All of the Royal guards had basically grouped together and made themselves easy targets for Zirconis, who wasn't even looking for a fight and just for something to eat. While the groups were spread out a bit, it still wasn't too smart of an idea even if the dragon was just looking over them, deciding who to eat first.

"I've decided!" Zirconis suddenly yelled out in a song-song type of tone. "I'm gonna eat you all at once!" Could he even manage that!?

A red beam started forming together in Zirconis' mouth, nearly blinding them, before he let out a roar. As a myth, it was said that all dragons breathed fire, but the truth was that they breathed whatever was connected to their magic. Seph almost didn't make it down, but her legs gave out at the best time for once, although she did go down face-first, smacking her forehead against the concrete painfully. This was terrible in more ways than one… especially when the beam cleared away, which left Seph covering her eyes. She wasn't sure just yet if she was going to throw up or not, or if this was the worst sight she had ever seen. She had seen a lot, but…

He hadn't killed them; he stripped them of their clothes! And then he had the nerve to turn around and remember that men was disgusting, and deciding that he'd eat the woman. Arcadios even turned around and told Zirconis that he couldn't eat the princes because she was a man, which was obviously not true… Seph only uncovered her eyes when the footsteps of the soldiers were completely gone, although in the next moment, Zirconis had taken away Lucy's clothes and she screamed, bringing a sharp ringing into Seph's ears. She had the right to scream, honestly…

After Zirconis explained that his magic was one that took away people's dignity, Wendy countered by telling him that the magic she used was going to bring him down despite Lucy freaking out about needing clothes and not even a moment later, Zirconis had scooped Lucy up into the air in his hand. He poked and prodded at her until Wendy got angry, visibly activating her magic, and when Zirconis pushed on Lucy's head as if to pop it, Mira did the same. Wendy promised that she would defeat him, but he merely let out a roar, throwing all of them off of their feet or in Seph's case, onto her back from her knees before she continued rolling further away. Not too far, but far enough to have taken some more damage from the concrete underneath her.

Zirconis then took off into the air, high far above the palace itself, and Mira made the quick move of flying up with her Sitri soul with Wendy following close behind, Carla being the one to fly her up. The rest of their now small group was pretty much just stuck on the ground, waiting for the three to come down with Zirconis and Lucy or for Zirconis to be defeated. However, Zirconis had gotten angry from Wendy's attack doing damage to him that he had thrown Lucy, in which Happy took off after her.

"Your head is bleeding."

Seph jumped from Lily suddenly speaking, not having heard his footsteps as he approached. She hadn't felt it before, but now she could feel the warm blood against her cold fur, a hand reaching up to dab at the wound on her forehead. It was to be expected from her fall earlier, honestly…

"I'm okay." She told him, trying to sound a little assuring as she got to her feet, wobbling a little bit. Her arms and legs were scratched up from rolling… "I've been through worse."

"That doesn't make it okay." He sighed, kneeling down beside her and reaching out for the wound. Seph recoiled immediately, knowing that it would hurt, and he pulled away quickly so that she could lean back. "Sorry, I just… Can you heal it?"

"N-No, I can't heal myself…" She responded before moving to stand up, but her legs were so shaky and weak that she couldn't manage it without support, which Lily brought in. She was still wobbly even with his support, but at least she was able to manage it now.

Zirconis suddenly touched back down onto the ground with Mira, Wendy and Carla coming down straight after him, but his wings flapped and caused a lot of wind, nearly knocking Seph off of her feet again. She would've ended up right back where she started if Lily wasn't keeping a hold on her… and Seph never thought that she would ever end up being so happy to see lightning throughout her life, but she was happy since this lightning came from a person she knew very well. He had probably come to help them due to Wendy's young age despite her being a Dragon Slayer. The Raijinshuu even came running up behind them after him, stopping once they had reached the pair of Exceeds.

"Are you okay!? You're bleeding!" Evergreen pointed out to Seph once again, which made her let out a short, light laugh before nodding.

"I'm just a little weak in the legs." Seph replied truthfully before turning to look back at Zirconis and the ones fighting. "I got a little tossed around when the dragons showed up…" It was understandable. Everyone had gotten a little tossed around by then.

Despite Laxus doing his best to fight against Zirconis, the dragon's scales somehow managed to ricochet the lightning in little pieces back where it came from and further, in which Seph ended up back on her knees again, covering her head as a precaution. This was ridiculous… Was there no way to defeat a dragon!? Even with two Dragon Slayers against one dragon, it was quite close to impossible. She didn't want to say impossible because then they would be in so much trouble… However, with a combined attack, they were able to knock Zirconis straight onto the ground and he didn't move for a moment.

Lily helped her onto her feet again, him having to use more strength than before to keep her stable because her legs just kept getting weaker every time they hit the ground. She was sure that there was something her mind was tolerating that her body wasn't, but it could've just been that she had hit the ground too many times and royally screwed her legs up in some way. She'd have to stay off of her feet for awhile if she wanted to fix them, probably… Zirconis then got back onto his four feet very slowly, most of the energy having been drained out of him.

He spoke non-stop for a moment before suddenly turned to Wendy and making a run for it, his mouth opening wide. Seph felt hopeless because she couldn't move as Laxus quickly stepped in front of the young girl, both of them now in the line of fire.

… That's what they saw, and each individually felt. It was a minute or so into the future, and it was rushing towards them quickly. They couldn't think about the images of the future right now, though, Wendy and Laxus still had a fight to win, and they were doing damn good at working to win it.

Lucy's voice suddenly rang in their ears, said girl coming running with a new outfit and a notebook in her hand. She said it was a memo pad from the future Lucy and Yukino started to read from a page. Future Lucy said that, if by any chance, the portal in this time period was destroyed, the Eclipse portal in the future would cease to exist. If that happened… Wait, Rogue wouldn't have any means to come back to their time period! If everything were to work out, then both the dragons and the future Rogue would disappear from their time! It was worth a shot.

"However, there's one big problem." Arcadios stated, in which they all understood what he meant and turned to look at the giant Eclipse gate. "How do we destroy a giant structure like that?" It wouldn't be an easy job, but if Rogue didn't come from the future, the world should return to its proper history.

Seph's legs suddenly started working again, strengthening from their weakened state, and it surprised her a lot, ending with her falling forwards into Lily because she hadn't been expecting it. It was a sudden shoot of strength and she was able to steady herself, letting go of him and still being stable. While Laxus and Wendy were fighting Zirconis, the rest of them could do something about the Gate, including Seph now that her legs were working. She had a theory on why they gave out so bad and then returned to nearly full strength very suddenly, but she was going to keep that to herself for now.

Lucy and Yukino went first, using their Celestial Spirit Magic to summon the twelve Zodiacs once again to destroy the Gate, but even after a very hard hit, the Gate remained standing with not even a scratch or a dent inflicted upon it. Even so, they continued to attack, each and every hit stronger than the one before until their magic power was nearly no more. The Gate still stood, not damaged even in the slightest. They tried over and over… it didn't even have a scratch!

Suddenly, a light shined over them from behind, bringing their attention to the sky. A huge ball of fire was falling down towards them and the portal quickly, in which Happy started yelling at all of them to get away from the portal. They barely even had a full minute to starting running in some sort of direction away from the portal, not knowing what the big ball of fire was or what was going to happen although they did it anyways. It crashed all too quickly, causing a massive explosion and bringing everyone either up into the air or flat onto the ground without a say in the matter. No one really thought to get up afterwards too quickly, but when they did, they found the Natsu had been the source and that the portal had been completely, utterly destroyed. It was in pieces!

Now, Rogue couldn't use the portal to come back to their time period and the dragons… disappeared. History returned to normal as the dragons and the future Rogue disappeared into a gold ball of light before shattering into tiny specks, leaving them all peacefully in the chaotically destroyed Crocus. It didn't really feel like they had won, but, the battle was over… and really, Seph wanted to just fall asleep in a bed again. Even if she hadn't really fought, all of this was too much on her mind right now. The city was in shambles and honestly, so was her thoughts.

The city had been miraculously fixed up with magic and the Mages had been given a couple of days to rest before being called to the palace for a Grand Ball. Seph didn't want to go, as she didn't like social events or dresses too much, especially big, fancy ones, but Evergreen wasn't taking no for an answer this time. Luckily, Evergreen hadn't gone overboard even with all of the joking, just putting Seph into a dress she had picked up earlier out in the city with some of the other girls. She had planned ahead and gotten a slim, dark blue dress that didn't hug Seph like some sort of doll and simply came down to just past her knees, and a black cardigan because of Seph's constant whining over how a dress wouldn't cover her arms properly or anything.

At least Evergreen allowed the small Exceed to wear her boots, although only because they weren't as dirty as they probably could've been, but she was just… not good in social situations. Honestly, she just found an isolated table and snacked on some weird chips that had an indescribable taste. They were sweet, but not too sweet, so they balanced out and… They were just slowly becoming a comfort because there were far too many people packed into the ballroom. The king sure was generous, inviting all the roughneck Mages to mingle in the same place. Seph was keeping an eye out for the start of a fight, just in case it was too close and she had to move away.

But, come to think about it, Natsu didn't seem to be there… It was strange. He seemed to be the kind of guy that would stand out the most during these kinds of events.

Seph looked around for Laxus only to find that she probably didn't want to go over to him with all of the girls hanging off of him despite the rest of the Raijinshuu being around… Oh, this was ridiculous. Going against her anxiety and, honestly, her better judgment, she made her way over to her group. She didn't really say anything, but she made herself known by tugging on Evergreen's dress gently, catching the woman's attention much quicker than she thought she would.

"Are you doing okay?" Evergreen asked, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. Seph nodded stiffly, just motioning in a way that Evergreen would understand. There were too many people, but she was managing.

She jumped straight into the air with a small scream when a body came flying into the table nearby, a fight having started between some of the Guilds over where Yukino would end up. She had been expecting a fight, but… over such a reason; she couldn't help but relax and smile. They were tearing up the entire ballroom and even though she ended up behind one of Laxus' legs for protection from flying objects, she actually found herself laughing. It was a sweet sound that carried out into the air and caught the attention of a couple of people, but she didn't mind and she continued. She was free, after all, and in a great place. She had no reason to stop!

Not until a sword slammed into the ground from the balcony above from Arcadios, and even then she had to do her absolute best to stifle her laughter. She finally managed to stop laughing when it was announced that the king was arriving to express his appreciation directly over the Grand Magic Games and their efforts in saving the country… but, the king wasn't the one to appear. Natsu did, wearing the king's crown and robes and entirely laughing about it. He was taking it quite far and although shocked, Seph could hear Laxus snort behind his wide grin. This wasn't too surprising, was it?

Even so, Natsu finally heeded and went back to change into a suit before coming back and starting to eat off of the surviving tables. Seph didn't stop smiling for at least five minutes and then things settled down, her expression switching to a more neutral one as she stuck close to her team. People had started dancing by then, but she wasn't much of a dancer… okay, she didn't know how to dance. She had never properly danced ever before in her life and she felt kind of hopeless when Elfman took Evergreen away for a dance, and then even more so when Laxus was torn away to dance by a girl before Freed could get over his shyness and ask the man to dance with him. Seph and Freed hadn't talked too much, and Bickslow was nowhere to be found.

So, she ended up back in her small, isolated area and just continued munching on the chips that had begun to be much more of a comfort than anything else at that point. She didn't really move from there until she saw Lily coming her way, in which she got onto her feet.

"Hey, I didn't think that you'd be here." He greeted when he got close enough, his hands tucked into his pockets. Seph hummed a bit, giving him a nod.

"I didn't really want to come, but Evergreen pulled me along… I'm kinda glad. I haven't laughed like I did earlier in a very long time." She told him, watching as his smile grew from hers.

"I heard. It's a wonder as to why you don't laugh freely like that more." He said, gaining a shrug from her. She couldn't really explain that the last ten years had been soul-sucking. "… Want to dance?" She paused for a moment before shrugging.

"It looks like fun, but… I-I don't… know how to dance." She admitted, watching as Lily froze for a moment before sighing and shaking his head a bit. He then held out a hand to her.

"I can teach you." He offered, although she was a little unsure. "I don't mind if you step on my feet a couple of times, you're quite light."

She paused for a moment before nodding a bit and carefully slipping her hand into his with a smile.

It was a good life.