It's Time pt. 2:

A/N: Yes, Persephone uses a very big vocabulary for a 3 ½ year old. That's the point.

"Geez, and here I thought she was your spitting image," Gray said as he sat across from Gajeel, pointing to Persephone who had ner nose stuck in a book.

"Yeah, me too," Gajeel nodded. "But nope! Levy started teaching them to read a few months ago. Persephone took to it like a fish to water, now I can't get her to put the books down."

Persephone wasn't listening to the two men. Instead she was focusing intently on the book in front of her: A Children's Guid to Fiore.

She stuck her tongue out as she let her feet kick back and forth underneath her. She, along with everyone else, had seen the whole fall-out between Farrah and Wakaba and Macao. Unlike everyone else, though, she had heard what the men had said prior to getting zapped. And now she had a plan. It was kinda a good thing Koree was sick today and had to stay home with Mommy. She would have wanted to come along, but this was somethign she and Cato had to do alone.

She peaked over the top of her book, frowning when she didn't see Cato coming back out of the hallway he'd retreated to, and went back to reading. What was taking him so long? Was he still crying? What a cry baby! Maybe her plan wasn't such a good idea…

She went back to reading. Onibus was the closest town to Magnolia. If she and Cato wanted to get there and back in one day they'd probably have to go there. She glanced over at her father. He was busy talking to Uncle Gray. He probably wouldn't notice if she slipped off for a minute to check the job board. She closed the book, left it on the table and tip toed off to the job board. He piercing red eyes gazed the hundreds of flyers in front of her until she found one with the name "Onibus" on it. She checked from one side, to the other. No one was looking. In a flash she'd ripped the flyer off, stuffed it in her pocket, and then ran back to the table and continued reading like nothing happened.

Persephone looked over the top of her book again. He still wasn't back!? Geez, how big of a cry-baby was h-oh, there he was! Cato came wandering back out of the hallway, hand-in-hand with Mirajane. Mirajane led him back to the table where he and Farrah had been sitting earlier, their toys and books still there. Persephone waited until Mirajane had left to go back to the kitchen, then she set her book under her arm and slid off the bench once again.

"Daddy, I'm gonna go play with Cato," she said.

"Al'ight, champ," Gajeel said, not even turning his head.

Persephone scampered to Cato's side and pulled herself up next to him. "Hey, Cato."

"Hey, Sephy," Cato returned.

"So they say it about you too?"

"Say what?" Cato asked.

"That you're a loser because you can't use magic," Persephone answered.

Cato rubbed his face on the back of his sleeve again.

"Don't be a cry baby!" Persephone snapped.

"I'm not!" Cato insisted, my nose is just itchy. And I'm not a loser. My Mama says I'll learn magic when it's my time."

"Yeah, my Mommy says that about me too, but they still call me a loser," Persephone sniffed.

"Yeah, it's not nice," Cato hung his head.

"So you wanna make them stop?" Persephone asked.

"How do we do that?" Cato asked.

Persephone checked around her again, then slapped the flyer she'd taken from the board on the table in front of him.

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's a job," Persephone said.

Cato gasped. "How'd you get a job."

"I took it."

"Sephy!" Cato gasped. "You can't just take a job!''

"Why not? The grown ups do it."

"But we're not grown ups, we're little!" Cato shoved the job back in her hands. "Put it back before we get in trouble!"

"We won't get in trouble," Persephone insisted.

"Yes we will!"

"No we won't. Besides, it's only a little one, see?" she pointed to the payment. "It's got a little number on it. The big jobs have big numbers."

"We'll still get in trouble!"

"Sh. Cato, listen," Persephone said as she pointed to the flyer. "This is a job in Onibus, that's close to here. So we can sneak there, do the job, and be back in no time. Losers can't do jobs. So if we do a job that means we're not losers and they gotta stop talking mean about us."

Cato's eyes narrowed as he thought. He pressed his lip into a firm line and began ringing his hands. "Well...I dunno…"

"You want them to stop talking mean about you, right?"

"Yeah…"

"So what's the problem?"

"I don't wanna get in trouble."

"I told you, Onibus is close. We don't have to go far. We'll be back before they know it."

"You sure?"

"Uh-huh."

Cato rang his hands again. "How we gonna get there?"

"We'll take a horse," Persephone answered.

"Can we do that?"

"Mommy and Daddy said they're for Fairy Tail wizards to use, an we're Fairy Tail wizards."

"Yeah, I guess so," Cato squirmed uneasily.

"So, you wanna go?"

Cato frowned and his feet as he thought. "Promise we won't get in trouble?"

"Promise."

He sighed. "Okay, let's go."

Persephone looked about her again, making sure no one was watching them before tucking the job and the book under her arm, grabbing Cato's hand, and leading him towards the back door. No one stopped them as they slipped outside and began heading towards the stables. No one even noticed they were gone until Farrah came trudging out of the kitchen back towards the table. She frowned when her little brother wasn't there.

"Uncle Gray? Uncle Gajeel? Did Cato come back?"

"Yeah, he's-" Gray pointed to the table, then frowned. "Well, he was just there."

"Um, where's my kid?" Gajeel asked, noticing Persephone had also slipped off.

"They were both just there," Gray scratched the back of his head as he stood up and began looking about. "Cato? Persephone?"

"Persephone? Sephy?" Gajeel called.

Farrah's brows furrowed. Where had he gone?

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"So, which one we gonna take?" Cato asked as he and Persephone slipped into the stable.

"Well, there's two of us so we need to take a big one," Persephone said as she began looking through the pens. "How about this one?" She asked, deciding on a rather large stallion.

"I dunno, he looks scary," Cato said.

"Don't be such a cry-baby!" Persephone scolded as she began climbing up on a barrel. "Look, he's even got one of those back thingies you sit on already on."

"Really?" Cato climbed up next to her. "Oh, yeah he does!"

"So let's go!" Persephone began climbing along the wall dividing the pens towards the horse's back. "Come on, we don't have all day!"

Cato cautiously climbed after her. Persephone waited until she got side-by-side with the saddle, then jumped and landed in it. The horse let out a loud bray and began stamping and thrashing.

"Whoa, horsey! Stop moving!" Persephone shouted as she began tugging on the reigns. The horse lifted up on it's hind legs, kicking it's front wildly.

"Cato, he won't stop!" Persephone shouted, eyes wide with fear. "Make him stop!"

"Whoa, horsey!" Cato called, reaching to grab the reigns. Once he had a hold of them the horse gave a jerk of his head, yanking him from his perch on the wall.

"Cato!" Persephone called. Cato clung to the reigns, dangling dnagerously close to the horses's hooves.

The horse continued bucking and kicking, neighing and braying loudly.

"Hey, what are you kids-" Frida's voice called just as the horse kicked the lock off his stall and raced out, barrelling past Frida, past the other horses, and out of the stables.

"Make him stop, Cato!" Persephone shouted.

"I can't!" Cato called back, still hanging from the reigns. "All I can do is hold on!"

"Why won't he stop! Stop horsey! We need you to go the other way!"

The horse kept running, and bucking, and kicking, making it very difficult for Cato to duck the blows. Strangely it got easier the longer he held on though. There was a pattern in the horse's movements. Run until he got ready to buck. When he was ready to buck, his breathing changed. When he wanted to kick his back legs he made a weird growly noise. And when he was ready to run again he took a deep breath. After a while Cato learned what to expect next, and could get ready to dodge accordingly.

As for Persephone, though, it was all she could do to not fall from the saddle. She had to cling to the horn of it with both hands, having to drop her book and the flyer in the process. She didn't care, though. All she wanted was to get off this crazy animal!

"Someone help us!" she shrieked.

"Just keep holding on!" Cato shouted at her.

"I'm trying!" Tears stung Persephone's eyes. This was not how she thought things would go!

A strong, large, hot, hand grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt and jerked her out of the saddle. A smiliar hand grabbed onto Cato and yanked him from the reigns. Both children squealed as they were pulled into the air. Persephone looked behind her and screamed even louder and the creature holding them. Cato only broke into a wide smile, though.

"Mama!"

Mirajane landed back on the ground before releasing her form, the horse now racing several feet ahead of her. She all but dropped the two children onto the grass as she fell to her knees gasping for breath.

"Mama, you saved us!" Cato cheered. Mirajane snapped her head up, eyes blaring. Cato gulped and took two steps back. Persephone also shuddered.

"What do you two think you were doing!?" Mirajane screeched. "Do you have any idea how lucky you are! If either of you had fallen off before I got to you that horse could have killed you!"

Cato hung his head. "I'm sorry, Mama."

"I'd hope so!" Mirajane scolded.

"We were just trying to go on a job," Persephone inisisted.

"Go on a job!?" Mirajane shouted just as Laxus, Gajeel, Farrah, and Gray caught up to them.

"Are they okay?" Laxus asked.

"I think so," Mirajane answered.

Gajeel raced to his daughter, fell down to his knees in front of her, and grabbed her a bit too roughly by the shoulders. "You have no idea how much trouble you're in young lady!"

"I was just trying to do a job," Persephone said, head hung and bottom lip quivering.

"Do a job!?" Gajeel thundered. "You can't even tie your own shoes yet and you thought you could do a job!"

Persephone sniffled as big tears rolled down her cheeks. "We just wanted them to stop calling us losers!"

"Huh?" Gajeel arched an eyebrow, not understanding.

"We thought if we could do a job they'd stop calling us losers because we can't do magic," Persephone cried.

Gajeel glanced over at Mirajane and Laxus, both of who wore concerned looks on their faces. He sighed as he turned back to his daughter.

"You don't have to prove yourself to anyone, Sephy. Especially not when it means putting yourself in danger."

"You two should no better than to try and go off on a job by yourselves," Laxus continued.

"Yes sir," Cato said with a quivering lip and Laxus knelt down in front of him, tucking a hand under his chin.

"What you did was incredibly dangerous, Cato. It's a miracle you made it out of there in one piece."

Cato hung his head again, bottom lip trembling. "Am I gonna get punished?"

"I think the scare you went through is punishment enough," Mirajane said. "But if ever see this kind of behavior again there will be consequences."

"You've got that right," Laxus nodded.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Ergh!" Laxus ran his hands over his face, collapsing against his and Mirajane's bed later than night. "What a day."

"Yeah," Mirajane nodded, brushing her hair.

Laxus sighed as he stared at the ceiling. "Maybe taking the old giezer up on his deal wasn't such a good idea…"
"This isn't your fault," Mirajane said.

"I know that. Still, maybe we should have waited until the kids were older."

Mirajane sighed as she set her brush down and walked to her husband's side, sitting down on the mattress and running her fingers through his hair. "They'd still be facing the same things they are now. Like you told Farrah, people will talk. There's nothing we can do about that."

"Still," Laxus muttered. "I didn't realize this whole not having magic yet was bothering Cato and Persephone so much. They're only four for crying out loud!"

"Peer preassure knows no age, I'm afraid," Mirajane grumbled.

"Yeah, I suppose," Laxus sighed. "I know before we'd agreed to just let the kids find their magic on their own as they grew, but maybe it's time we took a more hands-on approach with Cato."

"Maybe," Mirajane nodded. "But we've both tried teaching him out magic before and he wasn't able to do any of it."

"Not really," Laxus agreed. "Although it looked like he'd gotten the hang of a lightning blast for a minute last I tried, but he lost it as soon as he got it."

"You didn't tell me that," Mirajane exclaimed.

Laxus shrugged. "Didn't even last a whole second and he could never get it back."

"Hm…" Mirajane began chewing on her bottom lip. "I overheard the kids talking before I put them to bed. Cato said he kept from getting hurt because he learned to tell what the horse was going to do next."

"You mean predicting?"

Mirajane shook his head. "No, he said he noticed a pattern…"

Her eyes narrowed as she thought. Laxus waited for her to say something, but when she didn't he decided to change the subject.

"Gotta hand it to Persephone, though, that was a pretty complex plot for such a little girl to come up. I was surprised she could process and analyze so much info so efficiently at her age."

Mirajane nodded, only half-way paying attention. "Yeah, it was…"

Suddenly her eyes brightened. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Laxus asked, sitting up.

"I know what to do!" Mirajane declared, throwing her arms around Laxus' neck and kissing his cheek. "I know what to do! I know what to do! Yodle-lay-hee-hoo, I know what to do."

Laxus watched as she bolted out of their room. "Well, glad one of us does!"

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

The next week almost the whole guild left for Crocus. Mirajane and Levy had stayed side-by-side, chatting excitedly about the plan Mirajane had concoted for their children as everyone ate at the cafeteria in the resort they were staying. Gajeel and Laxus just shrugged at one another. Of course they'd been let in on the plot, but they weren't as enthusiastic about it as their wives, per the usual. As the two women chatted over their meals, a well dressed man approached them.

"Ah, hello there Dreyars," a soft, smooth voice came from behind them.

"Rufus!" Mirajane called, then gasped when she saw he was in a cast. "Oh, goodness, are you okay?"

"Quite fine," Rufus nodded. "Just suffered a small injury while on a job. I won't be able to compete this year because of it though, unfortunately. But seeing as fate has brought us together that seems to be for the best."

He turned and looked at Cato who was holding his mother's hand, hiding slightly behind her.

"So, is this my new pupil?" he asked.

"Yes," Mirajane gently pulled her son out from behind her. "Cato, this is Mr. Rufus. Rufus, this is Cato."

Rufus removed his hat and bowed lowly before the boy. "A pleasure to meet you, Cato."

"Say 'hi,' Cato," Mirajane said.

"Hi," Cato waved shyly.

"Cato, Mr. Rufus is going to be your new teacher," Mirajane said.

"He is?" Cato asked.

"Indeed," Rufus nodded. "I'm going to teach you the lost art of Memory Make Magic."

Cato gasped loudly. "I'm gonna learn some magic!"

"Quite," Rufus nodded, putting his hat back on his head and turning to Mirajane. "When can we get started?"

"Right now if you want," Mirajane smiled.

"Very well, let's begin," Rufus held his hand out for the boy.

"YAY!" Cato took Rufus' hand and he led the boy to a more open space upon the courtyard.

Mirajane smiled as she watched them go, before hearing another voice at their table.

"A pleasure to see you again, Levy."

"Hibiki!" Levy called. "I'm guessing you got my message?"

"Yes, sorry I couldn't reply," Hibiki said. "I was just getting back from a job. But I gladly accept your proposal."

"Oh, good! Hear that, Gajeel?"

"I heard," Gajeel smiled.

"So," Hibiki turned to the identical twin girls between them. "Which one of you is Persephone?"

Koree turned to her sister who was busy reading through a picture book on farm animals.

"Persephone," Levy tapped her daughter on the shoulder. Persephone looked up at her, an annoyed frown on her face. "Say hi to Mr. Hibiki."
Persephone turned, said a quick, "Hi," then went back to reading.

"Persephone," Levy tapped her on the shoulder.

The little girl glowered again and turned back to Hibiki.

"How would you like to learn how to use Archive Magic, Persephone?" Hibiki asked.

Persephone shrugged. "No other magics work for me, so why should that."

"Persephone!" Levy scolded, mortified. "That was rude!"

Hibiki only laughed, though. "Has quite the attitude, I see. That'll serve her well in life. Well, if you've tried a lot of different magics then one more shouldn't hurt anything, should it?"

Hibiki held his hand out. Persephone sighed, and looked up at her parents.

"Go on, you little sass-pot," Gajeel said.

Persephone closed her book, set it down with another sigh and let Hibiki lead her off to the courtyard.

"Oh, I hope this works," Levy said once they'd left.

"Me too," Mirajane nodded.

"Sure it will," Gajeel said. "Like Mira said, our girl's brains make her a shoe-in for archive. She'll take to it like a fish to water."

Two hours passed. The adults spent their time catching up with old friends, making predictions of how the games would go, bragging about their accomplishments over the past year. The children began making new friends and playing various games. Soon, however, the cafeteria was closing and it was time to go to their rooms.

Laxus, Mirajane, and Farrah walked onto the courtyard only to find Rufus and Cato heading their way. Cato was running as fast as he could, beaming with excitement.

"Mama! Papa! Look what I learned to do!" He closed his eyes, pressing a hand to either of his temples. "Memory make Ice Lance."

A white, frosty sword appeared hovering in front of Cato. The boy opened his eyes, and beamed when he saw it.

"See!" he cheered gleefully. "I can copy one of Uncle Gray's spells using my memory!"

He began jumping up and down. "I found my magic! I found my magic!"

"Oh, I'm so proud of you!" Mirajane applauded before leaning down to hug him.

Rufus beamed as he walked to Laxus, flourishing with his hand. "He's a natural!" he declared. "Such a fine memory and attentive mind. And at such a young age. He'll be stunningly good when he's older. I'm honored to have him as my pupil!"

"Thank you so much for doing this," Laxus said, shaking his hand.

"No, thank you!" Rufus said. "I've been scouring over the whole kingdom looking for the perfect student to pass my skills on to. And now I've found him."

Behind the happy Dreyars the Redfoxes came walking into the courtyard. As they stepped onto it they all stopped and blinked. In their minds appeared a small map of the courtyard, with a line pointing them to one of the back corners.

"What was that!?" Koree asked, clutching her head.

Gajeel and Levy exchanged glances, breaking into smiles as they raced to follow the map.

"Hey, wait for me!" Koree shouted, still utterly confused.

Gajeel and Levy ran towards a large planter in the corner indicated. They could hear giggles as they drew close. Hibiki and Persephone were bent down, hiding under it, smiling.

"You found us!" Persephone called. "I guess you saw my map!"

"We sure did!" Levy cheered, bending down to hug her daughter. "Oh, I knew you could do it!"

Hibiki beamed as he stood to greet Gajeel. "I've never seen someone pick up on how to use Archive so quickly. Give it a few years and she may even surpass me! She's a regular prodigy!"

"Hey, Koree!" Persephone called as she held out her hand. A glowing blue square appeared above it.

"Catch!" Persephone shouted, throwing it toward Koree.

"Oof!" Koree fell back as the square hit her in the chest.

"Persephone!" Levy scolded as Gajeel laughed.

"That's my girl!"

"Gajeel! Do not encourage this!"

Koree jumped back to her feet, smiling as she changed her hands into two metal blades. "Do it again!"

Persephone grinned, created another square and threw it. Koree sliced it in half with one of her blades. The girls gasped, then burst into giggles and did it again. And again. And again.

"Heh," Gajeel chuckled as he draped an arm over Levy's shoulder. "Well, what do you know?"

Levy just smiled. "I knew she'd find her magic eventually."

"Sure, we all did," Gajeel said. "Didn't think it be from lessons by a Blue Prissy, but whatever, it worked."

"I'm right here, I can still hear you," Hibiki muttered.