Working Title: Time

Genre: General

Rating: K+

"You'll want to talk to Nana," the young boy chirped, bouncing in place, his fingers still curled around his mother's. "She knows everything!"

"Hush, Darren," his mother soothed. She lifted her eyes back to the uncertain team and added kindly, "He's right that Nana may be able to help you, though. She's very old and experienced, with an impressive knowledge of the area. I don't know how helpful she'll be with getting you home, but she may be able to point you to these... mana spouts... you're looking for."

"Thank you," Matt sighed. "Where does this Nana live?"

"Just head straight through the village and follow the dirt trail up to the cliff side. Her home is carved into the stone at the base. Look for the flowers, you can't miss them."

The four nodded and continued walking. All around them, the villagers bustled about in lazy peace. A few kids could be seen chasing each other, a dog was laying in the shade not far from the children, sleepily keeping an eye on them. A few women were pinning up laundry for drying. Three men were working together to haul a frame for a house upright and held it in place while a slender woman nimbly clambered around the beams to lash them in place. It was a pleasant, calm village, and incredibly different from much of the rest of the world.

"How old and senile do you think this 'Nana' is?" Lance asked as they stepped out of the way of a trundling cart.

"Probably a generation or two older than the rest," Natalie mused. "I wonder if her name is actually Nana, or if that's just what the villagers call her?"

Matt shrugged, "I don't particularly care, as long as she can get us home."

"Hey, Lance, that kid looks like a mini you!" Anna suddenly laughed, pointing at a young boy sitting on a stone wall with a tangle of wires in front of him.

Shaggy red hair hung to the boy's ears and he was dressed in all black, and he couldn't have been older than nine or ten. It looked as though he was trying to figure out the best way to connect the wires in his hand to a small bulb and a steel box. Lance arched a brow at him and then shoved Anna.

"Please, I know better than to let wires get so tangled up," he scoffed.

Anna shoved him back, "I said he looks like you, not that he is you, jerk."

The boy abruptly lifted his head as if he'd heard them and twisted to look behind him in their direction. Dark blue eyes glared at them in an expression eerily similar to the gunner's before he gathered his tools and scraps up and leapt off the wall opposite of them, vanishing into a house.

"You don't have any illegitimate children running around, do you?" Natalie asked skeptically. "'Cuz that kid could totally be yours."

Lance flushed even as he glared at the mage. "Excuse you, but I'm careful when I take women to bed, thank you very much. So, no, I don't have any kids running around." He shuddered as though the mere thought of having children was repulsive.

"If you say so..."

The team was now past the village and trekking up a steady hill toward the looming cliffs. The path was well-worn with logs sunken into it for extra traction, and it didn't take them long at all to reach the crest. As they'd been told, flowers of all colors dominated the ground in front of the cliff. A simple wooden door was set in the stone, and vines grew all over the wall. Rows of vegetable plants were just blooming a short distance away, and a small fountain gurgled by a chair and a table.

An elderly woman was sitting in the chair. Her hair was pure white, and her skin was wrinkled and spotted from age. A loose gray dress hung off of slender shoulders, rustling in the breeze. She didn't move at all at their approach, her eyes closed and her head tilted back into the sun.

"That her?" Matt guessed quietly.

"Probably. She looks like she should have croaked ages ago," Lance muttered back.

"Quit muttering over there, squirts, and come greet me properly," the woman suddenly said in a croaking voice.

The four jumped guiltily and stared at her to see she was now staring back. Tired, faded-green eyes studied them, and a single wizened hand rose to beckon them closer.

"Come, come. I don't bite. Much. That's it, closer, now. The eyes don't work so well, anymore, and I like to know who I'm speaking to," the woman chided impatiently. She peered up at them as they finally moved to stand in front of her and she nodded wisely. "Ah... Lost your way, have you?"

Natalie started. "How'd you know?"

"Didn't those brats down there tell you anything? Old Nana knows everything," the woman cackled.

"Right..." Anna mumbled, exchanging a glance with Matt who was grinning and making a subtle cuckoo motion with one finger behind Lance's head. "So can you get us home?"

"I'm already home, can't you see that?" Nana chortled with raised brows, willfully missing their irritable looks. She shifted slightly, stretching her legs, before settling back again. "What do you think of them? Lazy, uninspired lot, eh?"

"They seemed happy to me," Natalie refuted. "Plenty of food, family, and friends."

"Yet not an inkling of true knowledge and wisdom! Not one has gone further than the river in two generations! Shameful."

"I doubt you've gone anywhere in two generation, old hag. Probably longer," Lance grunted. He yelped a second later when a cane smacked his leg, faster than he could see. "Hey, watch it!"

"You deserved that," Matt informed him with a grin.

"I've gone further than you, boy," Nana calmly revealed as though she hadn't just struck him. "You'll travel as far as I over your life, but at this point, I've gone further. Glacial peaks across the seas where sunlight lasts all day, deserts where the sand could scrub your skin from your bones, ancient ruins... So much you've yet to explore!"

"Uh, huh. So about getting us back?" Lance sighed impatiently.

"In due time. All in due time. Matt, be a dear and bring me a cup of water? Just inside on your left."

Matt started, "How do you...?"

"I know everything, remember? Your name is simple. Now get the water. Hurry up."

Matt hesitated for a moment longer before heading inside with a baffled expression. Meanwhile, Nana calmly ordered Lance to retrieve some chairs from a storage cave not far away, and coerced Anna and Natalie into weeding the garden. The team went about the tasks in a state of surprise while Nana watched them in amusement as she sipped on her drink.

"You've got a lot of junk in that cave," Lance stated when he came back with four folded chairs.

"Yes. Old, useless garbage, now, but precious mementos. I let the little ones in the village dig through there every spring and bits and pieces vanish, but never enough to empty it out."

"Mementos of your journeys?" Natalie asked as she wiped her hands clean in the fountain.

"Some. A few are keepsakes of dear friends of mine. A toy or two are from my late husband, along with a mountain of his junk."

"Why live up here by yourself? Aren't any of the people down there your children?" Anna asked.

"Of course. All of my children settled here, though none live there now. I have many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, of course, but they don't have much time for relics," Nana agreed in a wistful tone, her eyes distant as she looked towards the village. She shook herself and shrugged. "I'm happier here, entertaining the kids with tales and toys—and they don't nag me that I'm going to croak any day now. It won't be for much longer, anyway."

"Are you sick?" Matt asked uncertainly. "You look pretty good for your age."

"Ha! I look like a wrinkled prune, but thank you for the effort," Nana laughed. "I'm healthy enough for now, but everything stops eventually, even stubborn, hundred and forty-five-year-old, women. Gotta make it another five to win my bet, though."

"Bet?" Anna repeated curiously.

"My rotten twit of a husband said I wouldn't make it past fifty, and I told him I'd do him three times better," Nana chuckled. She flexed her fingers with a faint wince and added dryly, "I imagine he's laughing at me. Would have been a lot easier and left a much prettier corpse if I'd died at fifty. If someone tells you making it to one hundred is impressive, let them know you met a crazy old lady who made it half again as old and says it isn't all it's cracked up to be, and regretted it."

"I'll keep it in mind," Lance snorted. "Now about getting back home?"

"Tsk. So impatient! Can't even spend twenty minutes keeping an old woman company?" Nana tutted. Still, she pushed herself upright and leaned heavily on her cane. "Adventures wait for no hero, though. Come on, then. Before I send you on your way, I must give you a gift."

The four followed the stooped, hobbling woman inside. Shelves lined with books and knickknacks covered the walls, and plants grew in every room. Glowing crystals lit the space, and the air smelled faintly of baking and herbs. Nana hobbled past the rooms to a small storage room where she tapped a box on a shelf above her head with her cane. It was small and ornately carved, and clearly very old.

"I meant to move it down before you arrived, but no matter," Nana sighed as she accepted the box when Matt retrieved it for her.

She then sat down on a large truck with the box on her lap. The hinges creaked when they were opened and inside, under a folded paper, sat four identical pendants made of smoothed crystal. Nana reverently ran a single finger over the stones, lost in thought, then offered them to her guests.

"These are yours," she murmured. When the others hesitated, she shook the box slightly. "Take them! Keep them close. They will help you, protect you. You will need them to return home."

Finally, Anna carefully pulled one from the box. A fine chain made of mythril links tumbled loose and she stared at the stone, feeling a gentle humming from it, then clasped it around her neck. The others did the same, though with airs of immense confusion. Nana set the box aside and beamed at them.

"Heartstones are rare, so don't lose them," she lectured. "I received one after a most strange adventure and it served me well for the rest of my life until I retired. Simple mark and recall spells, wards, charms, and vitality spells are woven into the stone and chain. They will surely prove useful to you. Ah, and for you, Anna."

Anna started as the folded paper was thrust into her hands.

"Don't open it just yet! Wait until you're home. Everything will... well, not make sense, perhaps... but it will make more sense than things do now. Do try to avoid fluctuations in your futures."

In the next moment Nana's entire form glowed and the storage room was illuminated by a bright flash of light. When the light cleared, Nana was alone.

"Ah, to think I looked that good once," she breathed to herself through a laugh as she stood up. "And to think he was ever such a rude jerk. Oh, wait, he always was."

Her feet led her to her bedroom where she relaxed into her sheets with a tired sigh.

"Well, I've played my last part. Never thought the spell would be so tiring, though..." she murmured as she rolled into her side to stare at a faded photograph on her side table.

Bright green eyes sparkled back at her a little below happy crimson ones. Anna stood in the photograph with Lance's arm around her waist and a bundle in her arms. Around their necks were the pendants they'd just received. Nana smiled slightly and shut her eyes.

"I suppose a hundred and fifty was bragging, wasn't it, Lance?" she sighed. "You got the last laugh after all."

And with a soft exhale, Anna finally passed from the world.

OOOOOO

Elsewhere, the team was standing in an empty cave. Sunlight guided them outside and they blinked in a confused sense of deja vu at the sight below. A flat grassland stretched out before them with a winding river just visible to the south.

"Are we back?" Natalie finally asked, stepping a little further forwards.

"Dunno, but if we have to hike back to the batty old woman, I'm gonna be pissed," Lance growled.

Anna blinked a few times before her eyes narrowed. "Wait... We haven't gone anywhere. See? There's that canyon we crossed."

Matt shaded his eyes and peered in the direction Anna was pointing. "Huh, it might be. Where's the village, though?"

"Maybe that note Nana gave you can help us?" Natalie suggested after a moment.

Anna looked down at the paper and unfolded it. A split second later and her eyes widened in shock and she sucked in a sharp breath. "It... It's us..."

"What?" Lance asked in confusion as he stepped up to her side to peer over her shoulder.

Matt and Natalie crowded close to see for themselves and all of them stiffened. The note was, in fact, a worn and yellowed photograph of the team in Greenwood. Each of them were grinning at the camera with varying gestures of victory and success. Behind them was the altar of Greenwood with the Jewel on top of it.

"Wait..." Anna murmured as she dug into her adventure pouch. She pulled out another photograph, one she and the others had had taken after they'd beaten Godcat, and held it up beside the one she'd received from Nana. They were the same picture.

"Wait, then Nana..." Natalie whispered in surprised comprehension.

"No way..." Matt breathed. "Isn't time travel impossible?"

Lance remained staring at the two photos as he murmured, "In theory, no. The means haven't been discovered, and the people who've tried generally haven't survived, though. Which means we are beyond stupidly lucky."

Anna's hands were trembling as she re-folded the photos. Nana was her, only over a hundred years in the future. She hadn't even recognized herself, and her brain still had a hard time comprehending the entire idea.

"I- I think I need to sit down," Anna mumbled. And she did just that, collapsing to sit in the grass, staring at her knees. "One hundred and forty-five... gods, how the hell do I manage that?"

Lance snorted, "Really good genetics? Don't worry about it, Anna. You're barely in your twenties. You've got a whole hundred and thirty years to figure it out."

"They weren't all my... grandkids... were they?" Anna wondered aloud, not entirely listening. "I don't even want kids!"

"Again: you're barely in your twenties. It's a little early to be thinking about kids, and you might change your mind about the idea later. Quit worrying about it. You'll probably screw everything up by trying to match the future, anyway."

Anna opened her mouth to protest, but shut it again. Maybe Lance was right, she mused. Nana- she- whatever... nothing had been said to indicate that she should be trying to mold herself into some kind of role. Besides, she apparently had a ton of exploring to do, still. It seemed like everything had worked out in the end, anyway. She'd been respected, comfortable, and in close contact with her immediate family, even if she'd outlived her future... past... whichever... husband.

"You're right. After all, who knows if I'll even make it to that future?" Anna sighed as she stood up again.

"Exactly. Now come on, if we're actually back in our world, then it's going to be a long hike back to civilization," Matt encouraged.

A/N: Just a little thing that's been floating around on my iPad. It will never be finished, nor added to, but it was fun to write and an interesting, if slightly cliché, idea.

Writing for my chapter fics is going very slowly, but I've got about 3k words down for SotB with a goal of 5k, so hopefully an upload soon. Sorry for the delays, and for any of you worried I've gone MIA or on unspoken hiatus. I have a super duper long thing I've been working in that I may throw up here pretty soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Replies to guest reviewers:

Little Follower: You, um, double posted several weeks apart. How'd that happen? 0.o

I have over half a dozen back stories for Matt. XD He has nothing in the games, yet, so he's easy to write back stories for. On a related note: you may be happy to hear I've started passively writing a Brawl Royale fic, where Matt has a back story as a gladiator.

Yeah, I can't stay away from the angst for long. :P I live for it. XD

Sexy Times with a trauma victim is just ick, so matter where it happens—hot springs included. I've been focusing on romantic fluff for a long while now, so it's good to hear I'm doing well there. :3 As for the writing style, Vinyard was the start of my more refined/polished writing, which I more or less stuck with. Most of my uploads will read more like it.

Jason: Hahaha! Nice sum up. XD

Anonymous: Thank you! I do all my own editing now, so I'm glad I'm catching the majority of the errors. :3