Realizations
Natsu and Panther Lily stood outside the guild, the exceed looking at his companion with a bewildered expression on how he would join the guild.
"And that'll work?" Panther Lily asked Natsu who nodded.
"Most of the time gramp's doesn't ask the real reason you want to join the guild, so that should cover it" to be honest the dragon slayer was hoping it would be that simple.
With that little hope in mind they both entered the guild; the afternoon sun did little to hide the failed sneak attempt as a few heads turned towards the dragon slayer.
Luckily for the most part his friend's hadn't noticed him yet, as Natsu looked around for Makarov seeing the old man sitting near the bar drinking.
Hopefully he'd be too drunk to even question Panther Lily, after all it wasn't everyday an exceed asked to join.
Well minus Carla but she wasn't here yet and Happy was a member by default.
"Things don't seem too different" Panther Lily noticed as besides there being people he didn't know, or the one's he did were younger the guild seemed the same for the most part.
At least until…
"Say it!" a few eyes had turned to a very familiar scene, well for those who were used to it at least.
Natsu sweatdropped as Panther Lily figured he should probably listen to Natsu more often, at least in this time line.
"Erza? Aren't you going a bit too far?" Cana question sweat falling from her face along with everyone else, the red head had gotten the upper hand on Mira pinning the girl to the ground.
"Never! I demand retribution!" there was only one thing that would tick Erza off that badly.
"You really should stop fighting Mira" Lisanna sighed looking at her sister who had an annoyed and slightly embarrassed look on her face.
"She's the one going crazy over a piece of cake!" Mira shouted as she tried to get out of Erza's hold.
Seriously who went this crazy over a piece of cake!?
"I see Erza hasn't change" Panther Lily chuckled at the scene, though it was strange to see Mira like this.
It reminded him of when he first joined the guild; the Erza Knightwalker he worked with had been very different than the Erza Scarlet he now knew.
"Nope, she's as crazy as ever" Natsu said a little too loudly as a certain red heads mysterious enhanced hearing to all things her, turned to look at him.
"Natsu! Why'd you sneak off and what's this about me being crazy!" the already ticked off red head nearly shouted, as she walked over failing to notice the black exceed.
Something the others did but didn't give it to much thought, as they waited for the usual to happen.
Mira standing up muttering something about crushing Erza into a tin can, then selling her off for scrap metal.
Natsu sighed; great he was already attracting attention to himself.
"I didn't sneak off and look!" just to get attention off him he lifted an unamused Panther Lily in front of him.
At that Erza blinked" Hello, my name's Panther Lily I was looking to join the guild" the exceed said in his usual voice.
Erza blinked as the others seeing the danger was over walked over, or in Happy's case flew.
"Oh wow, you look like me" Happy said looking at the black exceed who was now flying on his own.
Though his wings were large than kitten Happy's.
"Where'd you find him?" Cana asked as she looked at the black furred version of Happy.
"Outside" Natsu muttered hoping Erza wouldn't rage, again luckily she didn't.
"Did you hatch from an egg like me?" Happy asked eye's practically sparkling as he took in the sword and scar, to the kitten he was the definition of cool.
"Yes, I'd be happy to tell you more once I speak with your master" Panther Lily said, Happy flying around in excitement cheering the entire time.
The display let both Lily and Natsu breathe a sigh of relief; at least no one suspected anything.
Though as the two went to move Natsu was held back by a very familiar shorter girl, oh right Lisanna.
"Uh, Hey Lisanna" this was really awkward, they never really spoke much after she came back from her not death.
And since he knew how she was like during their childhood, it was another thing he really didn't want to relive like Erza's past beatings.
Then again those were his fault anyway.
"You didn't forget what day it is" Lisanna said it more as a sentence than a question.
Natsu blanch looking for panther lily who was talking to master, as he tried to remember but couldn't.
"The day I beat Erza" he said as it was something he would say in this situation, he remembered that much at least.
Lisanna sighed as the others either laughed and or Mira's case smirked" Yeah, the day you beat Erza is the day she admits I'm better" the oldest of the takeover siblings boasted as she was soon sent flying.
"Take that!" yelled Erza as once again began their battle.
"And she yells at me when I pick fights" Gray muttered to himself as the red head was sort of a hypocrite at times.
This was going to take some getting used to, were Natsu thoughts as Lisanna started talking.
"What?" he asked as he hadn't heard.
"I said we were going to go fishing this afternoon remember" Lisanna said as Natsu really didn't but decided to go along with it.
"Okay" help, even though no one could hear.
"Can Panther Lily come with us?" Happy asked popping out from wherever he had disappeared to.
"Go with you where?" the black furred exceed had returned, turned out Makarov really hadn't changed much, he didn't even ask his reasons for joining.
And had once again regained his white fairy tail mark on his back.
"Fishing" Natsu told the exceed as from the look Happy was giving they really wouldn't have a choice.
"Alright, best to get to know my guild mates" he said and it was actually true, everyone here was different from their older selves.
It was like he was relearning who they were, even Natsu felt the same he hadn't been around these versions in years.
The four leaving behind two very fight crazy teenage girls, currently fighting over nothing.
But that was Fairy tail for ya.
(Later)
At least the walk to the lake hadn't been filled with awkwardness; Lisanna and Happy were both to busy asking Panther Lily questions.
Like where he came from, did he hatch from an egg, would Happy get as big as him?
Did he know how to fight, had been Happy's question as the four of them were sitting on a grassy ledge overlooking the lake each one with their own make shift fishing poles.
"I'm quite versed in combat actually" Panther Lily answered Happy's question.
"How do you fight? Aren't you to tiny?" Lisanna asked as Happy was too busy admiring the older exceed, not even noticing the tug on his string.
That was probably the first time Natsu saw Happy ignore fish, well there was that one time with Carla.
"Well-"before he could answer the tug on Happy's string began strong almost causing the blue exceed to let go, as tiny blue paws grabbed it quickly.
"It's a big one!" Happy cheered trying to tug only to be sent flying as Natsu caught him.
It was now a tug a war with the fish winning as Lisanna tried to help, the three tugging only for the fish to keep pulling them.
Just as they were going to let go a rather strong tug had the three falling back as a large red fanged fish was in the air, only to fall behind them.
Natsu recognized it from past, err, future fishing experiences as Lisanna and Happy gaped at Panther Lily.
The exceed was in his battle form the broken make shift rod now on the ground, well that was it didn't matter what they did they screwed up the time line now.
"Oh wow!" Happy was flying around Panther Lily finally settling to drool on the buff exceed's shoulder, like he did Loke in the future when he found out about him being Leo.
If anything this was the worst day of Natsu's life, while it was the best one for Happy.
"I guess that answer's my question" Lisanna smiled as in a poof of pink smoke their buff friend was back to travel size.
"Transformation magic" was all Lily said not revealing anything else.
"Can you teach me!?" the question had come from Happy his eyes were shining as bright as stars, it was official this was the coolest person Happy had ever met.
Natsu and Lily were taken aback at the question they had already messed up enough, what would happy if Panther lily said yes.
Looking at the fish" Aren't you hungry instead Happy" Natsu said knowing fish would be the only other thing that would distract him, for now.
At that the group walked over to the large dead fish" this is the biggest one yet, way to go Happy!" Natsu praised trying to get back into the rhythm of the timeline.
"Don't cook it" the small blue exceed said wanting a raw part of it for himself.
"How are we gonna split it?" Lisanna asked at that a large sword split the fish in half, once again being Panther lily who solved the issue.
The black furred exceed supposed he had more leeway than Natsu, seeing as Edolas wasn't connected to earthland anymore.
It was possible that they were worrying for nothing, this was now an alternate timeline no matter what they did but for now the future stayed a secret.
"So resourceful" Lisanna praised, it was like Panther Lily would be the perfect role model for Happy seeing as the two were the same species.
"Alright guess I better get it cooking" Natsu would have eaten it the way it was, as Happy was already digging in his question forgotten for now.
Taking in a deep breath what happened next was something none of them could have accounted for, the fish was hit with a fire dragon roar for only a second immediately cooked.
But the flames were much stronger than usual at least for that moment in time, as the dragon slayer lifted his head letting the fire fly into the air harmlessly.
Even Natsu didn't have complete control over his magic; it ended a minute later, the pillar long gone as the dragon slayer looked at his companions.
They were all surprised once again, only this time Panther Lily was among them.
It was way weaker than he was in the future but at the moment he was almost half as strong on as his original magic, back when he first met Lucy.
Looked like not everything had changed back to normal, whatever had done this either didn't or couldn't completely erase his magic back to the way it had been.
Just great" uh, I went overboard?" he tried to cover up, but from the look Lisanna was giving him he wasn't going to get out of this one.
He suddenly remembered why despite having been best friends, it was a bad idea for things like this to happen around Lisanna.
She was as bad as Erza and Mira when it came to stuff like this, the never ending questions that were going to follow.
And he was really going to lie his butt off now.
(Era)
A young girl was flipping through books, searching, scanning as the glasses she wore made the reading faster.
Where was it, where was it? A large pile of books was behind her she was just glad he was gone.
She couldn't risk him finding out, as she picked up another book and began to scan it then she stopped.
She read careful the text, what it spoke of the reason some would remember! This was it she had found it; she jumped with joy then stopped appalled by her actions.
She was a grown woman for heaven's sakes, well in mind as she read the text" Aeternitas the goddess of Time, time gods do not usually interfere with the affair's of mortal's unlike the gods of famine or death" she hummed if that was true then? she saw the text continued.
"But if another god has caused an imbalance in the timeline a time god or goddess will interfere in an attempt to correct the timeline but this can have worst consequences, those who are chosen to keep their memories of the future for specific reasons run the risk of interfering with the plan those who use time magic are unaffected and also run the risk of changing the rewritten timeline. In the end it all comes down to those who kept their memories to keep the timeline from exploding and righting the wrongs brought on by the actions of another god. The end result can be what was hoped or the entire timeline could be sent into a spire of destruction and even have the timeline permanently erased"
So that's why she remembered but who else did? She cursed her luck, she now knew what was going on but the question was why.
The war had not been so bad that Aeternitas had to interfere; she once again continued there had to be something she was missing.
What god had caused a change in the timeline, why would Aeternitas risk turning back the hands of time if it could end in destruction.
She looked at her hands; her powers were weaker but much stronger than they should be.
Was it possible that in order to retain her memories some of her old/future magic had to remain?
It would be hard to hide but he could not know about this! She hid the book, placing it among the wrong shelve so it wouldn't be found.
She would have to find out who else remembered it wasn't safe, to those who had their memories.
Ultear didn't know where to start.
(Unknown location)
Aeternitas watched the being's in front of her, asleep in cocoons of suspended animation.
Some things couldn't be reversed that was her biggest weakness despite being a goddess, those she chose to keep their memories kept a portion of their future magic, and in this case.
The woman's hair flowed behind her seemingly going from white to dull black the white again.
A side effect until the timeline regained its footing, the woman looked back to the large white spears keeping the five creatures before her asleep.
She felt sorry for what would happen to their children, but the old timeline had been heading into disaster she hoped things would work this time.
Not end in disaster like it had many, many millennium ago, the last time she had done this it lead to the complete erase of a timeline.
"Mortals, they always seem to be the reason for our power and their own destruction, if only they could behave like good children" unlike some gods she held little contempt for humans.
She controlled time she saw all the twist and turns, but even she didn't know how an altered timeline would end.
But it was enough for her to see all sides of humanity, as much as some of the other's hated the mortal's she herself could never bring herself to completely despise them.
She placed a hand on each of the large creatures sleeping faces and sighed; looking at the one they called king.
"I can only hope you will all understand, when the time comes for me to bring you out of your sleep "she truly felt sorry but this was the only way.
"Tick tock, tick tock, show me the clock" she said as she saw the original future, all the bloodshed, all the sadness, all because one of them went too far.
Would this timeline be doomed to extinction or would things go differently this time, only time would tell.
It's ironic, no?
As said in my authors note I am sorry, I got sick and it's a normal thing for me it's a chronic illness that I must live with.
Now for those asking about Aeternitas I would guess since Chronos works so much with humans giving them power, Aeternitas would have been created as a permanent god of time and some cultures have several gods of time by different names.
As for the timeline exploding well you'll see. Also I did give her limitations she's a god but even they have restrictions her's is with magic she can't undo it completely if she wants' people to keep their memories, so many of you can probably guess what she meant when she was sorry about what would happen to their children. Until next time