get better, I've got to remember to keep working on the basics, too." He concluded as he slowly climbed out of bed, "I mean, guys like Jiren don't need to transform to be insanely powerful; they're just insanely strong."

Walking past her just after standing up, he briefly ran his hand along her side affectionately as he strode past; but she kept up with him and took his hand before he could withdraw it, speaking to him again as they moved to their bathroom door.

"That makes sense." She agreed before smirking humorously and adding tentatively, "But uh, you wouldn't become like some giant walking muscle or something, right? I mean, I like having my trophy husband staying in shape; but I can't imagine you looking like some kinda massive body-builder."

Gohan matched her amused smirk after she let him enter the bathroom, and he chuckled before moving to turn on the shower while responding to her remarks.

"Hehe, well… no promises; but I'll try to avoid it. Worse come to worst, I could maybe make some kind of casual form to hold my power back if became too much to handle; Dad told me that the Saiyan Frieza brought here had something like that."

"Really?" She said curiously while trying to resist certain temptations as she watched him take off his pale blue boxers and step into the shower, "Well, however it turns out; I just hope you find a way to keep your clothes in one piece when you're fighting, because that would be a miracle."

Gohan smirked but said nothing as he turned around to let her see he was amused before she decided to leave before falling for the urge to jump into the shower with him, clothes on or no; and she quickly changed the conversation as casually as possible.

"Anyway, you hurry up here and get dressed; and I'll quickly whip up something for you. Can't have you fighting Keepers on an empty stomach, now, can we?"

Outside the house, Goku and his granddaughter were on the front lawn 'sparring', which was essentially a mix of Goku letting her throw a few punches and kicks his way before occasionally dodging to keep things interesting; but after a few minutes of their little training session, Pan was becoming somewhat impatient with how quick her grandfather was.

"Rrr! Hey, too fast! You're no fun, Grandpa!" She exclaimed between attacks that Goku easily blocked with one hand, "Go slower!"

"Slower? Gee, really?" He replied with a teasingly disappointed tone, "Sorry, Pan, but if I did that, I'd be standing still…"

Pan growled irritably as she stubbornly continued trying to land an attack, making her grandfather smile with proud amusement at response; and she kept at it for a few more seconds until Goku decided to change things up a bit, despite the fact that what he planned was only going to annoy Pan more.

In the midst of blocking the last salvo of his granddaughter's attacks, he quickly put two fingers to his forehead; and before Pan could realize what he was up to, Goku vanished before she could throw her next punch at him.

"Over here…" He said teasingly before she spun around to see him standing over her with a smug and goofy grin on his face; but her only response was to try once again to hit him. Although he easily avoided her attack by warping just to her left, he still was a bit surprised with how quickly she sprung at him this time; and he tried to compliment her agility until she struck at him again, forcing him to warp away again before he could.

"Hey! That was rude, Pan, I was saying something!" He told her with weak impatience, but she simply tried to kick him once more as soon as she heard him; and the pair continued their friendly quarrel for a few minutes before they were interrupted by another voice.

"Now, Pan, I hope you aren't giving your grandpa too much grief…"

The pair heard Videl's voice chime in from the front door of her house, and they both turned to see her standing in the doorway with Gohan just behind her.

"Papa!" Pan instantly greeted her father before he could speak up, and she leapt straight for him before clinging onto his torso in a very enthusiastic hug.

"Hey, Pan…" Gohan groaned in vague pain since she flew into him with more force than she realized, "Looks like you're having a good morning…"

"Huh uh, that's right! Grampa's been teaching me; and let me fight him! I even almost hit him once, but he's way too fast!"

Goku scratched his head sheepishly again as he listened to his granddaughter quickly fill Gohan in on everything he missed in one excited, rambling rant; and the tiny Saiyan only released her father after beginning to question him with everything she had been planning to ask him earlier.

"Oh! And Grampa told me that you fought him, and that you almost beat him! What happened, Papa? What's it like fighting Grampa for real? I wanna know everything!"

"Geez, it sounds like she really wants to beat me, too." Goku observed with a sigh, "You know, that's getting to be a really long list of people now; I'm actually getting a little worried…"

"And you should!" Pan suddenly spun around to taunt her grandfather proudly, "My dad's gonna beat you before I grow up; and then when I'm big and strong enough, I'm gonna beat you too!"

Gohan rubbed the back of his neck apologetically with his free hand while his wife giggled in proud amusement and wrapped an arm around her husband before snuggling into him and thinking aloud.

"That's my daughter alright." She remarked happily before doing her best to console her father-in-law, "But don't worry, Goku, I'm sure it'll be a long time before you actually start to get old and slow."

"Thanks, Videl." He replied gratefully, "At least there's one person that's going easy on me…"

"It's no problem," She said honestly before reminding him, "But don't forget: when push comes to shove, I'll be cheering for them."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Goku agreed with her before looking to her husband and questioning him, "Say, Gohan, are we still going with that plan we talked about earlier?"

"That's right," the demi-Saiyan answered while releasing his wife and stepping fully out his house with Pan just beside him, "Sorry Dad, I know that this part of the plan will probably be boring for you; but you're one of the only people I could ask to protect these two while me and Goten are away."

"Whoa, hang on, mister." Videl cut in with some annoyance after closing the door to her house harder than she meant to, "We don't need both of us to watch Pan, and I have been training too long to pass up a chance like this; I'm coming with you, and I won't have any buts about it. Understand?"

Gohan blinked in slight surprise at the sudden forcefulness of her argument; and Goku laughed weakly while Pan watched the interaction with immense interest, since seeing her mother stare down her father was something she found to be rather impressive.

"Um…" Gohan said hesitantly as he glanced between all three of them, but he soon gave in as he noticed that both his father and daughter seemed to be one his wife's side this time, "Yeah, I guess I do; but I-"

"I know, you're still gonna be worried about me; so I'll try not to get hurt." Videl added as she interrupted him again, and she stepped forward while speaking until she was pointing a finger almost directly into his face, "But I'm okay with dying, since I can be brought back. But you, dead guy, have a bigger problem: if you somehow get killed again, we'd have to use the Super Dragon Balls to get you back; and there's no way we'd avoid causing some kind of cross-universe catastrophe in the process."

"Well, she's not wrong…" Goku basically said Gohan's thoughts aloud before adding their one difference in opinion, "But you never know… I doubt something like that's gonna happen to Gohan today. But really, there's still a chance getting him back would be easy. All we'd have to do is ask Zenny to help us…"

"Yeah, Dad," Gohan replied tentatively as he and Videl made awkward expressions and looked away from the elder Saiyan, "I'm not really sure that trading favors with the Omni-King is a good idea."

"Aw, really?" Goku asked them with honest curiosity after seeing Videl nodding in awkward agreement to her husband's words, "But why? The Tournament of Power worked out just fine, didn't it?"

"It did," Videl conceded before giving Goku a more aggressive stance and adding, "But… You guys only won by the skin of your teeth, from what I heard; and the only reason it actually worked out was because 17 made the right wish, otherwise Zeno was just gonna erase everybody involved!"

"Yeah, I forgot that part." Goku remarked with a sincerely casual tone, making Videl and Gohan shake their heads sadly while Pan giggled at the trio; and the Saiyan soon tried to defend himself again, "But hey, there was that time Zenny helped me get rid of that crazy green guy in the other Trunks' time."

"Fine, you can have that one," Videl conceded before adding pointedly, "But one lucky outcome isn't going to change my mind on the issue. Let's just all agree to not get killed today and leave it at that, shall we?"

"That sounds simple enough." Goku agreed with a nod while Gohan quietly wondered if he should press his luck with another attempt to change his wife's mind on their earlier argument; but he ultimately decided to let her have the win, since he sensed that she was already winning both arguments anyway.

"Yea." He told his wife thoughtfully before quickly changing the subject, looking to Goku as he did, "So Dad, since it seems like Igneel's really taking his time to find the last Dragon Ball, do you maybe want to go train for a bit?"

"Gohan, are you sure that's a good idea?" Videl questioned her husband, "You can't really afford to wear yourselves out right now, remember?"

"Ah, we'll be fine, Videl." Goku promised her before Gohan could defend himself, "I've actually been wanting to get some advice from Gohan about meditating and all that."

"You have?" The demi-Saiyan replied curiously.

"Uh huh, that's right." His father confirmed with an amused and friendly grin, "I'd ask Whis for help, but he likes to talk in riddles when I ask him about stuff like that; and don't even get me started on how boring Piccolo can be…"

"Heh," Gohan chuckled while his wife giggled with him, "Well, I doubt I'd make meditating seem any more interesting than they could; but sure, if you really think I'd be helpful, I'm more than happy to give it a shot."

"Thanks, son." Goku replied gratefully before Videl chimed in once more, sighing as she spoke.

"Well, as long as you guys don't wear yourselves out; I guess I can allow it. But whatever you do, you better get to it. Iga could show up at any moment with the Dragon Balls, after all; and you need to be here when he does."

"And we will be." Gohan agreed with a nod as he prepared to take flight, "Come on, Dad, there's a quiet spot not too far from here that I like to use."

"Alright! Let's get going, then!" Goku said with some excitement, and the two Saiyans were barely an instant from taking off when Videl suddenly cut in.

"Hang on a minute, you two." They both heard her say before turning to face her again as she stopped them, and they both saw her gesture to Pan as she finished speaking, "I think you're forgetting something…"

Gohan and Goku both rubbed the back of their heads and chuckled weakly at the impatient look the tiny Saiyan was giving them.

"Oh yeah," Goku realized aloud, "You probably want to come and train with us too, huh?"

Pan nodded eagerly, but her grandfather was not convinced just yet.

"And you do realize we're not really gonna be doing anything fun, don't you?" He added questioningly.

"That's not true," She informed him honestly, "I think all kinds of training are fun!"

"Really?" Gohan asked curiously, since even he was slightly surprised to hear that; and Goku chuckled once again after seeing Pan give her father another firm nod.

"Well, if that's settled then; I guess we'll be on our way." Gohan declared before turning to his wife again and speaking to her, "And in case something comes up…"

"I'll raise my energy to signal you," Videl finished his statement for him before waving the three away, "Now go and get to work, before I change my mind about letting you take off."

"Yes ma'am." Gohan complied with an amused smirk before he gave a quick nod to his father and daughter; and within the next second, all three Saiyans were in the air and out of Videl's sight.

On Earthland, outside the entrance to Fairy Fields…

"Good morning, Gray-darling!" was the first thing the ice wizard heard as soon as he stepped outside; and as he usually did upon hearing his partner's ever-cheerful greeting, Gray replied as casual as ever, with only a vague smirk to hint at his enjoyment of the return to their morning routine.

"Hey Juvia." He said as he slowly approached her before starting an attempt to be considerate, "You haven't been out here too long, have you? I didn't actually mean to sleep in so late…"

"Oh, there's no need to worry about me, my love," The water mage quickly assured him while looking away to hide the fact she was blushing madly already, "I could never wait 'too long' for you."

"I guess that's good to know…" Gray said honestly while trying to avoid feeling flattered, and he quickly changed the subject in the process, "So, that basket you're holding -I'm guessing that's got breakfast in it?"

"And lunch as well," Juvia added after she calmed down and nodded affirmatively, "I had a feeling you might be late today; but I wasn't sure how late, so I made both."

Her partner smirked again, this time in appreciation of how considerate she was -and he was slightly amused by her tendency to be a special sort of schemer; but Juvia didn't notice any of that herself, since there was a brief warm glint to Gray's dark blue eyes that set her heart aflutter before he even had a chance to form his response.

"That would explain the size of that thing," He remarked while looking at the basket in her right hand before glancing to her face and trying to ignore her adorably bashful expression as he kept speaking, "And I guess you've got somewhere to eat in mind, too; don't you?"

Once again, Juvia nodded as she started her answer, this time ever-so-slowly wringing the handle of the basket with both hands tightly to vent some of her nerves and stay cool.

"Well… I was thinking a romantic picnic in the park would be a wonderful way to celebrate being back home; but if you'd like to eat somewhere closer to here or the guild, that's also a perfectly valid and logical option, of course…"

Juvia's voice began to trail off almost as quickly as her confidence left her, though Gray did his best to act as if he never noticed.

"Hm…" He hummed thoughtfully before finally answering her, "I do like the idea of eating somewhere nice like the park…"

Juvia's jitters suddenly halted as soon as Gray appeared to be going along with her suggestion; but as he continued to speak, her roller-coaster confidence plummeted once more.

"But I don't know… That is a bit of a walk from here; and we should probably stay close to the guild…"

Gray could easily see Juvia's disappointment by now; and though he continued with the same tone and line of thought, he was secretly trying to come up with a compromise.

"Plus, I'm pretty hungry; and I don't know if I could wait that long…"

Juvia, who was still staring at the ground depressingly, was just about to give up and suggest heading to the guild when Gray suddenly changed his tune.

"Oh, wait… that could work…" He thought aloud with the vaguest hint of excitement; and the water mage instantly perked up as her partner turned and stepped closer to her, speaking again as he did, "Come on, Juvia, I know where we should go."

"You do?" She questioned him hopefully as he started to lead her away, "Is it somewhere near the guild?"

"Kinda," He told her cryptically, "We'll be able to see the guild from there; but it should be good enough for us to get some privacy, too."

Juvia's heart began to flutter upon hearing his words; and she never bothered to question him when he started to lead her around the side of Fairy Fields, as strange as it seemed. But once the pair could see around the view behind the building, Juvia began to understand why her partner was leading her this way. Both of Fairy Tail's dorms had decent views of Lake Scilliora from where they were situated; but Juvia had to admit that the men's view was much better. Where like the name implied, the coast around Fairy Hills was on a hillside that fractured and tapered into steep, treacherous, eroded rock slopes that rendered itself prone to human error and drowning; but the terrain around Fairy Fields' shoreline was much smoother and serene, with the coast here appearing more like a beach than a rocky cliff-face.

"This is… wonderful…" Juvia muttered airily as Gray led her towards the shoreline, and she quietly followed him again until they walked as close to the water's edge as they could.

"Alright, this should be good enough." Gray finally spoke as he faced his partner once again, "Don't you think?"

Juvia nodded in response, still too busy taking in the sights to fully answer him; but after a couple seconds, she noticed that Gray was looking at her with a mix of amusement and impatience.

"Well? Are we going to eat, or not?" He questioned her playfully; and she briefly grew red with embarrassment as she quickly reacted.

"Oh, of course!" She said apologetically as she scrambled to unpack the basket she nearly forgot she was carrying, "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking…"

"It's fine, Juvia." Her partner assured her as he took his turn to look around, "I had to stop and enjoy the view too, first time I was out here."

The ice mage was about to continue reminiscing, but he was stopped by his surprise at seeing the full spread of breakfast and lunch already out; and Juvia was sat attentively in the center of the semi-circle of food with a small variety of drinks at either side of her.

"Well, that was fast." He remarked amusedly before moving to sit beside her; and for the next few minutes, the pair ate together in relative silence. Once Juvia was finished eating, though, Gray found himself in a talkative mood once again. He had also been comfortable enough to take his jacket and shirt off too, but only Juvia had noticed as much.

"You know," He started to speak between bites, "I think you've outdone yourself this time."

Juvia looked away trying to hide her reddening face, but her sputtering and modest tone instantly gave away her bashfulness as she hesitated to accept his compliment.

"Y- you… you're too polite, Gray-darling… I wish my culinary skills would improve; but… I'm pretty sure this meal tastes exactly like the rest of the ones we've shared…"

"It does, huh?" Gray asked her curiously, and she slowly nodded to reaffirm her statement before he replied again, "Well, then I guess having you here is what makes it better."

Steam literally began to rise from Juvia's body as she struggled to process his words, shocked to believe that Gray was actually flirting with her for once; but for the life of her, she could not compel herself to look back and try reading his expressions. Her body was frozen with nervous excitement, but she did manage to eek out another response.

"Gr- Gray… That was… so… romantic…"

"Well, I dunno about all that…" her partner replied with a slight hint of his own brand of bashfulness, briefly rubbing the side of his head as he also looked away from her; and he silently swore at himself for letting her get to him.

Secretly relieved that the water mage didn't see his façade cracking, Gray quickly reminded himself he had to resist the desire storming inside him. He knew he loved Juvia with every fiber of his being; but he had already sworn that he would wait, and that he would only confess everything to her once he had settled his past for good. After all, how could he even consider trying to start a new life with her, when the people that destroyed his first one still lingered to this day?

"Um… Gray?" Her voice pulled him away from his own internal dialogue, "Can I sit closer?"

"I guess, bu-" He slowly answered, about to tell both her and himself to not get too cozy until Juvia quickly wrapped an arm around his and pressed against him; so instead of saying anything more, Gray simply shook his head in defeat before doing his best to stay cool under her touch as he finished eating with his free hand.

After Gray had finished eating, the duo sat together in silence for a few more minutes before the ice mage decided it was time to return to the real world.

"Well, we should probably get a move on." He suggested casually, starting to stand as soon as Juvia released him, "I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I've got the feeling that there's going to be a lot of work to do today."

Inside the Fairy Tail Guild Hall…

Wendy Marvell was still half asleep as she sat by the bar, vaguely listening to the faint hum of all the conversations taking place behind her; and though she was watching Mirajane work, her mind was actually more focused on the puzzling chain of current events -and the various revelations that came with them.

The most recent one she had heard was that Edo most likely had a small army of his pet monsters by now, and that he planned to turn most -if not all- of the kingdom into more creatures of darkness. But oddly enough, that wasn't the pressing matter to Wendy. Right now, the Sky Maiden was still trying to connect all the dots involving the planet Earth, wondering if there was something obvious that she had missed.

She had a feeling that the red-haired stranger from last night was about to give her the information she'd been looking for, but she never got the chance to catch up with him again after Mest interrupted; and he had seemingly vanished as quick as he appeared -though she did hear that he took Sting and Rogue with him. For a moment she began to regret focusing so much on tending the wounded, but then she soon shook her head slightly and scolded herself. She remembered being told to never regret doing a good deed, yet here she was.

Moving on from her brief self-lecture, her mind wandered back to her current enigma. And conveniently enough, just as she was starting to wonder if Lisanna was still around; Mirajane had worked her way over to the Sky Maiden, planning to walk past her and serve an actual customer until she was stopped by her.

"Hey, Mira? You got a second?" She heard Wendy ask with a polite tone.

"Of course," the takeover mage answered promptly as she smiled and turned to face the dragon slayer, "What do you need, Wendy? Maybe breakfast?"

"Thanks, but no; I'm not really that hungry right now." She replied honestly, "Actually, I was just wondering if you knew where Lisanna was."

"I do," the bartender said plainly before volunteering more information, "She's at home, catching up with Elfman if she isn't still asleep."

"She is? That's good to hear…" Wendy remarked thoughtfully, unable to mask her disappointment despite her attempt to be genuine. She remembered Elfman was worrying about his little sister not too long ago, so she was happy for them if the got a chance to catch up; but right now, Wendy had more pressing matters than the Strauss siblings' affairs -and Mirajane easily picked up on that fact right away.

"Mhm… you say that, but you sound kind of sad," she asked Wendy curiously, "Did you need Lisanna's help with something?"

"Kinda," the bluenette answered with a shrug, "I wanted to ask her about Earth, and what it's like over there."

"From what I heard, it sounds nice." Mirajane told her honestly, "The worst thing I've heard so far is that people in the city can be rather mean."

"Really? That does sound nice." Wendy said before asking, "And um, you wouldn't happen to know anything about Trunks' family? Or maybe-"

"Or maybe Gohan's?" the bartender guessed knowingly, and she waited for Wendy to nod before speaking again, "I guess it's only natural you want to know more; but… didn't Iga speak with you last night?"

"He tried, but we got interrupted before he could tell me anything." The air mage confirmed before giving Mirajane a vaguely suspicious look and asking, "Although, it kinda sounds like you know what he was gonna tell me…"

It was ever-so-slight, but Wendy noticed the bartender's demeanor seemed to tense up for a moment; and she instantly became more curious as a result.

"I knew it! You do know something about-" The Sky Maiden almost gasped, about to start another line of inquiry until Mirajane quickly shushed her.

"Shh! Not here!" She quietly interrupted with a hint of urgency, but the impatient look on Wendy's face told her she was walking a thin line.

"I'll tell you what you want to know; but I need a second to get Kinana to take my spot up here, okay?"

Wendy's expression softened before she nodded in response; and Mirajane briefly gave her a grateful look before turning and walking out from behind the bar, scanning the room for Kinana as she did.

As soon as the takeover mage had walked away, Wendy sighed with a mix of relief, regret, and frustration. She was glad to hear that she might finally get some answers, but she did not enjoy having to act that serious with Mirajane. The woman was practically a big sister to her, and a potentially scary one at that; but the fact that Mira gave in so easily was what bothered her now. If whatever Mirajane told her was meant to be a secret, then Wendy knew there could only be handful of reasons for why she would; and the Sky Maiden did not like most of the reasons she considered.

Before she could finish running through the list in her head, however; Mirajane had already returned with Kinana in tow. Wendy quickly thanked Kinana before Mirajane led her away from the bar, up the steps to their right, past the kitchen and recovery room doors; and straight into the data storage room. After taking a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear, Mirajane finally decided to resume their conversation.

"Alright, I think we're in the clear here," She declared as she turn to face her guildmate, "But… there is something I've gotta say first, before I tell you anything else."

"Okay," Wendy replied tentatively, and Mirajane could not help but feel slightly guilty about the whole interaction. And like icing on the worst cake ever, she was also enraged at Iga for dumping this task onto her.

"Well, you see…" the older wizard found herself struggling to start, but she soon found the words she needed to say.

"The thing is, I really need to say that I'm sorry. I knew the secrets we've been keeping were pretty serious, and I knew that keeping some of those secrets was definitely a terrible decision; but most of it couldn't be avoided. We were all sworn to secrecy by the master; but that's no excuse… I know that everyone involved feels guilty, and half the conversations we have with each other are about how we'd ever make this up to you and everyone else; if we ever could… But really, there was a lot of factors in play; and the biggest one is Edo, so yeah…"

If Wendy wasn't worried about what she was going to hear before Mirajane started talking, which she was, she certainly was now. In fact, she was starting to question whether or not she actually wanted to continue the conversation.

"Mira, don't worry; I think I understand," she said in her best attempt to be reassuring, "I've already figured out that nothing involving Edo is simple, and I can tell this has been bothering you for some time; so I promise that I won't get mad, no matter what I hear, okay? I just want to know the truth, and that's it."

"Right… thank you, Wendy." Mirajane half-sighed out of gratitude before continuing, "Well, I guess the first thing I'll tell you is that the team Erza's leading isn't the only one Master Makarov had assigned; but our assignments were very different from each other's. The one you're a part of is the team Master trusted with fighting Edo's men, but the team I've been leading is more focused on research. On the side, we're looking for anything that could help us to understand Edo's powers better; but our main goal is to find a way to reach Earth."

"It is?" The Sky Maiden replied curiously, "Well, I'm glad that someone is trying to do that… And I get that we wouldn't want word of some path to another universe getting around: we've got enough reckless people in our guild alone; but if everyone knew what our guild was up to, that could be a much bigger problem…

"But that doesn't explain why you've got a guilty conscience, does it?" She concluded perceptively, and Mirajane gave her another nod before continuing.

"You're right, there is a bit more to talk about; but I want you to keep in mind that I promised a variety of people that I'd keep all this stuff secret, okay?"

Now it was Wendy's turn to nod before Mirajane would resume.

"Okay… Well, the second piece of info is that all the lying started, for me anyway, with one incident in particular; and that incident happened while we were all busy fighting Zeref's army…"

Wendy wanted to ask her about this 'incident' out of impatience, but she just barely managed to contain herself. And it did take a minute, but Mirajane eventually started speaking again.

"Do you remember when the sky went dark over the whole city?" She briefly asked, and Wendy nodded before jogging her memory aloud.

"Sure, it was right after Master Ichiya protected this place with the Christina. I remember a lot of rumors went around trying to explain that darkness, and the sounds of those explosions right after it appeared; but I don't think anyone ever actually figured out the truth."

"That's mostly right," Mira confirmed, "I don't know how long it took them, but Master Mavis and Master Makarov did; and I never talked about it with him, but Gray might've known too. Well… that whole event was actually a battle between Edo and Iga's allies, and it's pretty obvious now; but it kinda ended in a stalemate… Although, I think we lost a lot more than Edo did that night, for sure…"

Wendy could tell that talking about that day was actually bothering her senior quite a bit, and it became even more obvious as Mirajane started to rub her left arm with her right while momentarily glancing at the floor.

"Mira, you know… If…" Wendy found her curiosity made her hesitate to comfort her friend, but she eventually forced the sentence out, "If you don't want to tell me about this stuff, you don't-"

"No, I do. Someone has to." The takeover mage insisted, and Wendy was slightly shocked to see Mirajane wipe a tear from her eye before she continued, "I'm sorry… I can't believe this actually getting to me; but I've never had to recall this stuff in such detail before…"

Without saying a word, Wendy moved closer to her guildmate before placing her left hand on Mira's right shoulder in a show of support; and the takeover mage gave her a weak smile before straightening her face and starting up again.

"Thank you, Wendy; I promise that once we're done here, you'll know everything I know. But I should warn you: you're probably gonna want to take a seat for this first part…"

About fifteen minutes later…

Romeo and a humanoid Carla were sat one seat apart by the far-right side of the Fairy Tail bar as they waited for their friend to emerge from the data room, having heard from Kinana that Wendy went into there with Mirajane some time ago; and they had been waiting around long enough that they were starting to get antsy -so much so that Carla actually started a conversation with Romeo, of all people. And right now, they were currently speculating on what Wendy and Mirajane could possibly be talking about for this long.

"Well, maybe Mira's just giving her some modeling tips, you know?" Romeo suggested with his best attempt at a neutral expression; but Carla instantly rolled her eyes at him.

"Please, you only wish it were that." the Exceed mocked him; but Romeo was unphased by her teasing.

"No really, I'm serious." He insisted, "Wendy told me that she actually liked doing it, said that her first gig was 'kinda fun' -or something like that."

"Really?" Carla questioned him while reading the expression on his face; and when she realized he was being honest, she crossed her arms and looked straight ahead at nothing in particular before adding, "Well, that's not what she told me."

"Of course she didn't," the fire mage remarked honestly, causing Carla to snap back to him irritably before he clarified, "I mean, you're always acting so motherly over her; it's a no-brainer that she'd avoid certain topics with you. Meanwhile, I'm her b-"

"Save your breath, Romeo, I get your point." Carla interrupted him, knowing exactly what he was going to say and not wanting to hear it said aloud; but her rudeness only amused her guildmate, rather than offending him.

"Heh," He chuckled, "Well, well… you wouldn't happen to be jealous now, would you?"

"I am not jealous." She argued back as she started to become visibly irritated; but Romeo had seen all he needed to know he was right. And just as he started to consider whether to continue taunting her or not; his train of thought was instantly derailed as he saw that Wendy had finally emerged from the data room.

"There she is," Romeo announced just as Carla also noticed, about to comment on how impatient she had become until she noticed a lot was off about Wendy's demeanor: her face was blank, but her eyes looked red as if she had been crying; and as she stormed out, her fists were both clenched until she had to use the doors to leave. Romeo got out his seat while debating if he should meet Wendy halfway to greet her or if he should simply wait; but when Wendy walked straight past the request board and out the front doors of the guild hall without a word, he immediately began to have the same foreboding feeling that Carla already had.

"Well, crap…" Romeo sighed before turning to Carla, who was now standing beside him and staring at the doors their friend had just walked through, "That's not a good sign, is it?"

Carla nodded silently before trying to solve this new puzzle before her, and she started to wonder why Mirajane had yet to exit the data room when Romeo immediately volunteered to do the only thing he could think of.

"I should probably go after her before she runs off somewhere," He concluded aloud before asking, "You gonna come with?"

"In a minute," Carla answered ponderously, "You go ahead and find her, but I'm going to go have a little chat with Mirajane first."

"Sounds like a plan." Romeo remarked before taking off after Wendy, not bothering to waste any more time speaking with his Exceed companion.

As soon as he was outside, the young wizard quickly looked around; but his girlfriend was nowhere in sight. Wondering where she could have gone, Romeo jogged over to the gift shop and quickly interrogated the sand mage behind the counter.

"Hey Max, did you just see Wendy walk outta here?" He questioned with a slightly urgent tone that made the guild's head merchant blink a few times in surprise before answering.

"Y-yeah, I did…"

"And?" the fire mage pressed him for more info, "Which way did she go?"

Still confused and little off-put, Max only pointed in a direction before Romeo bolted; and the younger wizard quickly shouted back a thanks as he hurried away from the shop. Once he reached the center of the northern most district of Magnolia, though he had to stop and quickly think on his feet. There were three general directions she could go in, if she hadn't flown off somewhere with her ki; but then he heard a few strangers off to his right speaking amongst themselves.

"Hey, that was the Sky Maiden, wasn't it?" A woman muttered to no one in particular, "It's a shame she was in such a hurry; I would have loved to get her autograph…"

"Forget that," A man younger than her half-joked in response, "If I had the chance to ask her anything, it'd be to ask her out."

"Ugh, typical men, always thinking with what's between their legs…" the woman groaned in disgust, "You know, if you had actually read about her in Sorcerer Weekly, you'd know that she isn't someone who'd go out with a slob like you. To a lot of people…"

"Yeah, yeah," the man rudely interrupted her, "Every woman wants to be her; and every man wants to be in her, I get it. All I'm sayin' is that-"

Before he could say anything else, a fist wrapped in a cold purple flame collided with the left side of his jaw; and the man dropped like a sack of spuds, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

"Sorry about that, everyone," Romeo apologized to the crowd of witnesses before pulling some Jewel and tossed it onto the unconscious stranger's body, "I didn't hit him too hard, but that's just in case he needs a doctor.

"Now, ma'am," He quickly changed his attitude as he remembered his initial task, turning to face the woman that started the conversation, "Can you tell me which way my girlfriend went, please?"

Not sure she believed him, but too afraid to question him, the woman eventually pointed down the western road through town; and Romeo thanked her before hurrying away without another word. As he jogged down the road, he briefly paused once he reached the canal at the edge of the district; and he took the moment to make a few guesses about Wendy's location in his head before deciding to go with his first guess.

About six and a half minutes later, Romeo was stealthily scaling the side of Fairy Hills, slightly worried about getting caught in broad daylight; but he was more interested in why he saw that Wendy's bedroom window was wide open.

Despite the slight feeling that he should respect her privacy, Romeo's curiosity won him over as he started to climb through the open window; and it only took him a few seconds to know that the apartment was empty.

"Man, I really thought she'd be here…" He whined to himself before deciding to take a quick look around for any clues of her whereabouts. It was obvious she had been here just before he was: he knew Wendy had a habit of making her bed before leaving, but all the covers were strewn about like she had just been laying in them; and the handbag she often wore around her was resting haphazardly against the mirror atop her desk, with the chair that normally sat before it laying sideways on the floor. It seemed to Romeo that everywhere she had been in the room was left a mess, showing clear signs that something serious was happening; and he was starting to wonder just what Mirajane could have told Wendy to incite this sort of erratic behavior.

Before he could continue pondering the possibilities, he heard Carla's voice from behind him.

"Please tell me that you aren't the one that made this mess…"

"I'm not," He replied honestly, spinning around to face his floating feline-formed friend while trying to hide the fact he was nervous about being found in here, "And I get the feeling that Wendy did this."

"It's likely she did," Carla remarked, and Romeo recognized the knowing tone in her voice.

"Yeah?" He said curiously before asking, "And, did Mira tell you anything that might help?"

"Yes, she did." The Exceed answered before warning him, "But before I say anything, you should know that there's a good chance that you're not going to like I'm about to say."

"Oh, come on, Carla; we don't have time for this," the fire mage stated, "I'm not sure what's got Wendy so upset, but I am sure that I could handle anything you'd tell me."

About seventeen minutes later, atop the roof of Kardia Cathedral…

Wendy Marvell was staring aimlessly up at the sky as she lay atop the stone portion just below the bell tower, doing her best to not think of anything at the moment; but that was hardly working, despite her efforts. She knew that if she really wanted to ignore everything she had learned within the last half-hour, she would certainly not have come here; but when she realized this was also one of the few places where she could actually get some privacy, she jumped straight out her bedroom window and flew all the way over to this rooftop.

Her tears had dried up by now, having cried them all during her flight -and for a long time after she landed here; but she if she was honest with herself, she knew that she was only just holding them back. If she bothered to think again in the slightest, she knew the waterworks would return; and she was immensely tired of crying by this point. For now, the best she could do was empty her mind completely, knowing all too well that she would have to deal with her confusing dilemma sooner or later.

After taking a deep, calming breath, Wendy sighed depressingly before deciding that she had to start trying to process everything she learned at some point; so she slowly sat up before scooting back against the stone wall and pulling her legs in until her feet were partially planted on the ground. To her relief, the new angle gave Wendy a different view to appreciate -and another reason to procrastinate; so she readily took it by beginning with a scan of the horizon.

Once there was not a single detail she failed to notice about her view, she sighed once more in defeat before finally returning to her thoughts; and she was disappointed to discover that thinking of him still hurt with some intensity. The tears were starting to return, but then Wendy heard the voice of the last person she could handle seeing at the moment.

"Well there you are, Wendy," She heard Romeo Conbolt's voice chime in from her left, "I'd say I was looking everywhere for you, but Carla had a feeling you'd be up here."

Now Wendy was slightly mad at Carla. There could only be one way her feline friend would know where she had gone. Wendy figured that Carla had to know the truth as well; but for some reason, the Exceed had sent Romeo instead of going herself; effectively forcing Wendy into an awkward and potentially painful conversation she was nowhere near ready to have yet.

"You shouldn't be up here, Romeo," She greeted her boyfriend with the coldest tone she could manage, trying her best to warn him off before she could say anything she would regret, "It isn't safe."

"It isn't?" He repeated curiously as he stopped to stand at least a yard from her, "Do you plan on chucking me off the roof or something?"

"I don't think I will." She answered half-heartedly, "But, I haven't been feeling very much like myself lately."

"Yeah," Romeo remarked hesitantly, "No offense, but I kinda noticed."

Wendy quietly shifted around uncomfortably as she tried to ignore him; but much to her chagrin, he failed to get the hint and carried on with his attempt to get her attention.

"Hey, just hear me out, alright? Wendy?" He requested slowly and in the politest tone he could manage, "You don't have to say or do anything; I just want to say what I'm thinking, okay?"

There was a tense moment of silence between the young couple before Wendy finally nodded her approval; and with only the slightest bit of relief running through his mind, Romeo began to speak once more.

"Listen, Wendy, I need you to remember that no matter what happens, or no matter what we say to each other, I'm always going to be your friend; and I'll always do my damnedest to make you happy. If I fail at that, you're more than welcome to toss me off any roof you want."

Despite everything, Wendy found herself smirking for just the slightest second before Romeo kept on, feeling emboldened by the small sign of her attitude's improvement.

"Anyway, my point is that I can't really imagine all the confusing sorts of emotions you're probably dealing with; so I'm not gonna even try to give you advice. All I'm gonna do is follow your lead like always; anything you decide, I'll go along with it, okay?"

Wendy was still avoiding eye-contact with him, so he decided he would make one or two more attempts before giving up for now.

"Is it okay if it sit next to you?" He requested gently; and she took a moment to weigh her options before faintly nodding, still avoiding his gaze as she did.

"Thanks," He said gratefully as he joined her in resting against the wall, and he decided that his best move would be to give her a minute before he potentially pushed any buttons. Little did he know, that inaction was what got her attention the most. It proved that he wasn't here out of some sense of crisis or urgency, nor was he here looking to push his own ideas on her; he was just simply here, waiting to learn how he could help. After another minute of quiet, during which Wendy stealthily glanced at her partner in an attempt to read his face, Wendy finally spoke again.

"I don't deserve you." She sighed thoughtlessly, genuinely not realizing she had said that aloud until Romeo turned back to her and replied.

"Hey, I think you're getting our roles reversed, silly; that's my line." He commented jokingly before adding, "But seriously… after everything you've been though, you friggin' deserve someone perfect. Me? I'm just doing my best, and I know that I don't always hit the mark. Heck, when I was looking for you earlier, I lost my cool with some random guy that was talking trash; and I probably hit him a bit too hard...

"I mean: I can be petty, jealous, impatient, short-tempered, cowardly; and very often I find that I'm not the smartest one in the room, nor the strongest… but you, Wendy… somehow, despite all of this messed up crap we've ended up in, you're still pure and genuinely good; and the fact that you're also a walking powerhouse is just a really awesome bonus…"

Romeo noticed that Wendy still appeared unconvinced, so he decided to change tact's before speaking to her again.

"Wendy, if you're feeling guilty about any of this stuff, you shouldn't. All the guilt here really belongs with Edo; but that sicko isn't gonna feel any of that until we beat it into him."

Wendy shifted uncomfortably again before finally deciding to respond.

"You might be right," She conceded, though clearly not won over as she still refused to look directly at him, "But if Goten's grown into the man I thought he would, I'm one hundred percent sure that he'd still be looking for a way to get here; and he's not going to let anyone stop him from doing exactly that, no matter the cost."

"You're worried about him." Her partner observed aloud, which got a nod and another sentence from her.

"I am; but still… as far as he knows…" She added with a much more hesitant pace, "I was still his girlfriend, and… I… I…"

As soon as her voice began to falter, Romeo cautiously placed his right hand onto her left shoulder; but to his surprise and relief, she barely reacted to the action. Taking that as a sign of approval, he ever-so-slowly started to massage the shoulder he could reach before responding to her verbally as well.

"Hey, you don't have to tell me anything, remember?"

"No," Wendy corrected him, "There is one thing: do you remember when we first kissed?"

"Well, sure." He promptly answered while doing his best not to blush, "It was only two months ago, but really… I doubt I'll ever forget that…"

"Neither will I," She remarked honestly before making sure they stayed on the important topic, "But, I think Goten might've seen us that night."

"You do?" Romeo replied curiously, "How?"

"I'm not sure, I know that he's not allowed to be in this universe; but I also know that Iga could've secretly brought him here. We saw that he could make other people invisible, so it's not too big of a leap to guess that they snuck over here to check on me, even if they couldn't talk to me."

"Okay, I'm with you there," the fire mage agreed before adding, "But how do you know he could've seen us on that particular night?"

"Because," she explained slowly, "Almost immediately after we started to kiss, I could have sworn I heard his voice; and it sounded like he was in a lot of pain… At first, I chalked it up to my guilty conscience; but then I had felt a short and weird change in the air, plus a small burst of ki. And yeah, it could have been someone else watching us; but I'm certain I heard his voice, and that I smelled his scent before you and I even reached my place.

"The more I think about it, the more I'm sure of it." She declared with a clearly regretful tone that was growing more and more obvious as she spoke, "He was there that night, probably just to check on me; and I repaid his care and affection by kissing someone else directly in front of him… I might've broken his heart that night…

"All that stuff you said about me being pure and genuine… well, that's exactly how I think of him." She said before finally meeting her partner's gaze at the end of her statement to show how serious she was about her next statement, "And if I did anything to ruin that, I could never forgive myself…"

Romeo slowly removed his hand from her as soon as she had faced, and he could easily see that she was starting to cry again; so after she looked away from his again, he quickly decided he had to remind her of something.

"Hey… don't forget I'd have played a part in that, too." He did his best not to sound teasing or forceful, "Me and Goten might not know each other that well, but he's still my guildmate; and this whole situation's got me feeling almost as confused and guilty as you. If I had known that he was still alive, I'd have never…"

"Stop, please," Wendy surprisingly tried to interrupt him, "I know what you're going to say; and I… I don't know if I'm ready to hear it…"

Romeo hesitantly complied with her request before looking at away from her in order to focus on his own thoughts. He was not sure she actually knew what he was going to say; but he had to admit to himself that to a degree, he also wished to avoid the topic they were approaching. He never wanted to think of his brief time with her as a mistake, and he really wanted her to feel the same way; but what else could they call it? Over the years, and especially over these past few months, every decision they made turned out to be horribly half-informed; and that meant those choices were practically the very definition of a 'mistake'.

But then again, he remembered that none of this went completely unplanned. There was one person that wanted all of this to happen; and now, after it was much too late to realize it, it was clear to him how devious that person was. By simply forcing Gray to deliver one terrible lie to everyone, Edo had mentally divided half the guild from each other; although, Romeo slightly wondered if Edo's real goal was to hurt Wendy or Goten. The dark wizard seemed to enjoy making his fights personal, so it would make sense for Edo to target Goten's love interest; but if he targeted Wendy, it was certainly for other, broader reasons.

As of late, Wendy Marvell was one of the most popular wizards in all of Fiore. "The Sky Maiden" was a household name, for sure; and many important people in some very important places expected great things from her. Her frequent jobs in Crocus led to her becoming fast friends with the monarchy; and her consistent displays of power would actually send dark wizards running at just the sight of her, making her one of the go-to wizards for security and monster removal. Magazine editors love her, photographers adore her and her wondrous magic, and children idolize her. When people live in a world surrounded by death wizard armies and plagued with occasional monster infestations, they tend to need a few rays of hope, with Wendy Marvell being one of those rays of hope. Romeo knew that if he could not get Wendy to forgive herself for this debacle, there was a chance that ray could dim.

"None of this would've happened if Natsu was here…" Romeo suddenly heard his partner speaking softly, and possibly to herself, "He would never have let his guildmates keep secrets like these…"

The young fire mage remained quiet as he knew she was right, and that he had only been seconds away from thinking that exact thought himself.

"Honestly, I should have caught on sooner," Wendy admitted as she continued to think aloud, "Mira had given me hints a few times, and there were other times when I felt something was off about a few of our friends. I mean, Lucy can barely look me in the eye every time she's around; but I never tried to figure out why. That alone was a huge sign that people were hiding something from me."

"Me and Carla actually talked about that, before I came here." Romeo informed her helpfully, "We both feel like idiots for not realizing the truth, too; but despite all the warning signs, we just never imagined that our friends could lie about something this serious."

Wendy was silent in her agreement with her partner, quietly processing her immense relief at hearing that Carla wasn't one of her deceivers as well; and she was slowly starting to feel glad that she wasn't alone on this roof, processing all these confusing emotions on her own.

"Hey… Romeo," She requested hesitantly, finding herself afraid to look at him again, "Can I, um, hold your hand?"

"Of course," Her partner answered with a hint of surprise, suddenly feeling nervous about why she would even ask; but he tried to put it out of his mind as she moved closer to him and locked her left hand with his right.

"Thanks…" She mumbled with vague embarrassment, but then she stayed quiet as she tried to focus on enjoying Romeo's company. Once again, she found herself wanting to put everything important aside for just a bit longer; but there were some things she really needed to say aloud -and there were decisions she knew she couldn't put off forever.

After only another minute of silence, Wendy mustered up the strength to speak again.

"Romeo, I… I don't know what to do…" She stammered, "I… I really have fallen for you… a-and, you've always been so good to me… but, even though I tried, I can't avoid feeling that way about him too… I know what we did to him was wrong, and he might not even be the same person that I remember; but for some damn reason, I love him, just like I love you. I feel like I owe you both so much, for very different reasons; and none of it is helping me decide on anything… How could I ever make a choice like this?"

Romeo was slightly taken aback by the fact that Wendy had sworn, since the only time crude language ever came out of her was when she was fighting -and even that was a rare occurrence.

"Wendy…"

Her name was the only thing he could say, having been briefly overwhelmed by his own thoughts and emotions. Upon seeing and hearing the dilemma that the girl he loved ultimately faced, he was beginning to realize what he had to do to make things right; but to do it, he would have to break his own heart in the process. Taking a deep and calming breath, he briefly tightened his hold on her hand before pulling it away with no small amount of reluctance.

"Wendy, I…" He hesitated one last time before finding the courage he needed, "I think that you should go to him."

The Sky Maiden instantly faced him and blinked a few times with a mix of curiosity and surprise, making sure she had heard him; but now it was his turn to avoid her gaze, as he found looking at her while saying these things was much too difficult for him.

"I said that you deserve someone perfect, and Goten is probably the closest you'll ever get to that. Plus, he'll be able to protect you way better than I ever could."

"That's not true, Romeo," She had to correct his last statement, trying to reach for his hand until he pulled it away skittishly, "Just because you're not as strong, it doesn't mean…"

"Please, stop. Just… be honest with me, Wendy." He interrupted her bitterly, "I might have a good idea every now and again; but when our fights get serious, I almost always end up getting in the way. Goten, though, he'd have no problem keeping up with you."

Romeo finally managed to look her in the eye, and Wendy had to do her best not to look surprised at seeing the tears he was barely holding back.

"Please, Wendy, I don't want you to be with me just 'cause you're afraid to hurt me." He pleaded one last time, "This will be the first and last time I ever do this; but right now, I'm telling you that this is what you have to do. Before I came here, I told Carla to track down Lisanna and keep her from leaving as best she can. I did that because if you want to settle any of this, you need to know how he feels; and you really need to do this soon, because the longer I have to think, the more I wanna change my mind."

"Romeo, I…" she said his name painfully, "I don't know what-"

"Look, you really don't have to say anything, okay?" He interrupted her just as he finished clearing his eyes, and he started to stand up as he forced a smirk and added, "I might be a far cry from the top dog around the guild, but I still am a handsome and charming young man with a promising future. I've got all my life ahead of me, you know?"

Wendy bit her lower lip nervously in response, so he added just a bit more to his performance, although this next part was more genuine than the first.

"Look, if Goten turns out to be an idiot and turns you down, well, I imagine it would be my greatest stroke of luck ever; but if he still feels the same way about you, like he did back then… Well, I can be happy with that, too. Well, okay, maybe not at first; but it's like I said: the only thing I'm gonna do is follow your lead, and that's it."

Offering her his hand to help her stand up, Wendy looked at it tentatively before ultimately taking it and standing up with him. As soon as she was on both feet, Romeo tried to withdraw his hand; but he was surprised to feel Wendy resisting, holding tightly onto his hand for some reason.

"Wendy, listen." He warned her in response, "I know it'd be easier if we had more time to think this over, and maybe all three of us will eventually clear the air for good… but right now, you have one chance to go and talk to him; and if you stay up here with me any longer you'll miss it. I don't know how long Carla will be able to keep her occupied."

"But I do," the two wizards jumped and released each other when they suddenly heard the Exceed's voice come from behind Romeo, and he quickly spun around to greet a humanoid Carla while Wendy moved to stand beside him, "The truth is, Lisanna is a very persistent individual; and she was in quite a rush to head back to Earth, though she wouldn't elaborate."

"So, she's gone back already?" Wendy asked sadly as her eyes moved to the floor, but Carla only scratched her head with one hand in embarrassment as she replied.

"Well, I wouldn't say that. You see, I may have… kind of... stolen… her lacrima…"

"You what?!" Romeo and Wendy both exclaimed simultaneously, and the fire mage's jaw literally dropped when he watched as Carla brandished the bright white magical device.

"I didn't ask you to do that, Carla," Romeo began to scold her, "It doesn't matter if we have it now, 'cause we don't even know how it works!"

"I am more than confident that Wendy'd be able to figure out how a single lacrima worked!" the Exceed quipped, "And besides, I'd rather die than do whatever you tell me to do."

"Whatever! I just can't believe I'm yelling at you about being responsible!"

Before the pair realized it, they were bickering back and forth as if Wendy were never there; but they soon did once Wendy started to giggle at them. They turned to ask her what was funny; but before they could, she had grabbed both of them and hugged them as tightly as she could.

"Thank you," She told them as she failed to hold back more tears, "Both of you…"

"Come on, Wendy," Carla muttered bashfully, "It's not like we're saying goodbye or anything…"

"I know," the dragon slayer replied as she released them and wiped the tears from her eyes, "But you two need to know how much this means to me."

"Well, thank us by actually using this thing," Carla said while offering her the lacrima, "That way, all the trouble I just got myself into will count for something."

Wendy took the magic remote with a faint smile on her face, and she immediately began to inspect it. The device seemed to be active, as it would blink once every time she touched it; but on the surface, there was nothing on it that indicated how to use it.

"It doesn't look like anything special," Romeo thought aloud, "I hope we don't have to do some kind of weird trick to make it work."

"No, I doubt that's it." Carla replied thoughtfully, "If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that it receives commands telepathically."

"So if Wendy wants to go to Earth, she just has to think about it?" Romeo asked skeptically, "It can't be that easy, can it?"

"I don't know," Wendy replied for her Exceed companion, "Let's see if it is…"

Thinking the words "take me to Earth", she pointed the lacrima at the nearest wall as she remembered all of Iga and Lisanna's portals had been attached to a smooth surface; but after a few seconds of trying and waiting, nothing happened.

"Hm… well, I don't think that's it…" Wendy decided with clear disappointment.

"Are you sure?" Carla inquired, "Maybe you just need to concentrate harder."

"Maybe," the air mage partially agreed, and she went quiet as she tried once again to use the device.

After another few seconds of unsuccessful attempts, Wendy was starting to get frustrated.

"Rrr… It's not working," she grumbled as she pointed out the obvious, and she lowered the device as she looked back to her friends, "I don't know, maybe we should bring this back to Lisanna. I'm sure I'd still be able to convince her to help."

"And if she doesn't?" Carla questioned her, "Are you going to force her to take you there?"

"No, I'm not going to do that." Wendy assured her, "But if we can't get something to happen soon, we are going to have to go to her."

The air mage tried once again to command the device, but once again, it failed to react in the slightest. Feeling almost entirely hopeless now, Wendy began to let her mind wander as she silently complained about her current failure. She literally had the door to all the universes in her hand; but for the life of her, she could not get it to work.

"Hmm…" Carla hummed again before making another guess, "Maybe you need to know Earth's exact location for it to work."

"If that's true, then we're kinda screwed, aren't we?" Romeo remarked irritably, "I doubt anyone's got the map of a whole other universe just layin' around somewhere."

Deciding she should probably calm down and clear her mind if she wanted to find a solution, Wendy lowered the device again while turning to look at the town below; and her two companions went quiet as well, having quickly figured out what she was doing.

As she watched the crowds moving about in the square below, the dragon slayer could not resist letting her mind wander. Thinking about where she wanted to be and trying her best to remember everything that Goten had ever told her about Earth, she started to wonder if the towns on Earth had views like the one before her. She remembered hearing that the cities looked very different, but there were still towns and villages as well on Earth, in the more rural areas. She had no clue how the people there would look though, since the only good examples of earthling fashion she had were Trunks and Videl, given that the rest of them constantly wore martial artists' clothes while they were here.

Now thinking about the orange and blue outfit she had seen Goten in so often, she began to imagine how he looked now; and she though would have wondered it, she was more than certain that he probably still had a habit of wearing that same getup. What she did wonder though, was how tall Goten would be by now. Thinking if he was anywhere near the height of his brother, she guessed he would be at least half a head taller than her by now; and she then tried to imagine a complete image of him, as if he were standing before her. She pictured his goofy grin, his warm onyx eyes, and his shaggy black hair; and then she recalled the casual stance he almost always carried, along with his signature outfit. The last thing she did was put all the information together while using her imagination to fill in the gaps, and within a minute, Wendy had completed her best image of him in her mind.

But before she could spend any more time inside her imagination, a large and round white portal suddenly opened up beneath her feet -and even though Carla and Romeo quickly reached for her as they shouted her name- they both failed to grab their friend in time; and they could only watch as she fell straight through the bright white hole in the floor.

After watching the portal close itself, Romeo looked to Carla with an inquisitive expression and spoke first.

"So, now that she's off to find Goten, can we talk about that thing I mentioned earlier? I promise, you're really gonna want to hear about this…"

Not long ago, inside the Room of Spirit and Time…

"Oh, man…" Natsu Dragneel sighed to himself as he quickly sat down and laid back onto the smooth white stone floor in practically one motion, "I'm beat…"

Coming from about forty to fifty yards from him, his two demi-Saiyan friends were still sparring out in the void; and very frequently, he could feel and hear the shockwave from their powers colliding. He was used to the sensation by now, but watching them fight was always something that both frightened and intrigued him. What scared him is the thought of people who could be stronger than even those two, and of people like Edo, who would use the power of gods for their own evil desires; and not to protect people like these two Saiyans did. They were in a league well beyond his by this point, and he had to use every ability-boosting skill he knew just to try to keep up with them; but none of that kept him from trying to spar with them anyway.

Fighting them almost always resulted in intense pain and physical exhaustion, but he had also learned plenty from every time he was defeated or forced to bow out. His magic was immeasurably stronger than before he stepped into this bizarre place, and all his physical capabilities had staggeringly improved as well. The only thing he needed to do now, if he wanted to consider this training a total success that is, was to get control of his Dragon Instinct form. One out of every ten times he was beaten, he would somehow transform into it out of desperation; but he had yet to figure out what triggered its activation.

Ultimately deciding there was no point in thinking about it right now, the physically spent Salamander just wanted to catch his breath -and to wait for the feeling to return to his arms, as they had received the brunt of this most recent beating.

After a few more minutes, it sounded like the fighting had stopped; so Natsu finally decided to try sitting up.

"Aw man, is it break time already?" Natsu asked them jokingly as struggled successfully in his effort sit upright.

"Yeah, but only 'cause Trunks asked for it." A bright blue haired Goten remarked half-honestly.

"I didn't ask for it, I said we needed it." A similarly transformed Trunks argued with vague annoyance, "It's been almost a year in here, and there is a chance that Master Iga will reach out to us before we reach the time limit we set. We've made an insane amount of progress here; but we've got to take our time now and get used to all this power we've obtained, understand?"

"Yeah, I guess…" Goten conceded, not really feeling like arguing with anyone at the moment; and he wordlessly moved to sit beside Natsu just a few seconds before Trunks moved to sit on the opposite side of the dragon slayer.

For a brief moment, all three young men stayed silent as they took their time to recover their strength; but after about a minute or two of silence, Natsu had a question for the older of the two Saiyans.

"Hey, Trunks? You said Igneel might contact us before we leave, right? Well, if this room's in a completely different dimension, how's he gonna do that? Do you think his magic could even reach us here?"

"As long as I'm in here, he can." Trunks assured him, "The lacrima implanted in me is loosely connected to him at all times; so if he really needs to find us, his magic should be able to lock onto it and bridge the dimensional gap. But now, we've got Vesta working with us too; and she'll be able reach us in the blink of an eye. Wherever there's light, she can see it."

Natsu was about to question Trunks again about Vesta's abilities when all three of them were shockingly interrupted by a fourth person's voice.

"How interesting," a middle-aged man's voice chimed in from behind them, "If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you were speaking about my dear friend Claris…"

Instantly spinning and standing up to greet what they could only assume to be one of the Keepers, the trio was soon shocked to see not one, but two people were standing before them.

The one that was speaking was a shirtless, seven-foot, purple-skinned wall of muscle topped with slightly pointed ears and thick, dark red hair that was tied back into one topknot. His thick muscular legs and feet were guarded by a radiant silver set of armor and boots, with every step he took resulting in a heavy, deliberate thud; and the cold stare he gave the three mortals poorly masked the ferocity that could easily be detected with one good look at his blood-red eyes.

"Yes, Cosmos, it certainly did sound that way." Their other uninvited guest spoke with the voice of a young man, but confusingly enough, the person speaking before them actually appeared to be a small human girl that was, at most, twelve years old.

"Oh my, it seems my little party trick is messing with their heads a bit..." the Keeper remarked in amusement at the trio's confused expressions before giving them a creepy grin and offering, "Perhaps you'd prefer if I matched the voice to the body, then?"

"How about this?" The Keeper now sounded like the little girl they appeared to be, "Is that better?"

"Yeah, but not by much." Trunks was the first to talk back, "I mean, you really expect us to fight a little girl?"

"No, but that's the point isn't it?" The Keeper of Sound quipped casually, "I plan to use that crap sense of honor you have against you."

Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Natsu began to step forward until Goten tightly grabbed onto the back of his black waistcoat.

"You think we give a damn what you look like?" the Salamander barked even as Goten restrained him, "I know for a fact that all you Keepers are supposed to be crazy strong; so you looking like that isn't gonna fool us for a second, you hear me?"

"I'm Casus, you fool, I hear everything." The Keeper retorted mockingly before looking to the other Keeper and adding, "Cosmos, do you honestly need my help with these three?"

"That one there might be smart enough to entertain me," the Sound Keeper continued after briefly pointing at Trunks with one thumb, "But those other two aren't worth my time in the slightest."

"Well, if you're worried about wasting your time, this is the perfect place for you," Trunks interrupted the pair's conversation, making the purple man smirk in response while the little girl made an annoyed grimace at the demi-Saiyan.

"He's got a point." Cosmos remarked honestly before also looking to Casus and adding, "Think about it, my friend: you'll have all the time you want to play with him here, and then there'll be more fun waiting for you outside once you're done with him. I can start with the bothersome ones in case you take too long; but I doubt I'll have dispatched anyone by the time you're done, honestly."

Goten and Natsu were slightly confused by their enemy's conversation, but Trunks had quickly figured out that Cosmos had just laid out their plan of attack.

"True, but now he's onto us, you loud mouthed muscle head." Casus suddenly said while looking in Trunks' direction, and the Keeper quickly looked back to their partner before ordering them, "Just do your thing now, so we can get this over with and go home."

"Your wish is my command," Cosmos said half-heartedly before raising his right hand and snapping his fingers once, which only Trunks tried and failed to prevent; and before the demi-Saiyan could managed to warn his two friends, Goten and Natsu vanished in the blink of an eye.

"You bastards!" Trunks swore before immediately demanding information from them, "What did you do to them?!"

"Heh," the Keeper of Space chuckled dismissively, "This rude little mortal doesn't seem to understand his situation, does he?"

"I realize I'm outnumbered, if that's what you're saying." The demi-Saiyan replied before the Sound Keeper could, silently wishing he hadn't left his sword lying next to where he'd been sleeping.

"Thinking your chances would be better if you were armed, aren't you?" Casus questioned him amusedly, "Don't worry, I'll let you go and get your little toy before we get started. It won't help you much; but you know how it goes: I want this to be fun, if it even can be…"

On a ruined ice continent at the Earth's North Pole…

Son Goten and Natsu Dragneel landed roughly on their feet, having fallen from a few feet above the snow below; and they instantly began to scan their surroundings in search of any more potential surprises.

"I think we're clear for now," Goten declared tentatively as he fought off the urge to shiver, "But we need to get ready; the guy that brought us here could come after us at any second."

Natsu did hear the demi-Saiyan's warning, but he was still rather busy examining the sight before him.

"What the hell happened here?" He thought aloud, hoping Goten would have the answer. The land was covered with snow as far as the eye could see; but the ice-coated and mountainous landscape was littered with hundreds, if not thousands, of craters and crevices of all sizes ranging from tiny to titanic. There was even one massive crater in particular that was so wide and deep that a few of the cracks at its center were venting steam from where snow and water constantly met the lava below.

Goten turned to him, planning on answering; but the voice of Cosmos ended up interrupting them again.

"This horrid sight is what happens when mortals play around with powers beyond their comprehension," The large man announced his presence from behind them.

Spinning around together, the two young men were surprised to see the Keeper was holding the Nyoibo and its cylindrical container in his right hand as he approached them.

"Hey, that's not yours, buddy!" Natsu shouted just before Goten could calmly say something similar.

"Oh, I'm very aware that it isn't, 'buddy'." Cosmos quipped with well concealed annoyance before looking to Goten next and adding, "Although I must say, it's shameful to think a warrior of your supposed caliber could be parted from his weapon so easily…"

Staying silent in response, Goten only gave the man a hard stare while he waited to see what the Keeper would do next; and though Natsu looked between the demi-Saiyan and the Keeper expectantly, he also said nothing despite his impulse to argue in defense of his friend.

"Hm…" the immortal thought aloud with some intrigue, "Perhaps you aren't as foolhardy as Casus assumes…

"Here," the purple alien surprised his two targets by tossing Goten his weapon; and as soon as the demi-Saiyan caught the Nyoibo, he gave the Keeper a slightly confused look that prompted his immediate explanation.

"Wondering if I wished to shame you more?" Cosmos asked presumptively, and he never bothered to hear Goten's response before continuing, "I do, but it won't be over such a small error on your part. I'm here because you wish to challenge the laws I have sworn to uphold; and I may have been able to overlook one or two of your crimes, since you had choice over committing them or not. But… even after your mistakes were made plain to you, you still decided to disobey.

"You intend to illegally cross universes; and without divine permission, you insist on interacting with those from another universe as well; but your most recent transgression, however, is one that sorely offended my mistress, Chronas."

For once, the cool expression on the purple man's face became a bit more aggressive as he carried on.

"To be clear, I bear no ill will towards most mortals. Like the majority of the current Keepers, I was one myself; and I do my best to remind my allies of that every chance I get… But nevertheless, I cannot help but feel anger towards people like yourself: people who think they can do whatever they please, and who thoughtlessly abuse the privileges given to them by the gods themselves, all because they've attained a little bit of power and attention…

"And yes, I am speaking about the Room of Spirit and Time, in case you were wondering." Cosmos added before questioning the pair rhetorically, "Tell me, do you have any idea how unruly the worlds would become if rooms of that sort were freely opened to the masses? Imagine what would occur if people were allowed to live in there indefinitely, without a restriction of any kind. It's a cheat! A room meant to serve as a last resort for those responsible, chosen few that maintain the balance between life and death; and it was certainly not meant to serve as some teenagers' gymnasium."

"'Some teenagers'?!" Natsu had finally heard enough, "Listen, pal, we aren't people you wanna screw with, either!"

Clenching his fist and stepping between Goten and the Keeper, the dragon slayer looked the purple man square in the eye before continuing his response.

"You can talk about rules and responsibilities all damn day if you want, but all I hear is someone that thinks they're above everyone else! Yeah, I know your type: lording over others with some bent sense of justice… You're the worst kinda bad guy there is; and I'm gonna enjoy watching my friends knock that smug look right off your ugly purple face!"

As Natsu was giving the Keeper a lecture of his own, Goten quickly scrambled to tie the Nyoibo around himself before taking an unarmed defensive stance, all the while doing his best to keep a watchful eye on the pair; and he was able to take an unarmed defensive stance just as Natsu finished speaking. After which, there was a brief and tense moment where Goten was sure Cosmos planned to attack Natsu; but surprisingly, the Keeper only chuckled before responding to the dragon slayer.

"I can see how foolish I was, hoping I'd get you to understand with words alone; but something tells me that we could spend all day in this circular argument if I so desired…

"And you, the one who bested Cerberus," the large alien added as he looked past Natsu, "I'm assuming you feel the same as your friend does? If you do not, there is still a chance for you to accept your role…"

Once again, Goten only gave the Keeper a hard stare in response; but it was more than enough of an answer for Cosmos to understand.

"Very well," The alien declared decidedly, though there seemed to be the vaguest hint of disappointment in his voice as well; and he slowly raised a hand once again, causing Natsu to quickly withdraw as the Keeper spoke, "If I can't get you to understand with words alone…"

The Keeper snapped his fingers once again, and his two surprised targets watched as two people appeared between them and Cosmos.

The person standing before Natsu was a squat five-foot man with pale blue skin that vaguely resembled fish scales. His shark-like eyes matched the color of his scales, and he had only two small holes for ears. The person standing before Goten, however, looked more reptilian than ichthyoid.

"Well, it's about time, boss…" A six-foot, brown-eyed, dark green snake-skinned man addressed Cosmos eagerly, "I can't describe how anxious we've been to get started…"

Both of the new arrivals were wearing a suit of battle armor comprised of a mysterious silver crystalline substance that shone brilliantly even in the small amount of daylight that made it through the clouds and snow, and the two also wore matching pants and boots that were made of the same material. The only difference in their outfits was that the fishman's armor was sleeveless, while the snakeman's armor was long-sleeved and finished with a pair of gloves; and for a brief moment, Goten could not help but wonder what that silver substance was he saw the two beginning to take offensive stances.

For another tensely quiet moment, the warriors all eyed each other carefully as they read their stances; but after a few seconds, the armored pair suddenly shot forward. Goten reacted by easily catching the snakeman's right fist with his own right hand, and he noticed the impact slightly stung his hand for a moment; but the demi-Saiyan was more taken aback by what happened to his friend.

The fishman had delivered a left-handed punch towards Natsu, who was just barely able to block the attack by crossing his forearms and shielding himself; but the force of the punch sent the dragon slayer skidding backwards for a good ten yards before he finally came to a halt, somehow staying on his feet the entire time.

"Natsu!" Goten immediately called back to him while still holding his opponent's fist, "You alright?"

"Worry about yourself, boy…" the reptilian man told the demi-Saiyan before Natsu could respond, "We've been training to kill gods, you know. We might not be the head honcho or anything, but I'll be damned if we aren't just as deadly…"

The snakeman was staring Goten in the eyes as he spoke; but as soon as he had finished, he caught Goten off guard by suddenly firing two thin, green beams of ki from his eyes. Instinctively releasing his foe and side-stepping to the right, Goten easily dodged the energy attack; but he was only just able to block the second attack, as the snakeman had tried leaping ahead of him and halting him with a left-handed punch.

Deciding he had to quickly counterattack before his opponent could continue their assault, and since he had to use both his arms to block the follow-up attack, Goten smoothly spun to the right as soon as he blocked the punch before leaping and twisting himself sideways; and in one fluid motion, Goten leveled a kick at the left side of the reptilian's head with his right leg. The snakeman had no time to move his left hand into place, but he was able to get his right hand in front of the demi-Saiyan's leg; and surprisingly for both warriors, they found themselves wincing in pain from the impact.

Deciding simultaneously that they should back off and reassess their opponents, Goten and the snakeman leapt backward until there was at least a twenty-yard gap between them; and although he was mainly focused on the enemy before him, Goten could not help but worry about Natsu. During that brief exchange between Goten and his opponent, Natsu was severely struggling to keep up with his fishy foe; and all the exhausted dragon slayer could manage to do was block as the Keeper's minion toyed with him, slowly delivering one punch after another in a dramatic fashion meant solely to taunt the weakened wizard in a way that words never could. Goten knew his friend was not going to be able to defend himself for long, and he knew he had to hurry and defeat the snakeman before he could even try to assist Natsu.

"Alright, you, let's go ahead and get this over with." Goten said resolutely as he turned slightly clockwise to face his opponent sideways and drew the Nyoibo from its canister; and he held the pole attentively at his right side while he raised his open left hand before himself.

Seeing that his opponent was finally taking him seriously, the snakeman gave the demi-Saiyan a toothy grin that revealed the large fangs hidden behind his lips.

"Well, if that's what you want, then…" he said quietly before suddenly leaping forward and shouting,

"Allow me to grant you your wish!"

Barely moments ago, at the Son family homes…

All of the Son family, save for Goten, was gathered around the dinner table of Goku and Chi Chi's house; and the three Saiyans of the group were currently scarfing down a 'light' lunch that Chi Chi had thrown together for them.

"Mhm…. Thanks, Chi… this is… just what… I needed!" Goku said between bites, and his son and granddaughter made noises of agreement after him; but Chi Chi only shook her head dejectedly at them while Videl simply smirked after the whole exchange.

"And to think," she said mainly to her mother-in-law, "These three worked up this big an appetite just trying to use their brains for once…"

Chi Chi smiled with some amusement as Goku and Pan chuckled to avoid feeling shame, but Gohan felt the need to respond; and just as he was about to say something, his mind instantly jumped to a more important topic.

"Hey, that's weird…" Goku thought aloud just before Gohan could, "I'm pretty sure that I sense Goten's energy right now, but I thought he was in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber with Trunks and that other guy…"

"He was, but I sense him too. That power is intense…" Gohan confirmed his father; at which point, even Pan stopped eating as the feel of the room suddenly became tense, "I don't know what he's doing so far from the Lookout, though. I didn't sense him flying anywhere, he just sorta appeared…"

"Yeah, something seems off…" Goku made a few observations aloud, "I think I can just barely sense his friend with him, but I can't find Trunks; and I don't think any of them planned on splitting up at any point…'

"I should go and check on them." Gohan quickly decided, getting out of his chair and moving two fingers to his forehead; but he soon removed his hand after suddenly realizing something.

"Whoa, that's strange…" He said with some confusion at his failed attempt to use Instant Transmission, "A moment ago, I could sense Goten's exact location; but now I can't… I can still feel his ki; but it feels like he's practically everywhere, like he's constantly warping from random place to place… I can't pin his energy down long enough to warp to him."

"No, he's not moving around…" Goku corrected his son, having also stood up while failing to track Goten, "It's almost like his energy's scattered… like lightning in a thunderstorm; but I doubt Goten would direct that much energy in so many directions at once…"

"It could be possible that someone or something's messing with our senses…" Gohan suggested, making everyone at the table besides Goku nervous, "And if that's true, then Goten and Natsu are more than likely in some sort of trouble…"

"Well," Videl told her husband thoughtfully as she now stood up as well, "If you two can't warp to them, we need to fly to them. Where did you last sense Goten?"

"Yeah, that was the weird part," Goku answered first, "It felt like he was on the ice continent; but I dunno why he'd be near the North Pole right now…"

"You sensed that Goten was on the North Pole?" Videl asked, now understanding why Gohan and Goku looked so confused at first, "What the heck were they doing all the way up there?"

"That's what we're wondering," Gohan answered, "Iga or Vesta might've been able to bring them there; but that still doesn't explain why they would."

"Okay, I don't like this one bit…" Videl declared before grabbing Gohan by the arm and giving everyone instructions, leading her husband to the door as she did, "Goku, you stay here with Pan and Chi Chi like we planned, and we'll go find out what's going on."

"You got it!" Goku quickly agreed, feeling more than happy to stay by the food; but Gohan began to argue as his wife started to open the front door.

"H-hey! Whu- waitaminute, Videl-"

"Save it, Gohan, we already had this argument." She interrupted him before gently shoving him outside, and she briefly smiled and waved goodbye to everyone else before closing the door behind her.

"Come on, Videl, this is serious." She heard her husband whining before she could even turn back to face him, "If I get caught up fighting a Keeper or something, I'm not gonna be able to-"

"Gohan, if I hear another word about this…" She shushed him while placing a finger over his lips, "You won't have to worry about dealing with the Keepers, I promise you that."

Deciding now was probably not the best time to try his luck, the demi-Saiyan kept quiet in response; and Videl lowered her hand from his face before speaking again.

"There, that's better." She remarked with some satisfaction before her tone quickly shifted into a more serious form, "Now listen Gohan, I know the people we're fighting are way out of my league; but I do have an actual plan, okay? I'm not going just because I'm worried about you."

Gohan knew that he had no time to argue, but he still hesitated before finally nodding in agreement with her.

"Okay, you win." He declared while sighing in defeat at first before giving her a more curious tone, "Now, do you wanna tell me what you're thinking?"

"Of course, but we should go to Korin's Tower first." She replied conditionally, "I only have two Senzu beans left from when your father last brought me there; so restocking them should probably be step one."

"I agree." Gohan said before offering Videl his right hand and adding, "Now, let's see if I can even warp to Master Korin…"

Videl took his hand and watched as Gohan raised his left hand to his face; and though it took a couple seconds to focus, he eventually was successful.

"Yeah, it's kinda tough with Goten's energy spiking everywhere; but I think I can lock onto Yajirobe…

"You ready?" He asked his wife, expecting her to immediately say yes; but he was slightly surprised to hear the exact opposite.

"Um, not yet, actually… There's one more thing I want to do first."

"Okay, bu-" Gohan started, planning to ask her what she needed to do; but she quickly interrupted him by using her free hand to pull him against her -and into a quick but passionate kiss. Though taken slightly by surprise, Gohan was quick to lower his left hand and return the kiss, which only lasted for barely a second before they separated.

"Okay, now I'm ready." Videl declared while playfully tightening her grip on his hand; and Gohan only replied by smirking and holding her against him for a second before bringing his left hand back up. It took him another few seconds to refocus on his target, but Gohan was successful; and within the next instant, the couple had vanished.

Inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber…

Trunks grunted in immense pain as he was shoved backwards again by a sonic shockwave Casus had directed his way; but this was no ordinary sonic attack.

Given that he had been struggling to survive them for nearly a day now, Trunks had seen all sorts of 'interesting' ways in which the Keeper could manipulate sound. At first, the tricks were pretty straightforward. The first was a basic shockwave created by concentrated soundwaves, and the next was deafening Trunks with either too much sound -which also damaged his entire body before and after it reached its highest pitch- or by removing all sounds that would travel towards him. Eventually, however, Casus got bored with not being able to chat; so the Keeper then gave him back his hearing before showing off the third trick, which involved taking the sound from Trunks' very words and redirecting them back at him with needle-like precision. The resulting wound from his falling for that trick drilled a minute hole through his right shoulder, though it would have gone through his windpipe if he hadn't done his best to avoid it.

The fourth came after Casus finally decided to use ki against their prey as well, and it was essentially a slight and simple variation of the third: Every time an explosion or collision from physical attacks created noise, that noise was pulled away from its source and immediately directed at Trunks. The blue Super Saiyan had learned that trick the hard way as well, having blocked a few punches, kicks, and ki blasts only to find there was no time to defend against the resulting soundwaves that would fire at him from the point of origin. Every single normal attack from either person created a secondary attack that costed his foe nothing to perform; and although Trunks was finally getting used to having to block after every impact and explosion, his body was finally starting to weaken from all the abuse -and his opponent still had one massive advantage over him.

On top of all these unconventional techniques Casus employed, the Keeper was a near-perfect mind and body reader; and every retaliation Trunks attempted was easily thwarted and countered, with the only result so far being more injury to Trunks' body.

Re-sheathing the Brave Sword since he had only been able to use it for defense so far, the demi-Saiyan knew his situation was more than grim by this point; and him thinking that exact thought made the Keeper giggle at him joyfully.

"Finally! I've been waiting to hear you say that." Casus informed him with a tone of immense satisfaction, "I gotta admit, you've held out pretty long, though. Most people don't catch onto my abilities quick enough to block them, and a few will never fully understand what killed them; but you've done a surprisingly good job at staying alive, so far."

"So far, huh?" Trunks immediately replied with strained humor, "Darn, and here I was just thinking you'd run out of steam…"

The Keeper chuckled and smirked in response before lazily waving a hand, and Trunks had to quickly put up another ki barrier before the sound from his own words could injure him.

"You do realize I could kill you at any time, don't you?" the little girl questioned him curiously, "Any thought you make could be used to hurt you, but I don't have to do that to kill you. The rhythm of your own heart is more than enough to kill you instantly; and I don't think I need to point out how quickly that attack would reach you…"

Trunks could only grit his teeth and accept another to hit to his pride; he despised feeling like someone's plaything, yet here he was. Memories of being trapped inside Edo's time trap rushed back to him; but before he could even begin to suppress the flood of awful memories, the Keeper chortled at him again.

"Oh my, those memories do sound quite painful..." Casus remarked amusedly before adding, "Well, if you're having some trouble with them, I can alleviate some of that. Honestly, I'd rather you be focused on the suffering I put you through…"

Trunks saw the Keeper raise a hand lazily as they finished speaking; and within the next instant, all the traumatic thoughts of encountering Edo simply vanished from his mind. But when he noticed that the Keeper seemed to be holding some small transparent and nigh-invisible wisp of a soundwave, seeing it only because its constant vibrating disturbed the air around it, he quickly concluded with some amazement that the Keeper was somehow holding the sounds of his memories in their hand; and before Trunks could react to what he was seeing, Casus tossed the sound into their mouth and consumed it in one gulp.

"Mmmm…" The Keeper moaned with an eerie amount of pleasure, "That sour taste of despair, it's so good…"

Trunks could only look on in vague disgust at the Keeper, and he could not help but feel slightly creeped-out by this point.

"Oh, don't give me that look," Casus said playfully after seeing the repulsed expression on Trunks' face, "After all, you should be thanking me. Now you'll never have to hear anything from that scary memory again."

"Gee, thanks," Trunks replied sarcastically, "I feel so much better…"

Once again the Keeper chuckled at him.

"Hm, you're impudence is irritating, to say the least; but you are amusing, I'll give you that.

"Tell me something:" the little girl asked curiously, "Why didn't you run when I gave you the chance? You had at least two of them, but you never even considered it…"

"That surprises you?" Trunks questioned the Keeper honestly.

"It does." Casus admitted, "Of all the people I've killed, only three others behaved like you. But when I asked them the same thing, they refused to tell me. One of them even died with a smile on his face, like he'd actually won or something…"

"And let me guess," Trunks began to speculate, "It bothers you because you don't know what he was thinking."

"That is correct," the girl affirmed before explaining, "You see, most emotions are produced by a conscious reaction to something; and the thoughts attached to those emotions have sounds that I can play with -as miniscule as they are, anyway. But just before I killed those three, I could not hear anything that would have given them such fortitude… Sure, some of the people I killed worked up some courage by thinking about things like family, friends, et cetera; but ultimately, when someone did something genuinely brave, their minds were blank. Can you explain this phenomena to me?"

The was a brief moment where Trunks seemed to be considering a response, but Casus was frustrated to notice that nothing was actually running through his mind; and though the Keeper seemed to be more agitated than he had previously seen, Trunks actually relaxed his guard and stood up straight before responding.

"You know… that thing you call a phenomenon, well, that's actually something that happens quite often. At the end of the day, people are social creatures by nature; and most, if not all of us, are born with the instinct to connect with others -and to protect the bonds they have formed. If I think I'm boring someone, I'll risk making a joke. If someone's in danger, I'll hurry to their aid; or if something appears suddenly right in front of me, I'd flinch or jump back. All these things are a kind of reflex, programmed into us by nature herself."

"Hmm..." Casus considered the Saiyan's words aloud, "So, you're saying that it's a biological thing, then?"

Even though it slightly hurt physically him to do it, Trunks shrugged noncommittally before answering again.

"Well, it is; and it isn't… There's more to it, but to be honest: if you haven't figured it out by now, my explaining it probably wouldn't help…"

A slight look of annoyance briefly flashed across the Keeper's face.

"Nothing is beyond me, mortal." Casus declared in a low and assertive tone; and Trunks had to quickly shield himself again as the Keeper waved a hand and redirected more soundwaves towards him.

Grunting in pained effort as he lowered his guard again, Trunks smirked before asking the Keeper a question.

"I can see how that might have sounded a little smug there; but I was still being honest. I can keep trying to explain those feelings for you, but that stuff is really something you should figure out for yourself. Don't you remember at all what it was like? Compassion? Empathy? Sympathy? I'm sure that even you felt these things, at some point…"

As if debating whether or not to attack him again, Casus eventually gave Trunks a calmer look before answering him.

"I must admit, I can't tell you how long it's been since I was mortal. You see, I've been Casus for far longer than you could even begin to fathom. In fact, one of the only things I can remember is that my people were made of something primordial and amorphous; and a person's body didn't take a solid shape until they were taught how."

At first, Trunks was slightly impressed as he watched every inch of the Keeper's body and clothing turn into a brownish silver that made Casus briefly look a small mannequin; and then he watched as the Keeper began to grow until it was the same height as him. But once Casus' body began to take a human form again, Trunks became annoyed, having already figured out what form the Keeper was about to take.

"Oh, come on…" The demi-Saiyan sighed, "You had to make this weird…"

"Heh…" An angrier-looking, lavender-haired Trunks Briefs chuckled dismissively, "I'm not trying to be odd, I'm trying to make this personal. You do realize what could happen, if I left here looking like this? I'm not like most of the other Keepers… I don't have a sense of honor; and I will use any nasty trick in the book just to kill my target."

Casus had no need to ask Trunks if he understood, as the demi-Saiyan had grit his teeth nervously well before the Keeper was finished speaking; and the pair stared each other down for a few seconds before Casus decided to taunt his opponent some more, giving his foe a sinister grin as he did.

"You know what? I think I might run off and play with this form before I have to get back to work with Cosmos… After all, I look like one of Earth's biggest celebrities, and one of its most eligible bachelors… I'm starting to wonder how many of your friends I could fool, if I hid my ki. Do you think Lisanna would fall for my act? I've never been one for primal urges, but I will admit that I am curi-"

Trunks' eyes sparked with a brilliant rage as soon as the takeover mage was mentioned. Sure, threatening to do anything to her might have set the demi-Saiyan off; but hearing his own voice talk about her in such a manner disgusted him to an irrational amount, causing his blue aura to briefly flash from his body in a show of force just as he began to yell at the Keeper.

"Shut your goddamn mouth, you freak doppelganger! Not one of my friends would buy any sick little act you'd put on, and that's a fact. You can copy my body and voice if you want, but one look in your eyes would give away what you are!"

Not one to be insulted, Casus raised a palm at the demi-Saiyan before firing a large white ball of ki from it; but Trunks simply swatted the blast away with the back of a hand. And instead of giving the Keeper time to respond verbally, Trunks began to rapidly power-up until his hair and eyes changed into a glimmering, darker shade of blue and his muscles slightly thickened.

"Oh my," Casus remarked curiously as Trunks finished his transformation by redrawing the Brave Sword and holding it at his right side, "That power is quite formidable, indeed. I think I understand why Cosmos was so eager to test your friends now…

"Tell me; and be honest, I'll know." the shapeshifter concluded with a request, "Is that the extent of your power; or are you still holding back against me, as foolish as that is?"

"Well, it is a possibility." Trunks answered promptly with a smirk on his face; and though Casus was annoyed with his smug response, the Keeper was more frustrated upon noticing that once again Trunks was somehow concealing his thoughts.

"Sorry, Casus; but for some reason, I just don't feel like entertaining you anymore…" The young Saiyan apologized sarcastically before adding, "It could be the fact that you've tried to torture me for nearly a day now; but I'm gonna be honest: I think I'm just tired of feeling hungry…"

"You foolish mortal…" The Keeper retorted before quickly trying to redirect Trunks' words back at him; but the demi-Saiyan simply released his aura from his body for the first time. And though Trunks only began to let out enough energy to cover a few feet around him, the radiant blue ki surrounding him seemed to be vibrating in a silent and intense frequency, which made it capable of diffusing Casus' sonic attack with ease.

"Huh…" the Trunks clone said with some surprise at seeing his attack fail, "You actually figured out how to counter my sound attacks…

"I'm impressed," He concluded before finally taking an attacking stance on his own and adding, "But it won't be enough to save you. You've run your mouth a bit too much, and I believe that needs some correcting."

"Yeah?" Trunks replied while confidently not taking any defensive stance, "Well, why don't you correct this?"

For the first time in a while, Trunks' mind gave off a sound that the Keeper could hear, but by the time the Keeper knew what Trunks was thinking, it was too late; and before he could properly defend himself, the faux Saiyan was struck and impaled by many tiny threads of ki, fire, and light that seemingly flew in from all directions.

"Gah! What?!" Casus gasped in pained shock as his body locked up, feeling like a puppet that had its strings sewn into nearly every inch of its body; but these particular strings felt more like tiny steel rods that pinned the Keeper in place, with the ones made of fire also burning him slowly from the inside-out as well.

"How dare" The polymorph began to demand an answer until Trunks interrupted with the answer.

"Oh come, don't act surprised, Casus. You're not the only one who can be sneaky." He taunted as he took the Brave Sword into both hands and readied it by his right side as if it were a sheathed-katana, "But don't worry, I promise I didn't do this just for a chance to taunt you; I did it because I really needed a chance to test my iaijutsu."

"You little mortal bas-" The Sound Keeper began until Trunks cut through him in one quick draw of the blade; and the demi-Saiyan, now stood a few feet behind the Keeper, casually flipped the Brave Sword a few times over his right hand before flipping it over his shoulder and catching it with the sheath on his back. As soon as the blade clicked into place, one half of Casus' body slid down and to the right, along the steep diagonal decline that used to be the lower section of the Keeper's torso; and within a couple seconds, the fake Saiyan was both laying and standing in a silver, bloody mess.

Back on the Ice Continent to the north…

"Aw, come on, you weak little mortal…" Son Goten's reptilian foe taunted him as they clashed for the sixth time in their most recent volley of attacks against each other, "This was supposed to be fun, but you're just barely keeping up, aren't ya?"

Goten instinctively ignored his foe, knowing the man was only trying to get a rise out of him; and upon failing to force an error out of the demi-Saiyan, Cosmos' henchman leapt back to gain some distance and re-strategize, with Goten doing the same after noticing he had the chance.

As soon as he landed and retook his defensive stance, Goten quickly glanced around until he figured out where Natsu was; and he watched as his friend struggled to block yet another punch from the fishman. It was obvious the Salamander was only one or two punches away from tiring out completely, and Goten considered it a small miracle that he was still standing anyway; but then the demi-Saiyan's focus immediately returned to his own opponent, who looked only moments away from attempting another attack.

As he locked eyes with the reptilian, Goten started to side-step to the left; and so, not wanting to let the demi-Saiyan attack him from the side, the alien mirrored Goten's movements. This was only a small feint, however, as Goten never planned on attacking at all. In reality, he just needed time to think; and putting his opponent on the defensive was the best way to do so.

And now that he had a few more seconds to think, his mind quickly analyzed their past exchanges. The snakeman was quick and agile for sure; but every time he punched or kicked, something felt off about the impact of each attack that Goten blocked without using the Nyoibo. Trying to use his ki sense again to read his opponent, Goten was frustrated once again by the fact that some strange sort of interference was preventing him from reading anyone's ki; but the more Goten thought about it, 'interference' was probably not the right word. What he sensed felt more like some kind of distortion, as he could feel at least three unfamiliar sources of energy; but their signatures felt jumbled and overlapping, despite the fact that no one was expending any energy in the amount he was feeling.

He was about to give up and simply try attacking blindly, thinking that might throw his opponent off; but then Goten suddenly remembered that Cosmos was still watching, which got the demi-Saiyan thinking again -wondering just what kind of magic tricks the Keeper had in his arsenal. That train of thought led to one important realization, which led to him finally reassessing his foe properly; and that reassessment finally gave Goten a strategy he could work with.

Finally giving into his urge to smirk triumphantly, Goten suddenly halted in place, which made his opponent stop as well; and just as he finished briefly enjoying that confused look on the reptilian's face, the demi-Saiyan closed his eyes, took a quick deep breath; and then to his opponent's surprise, he quickly reverted into his base god form.

"Heh… running out of juice already, huh?" the snakeman teased him, but Goten only held his smirk before retaking his defensive stance.

"Seems like it," Goten said as soon as he was back in position, "Now, why don't you come over here and show me what you got?"

"I thought you'd never ask," His foe replied mockingly before instantly launching towards him; and even Cosmos was slightly surprised by the results of this next exchange.

The snakeman tried once again to punch Goten, this time aiming for the head while preparing to block any possible counterattack; but instead of blocking and countering as he had all the times before, Goten simply leapt aside with twice the agility he had shown before. Taking his foe completely by surprise, the demi-Saiyan spun and swung the Nyoibo against the rear-left side of the snakeman's head, creating such a harsh noise upon impact that Goten was wondering if his opponent's skull had cracked or not.

The snakeman fell forward and landed face first into the snow with his mouth still wide open in shock, and Goten assumed the alien was more than likely unconscious well before he even hit the ground.

"I knew it was the armor…" Goten remarked with some satisfaction before hurrying to scan his surroundings. He quickly spotted Natsu and the fishman that was still toying with his friend; and he instantly became worried at the sight of Cosmos' lackey standing over a slow-rising dragon slayer, whose legs were actually trembling at the simple act of standing back up. Natsu was swearing something as he slipped under his own weight, and the fishman had begun to raise his fist with the intent to deliver the finishing blow.

Wasting not another moment, Goten took the Nyoibo into his left hand before quickly cocking his right hand back; and like throwing the world's fastest baseball pitch, Goten hurled a red ball of ki straight at the fishman's head. In the next half-second, the fishman's fist began to drive forward just as a small explosion detonated against his right temple; and Natsu could only blink in shock at the sight and sound of his would-be executioner howling and falling sideways in pure agony.

As soon as his attacker hit the ground and ceased to make any noise or movement whatsoever, Natsu quickly traced the trajectory of the shot to confirm his assumption of who just saved him; and he grinned weakly when he made eye contact with a bright red-haired demi-Saiyan, who was now jogging over to him.

"Thank you, Goten…" He forced his gratitude out before making a slower and more careful attempt to stand, which his friend was quick enough to help him with; and Goten only smiled amiably before responding as he released the dragon slayer to let him stand on his own.

"Don't worry about it, man. Honestly, I shouldn't have taken so long to deal with the first guy; but that armor they're wearing is something I've never seen before…"

Before Natsu could tell his friend there was nothing to apologize for, Cosmos suddenly made his presence know once again as he suddenly appeared a few yards ahead of them while playfully applauding them.

"Nicely done, gentlemen." He said after giving them a non-sarcastic slow-clap, "I had wondered how long it'd take you to defeat those two.

"And mister Dragneel, was it?" The Keeper added with some intrigue, "The fact that you're still alive is impressive, but you're actually still standing after all that as well… The strength of your will is something truly commendable."

"Yeah, whatever…" Natsu quipped with tired impatience, "Your guys got beat 'cause they were screwin' around, underestimating us…"

"A fair point, but however, I'm not underestimating anyone." Cosmos quickly assured him, "In all honesty, I'm testing your friend here. You see, he might not want to join us now; but he will eventually."

"Yeah, sorry; but that's not gonna happen." Goten chimed in calmly before retaking his defensive stance with the Nyoibo; and the three stood in silence for a few seconds as Cosmos considered his next test for them.

"Hmm, I suppose I have gone rather easy on you…" the Keeper mused before raising his hand lazily again; but before he could snap his fingers again; Goten leapt toward him without a word, aiming another swing of the Power Pole at his head

To both Goten and Natsu's surprise, the Keeper made no attempt to block the attack; and they were even more surprised to see that Cosmos did nothing even after the Nyoibo smacked against his left ear.

"What the h-?!" Natsu began to wonder for his friend; but the Keeper finally reacted before he could finish, forcing the dragon slayer to watch in shock as Goten was punched straight into the side of an icy cliff-face that stood at least two stories tall.

"Goten!" The Salamander shouted, trying to run over to him until receiving a painful reminder of his body's condition; and instead of helping his friend, Natsu only fell forward as his body gave out from exhaustion, hitting the ground with a pained grunt the next instant.

"Dammit…" He muttered into the snow, and it took most of his strength merely to look back towards Goten's location. He saw that Cosmos had warped over there, and he could only watch in anger as the Keeper pulled a stunned demi-Saiyan out of the hole in the ice and rock by his neck.

"Man…" Goten grunted honestly as he finally regained his bearings, "That hurt… a lot…"

"It was meant to," Cosmos informed him humorously before making sure to tighten his grip on the Saiyan's neck, "You know, for all the warnings you gave me about underestimating your opponent; it would appear that you've forgotten your own advice."

"Hey! Let him go now, you ugly purple bastard!" The pair heard Natsu yelling in the distance, but they both saw the fire mage was still struggling to stand; so Goten quickly started trying to wring himself free with both hands while Cosmos decided to taunt Natsu.

"Be quiet and wait your turn, insect; I'll get to you in a moment."

Looking back to Goten while finally revealing a cocky smirk on his face, the Keeper tightened his grip further and began to mock the demi-Saiyan as well.

"I must say, mortal: I genuinely expected you to last much longer than this; but it's no matter. Whether you like it or not, I will make you into one of us. And unfortunately for your friends and family, you're sole motivation for fighting is them; so…"

"Don't… you… dare…" Goten managed to form a threat, trying to power-up despite his depleting oxygen; but Cosmos only tightened his grip more, forcing the demi-Saiyan to gasp in pain at feeling his bones near their breaking point.

"Hey!" Goten could barely hear Natsu as his senses began to dull, "Didn't you hear me?! I said to- Wait, wha-"

Cosmos heard the dragon slayer fall onto the snow and ice again; and assuming that was why the Salamander stopped speaking, the Keeper ignored him before taunting the now black-haired Saiyan one more time before he would pass out.

"I know, this is likely humiliating for you; but look at it this way, mortal: at least you won't have to witness what I'm going to do to your-"

"Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang!"

Thinking he was now hallucinating from lack of air, Goten immediately recognized the voice that interrupted Cosmos; and he wrote off hearing the Keeper's pained yelp and feeling his slackened grip as more hallucinating until he felt someone else grab him by the right forearm and yank him away from the Keeper.

"What…" The demi-Saiyan muttered in confusion as he landed in the snow with someone hunched over him protectively, "Who…?"

"Alright! That's what I'm freaking talking about!" He heard Natsu cheering from a much closer distance now, "Take that, you thick-headed jackass!"

Goten's vision was still blurry, and he could make out an image of someone with blue hair and mostly white clothes crouched over him from the right; but hearing the person's voice again as he tried to get up made him question the reality of the moment.

"Hold still, Goten; you're hurt."

He felt and watched numbly as the young woman knelt down and gently held her hands just over both sides of his neck; and within an instant the pain began to quickly fade just as his senses returned to him.

"W-Wendy…?" He questioned disbelievingly, "Is it… really… you?"

"It is," She answered with an immensely joyful smile as she finished healing him; and he briefly got lost in her warm hazel eyes as she spoke, "I'm here."

Before she could retract both her hands, Goten carefully grabbed her left hand with his right hand, wanting to confirm by touch that he was not actually seeing things; and though he was beginning to feel an overwhelming amount of joy that the girl of his dreams was here, he still had so many questions about how she was here.

"B… but how?" He found himself stuttering, "I thought you didn't know…"

"I didn't, but I do now." She informed him briefly as she moved her free hand to touch his face soothingly, doing her best not to start crying as she spoke, "I'm so sorry I didn't figure everything out sooner, Goten; but we can talk later, okay?"

The demi-Saiyan nodded numbly before the Sky Maiden released him and hurried over to Natsu, who was now slowly hobbling towards them.

"Wendy, I don't know how you did it; but you have no clue how awesome that was…" the fire mage told her as soon as she turned his way; and as soon as she was closer, he added more, "You're a friggin' miracle worker, you know that?"

"Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot recently," She remarked dismissively before giving him instructions as she finally reached him, "Now sit still so I can heal you, Natsu."

"Yes ma'am," Natsu complied humorously while holding his arms out for her; and she immediately went to work on them while asking him a few questions she could not suppress.

"I can't believe you're here too, Natsu. Everyone back home was worried Edo had done something to you."

"Well… he did kidnap me." The Salamander admitted, looking away in embarrassment as he did, "But then he got bored with me, so now I'm here."

"I see…" Wendy replied apologetically before asking her next question, "And the big purple guy that's now missing an eye? Who's he?"

"His name's Cosmos, and he'll be back with both eyes in a minute." Goten answered for his friend as he approached them, "He's an immortal god-killer, one that helped write the laws of all the universes apparently. He's called the Keeper of Space, and it's his job to kill people that cross universes without a god's permission."

"So that's why you were fighting him," She concluded just as she finished healing Natsu, looking back and forth between their pair, "Well, whatever the case, it's good to see you're both okay."

"For now," Natsu remarked grimly, "And now that you here, you're on his list too."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that when I took his eye.." Wendy informed him with vague humor before meeting Goten's gaze and adding, "But I'm not worried; I've got two of the strongest people I know beside me."

The two smiled at each other for a few seconds before the conversation was interrupted by their enemy's clearly agitated and bitter voice.

"Well that was surprising, to say the least." Cosmos remarked as he reappeared only a few yards behind the trio, "To think that a mortal with so little power could maim a god-killer… I suppose the past few million years has made me rather complacent."

"A 'few million years'?" Natsu replied incredulously, "Just exactly how old are you?"

The Keeper glanced at Natsu with a calculating look, as if he were debating whether to answer the question or not; but after another moment, he spoke again.

"Hm… that question is harder to answer than you think. I know for a fact there were still eighteen universes when I became Cosmos… my best guess is somewhere between ten to fifteen million years."

"That's a long time to train and get stronger…" Goten chimed in thoughtfully while Natsu did his best to keep his jaw from dropping in shock; and Cosmos smirked coyly at the demi-Saiyan, appreciating that at least one of his targets was keen enough to realize what he was getting at.

"It certainly is," the Keeper affirmed with a slight nod before looking to Wendy and changing the subject, "Now, before I get too carried away with killing you three…"

The purple alien snapped his fingers again, and the Sky Maiden gasped with some surprise as Lisanna's magic remote suddenly appeared in the palm of the Keeper's right hand.

"I presume this is how you got here, correct?" Cosmos deduced easily, "I must admit, Casus warned me this device's power might be hard to detect; but I never imagined its signature would be this subtle. It's no wonder I failed to notice the rift it created for you."

As the Keeper began to speak to Wendy, Goten gave her curious and puzzled expressions, looking for confirmation of what he was hearing; and the bluenette gave him a vaguely sheepish look that said "it's complicated" before they glanced back to the Keeper as he continued to talk, who ended his statement by crushing the lacrima in one quick clench of his fist.

Natsu and Wendy gasped with some surprise while Goten only stared angrily as the Keeper let white fragments and powder fall from between his large purple fingers; and after another brief moment, Cosmos dropped the remains of the remote before rubbing his hands together and chuckling.

"Heh… I suppose I should thank you for delivering that to me, little girl; you saved me a decent bit of searching."

Trying not to look as guilty as she felt, Wendy only replied to the Keeper with a silent and stern look; and Cosmos promptly took the chance to taunt her once more before he would be interrupted.

"You know, I did intend on killing you to break that one's spirit," He gestured to Goten with a glance before looking back to Wendy, "But since you did me this one trivial favor, I'll give you this one simple choice in return: you can either die here, with anyone else that rejects our rule; or… you can convince this Saiyan here to join the Keepers, after which you'll both get to live together forever.

"And do understand," the Keeper added with a hint finality to his tone, "There's a plethora of privileges from being a Keeper; to the point that rejecting this offer and opting for ruin, death, and damnation would be sheer insanity."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't be the first to call us crazy, big guy." Natsu informed their attacker dismissively, to which Wendy smirked in brief and vaguely embarrassed amusement; but Goten actually became a bit nervous from the remark. He could sense the conversation was coming to an end; and he did not want Natsu to have the Keeper's attention when it did.

"Sorry Cosmos, but no one here is gonna take this deal you're offering." The demi-Saiyan decided to speak before anyone else could; and he moved to stand between the Keeper and his friends as soon he started to give the Keeper his turn to be mocked, "And you know what? I'm kinda getting annoyed that you're making me repeat myself, old timer.

"But then again, maybe I should be more considerate." He said as he scratched the back of his head goofily, all the while discreetly looking for the Nyoibo as he spoke, "If you're really as old as you say, then it must be a miracle that you even heard me at all…"

"Petty insults will not help you here." The Keeper quipped as he watched his target approach.

"No, I guess they won't." Goten agreed coyly as his hair and eyes slowly changed to red once again, "But I guess giving you a formal challenge just might."

"Oh?" Cosmos said as he smirked knowingly at the demi-Saiyan, "So you plan to take me on alone, do you? Even after having taken one of my punches already? I'll warn you, that attack only had about fifteen percent of my power behind it."

The red-haired Saiyan smirked again before changing the subject dismissively as he finally located the Nyoibo lying in the snow beside the pile of rock he had collided with previously.

"Fifteen percent, huh? I guess I'd be scared if I felt like doing the math; but then again, math's never been my favorite subject. Hang on a second…"

Pausing his words to focus on manipulating his ki as precisely as possible, Goten reached out toward the Nyoibo; and a small bolt of red energy flew from the palm of his right hand until it landed on the magical Bo staff. In the next instant, Wendy and Natsu watched with interest as the Nyoibo came flying into their friend's hand, along with the red energy that now returned to its owner's body; and the two wizards remained quiet as Goten sheathed the staff again while resuming his conversation.

"There, that's better. Now where were we?" He said mainly to himself before looking back to Cosmos and taking a more serious stance, "Oh yeah, you were trying to intimidate me, or something. Well, let me tell you something, mister Cosmos:

"Telling me how strong you are is only gonna make me wanna fight even more. So… how 'bout we skip the rest of the bad-guy speech and get straight to the fun part?"

From her position behind the young Saiyan, Wendy was currently tangling with a bundle of emotions as she witnessed the exchange. For one, she was amazed to see Goten using the same god powers his brother had in the past; but then she was also very proud of and happy for him, seeing that he had achieved one of his goals from their past. After that; however, she was becoming nervous about the enemy he was currently picking a fight with; and she was becoming angry with the feeling of helplessness growing within her, wishing she could at least sense the two's energy to know how much weaker she was in comparison. Also, the adrenaline in her system was lowering; and she was only just realizing how poorly dressed she was for enduring the extreme cold she found herself in.

But before she could think any more on how she felt, she watched as Goten's forceful stance briefly tensed; and within that instant, a burst of air quickly rushed past the other three as the demi-Saiyan went Super.

"So, Cosmos," the blue-haired Saiyan questioned his opponent humorously, "If I'm going to beat you up like I did Cerberus, you're gonna need to pick a spot for it; 'cause this place is a bit too boring for my taste."

"Hmph," The Keeper chortled in amusement, "Yes, I suppose this continent is a rather miserable locale. Let's see…"

There was a brief moment of quiet as Cosmos thought on his feet, and Goten quickly took the opportunity to silently signal Natsu a message. Slightly turning his body and lowering his right hand slightly until only the Salamander could see it; and Natsu quickly nodded after taking a moment to decipher the hand motions the Saiyan had just made.

"Yes, I think I know just the place…" Cosmos thought aloud as Natsu slowly shuffled closer to Wendy; but the Keeper paid them no mind as he focused his gaze on his current challenger, who had moved a bit closer to him at the same time, "But I think I should warn you one last time before we depart: if you somehow force me to use more than half my strength, there's a good chance I may kill you incidentally."

Hearing the threat but not really listening to it, Goten simply shrugged noncommittally.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," The Saiyan said flatly before briefly looking back to give Wendy a confident smirk and adding, "Trust me."

Ignoring the teens' brief exchange, Cosmos only chuckled as his opponent looked back to him.

"Heh… Well, if you are this bent on getting yourself killed; it'd be a shame to delay you any further, wouldn't it?"

Once again, the large alien raised his right hand and spoke one more time as he prepared to use his magic.

"So, any last words for your friends? This will be the last time you see them, after all."

The demi-Saiyan said nothing in response, but the hard look he gave the Keeper certainly said enough.

"Hm… as you wish," Cosmos remarked with some disappointment, "Let's get this over with, then."

The Keeper snapped his fingers once more; and within a moment much quicker than the blink of an eye, Cosmos and Son Goten vanished from the Earth entirely, with the only sign they were ever there being the footprints they left in the snow.

"Goten…" Wendy sighed sadly, not realizing she had spoken aloud; and for a few seconds, she could only stare at the Saiyan was just moments ago, until Natsu put a reassuring hand on her shoulder to recapture her attention.

"Hey… c'mon, Wendy, don't be sad," He comforted her as he began to heat his body up enough to warm both of them, "Goten's not gonna lose to a guy like that, believe me."

Natsu frowned upon seeing that Wendy seemed unconvinced, but then he was downright surprised when he saw a tear roll down the side of her face.

"I know…" She conceded while trying to dry her eyes with the long white sleeve that covered most of her right arm, "But, it's just… it's not fair… we just found each other, only to get immediately separated again. I don't know, maybe it's a sign…"

Strongly fighting off the urge to slap her back to her senses, like Erza probably would have, Natsu moved in front of his friend before firmly grabbing both her shoulders and gently shaking her.

"Hey, what do you mean 'a sign'?" He interrupted with a subtle force behind his words,

"Don't you start talking nonsense, alright? I know you don't believe in that superstitious kinda crap! You believe in your friends, don't you? In Fairy Tail?"

Wendy nodded numbly as she managed to halt the flow of tears, and Natsu smiled weakly before locking eyes again and giving her a sigh of his own.

"Okay…" He said with some relief, "Listen… he really hasn't changed much over the years; but Goten isn't a kid anymore either, alright? He's got a plan, and that idiot Keeper just went along with it. He's gonna come back, and you are gonna have that chat with him, alright?"

After another couple of seconds Wendy nodded again, this time looking a little more coherent as she did; and Natsu slowly removed his right hand from her as she spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Natsu. I've been a complete mess all day…"

"Yeah? I can't imagine why." He replied with friendly sarcasm before patting her on the shoulder and adding,

"But seriously, you don't have to apologize, okay? I understand. Kinda…"

The Sky Maiden could not stop herself from smirking at his trailing remark, and the sight made Natsu smile with some satisfaction.

"Thank you, Natsu." She told him gratefully as he removed his other arm from her as well, "I think bringing you here might be the only good thing Edo's ever done…"

"Yeah, you and me both." He agreed vaguely with his back to her, scanning their surroundings as he spoke, "Now, let's try and find a way off this giant icicle, before we've gotta deal with-"

Seeming like fate itself wished to spite the Salamander, a very diverse group of ten people appeared in a wide circle around the two wizards, with the only thing in common between all of them being the silver suit of combat armor they all wore.

"-Any…more… Keepers…"

Natsu's voice trailed off with a mix of frustration and disappointment; and a few from the group around them smirked and grinned at him.

"Dammit, I just knew he had more goons than those two…" The fire mage commented bitterly as he and Wendy carefully moved to stand back-to-back, after which he addressed the five people he could see.

"Hey, you guys are with Cosmos, right? Well, d'ya mind telling me if there's any more of ya once we're done here? 'Cause this is getting to be kinda exhausting…"

A few of the five in his field of view chuckled at him, and he heard one more chortle come from behind him; but only one of the silver-suit soldiers bothered to give a real response.

"Oh, don't worry, Salamander," a female feline humanoid that vaguely resembled a leopard purred confidently from Natsu's three-o'clock,

"This will be the last group you'll meet, I promise."

A few of their attackers chuckled again at their ally's remark, but Wendy and Natsu were not so amused; and they both fidgeted nervously as they took the moment to observe their enemies.

Looking from his left to right, Natsu examined the five bizarre humanoids in armor. The first was a dark-brown insectoid that looked more like a walking piece of tree bark than anything, and its mantis-like eyes were the only evidence to contrary. The second was a nearly six-foot, muscular bald man with blue skin and only two round stumps for ears, and his aquamarine eyes glimmered viciously as he sneered at his target. The third person was a five-foot, three-eyed woman with pale yellow skin, which looked more like leather than flesh; and the fourth person was the grey-eyed leopard-woman that taunted Natsu first. The fifth was a tall, hairless jackal-like man with dark pink skin and bright yellow eyes; and he was the second person to taunt the two wizards.

"So, funny man," He questioned the fire mage while he flexed his clawed left fist, "How do you want this to go? Are we going to take turns, or do you want us all to beat you to death together?"

"Well, gee, lemme think about it for a second…" Natsu quipped sarcastically before adding seriously,

"How stupid do you think I am? I don't get how it works, but I know that armor you've got makes you all way stronger than the cheap bozos you actually are!"

Wendy noticed Natsu was arguing with them while delivering her important info at the same time, and she then realized he was also buying her more time to size-up their opponents; so that's exactly what she did.

She glanced past Natsu for a moment before re-examining the five ahead and around her, looking from her right to left.

First, there was a six-and-a-half-foot man that looked a lot like an orangutan, whose arms were disproportionately longer than his legs; and then there was a four-foot, ten-inch green-skinned woman with shaggy shoulder-length red hair and pointy ears. The third attacker was a nose and ear-less person with grey, leathery skin, two large black, pupil-less eyes; and aside from the leopard-woman that taunted them earlier, this third person was the slimmest in muscle tone from the rest of their attackers. The fourth enemy had green, rubbery skin and solid yellow, rectangular eyes. He had no hair or ears, and he stood at five-and-a-half-feet tall.

The last person Wendy looked at, who was a five-and-a-half-foot tall man with orange skin, human-shaped ears, golden eyes, and a small, flat mohawk of the same color atop his head, began to speak to Natsu next.

"Now listen here, you rude little runt. You should be more respectful when you're talking to your superiors!"

A few of their attackers made various sounds of agreement before Natsu argued with them again.

"If I had a Jewel for every time someone's said that..." He joked dismissively before partially bluffing,

"But you know what? If you guys could go ahead and form a line, I'd be more than happy to knock you all out one-at-a-time!"

Once again, a number of their enemy chuckled or scoffed at him; and there was at least one that was more offended than the rest. This time, it was the chitinous insect-man that spoke up.

"You are in no position to make demands, mortal." An old, deep, and raspy voiced rattled before it was directed at its owner's allies; but the two dragon slayers paid them no mind, as Natsu quickly mumbled something at a volume he hoped that only his friend could hear.

"Wendy, please tell me we've got some kinda plan here…"

The Sky Maiden blinked nervously while trying to avoid looking back at him as she whispered in response.

"What? I thought you had a plan, Natsu! That's why I let you do all the talking…"

At this point, the leopard woman was replying to her insectoid ally; and she ignorantly bought the pair of wizards more time to converse in the process.

"Really? Darn…" Natsu muttered, "Okay, well, I do have a few ideas; but I only got enough for half a plan."

"Half's better than nothing," Wendy remarked optimistically before asking him curiously, "Do you really think you can beat all of them like you said?"

"I dunno, maybe." He admitted before adding, "I might be faster than most of them, though. I just spent a year surviving fights with Goten and Trunks, and speed was kinda important there..."

Though she wished she could ask him more about that experience, the bluenette quickly set the notion aside before asking him another question.

"Yeah, I imagine it would be; but do you think speed's enough for a fight here? Or are we just planning on running?"

"I don't know… both, probably." Natsu answered cryptically as he noticed their enemies were finishing their own conversations, "We should do some kinda test, see how quick they are. Maybe I do that, and you cast some enchantments while I got 'em distracted?"

"My my, I think our prey's up to something…" the leopard woman finally noticed the pair's nearly silent exchange.

"Well that's rather rude, whispering in front of us like that." The blue man ahead of Natsu remarked with feigned annoyance.

"Hey, if you think that's rude," The fire mage quipped amusedly, "Watch this…"

As he spoke, the Salamander raised his right hand to chest-level while aiming his palm upward. Before the group around him could question his actions, small red-orange and yellow flames sparked from the tips of his fingers to spell out one brief phrase; and that phrase said, 'GO TO HELL'.

"Now," Natsu added with a toothy grin while still holding his hand up,

"What d'ya think of that, ya misshapen blueberry?"

The blue alien grit his teeth bitterly as a few of his comrades chuckled at the exchange.

"You arrogant little brat…" He grunted irritably before cocking his left arm back as he spoke, "You're going to pay for that!"

Forming a small blue ki sphere in his reared hand, the angered alien was about to throw the energy at his prey when Natsu suddenly flicked the fingers of his right hand forward; and the fiery wording above them instantly split into five small firebolts that shot towards the heads of each person before Natsu, along with a sixth that was aimed for the energy in the blue man's left hand.

Four out of the five tried to dodge the attack, and only three had varying degrees of success.

"Gah!" Natsu's would be attacker gasped as the energy in his hand and the fire in his face exploded simultaneously; and he staggered backwards a couple steps before he fully recovered, shaking his hand softly in an effort to sooth the stinging sensation in his palm.

The other person struck by Natsu's attack reacted much differently, however, as the brown armor-fleshed bug-man intended to take the hit; and Natsu could not help but be slightly impressed at seeing the insectoid standing tall and unflinching even as the smoke cleared from his forehead. Those firebolts may have been small, but they did pack a decent punch; and the blue man's pained yelp and staggering was evidence of such.

Upon seeing their allies get hit, the five before Wendy were briefly distracted once more as they watched the three small explosions; and the Sky Dragon Slayer took immediate advantage of the moment by beginning to cast as many enchantments on herself and Natsu as discreetly as possible.

"Arms, Ile Arms…" She chanted at barely a whisper's volume, "Armor, Ile Armor… Vernier, Ile Vernier…"

The Salamander smirked slyly as he noticed his body was beginning to feel exponentially lighter and stronger; but once he also realized that none of their attackers noticed the fluctuations in magic energy, he widened that smirk into a broad and devilish grin.

"Heh, they can't sense magic…" He chuckled just as Wendy finished saying 'Physical ability rise'; and the Sky Maiden nodded attentively, about to finish casting another enchantment when one of their attackers finally noticed they were speaking again.

"Hey! What are you two up to?" the short green woman ahead of Wendy called them out, "I can see you whispering over there!"

Natsu held his grin as Wendy went quiet, wondering what her friend was currently thinking.

"They might be casting spells," the grey-skinned alien pointed out with a young male voice that sounded vaguely electronic, "Master Cosmos said some of our targets would be wizards, remember?"

"We should kill 'em now," The man with orange skin chipped in, "Just to be safe…"

"You know, if you wanted to be 'safe'…" Natsu taunted the man as he gave Wendy a glance that she quiet and quickly deciphered, "You would never have picked a fight with us."

The next instant, Natsu's skin changed to scales while gold and orange flames began to swirl around him; and Wendy soon followed his lead, changing her hair and eyes to a bright pink as the air began to flow into a gentle vortex that shielded her from the heat of Natsu's magic. A few of their enemy shielded their eyes or squinted at the radiant display while the rest braced themselves for an attack; and the sight finally gave Wendy cause to wear the same confident expression as her friend, who made a ready stance as he spoke to her one more time before they he would start the fight.

"Remember: use magic to keep them back and aim for their heads when they get close. You ready?"

"I am." She answered promptly after taking a stance that mirrored her friend's.

"Good," He remarked hopefully before making a confident declaration,

"Now, it's time to show these idiots why Fairy Tail's nothing to screw with!"