You guys are amazing!

I don't own the Star Wars quote that is admittedly so overused it's kind of cliché. Or Wizard of Oz. There's a lot of pop culture references in this…

As always, I don't own FT or the Pradesh family.

"They're an interesting pair," Arman said, sitting down next to Lucy on the second floor of the guildhall. Following the attack in Malaren, Arman had decided that it was better if he came to them in White Sea versus them going to Pelerno.

"I know."

Rhiannon and Vander were sitting at an elevated table in the bar area of the first floor. They'd been in one of the privacy booths together with another mage. It wasn't how Arman had thought they'd be when he'd found out his youngest son had been claimed by a dragon slayer.

*.*.*

"Hi," Arman greeted Rhiannon, kissing her cheek. Before getting there, Vander had warned him about her relationship with her own father as well as how skittish she might be.

"Hi."

Unable to resist, he swept her up in a hug. She stood frozen with a terrified look at Vander and Lucy.

"Welcome to the family," he said, cupping her cheeks.

*.*.*

"They're kinda perfect for one another though," Lucy said. "He's not ready to settle down. And Rhia never planned to take a mate. She doesn't have as much the territorial instinct that the rest of us have. It gives him a freedom he wouldn't have had with any of the rest of us."

"Am I going to get grandbabies out of them?"

"Probably not for a while," she said with a smile at him.

"And you, daughter-in-law?"

"We're going to be fighting dragons and you're asking me if I'm planning on having children in the immediate future?"

Arman frowned. "I suppose not."

"And sorry, but Levy thinks that with a queen in place, no one will be impregnated until I am."

"Is that so?" His brow furrowed when he saw her smile. "There's one already pregnant, isn't there?"

"Hm…" was all she'd say.

"Will you at least tell me if any of my children are pregnant?"

"They're not," she acknowledged. "She should start noticing the symptoms soon."

He turned his attention back to Vander and Rhiannon. "I'm surprised you're giving them this time. I know you've been antsy with the string of attacks."

She didn't say anything. So far, most hadn't realized the connection between the strings of attacks similar to the one in Malaren. Theirs in Bosco and one in Fiore had been the least devastating. Seven had lost over three hundred to them. Farron's trip to Desierto had been postponed following an attack there.

"Nobody else has noticed the pattern."

Kaleb had created a program on her tablet that automatically added a marker for any similar attacks once she realized the pattern after an attack in Seven. It was still up on her tablet.

"I wouldn't say that. Farron's been quelling fires amongst concerned ambassadors for the last three days."

"She needed a chance to figure out her relationship with Van," Lucy said softly. "We're meeting up with the other slayers tonight."

"You're relying on her a lot for this."

"I have to. She knows Acnologia better than any of us."

.~*~.

Zen had decided to fly home from White Sea after lunch with his family. He was flying over the forests that separated Pelerno from Malaren when he felt it. His father didn't know about him flying to Acadame Celestine after Lucy had given him Andromeda's key. Even separated from her key holder, Andromeda was able to summon herself to talk to him. It had been her idea to see if he could learn the different magical signatures of the various types of celestial mages.

Andromeda was his first friend. She was the only one that didn't constantly tell him to slow down. Instead, she listened to his need to push himself. That's why, when she did tell him to slow down, he tended to listen. Such as her telling him that he should wait to go to Acadame Celestine with his father. The flying meditation was his idea, but she always warned him not to fly too far from home.

*.*.*

Andromeda's double whip defense ricocheted his sharpened feathers back at him. That had always been one of his sure-fire attacks. To nearly have it kill him… He gritted his teeth as they hit his wings. He was the Dark Eagle, the most lethal gladiator in Skys Reach.

"You're not trying hard enough," she said, the whips disappearing as she put her hands on her hips.

It was also disconcerting to be told off by a twelve-year-old.

"According to Grandpa Crux, you should be able to heal and to create a flaming sword. Or convert a normal sword into a flaming one. The books aren't especially clear on that."

"I'm trying."

"Do or do not. There is no try." She summoned a sword from Perseus's armory and tossed it to him. "Again."

Ultimately, he was glad his siblings were busy because they would never have let him live down how many times he'd had his ass handed to him by a twelve-year-old girl that was less than half his size regardless of the fact that she was a thousand year old spirit.

*.*.*

He landed in the clearing where the woman from Malaren sat. On the chain around his neck, he could feel Andromeda's key heating up as she tried to warn him away. He gripped it to let her know that he received her warning.

"This seems a little out of the way if you're trying to kill people," he said. Once again, he noticed that she was beautiful. She'd chosen a Boscan style of dress with translucent covering over bra and leggings. He hated how easily he was physically attracted to her.

"Never said that was the goal."

"Then what was the point of Malaren?"

"A demonstration? To make a point?" She shrugged. "I didn't make that decision."

"But you're the reason why there was no dead children." He watched as she flinched at that. Someone had not been pleased with that. "Why are you here?"

"To talk."

"You can't compel me," he said, feeling the key on his chest heat up.

"Who said that was what I was here to do? Don't get me wrong-" she stood up and dusted herself off- "I am here for you. But you'll come with me on your own."

"No, I won't," he said, resisting the urge to watch how the covering shifted on her body. His daily Sudahpah lessons were apparently not enough.

"What reason do you have to stay?" she asked. She walked up to him but was careful to not come close enough to touch.

"I have family. Why would I give up my freedom to go with you?"

"Are you sure you're free? Or did you give up one cage for an admittedly more gilded one?"

"No."

"Society. Familial expectations. Are you truly free to be you?" A slow smirk crossed her face. "I bet they changed you, didn't they? Are you still the fearsome Dark Eagle?"

"That's not who I want to be."

"And who do you want to be? The man that lost his woman to his brother," she scoffed.

"How do you know so much?"

She smiled widely, and he saw the sharpened canines of a dragon slayer. "I have my ways."

"I should kill you where you stand for Malaren."

"Maybe, but you won't. Even if your magic allowed it, your heart never would." She stepped away from him. "You'll come with me."

"No, I won't."

"I didn't say this time." Her lips pursed at a thought. "But trust me when I say, I'm the lesser of two evils."

"I don't trust you."

"Smart man. I'll be back here in two days. Like I said, I'm the lesser of two evils." She pulled out the teleportation lacrima and disappeared.

.~*~.

Rhiannon stood in the back of the living room of the Fairy Tail house as Lucy had started calling it. All the slayers were present. Chelia, Levy, and Vander were the only mages present that weren't dragon slayers. Lucy had muttered that she'd really need to spend time with the others before they got too antsy. Or caused trouble.

"You're nervous," Vander commented.

"Shut up," she retorted. Her accent was still noticeable and still distinctly Caelish, but it was no longer so thick that it kept people from trying to talk to her. Vander made a mental note to ask Farron to teach him Caelish since he'd learned that his new mate talked in her sleep.

He yanked her down into his lap. "Why are you nervous?"

"Because what we're about to do is dangerous."

"Which you won't tell me though I can't decide if it's because you think I'll try to talk you out of it or not."

"Ye like dangerous. Ye'll probably enjoy it," she muttered.

He kissed the back of her neck softly. "Probably," he said, smiling when his breath sent a shiver down her spine. "We should talk about handcuffs."

"Hm. On ye or me?"

"Either."

Lucy walked over to them and plopped down next to them on the couch. "How ya feeling? Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Rhiannon muttered. She stood and Vander whistled for everyone's attention. Rhiannon and Lucy both shot him a grateful smile. "I don't think the original dragon parents are dead."

The sounds from Natsu, Gajeel, and Sting were loud while Wendy and Rogue silently gawked.

"Well, not Weislogia and Skiadrum. I'm sorry. The earth knows everything and there are nae remains for Igneel, Grandeeney, or Metalicana anywhere on Earthland." She looked at Lucy. "I think Draco can explain it better."

Lucy summoned Draco. The spirit looked around before his gaze settled on Rhiannon.

"It's time, isn't it?"

"Aye."

"Four hundred years ago, a plan was made to defeat Acnologia. The dragons that supported cohabitation with humans were dwindling. Acnologia's rampage turned dragons who originally sided with us to the other side. Many considered him proof that dragons and humans couldn't cohabitate. When the dragons that still sided with us fell, we caught a piece of their souls, of their magic, in lacrimas." Draco's gaze stopped on each of the second-generation dragon slayers.

"As a precaution, the dragons shared our instinct to mate. Acnologia and his generation didn't have that compulsion. It's also why most of you didn't claim other dragon slayers. The idea was to give the slayers someone that could ground them. To remind them to be human."

"What does this have to do with Igneel being alive?" Natsu demanded.

Draco turned to Lucy. "Igneel's whelp?"

"Yup."

"Five orphans were trained in dragon slaying magic. There wasn't enough ethernano in the air so when it came time, these children would be sent into the future. To keep Acnologia from destroying the world in the interim, the five dragon parents concocted a plan to trap him. Weislogia and Skiadrum used their life force to create a pocket dimension before having their two slayers kill them to ensure that their magic would end up in the lacrimas they placed in you. Igneel, Grandeeney, and Metalicana managed to trap Acnologia in that pocket dimension. But even they knew that it would only be a matter of time before Acnologia broke free."

"How do we get to this pocket dimension?" Gajeel asked through clenched teeth.

"That's where I come in. An' Vander," Rhiannon said. "I've been working on this for years." She picked up a jar with blue and white powder inside. "This is powdered lacrima an' ethernano crystals. Gajeel, Wendy, an' Natsu will breathe into the jar an' charge the crystals. These will act as a compass directing us to the proper pocket dimension."

"Are we all going?" Wendy asked.

"No," Vander said. "I can only take one person at a time and Rhia will tether me back to Earthland so that I don't end up in another realm."

"Why did we need to be here?" Sting asked.

"Acnologia is as tied to that dimension as any of yer dragons. He'll sense our presence there."

"Will he attack White Sea?" Cristoff asked. "Should we do this somewhere else?"

"I dinnae think it'll matter. Zeref wants to conquer Ishgar and he's using Acnologia to soften us up."

"How much of their plan do you know?" Meredy asked.

Cristoff, who was standing behind Meredy, stroked his hands down her arms and intertwined their fingers. He knew that Grimoire Hearts' actions on Tenrou Island were part of how they got there. Once they'd found out that Acnologia and Zeref had partnered, she'd started having nightmares. He knew that she was waiting for him to blame her.

"Don't," he whispered.

"Not enough," Rhiannon said. "Acnologia knows enough of my abilities to know to have most of his conversations inside. Or, more often than nae, through Emery."

"Emery? Is that the woman from Malaren?" Cristoff asked.

"Most likely. She kind of just appeared one day by his side. I dinnae kin a lot about her."

"Hey! Can we do this already? I wanna see Igneel," Natsu interrupted.

Rhiannon and Lucy shared a look of exasperation. Vander pulled the jar out of Rhiannon's hands and passed it to Lucy who nodded to him before pulling her outside.

He paced for a moment before asking, "You chose me because of my magic. Because of this plan, didn't you?"

"Yes an' no," she acknowledged. "I chose ye because ye were the most compatible. If I had to take a mate, I'd rather it be you than the others."

Vander cupped her cheeks between his hands. "I want to be in love with you." Her eyes widened as he pressed his forehead to hers. "Ours will never be Kaleb and Lucy or Cris and Meredy- I lost where I was going with that."

"Are ye saying nae more threesomes?"

"I'm saying maybe we should spend some time figuring out our relationship. And then we'll get back to our kinks."

"Kinks?"

"I have a few things in mind for just you and me."

Rhiannon pulled him down to kiss.

"You hash it out?" Lucy said from the doorway.

"Go away," Rhiannon said.

"Can't. It's ready."

Vander watched as a hint of green colored her face before she started to affect her usual apathy. "That. Don't hide that from me."

After the three dragon slayers had charged the powder, Draco showed Lucy the magic circle that needed to be made. It was a circle within a circle with three lines connecting the two circles. Wendy, Gajeel, and Natsu were standing just outside the outer circle where the lines intersect the rim. The inner circle was filled with the crushed crystals.

Vander and Rhiannon stepped into the inner circle, careful to not disturb the powder. He wrapped his arm around her waist and shifted them into the Voids

The Voids were a dark place with creatures just off to the side waiting to devour any unsuspecting travelers. It had taken Vander years to learn to traverse the Voids without being taken. The powder had created a white path of light for them to follow. It seemed to scare the Void creatures away because, for once, he didn't hear them lurking just off to the side.

"Follow the yellow brick road."

Rhiannon gave him a bemused look. "It's neither brick nor yellow."

"You know, on second thought, we're going to have to have a movie marathon because if you don't get my- and you were teasing, weren't you?"

"Wizard of Oz came out before either of us were born. Even I saw it as a bairn."

"You're evil. I love it."

Rhiannon blushed. "C'mon."

They followed the path for a while. It was hard to gauge the passage of time in the Voids, but Vander knew he'd never spent this much time there. The further they went, the more he wanted to turn back. The more he felt weirdly scared.

"We're gettin' far from Earthland," Rhiannon said softly. "Yer instincts are tellin' ye we're gettin' too far."

"Will we be able to get back?" he asked, glancing at the path.

"As long as they dinnae break the circle, the path will remain. Lucy knows that."

The path finally disappeared into the pocket dimension. They stepped onto a stone altar. Carved into the stone was a magic circle that was marred by deep gouges that looked like claw marks and ethernano that had exploded from the center with such force that they'd been forced into the stone.

The area around the altar had been split into three realms: one of fire, one of metal, and one of trees and air. In the fire and metal, there were two large skeletons that could only be from Igneel and Metalicana.

"I felt somebody's presence," a soft voice said. The woman was fair skinned with pink hair, dark red eyes, and nude.

"Say it an' ye'll be sexless," Rhiannon muttered at her mate. "You're Grandeeney, aren't you?" she asked the woman.

"Yes. I'm sorry. I took this form to conserve my strength. You're a slayer, aren't you?"

"Yes. I carry Zothrizel's lacrima."

She nodded and walked over to Rhiannon. "Is Wendy- How is my Wendy?"

"Grown. She has a mate."

Grandeeney smiled. "Good. I'm glad." She took Rhiannon's hand and gave her three lacrima. In the clear stones, she could see wisps of the dragons' magic. "They're not much, but they're our last messages to our children."

"You can come back with us," Vander said.

Grandeeney shook her head. "I don't have the strength to make it back. She would only get to bury me. I wish to remain with Igneel and Metalicana."

"What happened here?"

"When Acnologia broke free, we tried to keep him here. We failed." She looked at her two dragon kin. "Is there a Tatsu?"

"Yes."

Grandeeney leaned in close to smell Rhiannon. "You're not the queen. Did Igneel's boy-"

"No. Draco's slayer," Rhiannon said, finding her voice.

"Oh. That is unexpected. Is it strong?"

"It's young."

"Make it strong. And then fight. And make sure Wendy survives."

"We will," Vander promised.

The air dragon picked up a smaller piece of ethernano, closed her eyes, and charged it. Rhiannon watched as the blue stone turned black before being shot through with white. "This is for the queen. It holds my memories of our plan and of the war. It may grant her knowledge that even Draco doesn't have. It is time."

Grandeeney walked into her own realm and transformed back into a dragon.

"C'mon. I dinnae think this dimension will hold once she breathes her last."

Vander nodded and pulled her back into the Voids. They were approximately halfway back when they noticed that the path was flickering.

"What's going on?"

"Something must be happening at the house."

They started running down the path. They'd barely tumbled back into Earthland when Natsu broke the circle and ran outside.

"Natsu!" Wendy and Levy yelled.

"Where's the dragons?" Gajeel demanded. He frowned when Rhiannon shook her head. Then he ran out past Levy as well.

The group ran outside where Acnologia was swatting away their attacks like they were gnats buzzing around his head. It was only Cristoff and Chelia's abilities to heal in the battlefield that most of the mages were still standing. When Rhiannon ran out of the house and Acnologia saw her, his gaze shifted to where Erik and Laxus were instinctively standing in front of Lucy.

Acnologia smirked. "Keep things interesting, won't you?" he asked before disappearing.

"What was that?" Lucy asked, rounding on Rhiannon.

"I told ye we'd met."

"That was more than that. He let us live," Lucy said.

"Aye. What Acnologia wants most in life is a challenge."

"He won't kill us-"

"-Until we're fun to kill. Aye."

"Where are the dragons?" Laxus asked.

"Dead," Vander said. "We met Grandeeney but she knew she was too weak to make it back and wanted to remain with her kin."

"Here," Rhiannon said, passing the three lacrimas to the slayers. When the lacrimas touched their skin, they each collapsed. "Okay. Didn' know that was gonna happen."

Laxus, Cristoff, and Vander carried the three unconscious slayers up to their respective rooms with Levy and Chelia trailing after them.

"This one is for you," Rhiannon said, passing the ethernano crystal to Lucy. Both watched to see if she'd faint as well. "She said it held all her memories of the war and of their plan tae kill Acnologia."

Lucy was pensive as she stared at the stone. "What were the lacrimas?"

"Final goodbyes."

"He's gonna step up his attacks, isn't he?"

"I dinae ken. It'll also depend on Zeref an' he's careful."

"I want you and Van on reconnaissance. Zeref might be careful, but someone in his camp isn't. I also want to know about Emery."

"What about you?" Rhiannon asked.

"I'll be doing something far more unpleasant. Getting them to work as a team."

Rhiannon chuckled. "Better ye than me."

Vander returned to the porch first. "We free?"

"For now. I think ye should be tied up first."

"Silk or handcuffs?" he asked as he pulled her into a Void jump to his house.

Lucy stood quietly. She sensed Cristoff and Laxus leave. Could feel the absence of their mates from the property. She could faintly feel the wiggly mass in Levy's womb.

"Seriously?" Erik asked.

"Say anything and you'll lose the other eye," Lucy said without opening her eyes.

"Harsh, Tink. Harsh. Is that why you wouldn't let her come outside?"

"Yes." She opened her eyes and started walking inside.

"Where are you going?"

"Natsu. He shouldn't be alone right now."

Are you okay? Kaleb asked.

Yes. Just tired. How's flight training?

She smiled when he wouldn't respond. It's nice to know there's something that you're not perfect at.

She sat down on the bed next to Natsu and stroked his head. He rolled into her and she let him cry into her lap.

.~*~.

Zen landed at home. He'd gone to the public Pelerno bathhouse as well as the guild one. All he'd accomplished was a string of exhausted bath attendants. His father's flight from White Sea was going to be late enough that Mr. Elan had made soup that could easily be reheated before leaving for the night. After a cold shower that Bickslow had recommended for unsatisfied arousal, he fell into bed.

"That was stupid," Andromeda said.

He didn't open his eyes to look at her but felt the bed sink as she sat down. "Yeah. Probably. Especially with- That's not a reaction to her magic."

"Her contracts are broken. She's a hereditary mage, like Lucy, which why she still feels like a celestial mage. But, you're right. She was careful not let that magic affect you. This is something…more."

"I'm attracted to her."

Andromeda stood. "I know."

He opened his eyes and turned to look at his friend. It was only when she'd stood that he'd registered the extra weight on his bed. He knew that Andromeda chose the child-like form to annoy her mother but the sight of her as an adult shocked him.

Half of her strawberry-blonde hair was in a bun while the rest cascaded down her back. Her face was lightly made up and dark blue eyes watched his face as she untied her belt and unclipped her peplos. The tan fabric fell at her feet.

"What are you doing?" he asked, unable to stop his gaze from taking in her naked form.

"Helping a friend."

"You're married."

"We've been married for over a thousand years. We've taken other lovers from time to time when we get bored. And he knows exactly what I'm doing. I have his consent." She crawled into bed next to him. "Show me how Boscans share pleasure. Show me what you've learned."

She kissed him. If there'd been some shyness, some hint of guilt, he might've stopped himself. Instead, he found himself rolling them over and feeling his magic purr as he followed her lead.