Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail

Lucy and the others from Fairy Tail had been in Vistarion for about a week when Invel disrupted Levy's lunch with them rather suddenly. "I'm sorry to intrude, but it appears as if our assumptions may have been incorrect regarding his majesty." Levy froze, her eyes widening.

"I…I'm sorry? But that's…" She trailed off. Invel hadn't seen the body. So, he could at least try and make some sort of case for him being alive. Yet, Levy had been doing well. With her friends here, she'd been able to go back to being herself, at least a little bit. She'd somewhat neglected her initial workload as a result of her issues, but now that she was feeling better, she was starting to see exactly how much Zeref dealt with. She had no idea how he managed to get caught up on years' worth of legislative work, let alone finished all of his tasks for the day in time to spend afternoons with her. It gave her a new respect for what he'd done, along with a bittersweet appreciation for his easy agreement to spend more time with her.

Invel nodded. "I know, I made a strong case against this before, however, I've just received word of a strange rumor from Kingston. It appears as if his majesty has ordered the entire city to evacuate. Shishka, as well, seems to be following the same orders."

"They're…both near here, aren't they?" Invel nodded, and she frowned. "But…why? Is he planning to evacuate Vistarion as well?"

"I'm not entirely certain. Something must have happened, for him to act so suddenly."

Yet, it made no sense. She'd seen the body, without the marking on his chest. Was…was it possible for it to be Edolas' Zeref after all? "Well, hey, isn't this great news! I mean, my brother's still alive." Natsu grinned, looking over at Levy. "Which means you don't have to quite the guild yet! See? It all works out, right?"

"Natsu." Lucy sighed, glancing over at Levy. "Look, I know it might be hard to believe, but you know Alvarez better than us. Do you really think they'd listen to an imposter? Or that anyone would actually pretend to be him, just to get people out of a few towns?"

They…no, from what she knew, they'd be too afraid to pretend to be Zeref. Which meant—Levy inhaled slowly, her eyes wide. Her chest hurt, and it almost was too much, trying to hope for this, after accepting that he was gone. "I need to try and talk to him. I need to—"

"Levy." Invel spoke. "You know why we can't."

She did. Her head hung, and she slowly took a breath. "Right." Yet, she needed to hear from him, so badly. Dimaria walked in, seeing them gathered and moving to get something to eat.

"Hey. Haven't seen you out of the office much with everything going on." Dimaria narrowed her eyes at her. "You aren't avoiding me, are you? Because that's something only a coward would do, you know."

"I'm not avoiding you, Dimaria."

"Good." The blond sat down next to her, smiling. "Then you won't mind me joining you all? As much as I get irritated with these weak wizards from that guild of yours, I probably should get used to them hanging out around here."

"Hey! You wanna call me weak again? I'll show you exactly what I can do." Natsu glared at her, flames dancing along his fists.

With a grin, Dimaria clicked her teeth. Levy wasn't certain what had happened, but Natsu was suddenly on the floor, while Dimaria remained by her side. "Yup, that's quite an impressive trick there. I can't say I've seen someone fall out of a chair so skillfully before in my life."

Unable to stop herself, Levy smiled, chuckling slightly. It was like Dimaria was almost being playful with them. It reminded her of the guild, especially when Natsu got back up and tried to fight again, only for the same result to happen. "Will all of you stop playing around and focus? We—" Invel broke off, while Dimaria frowned, pulling out a lacrima. "Dimaria! I was just trying to—"

"Yeah, yeah, tattle to August about me later." She leaned back, frowning at the image. Then, she stiffened, her eyes growing wide. "Y-your majesty?"

"Dimaria, I need to keep this brief…I'm not certain if I'm far enough away or not." The time wizard nodded, shaking her head and leaning forward. Yet…Levy heard that voice. She sagged in her seat, her eyes locked on the lacrima connected to Zeref. He was alive. Somehow, he really was still alive. "The time rift has become unstable, and is now in Alvarez. I need you to gather the old research notes…and tell me at what point you'd be incapable of stopping it."

"Hold on, the time rift is here? Our models showed that it was going to move to Bosco next!"

"And someone interfered, hence the lack of stability."

She glared, before shaking her head. "Alright, fine, I'll grab them. Talk to your girlfriend while I do, she's probably having a panic attack over here right now."

"Having a—why?" Dimaria didn't answer, only shoved the lacrima into Levy's hands and stormed out. Zeref stared at Levy, and even if it was only over a lacrima, she couldn't deny the relief that came from seeing his face. "Levy? What…did something happen? I know…I know you had reason for concern, given the sensory link, but I thought you'd realized it had broken and that all was well."

She shook her head, swallowing. "I…I thought you were…" She swallowed, shaking her head.

"Levy?"

Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward. "Everyone here said you were likely…dead." Zeref seemed to stiffen at that, his eyes widening. "I…I didn't want to listen to them. I know what you can do, and thought you'd be okay…but that…then I found…" She broke off, inhaling slowly. Her gaze flickered towards Invel, realizing he still didn't even know this much. "I thought I found…you. But…I think it…somehow, it must've been the you from…Edolas…"

He was quiet, his face pale as he gazed at her. "If…why didn't you attempt to contact me? Levy, I…if I had known, I would have…"

She shook her head. "We didn't know what was wrong. That draining spell, or whatever it was, it only reacted when magic was used, right?" He nodded slowly. "August thought it'd be dangerous, so I didn't do anything. And with what we found, it just, it made it seem like…"

"I'm sorry." Zeref sighed, his head hung low. "I…I wish I was with you, to help…do something. Right now, I…I don't know what to say."

Levy just shook her head. "It's fine. It's not like you knew or anything…" She trailed off, her eyes widening. "But…you'll probably, uh, hear about it soon…maybe."

His brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone here thought you were dead." He blinked, his eyes widening.

"What…what did Invel do?" So, he remembered that much at least. "Please tell me he at least took my advice under consideration for…hiding away my passing, when possible."

She nodded. "He did, but you also told him to gradually introduce the new ruler, too." Zeref nodded. "Which…was done by claiming…" She trailed off.

With a sigh, Invel approached. "My apologies for the unnecessary conflicts this will cause upon your return, but it seemed necessary, given the circumstances."

"Invel. What did you do?"

"I named Levy as your empress." Zeref stared at them, frowning.

"It…I believe I am missing something."

"…and, to do so properly without objection, I declared your marriage to the public."

Zeref was silent. He watched Invel, taking in a deep breath. Then, he seemed to shake his head. "It…we'll deal with that another time, if…this doesn't prove to be as impossible of a task as I believe it to be." He paused, glancing over at Levy. "Are…have you been alright then?" Levy nodded, and he smiled faintly. "Good…so long as that is true, then we can move past this for now. The time rift is the larger issue…I need you to prepare Vistarion for the need to evacuate. While the danger has not quite spread that far, it will not take long for it to do so at this rate."

"Of course." Invel glanced over at Levy. "And…for Levy?"

"The title has already been announced publicly. Undoing that now would not be of benefit to anyone, and I see no reason to take away her authority for now." He glanced over at Levy. "So long as she does not object to the idea for now, that is."

"We'll…deal with it later, right?" Zeref nodded. Taking a deep breath, Levy glanced at Invel. "Then I'm fine with leaving things as they are for now too." She paused, glancing at Zeref. "So, what exactly is—" The door opened, and she broke off. Dimaria returned, pushing aside plates and scattering a handful of papers on the table.

"Alright, you said you needed to know my limits on closing the rift, right?"

He nodded. "It is already unstable…that much has past. Yet, if there is a chance you still can…" He paused. "And…estimate your abilities with the assistance of an arc of time wizard, one who has utilized last ages recently. I've been gathering allies that may prove useful in this situation, should it worsen."

"I'll add in August too, at that rate, since he might as well have my magic with his own skills." Zeref nodded, and Dimaria paused. "And you?" Again, Zeref nodded. "Alright then. I'd say…the energy really isn't a limiting factor in terms of closing it. That is always gonna be a pain to deal with, but it won't expend anything extra to deal with it, regardless of how much there is. Ideally, I'd like to get it when it is lower, but that's not likely to happen with an unstable—"

"It is currently unable to relocate, based on my observations."

She froze, and Levy wondered what was wrong. "It…can't move?" Zeref nodded. "Damn you, Zeref! Why the hell didn't you actually listen to my advice before?" The black wizard actually flinched, and Dimaria slammed her fist down on the table. "I could have stopped this, before it became a problem! Do you know what it means if that thing can't move?"

"It means it cannot gather enough energy to transport its mass and density of ethernano…"

"Exactly." She glared at him, placing a hand on her hip. "And at that point, I don't care what numbers you have to represent that thing right now. I can tell you I'm not powerful enough to handle it…and if I'm not strong enough, there isn't a time mage in all of Earthland who could."

"Could you…have handled it in the past?"

"I just said I could have, damnit! Listen for a—" She broke off, and Zeref let out a slight gasp. His gaze flickered upward, his eyes widening.

"It…I'm too…close." He grimaced, staring at the lacrima. Yet…Levy watched him drop to the ground, falling over. She could hear his labored breathing, and she stiffened.

"Zeref…Zeref! Don't—cut off communication, stop using magic. It'll make it stop, so just—"

"Too late…" He rolled over, gazing at Levy with a small smile. "I'm sorry…I love you…Levy." The lacrima cut off, and she stared at it, tears filling her eyes. She'd just gotten him back, just realized he wasn't gone. Yet, it seemed like that was too much to ask for.

The room was silent. "Levy…" Lucy walked over, but Levy only shook her head. They were wrong before, so she was wrong now. Zeref was alive, just exhausted. Yet, Dimaria looked grim, glaring at the lacrima. In a sudden motion, she lifted the thing, throwing it at the wall across from them. It shattered like crystal, falling down onto the floor in glittering shards. Her hands stayed by her sides, clenched into fists. Meanwhile, Lucy just kept rubbing Levy's shoulders, hugging her tightly.

"Let go of her." Dimaria growled over at Lucy, yet the celestial wizard shook her head. However, Dimaria wasn't taking no for an answer. She shoved Lucy back, and Levy stumbled, only to have her arm grabbed by Dimaria. "You're coming with me, because there's no way in hell I'm letting that idiot get out of this so easily. He made this mess, and he even had a solution…but the damn idiot wouldn't bother to use it."

What? She stared at Dimaria, letting her drag Levy through the castle. She was muttering under her breath, and eventually stopped when they were in another office. She slammed the door shut, and began digging around the room. "It's your fault too, you know. If it wasn't for you, at least he would have used the damn thing. Now, that's our only option if we want to stop it."

"Stop…stop what? And why do we need to even bother?"

"Because, an unstable time rift has the capability of tearing this world apart." Dimaria scowled. "There's a number of things it could do, really. It could force us all to live in limbo, where time doesn't exist. It could just randomly swap timelines, overlapping contradictory pasts and mixing people from each one. It could do something similar with different dimensions, again, unpredictably mixing people from them and spreading them out as it pleases. It could also just act as a drain on the world, eating away at it to feed itself. Or, it could combine any of those things into one…time rifts, in essence, are unpredictable and that's why I wanted to get rid of it sooner, rather than later."

Levy felt cold. How…how bad was it already then? Zeref must have realized it was happening, and was trying to get people away from it. So…the rift was somewhere between Vistarion, Shishka, and Kingston…but she didn't know exactly where. "And if you can't close it…"

"Then we need a massive spell to use it up, fast." Dimaria pulled out a binder, dropping it on the table. "And this right here is exactly the spell we need…the only one I'm aware of that uses the energy of a time rift in its completion." Levy felt…sick. She knew what that spell was. It was…the spell she'd made Zeref promise not to use.

"This…this is…my fault. I stopped him from using it…"

"Yeah, boohoo." Dimaria shoved the book at her. "Instead of crying about it, why don't you do what you did a week ago when you were given your title? Stand tall, and act. Zeref can't cast the spell anymore. So, let me ask. Do you know of anyone who might be willing to do it in his place?"

Levy gazed down at the book, taking a deep breath. This time…it was her Zeref that was gone. She was certain of that much. Already, she'd planned to learn his living magic from his notes. She'd started, even, just glancing at a few books in the library here. But this was the very spell Fairy Tail had fought an entire war to stop. Guilds all across Fiore had united against this goal and she was being asked to revive it once more. If she did this, it would mean making herself an enemy of the guild. She'd lose every chance of ever returning.

Yet, what if she didn't? Dimaria had told her what the rift might do. Her inaction would make things far worse, likely killing them or condemning them to a fate where no one was happy and chaos ruled. "I…I'll try."

"Good." Dimaria nodded, turning around. "I'll work on preparing the army then again, got it? Because there's no way we're getting anywhere without Fairy Heart." She paused, glancing back at her. "And…I'll contact Irene for you too, just because I'm so nice and all that. You'll need her to enchant that energy into you, so it can be brought back to Alvarez with ease."

She nodded, staring down at the book as Dimaria left. The pages were open, and inside, she could see delicate handwriting, detailing notes of the original Eclipse Gate. Skimming through, she saw that there was a point where it switched to describing changes for Neo Eclipse. With a sigh, Levy sat at the desk and pulled out her speed reading glasses. She'd need to get through this fast, before she talked herself out of this plan and doomed others because of a sacrifice she wasn't certain she wanted to make.

And with all of this, Levy's own plans are starting to shift as well. This is only the start of Levy's struggles in this story, and I hope you are interested in seeing where this goes. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!