Two years ago
Year X782: Fairy Tail Guildhall, Edolas
There is a theory that there exists an infinite number of different universes, each with a different number of alterations from to the next. However in all these universes, there is a single constant; the Fairy Tail Guild Hall is always one of the most energetic and unique places in their respective worlds.
Lisanna realized this shortly upon entering Edolas' Fairy Tail. For a moment she almost thought she was home, albeit how the Guild would have suddenly turned into a gargantuan shrub didn't seem to occur to her. The door's hinges creaked and a nearby mage turned to see who the newcomer was. Upon seeing her, the mage's jaw dropped and his grip went slack, his tankard of beer slipping from his weak fingers and spilling all over the stone floor.
"Lisanna..."
The word was silent, half a whisper among the raucous clamor of the hall, yet it seemed to resonate through the room, somehow overcoming all the laughs and shouts. Every eye in the hall turned to the door, the silence was thick enough to bite. Finally a tearful voice shattered the quiet veil;
"LISA!"
Mirajane and Elfman tore through the crowd, knocking the wind out of their bruised 'sister' with a hug.
"We thought you were dead..."
Lisanna felt her eyes fill with tears as her conscience bashed against the restraints of her soul, screaming the truth.
I'm not your sister, I'm not the one you lost!
But she just smiled and hugged them, trying to mask her sorrow as joy.
•••
Despite the already emphatic level of revelry before her arrival, Lisanna's Welcome Home party exceeded all precedence. Mirajane and Elfman could barely keep themselves off her, and an intimidating blonde girl who introduced herself as Lucy ordered that extra barrels of beer be brought from storage. Amongst all the festivities, Lisanna smiled and laughed and pretended to remember anecdotes about 'herself', but throughout all this, she kept eyes roving for the one person she really cared to see right now.
Finally she saw him, and time stood still for a few moments. He was there, pink hair scruffy and hectic, hard onyx eyes fixed on someone in the crowd. But something was wrong; the eyes were not wide and excited, but frowned and fearful, and the hair was held back by a pair of leather goggles. Despite the obvious differences Lisanna felt herself walk through the room as if disembodied. She sat next to Natsu, making the edgy boy jump when he noticed his company.
"Oh! L- Li- Lisanna, what're you doing h- here?" Natsu seemed genuinely confused; Lisanna realized with dismay that their rapport in this world was nowhere near as close as it had ever been with the real Natsu.
"Just wanted to see what's been up with you!" She exclaimed, just a bit too happily, "So tell me what I missed."
Natsu shifted uncomfortably, stammering as he mumbled "Well since I've been d- doing more raids on the K- Kingdom's magic object reserves, I've been able to improve the Four-Wheeler."
"Well that's cool!" Lisanna giggled childishly, inwardly beating herself for her obnoxiously girlish behavior, "Can I see it?"
That request put a glint in Natsu's eyes, he nodded and all but ran out the door, beckoning for Lisanna to follow him. Smiling lightly, she realized that she barely connected this shy and frail boy to the cocky and assertive man she loved so well. She followed Natsu out the door, genuinely curious to see what magic was like in this world.
•••
Natsu Dragion's Magic Four-Wheeler was his pride and joy; he waxed it daily, had a panic attack if so much as a fly tarnished his pristine windshield, and strictly forbade any food or drink inside. It was also much more to him than just a vehicle, the Dasher-as he affectionately referred to his car-was also the only thing that gave him any backbone. When the timid and weak boy settled in the molded leather seat, he felt an unparalleled strength and arrogant skill course through him.
I am the scourge of the Kingdom, he would tell himself whenever he sat in the car, I am Fairy Tail's number one mage.
And it wasn't all boasting, every time Royal Troops marched on the Guild, they did so in constant fear of hearing the fiery roar the Dasher. In fact, Natsu rivaled Lucy Ashley for the spot of Fairy Tail's Ace, and would probably already be so, were it not for the fact that every time he left the Four-Wheeler, he left his powerful attitude too. When Lisanna ducked into the car, Natsu was already decked in his habitual driving smirk and pure ego.
"You ready to get blasted away?" He asked cockily, "This isn't the same car as it was a year ago, it may be too much to take."
The new steel in Natsu's voice shocked Lisanna, was this really the same boy who had shrunken away from a smile in fear? This new strong charisma reminded her of the real Natsu, the one she would probably never see again.
But I'm seeing him right now...A part of her whispered,This is the Natsu I fell in love with; that indomitable strength, that cocky self-assurance... Is he really so different?
Despite the wailing from the rest of her being that it wasn't the same, she felt a familiar and undeniable attraction to the enticing man beside her.
"Let's go." She purred, not even aware of her tone of voice.
Natsu's smirk widened, he cranked into top gear and slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The momentum threw Lisanna back into her seat so powerfully she remained convinced for months afterward that the leather was now molded to her form. They flew down the forest's dirt path, trailing flame and terrifying every nearby living creature within an inch of its sanity. The mixed terror and exaltation turned Lisanna's mind into a cacophony of different thoughts.
I'm going to die!
This is amazing!
Is that a flying pig?!
I want him.
This last thought permeated her mind, the exhilaration from the adrenaline and her already established assimilation of Dragneel and Dragion made her unable to think rationally. The second Natsu screeched the Dasher to a halt, she grasped his face and pressed her lips against his. Her brain was full of memories; rain on her red umbrella, watching the sunset from a thatched hut, fishing in the woods, and another kiss... A kiss under a gnarled tree and an orange sky... A kiss with the man she loved... A kiss she was now betraying.
Lisanna's cheeks were already wet when she wrenched herself away from the treasonous embrace. She stared at the shocked expression on Natsu's face and ran out of the Four-Wheeler, sobbing crystal tears as she ran and ran until she tripped and collapsed. Too mentally exhausted to get back up, she curled up and cried her heart out, her tears turning the dirt to mud. She heard twigs crunch nearby and looked up to see Natsu Dragion sitting beside her.
"What was that?" His voice was neither frail and quivery, nor angry, it was concerned, "You're not the same Lisanna, what happened when you disappeared?"
Her mind flew through every possible answer, any lie she could spin to avoid the tragic truth. But the duplicity would consume her; lying to Elfman and Mira had crushed her, and she had to get the pain off her chest. She sat up and drew a long shuddering breath.
"I'm not who you think I am Natsu..." She spilled out her heart as she said, "I mean, I'm Lisanna, but I'm not from this world. In my world magic is very different, Fairy Tail is a legal Guild, and... I was very deeply in love with my world's Natsu."
Lisanna ranted for close to an hour, recounting the events of the past week; the glorious and perfect moment she had shared with Natsu before leaving, her near-death experience and her transition to Edolas, her meeting with Mystogan, right up to the events that had just unfolded.
"When you became all cocky and lighthearted in the Four-Wheeler, it just reminded me too much of the Natsu I fell in love with. But it's wrong, you're not him and I just betrayed him... I'm so sorry..."
She buried her face in her knees and sobbed softly, humiliated and once again hit with the full brunt of realizing she may never see her friends and family again. Mira, Elfman, Gildarts, Happy, the Old Man... And Natsu... She imagingined him, grinning broadly as his scale patterned scarf and sleeveless vest flapped in the wind.
"Wow..." Edo-Natsu looked around for words, but none came to mind. For a moment he believed Lisanna may have suffered some severe concussion, but the grief in her voice was too deep to doubt.
"I can't say deeply enough how sorry I am, but Jellal-or Mystogan as you call him-said he'd find a way back, didn't he?" Lisanna nodded, sniffling and wiping her swollen eyes on her wrist. "Well I know Jellal, he's a beloved Prince, a childhood friend of mine, and an old guildmate. If he said he'd get you home, he'll never go back on his word, not till his last breath."
This shocked Lisanna, her eyes bolted up widely, "What do you mean, you know Jellal? How was he in the Guild?"
"After he discovered how his father planned on getting Magic Power, he ran away from home to try and stop him. He injured himself and almost died escaping the Royal City and only survived thanks to a passing Exceed called Pantherlily. Chagot, the Exceed Queen, disapproved of the act and banished Pantherlily from Extalia. But Lily knew he couldn't bring Jellal back to his father, so he contacted us through the locals who knew about our existence.
"We took Jellal in, and he befriended me; he stood up for me against the other boys who teased me and we learnt to use magic together, me in the Four-Wheeler and him with his staff. But after about a year he ran into the dorms babbling about some magic portal draining power from another world and having to stop it. After he left, we never heard of him again until... Well, until what you've just told me.
"But no matter what happens, I can say with all certainty that if Mystogan made a promise to you, he will never break that trust."
Lisanna was silent, her guilt still wore her down like a boulder but at least she had now cleared her mind enough to think of clearly. She looked up at the stars as tears rolled silently down her face.
Natsu got up, shuffling nervously, "We should go back Lisanna, you can sleep in the car a bit."
She nodded softly, plodding her way back to the Four-Wheeler alongside Natsu. When they reached it, he opened the rear door for Lisanna to enter. She smiled tenderly and hugged her new-and old-friend.
"Thank you for the talk..."
She climbed into the car and closed her eyes
•••
Lisanna knew she was dreaming when she felt the leathery seat beneath her changing. The smooth surface turned rough and the cold hide turned into warm grass. She smelled a breeze rich with the scent of olives and lavender, she tasted the damp air and her lips instinctively curled into a light smile. She opened her eyes to see a confused peppering of lights, like a bowl of diamonds spilled onto a dark canvas. The stars seemed to dance gleefully around the moon, turning the dark of night into a soft light that made the earth glow. Looking around her, Lisanna felt her eyes dampen again as she stared into Natsu's lively ones. Slowly she realized that she had woken from her wretched memory. She was back in the present, in the lawn outside her boyfriend's rickety shack of a house.
"You ok baby? You looked like you were having a bad dream." Natsu was smiling, but his eyes showed his concern, his prayer that she would never have to suffer again.
Lisanna turned her body towards him and kissed his forehead gently. "It's better now, I'm home."
Natsu responded by tightening his grasp on her; he refused to ever let her go again, not now that he could smell her hair, see her eyes, hear her voice, feel her skin, taste her lips. She was his mate, and that was a bond he would die for.
Ok, I'm not even going to apologize anymore, it seems that every time I make a vow to redouble on my writing effort my teachers see fit to fling another lab or research paper in my face. Plus all my High School senior readers out there must feel the pain of College Applications as hard as I do. Nonetheless, I feel very bad about how long this chapter took, compounded by the fact that I had an amazing chapter lined up on my computer to days before IT F $€#%G CRASHED.
So if you're wondering why the hell this chapter took so long and is so short, it's because I wrote it in five days on my "notes" app while trying to balance Latin,schoolwork, ACTs, and College Apps.
Finally on a personal note, (if you're not a big movie nut, feel free to ignore this last little rant) I wanted to say to all cinephiles and fans of history out there, I recently had the pleasure of seeingFury, the new Brad Pitt movie about WW2. I am not being payed or endorsed in any way shape or form by the movie, but I simply want to promote what is possibly one of my new Top 5 movies. As an avid fan of the Percy Jackson books, I had an intense hate for Logan Lerman's insulting portrayal in those worthless movies; but his performance inFuryhas redeemed him to no ends. Shia Labeouf also went from being the whiny brat inTransformersto a talented actor who deserves great respect for his acting. And of course I don't even need to mention that Brad Pitt was amazing as he is now neck and neck with Leo DiCaprio for third place in my pantheon of actors, right behind the beloved Heath Ledger (RIP) and the quasi-divine Daniel Day-Lewis. Either way, if you like good movies and you don't mind INTENSE violence, I strongly recommend seeingFury.