Harry, Wendy, and Carla's Tale (Part 3)
Harry was apparently the first person awake in the guild. He climbed carefully over Wendy and traced the hallway back to the main guild hall with his bag in tow. The sun wasn't even up yet. The guild hall was dim in the early morning twilight. He could almost imagine it was their Fairy Tail that he was looking at this way. The layout was different, but Mira had admitted to Harry once that sometimes after a particularly heavy brawl in the guild she'd rearrange the seating to make it look like they hadn't lost as much furniture as they had to the fighting. It was easy to do that now. He felt a nostalgic ping in his chest at the thought of Fairy Tail and Mira.
Harry cast a lumos spell. It didn't leave him nearly as nauseous as the day before, but it was still a disconcerting feeling. He spent awhile experimenting with his magic, trying to get a feel for how it worked under these new circumstances. It felt almost wrong not being connected to the flow of energy in the Earth. He cast a slew of point me spells as much for the practice as for his curiosity at the results (which were unreliable at best).
When he was finally done with his experimenting, he fetched a simple breakfast for himself from his bag and then brought out a secondary bag from within his first. It was the bag he'd taken from the 'treasure hunters'. He slowly moved through its contents, identifying the items inside as best he could. Some were certainly easier than others, a broken sneak-o-scope and a rotting wand were identifiable, but a lump of some sort of metal and a small stone were less easy to place.
Through his searches he found a text he was interested in reading. It was about non-focus magical casting. He was hoping it would have some good techniques for control. Sometimes if he didn't focus hard enough he was still having a hard time getting his magic to do exactly what he wanted it to do back on Earth. It was likely the same here, or worse. He'd focused a lot for the spells he was casting since arrival. He very much didn't want to deal with accidental mishaps while his magic already felt so off. He was certain there wouldn't be anything specific he could use in the book. Wizards from his time either had to use a focus or an incantation, most had to use both. Harry was in a peculiar position of needing neither now. He was hopeful they had some different control techniques he could use to refine the process though.
He'd gotten about twenty pages into the dense text when the front door of the guild creaked open. Harry didn't pay it much mind. He supposed one of the guild members had actually woken before he had and gone out to do something. It was only by the instilled instinct of the last few months of training with Wendy and Carla that Harry managed to block a boot heading directly for his head.
He twisted the leg and pushed to take his attacker off guard. She stumbled backward, but whipped around looking ready to go again.
"Lucy?"
Harry stared at the girl. That was definitely Lucy, but she was wearing a lot more clothing than he was used to decked out in all black. His exclamation gave the girl pause. This was definitely the Edolas version of Lucy. Nothing about her demeanor was like that of Earth's Lucy and her pants and vest set were definitely not something he would ever have expected to see.
"Who're you?"
"Oh, uh…" It must be nice to have a doppelganger in this instance. It would make the explanation much smoother since she'd met the alternate version of her own guildmates already. He flashed his Fairy Tail guild mark at the girl and her stance loosened slightly. "My name's Harry."
In the commotion Harry's table had been upended and an absolute slew of books had fallen out of his bag from where he'd catalogued them. He groaned. His barely-eaten sandwich was ruined. Lucy's boot had smashed half of it into mush.
Wendy, his Wendy, came rushing down the hall. Her hair was plastered up at an odd angle and she looked like she been woken from a deep sleep by all the commotion. She ran straight to Harry's side and placed herself between him and Lucy who still looked like she could switch back to an offensive stance on a whim. Harry couldn't find it in himself to be overly concerned though. He was redirecting his tea from seeping into the delicate pages of the ancient texts. If they were ruined there'd be no way to recover their words.
"I… how are you here?" Lucy asked, clearly thrown off. "I left you in Louen."
"Lucy!" Mira's voice was cheerful and she rushed forward. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Yeah, I'm fine. What's going on?"
"I ran into Wendy and Harry on my way back to the guild yesterday. They say they're from another world." Lisanna had joined them and was stretching. Either Harry's scuffle with Lucy or Wendy's panicked exodus had woken the entire room.
"Yeah, we ran into some of them before you made it back." Lucy had crossed her arms when Harry glanced up. She didn't look particularly happy. "Including Wendy."
"We're from their future though." Harry supplied on his own. He'd saved the priceless texts and was standing with about thirty of them stacked precariously in one hand. It looked more impressive than it was. He'd cast featherlight charms on all of them. He gave Lucy a disapproving look. "And these books are very old and very fragile. I'd appreciate you not kicking them into a puddle of tea."
Lucy finally seemed to drop the last of her defensive stance and Wendy responded by dropping hers. There was a very cute scowl on Wendy's face though.
"How are you from their future?" Lucy asked, ignoring his comment about the books.
"An idiot accidentally sent us back in time. We were in town when the spell that pulled our guildmates from the past in started. It was all completely by chance." Harry shrugged. "Wendy could you hold the bag open for me, please?"
Wendy shot one more warning glance at Lucy (which was tempered by her bedhead and generally non-threatening aura) before she complied. Harry made sure the edges of the books would clear the bag's sides and let go. He watched them disappear inside with satisfaction. He'd have to organize them again anyway. Maybe he'd make a library bag.
"How did you…?" Lucy started and fumbled. The Edolas Fairy Tail members were all staring at his bag with amazement. "Are all bags like that in your world?"
"No, Harry has the ability to do that with his magic." Wendy explained almost proudly on his behalf.
"You can still use your magic?" Lucy asked, surprised. "All your guild mates seemed to be having problems… well everyone except my double."
"You ran into another Lucy?" Lisanna asked, wide-eyed. A shiver seemed to go through the white-haired girl that she was unable to suppress.
"Our Lucy isn't nearly as violent as yours." Harry shook his head. "Nothing alike at all."
Lucy rolled her eyes and looked like she was considering another head kick.
"To answer your question though. Yes, I can still use my magic."
"Have you figured out what you want to do?" Lisanna was looking Harry and Wendy's direction.
Harry gave her an amused look. She seemed to be trying to steer the conversation to more level ground after her initial slip up. It was a very Lisanna move. "I think we'll try to find the other person we were travelling with."
"Mystogan?" Wendy asked, a bit shocked from the sound of it.
Harry nodded. "I want to make sure he's able to accomplish his goals. He is Fairy Tail after all."
Wendy beamed and nodded. Harry knew she liked Jellal. He should have suspected that she'd be on board to find and help him.
"I sent Natsu to help your guild mates, but he should be heading back this way afterward. He found a bit more fuel for his car completely by chance. He said some weird colored lacrima came flying out of the sky. Anyway, Natsu can drive you wherever it is you need to go."
"Much appreciated."
"You're certainly gung-ho about helping them out." Mira was smiling in that same way that Harry was used to seeing on their Mira. The two didn't seem vastly different at all.
Lucy nodded. "I think we should help their Fairy Tail out. They're out there fighting the kingdom just like we are. It doesn't feel right to sit back and watch them do it."
Harry hummed. "Maybe a little alike after all."
Lucy sent him a glare. He offered her a disarming smile. He righted the table and chair behind him with magic and took a seat. The casual use of magic still seemed to throw the Edolas guild members for a loop. Harry cracked the book he'd been reading back open with a pointed look in Lucy's direction.
A vehicle did sound like a better mode of travel to Harry. There was no telling how long they'd have to walk to find Jellal. A car of some sort would cut the travel time significantly.
They ended up waiting just another couple of hours. The roar of an engine outside drew everyone's attention. More of the peculiar Edolas Fairy Tail members had wandered down from the on-site dorms. Everyone seemed relieved to hear the sound of the vehicle approaching.
"Sounds like our ride's here." Harry said with a smile as the other world's Fairy Tail milled about. Wendy looked amused. Possibly more amused than he would have expected. That was curious.
The engine sound idled outside. Lucy was the only one who went out. The engine cut a minute later and then Lucy was dragging a flailing, pleading Natsu back through the doors behind her. It was so insanely weird to see Natsu acting the way he was. Their Natsu was a brazen idiot. He would challenge the sun to a fight if he suspected he could find a way to fight it. He was confident to the point of being reckless.
This Natsu was pleading to be let go and actively cowering. Most of the guild members were different from the Earth version in noticeable ways, but none so much as Natsu. He was like Natsu's polar opposite. None of the other guild members seemed upset by their friend's mistreatment. Nor did they move to intervene.
"Stop whining." Lucy dragged Natsu in front of her. He was face to face with Harry who had quickly bookmarked his place and closed the book as he walked over. He gave the boy a curious look. Then he glanced at Lucy over his shoulder.
"Maybe if you stopped manhandling him he'd be more cooperative?" Harry suggested.
Lucy shook her head and gave him a glare. "If I didn't drag him in here he would've spent all day sitting in his damned car."
Natsu seemed to shrink in on himself and avoid eye contact with Harry.
"Go get food, idiot." Lucy released the back of his shirt and Natsu slunk away to, presumably, get food. "Once he's eaten you can figure out where you're heading and Natsu can drive you there."
"I believe Mystogan is likely near the royal city." Wendy had joined them and she was frowning. "That's where everyone else went. I remember seeing him briefly before we ended up back in Magnolia."
"That's probably the way we'll be heading then." Harry nodded. "We'll just have to be careful to avoid everyone."
Wendy was nodding. Lucy was glaring lightly at the floor. Then her eyes popped upward and she seemed to consider the guild members idling around the hall. Almost everyone had emerged while they were waiting on Natsu to show up. Bisca and Alzack seemed to be missing and Harry didn't want to think about where they might've gotten to. Edolas Bisca and Alzack were both clingy and overly affectionate with each other to the point of being unsettling to watch. He wondered if they'd been like that on Earth before their marriage. He supposed he'd find out if they hung around Magnolia a bit once this whole fiasco was over.
Without preamble Lucy jumped up on a table. "Listen up everyone." The whole guild paused what it was doing and shifted attention her way. "In my trip with the other worlders I learned a lot of things that are going on that we didn't know about."
Harry glanced at Wendy. She shrugged. Lucy proceeded to break down the events Wendy had explained to him in fewer details. The king was turning the Exceed into lacrima. He wanted to slam the lacrima made out of Harry's and Wendy's guild mates into the Exceed homeland called Extalia so he could create everlasting magic. Harry was pretty sure that wouldn't work. He wasn't an expert on magical theory or anything but somehow slamming one rock into another rock didn't seem like the way to make more magic. He was pretty sure the researchers who had worked on his clock would've thought of that.
"We've gotta help them!"
The speech had turned into a conversation while Harry had been idly thinking about the merits of smashing two magical rocks together.
"These Earthland mages are fighting against the kingdom that's suppressing US!" Lucy looked angry, but also incredibly motivated. It was like she was trying to push that motivation into her guild mates through sheer will. "They're out there risking their lives for OUR sakes. For OUR world! We have to fight! That's what it means to be a Fairy Tail mage!"
That seemed to be the tipping point. A small cheer went up. Then a bigger one followed on its heels.
"Harry and Wendy are heading to the royal city." Lucy motioned toward them and Harry gave her a confused glance. "We'll send a couple of people on ahead with them. The rest of the guild will have to walk un-"
"Actually," Harry cut her off. She looked like she wanted to be mad about it, but she looked more confused. Which was an expression he was more used to seeing on Lucy's face. That helped him push out the rest of his statement. "Your guildmates indicated that Fairy Tail could relocate."
"We don't have any more energy to do that. Pretty sure I told you that too." Levy sniped.
Harry nodded. "You did. I might be able to help with that."
A furor went up at that declaration. Lucy jumped off the table and approached him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that I can recharge your lacrima. Theoretically at least. Doesn't hurt to try anyway." Harry said with a shrug. "We could just take everyone all at once."
"No." Levy shook her head. "It would take calibration and a lot of targeting to get to a specific place. Usually we just move at random. We let the machine pick a new spot. If we're aiming for somewhere specific it would take time. It would still be faster than walking, but an advance team would still make it there way before we did."
"Can't you speed it up?" Lucy griped.
"I don't control how the machine works Lucy!" Levy yelled, wrench somehow inching out of nowhere. "I just operate it!"
"We can take the car. That's fine." Harry offered placatingly. Lucy shot him a sharp glare. Levy looked pacified.
Harry just sighed when Lucy's glare didn't turn off of him. "I miss our Lucy."
Wendy patted him sympathetically on the arm.
"Get to it before I decide to be offended by that." Lucy's glare had narrowed. Wendy was between them again in less than a second. Harry calmly took Wendy's shoulders and moved her back out of the way so he could pass Lucy. He could tell she was mostly talk. He didn't doubt that she had a tendency to be more violent than her Earth counterpart, but he doubted she'd have inspired any loyalty from her guild members by actually hurting anyone and, insult or not, Harry hadn't done anything to harm her.
Harry approached the same control panel he'd stopped near last night. Levy came up behind him looking nervous. She hovered just off to the side. He gently touched the lacrima in the center of the panels. "This one?"
Levy nodded.
Harry pushed magic into it gently. It promptly exploded. Levy looked caught between being absolutely livid, and shock.
"Okay, that's a bust." Lucy shrugged. "It was out of juice anyway, right Levy?"
"It…" the girl stumbled over words. "It was but YOU CAN'T JUST BLOW IT UP! WHAT IF YOU DAMAGED THE MACHINE?!"
Harry winced away from the sound. He shot her a reproachful look. "I wasn't expecting it to explode, was I?" he asked sarcastically. Honestly, a modicum of faith would be nice at this point. He held out his hand and magic began to arch toward his palm from different parts of him, streams of emerald green and amber that converged into a small point in the center of his hand and a small crystal started to form as he pushed his magic into a physical form. It took him about a minute and a half with the strange light show to make a lacrima of approximately the same size as the one he'd inadvertently destroyed.
"You can do that?" Levy asked, awed as she delicately took the lacrima from Harry's hand. "You can just… create magic?"
"I'm made of magic." Harry said, and Wendy snorted beside him. She probably understood what he meant, but it probably sounded like he was saying all the people in their version of Fairy Tail could just turn their magic into stone because they had magic within themselves. That certainly wasn't true as far as he was aware. In fact, he'd poured a fairly large amount of magic into that lacrima. Probably more than any single one of his guildmates possessed at a single time, just condensed into a minute stone.
Levy was positioning the stone in place. As soon she got the last connection hooked in place there was a shower of sparks. Everyone nearby gave a cry of surprise, but Levy was reading gauges and making faces at them. "We're overcharged. I've never seen this much magical power in a single lacrima!"
Eyes were drifting his way again. Harry tried not to waver under the weight of their gaze. He didn't like the assessing look Levy turned his way. It felt like she was trying to gauge how many lacrima he could produce before he ran out of magic. It made him anxious. For the first time since arriving in the Fairy Tail guild he felt truly uncomfortable. He'd assumed that even though they acted mildly different from the people they shared faces with that they were still the same on a base level somehow. Perhaps he'd made a mistake. He took an uneasy step backward and without any prompting Wendy was in front of him giving her fiercest glare yet. It looked less adorable right that moment. Her earlier expressions had threatened self-defense. This one promised violence. He'd never seen the expression on Wendy's face before.
He honestly never wanted to see it again.
"That's enough." Lucy stepped in between Wendy and Levy. "It's enough magic to make the move?"
"Y-yes." Levy stumbled on the word. Then straightened. "It's enough magic to make hundreds of moves."
"Good. Start getting the guild ready to go then." Lucy stalked forward and latched a hand onto Natsu's jacket and started hauling him toward the door. She glanced back at Harry and Wendy. "Let's go then."
Harry didn't need telling twice. The guild hall felt oppressive suddenly. He scooped his back off the nearby table and beat a hasty retreat for the door with Wendy just a couple steps behind him scooping up her own bag. When the guild doors swung shut behind them Harry felt a shiver rip through him. He swallowed back the unease and approached the car they'd obviously be taking.
Lucy had released Natsu and he was happily scrabbling back into the car. As soon as he was inside he seemed to calm down. Harry climbed into the front seat beside Natsu before Lucy could say anything. Lucy and Wendy climbed in back. Lucy looked a little miffed by the sudden arrangement, but she allowed it without complaint.
"So, how does it work?" Harry reached forward to touch a strange instrument on the dash but Natsu slapped his hand away.
"You ain't blowin' up my car." Was Natsu's response as he started the engine.
Harry gave him an offended look. "I didn't plan on it."
"You didn't plan on blowing up the lacrima inside either." Lucy supplied unhelpfully. Harry shifted uncomfortably.
"It's hardly my fault you were using something that fragile. I barely put any magic in before it exploded." Harry scoffed, folding his arms over his chest petulantly since he wasn't allowed to touch anything apparently.
The car jolted forward and they were racing off toward wherever the royal city was. Harry sullenly kept his eyes averted from the other passengers and on the passing scenery for a few long minutes, but as Natsu ramped up the speed Harry felt his resolve waver.
"Can it go any faster?" he asked, turning back to Natsu who actually grinned at the question. It was such an un-Natsu like reaction.
"You want to go faster?" Lucy asked incredulously.
Harry grinned in response to Natsu's grin. Natsu punched the pedal and the car revved into a higher speed. Harry cackled as they took a turn to avoid a boulder.
"Harry really likes cars…" Wendy said above the road noise as if to explain his excitement. Harry wasn't sure why no one ever seemed to enjoy speed or flying as much as him. It was thrilling. He couldn't feel a heartbeat in his chest anymore, but he could almost feel the surge of adrenaline that the speed brought. It seemed he'd met his match as an adrenaline junky in this Natsu. It was over an hour before the boy eased off the gas and they settled into a more sedate speed to Harry's disappointment.
"Sorry, I'd keep her at full power, but it really does drain the magic a lot faster." Natsu patted the dashboard affectionately.
"When we get back I'm buying an SE car and I'm going to shrink it and bring it with me everywhere." Harry said with a huff. He'd threatened to buy one quite often in the past, but every time either he talked himself out of it or one of his guildmates did. "If we ever end up back in Edolas I'm bringing you for a ride on one. They go easily twice as fast as this thing."
"No way." Natsu seemed amped at the idea. "How do you power them? Do you think we could make a modification to mine?"
"They only go that fast because Harry pumps way more magic into the car than a normal person could." Wendy cut in. He could imagine the amused look she was giving the back of his head, but he turned sideways in his seat so he could see her anyway.
"I'm going to teach you how to do it. You might not be able to do as much as I can, but I bet we could scare Erza by letting you drive when we eventually meet back up."
Wendy laughed. The other two tensed a bit. Harry caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and gave Lucy a curious look. She had her jaw clenched tight and was pointedly not looking at them. Natsu's smile had disappeared.
"Everything okay?"
"Erza Nightwalker is an enemy of Fairy Tail here." Lucy said, face serious. "Your guild mates mentioned that the Erza of your world was also a member of Fairy Tail."
Harry nodded slightly. "Erza is a kind person where we're from. The type of person who'd spend days looking for a friend without food or sleep just to make sure they were okay."
Natsu scoffed. "A hypothetical."
"No." Harry said seriously. "She quite literally did that."
That seemed to give the other two pause.
"I don't know what your Erza is like, but ours is a good person. She would do anything for the members of Fairy Tail, and I wouldn't forgive anyone who hurt her." Harry leaned his head back against the window. He could catch both Edolas Fairy Tail members in his gaze at once that way. He could just see Wendy nodding out of the corner of his eye.
There was a long silence as everyone seemed a bit tense around the topic that had suddenly come up. Eventually Lucy let out a sigh that broke the silence and turned Harry's way. She looked less angry. In fact, she rather reminded him of the alternate future version of Lucy he'd met under Crocus during the Grand Magic Games. She looked tired, and sad. "We owe you an apology."
Harry tilted his head just slightly. Natsu seemed to grab the wheel a bit tighter.
"I know the guild reacted a little… odd when they saw you create the lacrima."
"Oh." That's what she was referring to. Wendy was the one who sat a bit straighter this time.
"Your ability to create a supply of magic… it's tempting. With the magic of our own world getting weaker and disappearing… it's a unique thing to see. No one would have… well, I don't think anyone would have done anything." She said. She couldn't seem to bring herself to meet Harry's eyes. "It's been rough, watching the magic of Edolas die around us, but you use it so easily. It's almost unfair."
Harry hummed in thought. He knew very well what it was like to watch the magic of one's world failing. He'd lived through it obviously. He'd been the catalyst to keep one world's magic from failing. Edolas itself wasn't dying though. These people weren't tied to magic the way that Earth was. Their world would be a little poorer for having lost magic, but they would survive and they were more than capable of building new things that would someday exceed the magic they'd known.
"When I was a kid magical and mundane society were separate. The things that those without magic made outshone those made with magic more often than you'd think."
The anger was back in Lucy's expression in an instant. "What would you know?"
Harry blinked. "More than you'd think." He said dully. "Magic is very obviously leaving Edolas, but that doesn't mean life is over. It just means you have to approach it differently. Necessity is the mother of invention after all. People are capable of great feats of ingenuity when their backs are to the wall. Besides, magic has a funny way of never really doing what people expect it to."
Lucy's brow had pinched further in and Natsu was shooting him an expression Harry couldn't read. It certainly had more thought behind it than he was used to that face expressing. "You're kind of weird. You know that?" Lucy said.
Harry burst into laughter and Wendy laughed a quieter, more polite, laugh from the back seat. "I've been told a time or two. By our Lucy more than once I think."
They fell into a more comfortable silence after that. It lasted until they reached the outskirts of the royal city a few hours later.
"So, Mystogan showed up while we were trying to keep the lacrima from crashing into Extalia." Wendy pointed out the general direction that would take place in. "But then I think he went to the palace to reverse the anima spells."
"Right…" Harry nodded like he fully understood what she was talking about, but honestly he'd only vaguely had the explanation of all of this once. "Well, we don't know how close we are to any of those events. Realistically we could've missed some of them. So, our best bet is to go to the palace. We know he hasn't reversed the anima spell yet. We can start our search from there."
"You want to just break into the palace?" Lucy asked incredulously. She probably hadn't fully followed Wendy's explanation either, but Harry figured he'd at least caught more than either of the Edolas mages. "The palace is full of knights who are definitely going to be trying to kill all of us."
Harry shrugged. "If that's where Mystogan's going to be I don't really see another option. It's not like someone's just going to open a door and lead us to him."
"Exactly, your plan is insane. You're going to go wandering around a palace full of enemy soldiers without even knowing what direction to head in!"
"Weeeeeeell…" Harry pulled out a stick. "That's not entirely true… strictly speaking."
"WHAT DIFFERENCE IS A STICK GOING TO MAKE?!"
"Ah! Don't yell Lucy, it's scary." Natsu cowered.
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, IDIOT!" She ground the edge of a fist into the poor kid's head and Harry grimaced and considered removing her from him.
"You probably shouldn't yell." Wendy said with concern in her expression too. "You'll draw attention."
"And as you so kindly pointed out, a bunch of people want to kill us." Harry added with a chipper tone and a smile just to rub salt in the wound.
Lucy scowled, but she did manage not to yell again.
"Anyway, I can do a point me spell to send us in the general direction we need to go. I just need a sort of phrase or person to search for."
"What about the anima control room?" Wendy said hopefully.
"We can try, but actually… I sort of had something in mind." Harry shrugged.
"What did you have in mind?" Wendy looked curiously at the stick.
"Well, I might've experimented a bit out of curiosity while everyone was sleeping." He said feeling suddenly a bit more unsure of how to explain where his mind had gone this morning. He hadn't fully stopped thinking about the similarities between their world and this one. It had led to him searching for key things that they might share. It had started vague, but the more items that actually resulted in a definitive direction the more his curiosity had piqued. "It's not something we could really afford the time to go searching for in the middle of all this, but… well…"
Lucy seemed less curious than annoyed by his rambling.
"Point me, Infinity Clock." The stick flicked in his direction almost accusationally. He met Wendy's confused expression with a meaningful one of his own. "Point me, Infinity Clock of Edolas."
The stick spun for a brief moment before pointing toward the castle they were planning to break into anyway. Wendy stared at the stick for a bewildered moment before shifting the look to Harry.
"There's an Infinity Clock in Edolas?" she asked, awed.
Harry nodded. "It was giving the same direction as the other things I knew we'd come searching for. I thought there might be a good chance it would be in the same place."
"We're clearly missing something here." Lucy cut in, aggravated tone doing nothing to alleviate the strange gnawing feeling in his stomach. "What the hell is an Infinity Clock."
"A magical amplification device." Harry answered quickly before Wendy could go about saying anything about his identity. He wanted desperately to trust this alternate version of Lucy, but if the guild's reaction to his magic had been any indicator it was probably best not to put too much of his back story on the table. It would hardly help to humanize him to a group of people who'd been ambivalent about preventing the loss of human life to create magical power for their world. The Edolas versions of the people Harry had come to know as friends weren't necessarily bad people, but they'd grown up in a world of conflict and scarcity. It had hardened them to suffering. Harry didn't much want to test whether they'd still consider him human if push came to shove.
"Okay, so why did the weird stick point at you then?" Lucy shot back.
"I hold the last pieces of the Infinity Clock from our world." He hedged. It was technically true. He just neglected to say they were a part of him now. "Anyway, there's no telling what shape the clock might be in, or anything of that nature. But a pit stop before meeting up with Mystogan shouldn't hurt."
Wendy nodded.
"Okay…" Lucy was staring at the stick. "I guess we're following the magic stick Natsu."
"Don't be ridiculous." Harry said waving the stick around. "It's just a normal stick. You're following a normal stick."
They followed the normal stick through the city and into the palace walls. It was obvious fighting had already occurred in varying places all around the castle. There were scorch marks and broken walls. Ice jutted from one wall. That meant Gray had likely been here at some point after having broken free from his lacrima prison and regaining his magic. Wendy explained that Mystogan had some sort of pill the Earth mages could take to regain their powers. It was unfortunate that she hadn't been able to get one off of him before they'd ended up here.
They were able to pass unimpeded through a large chunk of the palace due to the sheer destruction the rest of Fairy Tail had caused. A few times Wendy would hold them back with warnings that people were running in the corridor ahead and that they should wait to avoid confrontation. She did an excellent job of keeping them off of their enemy's radar. Even without her magic she was proving very useful in their sudden stealth mission.
Eventually, Harry's spell directed them to an old wooden door set into a stone wall. They'd descended several sets of stairs and found themselves far from any of the commotion happening on the upper floors. The door was locked, but a quick flick of Harry's wrist and a nonverbal alohomora solved that problem easily. The door swung open stiffly on creaky, unused hinges. It was obvious that the room hadn't been used much in years. Dust covered every surface inside. Harry lit the room with an orb of light and wandered forward. There were tables and stools scattered about with old parchment and books. Harry ran his hand over one of the covers. They appeared to be research notes of some sort.
The room stretched back and to the left in a sort of L shape. Harry followed the bend and came to a stop when his eyes landed on a familiar sight. Dormant though it appeared to be Harry would recognize the hard lines of his clock anywhere.
The same thick coat of dust covered the hard edges of the clock. Harry drifted forward, ducking under an arching leg. His hand came up to hesitantly brush the coating from the face where he knew he should be able to see the burning glow of amber lurking beneath. The clock felt cold, empty.
"This thing was supposed to amplify magic?" Lucy asked, incredulously. "It looks like it belongs in a museum."
Harry huffed out a small laugh. He was surprised to find the clock fully constructed. Its giant body was nestled in the back of the room with wires poking from it. The people here had obviously once studied it. Perhaps that was what had caused it to fail.
A soft brush of a hand against his arm drew his attention back to the room and he glanced down to find Wendy watching him. "Are you okay?"
He gave her a smile. "Fine." He said, eyes drifting back to the device. "Just thinking."
Beneath the dust and beginnings of rust the clock looked just like his own had. So, why had it worked for his world, but failed this one? He pushed magic into the clock curiously. The lacrima seemed almost to repel the power for a long moment before it began to drink it greedily. He could feel something there, stirring in the depths of the clock. He cut his magic from its grasp and prodded curiously forward. An answering, but weak curiosity was returned.
"Fascinating." He stared in wonder at the device.
"Is there something still there?" Wendy asked looking between the clock and Harry.
"Something…" Harry agreed with a nod, or someone. He tacked on as a more serious note.
Harry had nearly embraced dissolution within the clock many times when he felt his role had been fulfilled. Had Edolas' Infinity Clock catalyst given up in the face of such horrible odds?
"We don't have time to stand around." Lucy gave an irritated sigh. "If we stay here someone will eventually find us and, magic sticks or no magic sticks, I don't like our chances of taking on the whole kingdom's army."
"The stick really isn't magic." Harry gave Lucy an amused look over his shoulder. He glanced back at the clock. She had a point. They didn't have time to stand around solving these mysteries. They had a ticking clock before they were whisked back to Earth or stranded here permanently. Harry didn't understand time travel enough to risk being stranded on Edolas because they chose not to help Jellal. So, they probably should get around to finding him. "Give me just a minute."
He stared at the dormant clock in front of him. The semi-intelligent response he'd received gave him hope that the thing wasn't completely dead. Perhaps there was another Harry in this clock trying desperately to cling to the fading embers of magic in this world and failing.
Harry gathered magic into a lacrima roughly the size of a cantaloupe. It pushed unwillingly into physical form. He wavered briefly upon completion and held it against the clock's surface. For a moment nothing happened. Then his hand shifted through the seemingly solid face. The magic was taken eagerly and Harry swore he felt something foreign yet strangely familiar brush against his mind as he withdrew. Without waiting for comment or the shock to wear off for those watching Harry twisted the clock in front of him. It shrank drastically until it was little more than a wrist watch. He put a shroud of protective spells around the device, trapping his magic inside.
"How did you do that?" Lucy pulled his hand that now held the watch so she could see the device laying there innocuously. She prodded it as if convinced it might spring back to its full size any moment.
"It's not important." Harry waved off the question, pocketing the watch. "We should get going. There's no way of telling how much time we have, or if anyone is in danger."
No one argued with his decision or logic. So, he pulled his ordinary stick back out.
"Point me, anima control room."
The stick spun for a short moment before stopping in a direction. They proceeded to follow it back upstairs and down several long hallways. Their guild mates had obviously drawn most of the forces away from where they were, but the sounds of fighting gradually started to drift over them as they got nearer to their destination. Eventually their luck came to a rather abrupt end. Wendy swung around a corner and came to a full stop, even going so far as to back pedal a bit. Harry couldn't avoid going down in a tangle of limbs and cloaks with her.
"More of you?"
Harry froze. That was Erza's voice and it was just… wrong. It was so cold, but not in that stern way she had when she was lecturing their friends. It was dripping with disdain and it was moving past them, toward the Edolas Fairy Tail members bringing up the back of their group.
"Lucy!" Harry whipped around. His stupid cloak obscured his vision just a moment too long. He threw up a shield, but it wasn't quick enough. Whatever hit Erza had levelled at Lucy hit Natsu as he pushed her clear of it. Natsu flew backward into the wall of the corridor they'd just turned off of.
"Natsu!" Both Lucy and Wendy cried out. Harry let his shield drop along with his hood which had been on the verge of slipping off from the quick maneuvers anyway. He fixed Erza with a glare as he managed to put himself back between this pale imitation of Erza and the kids behind him. This wasn't their Erza. This was someone who looked like her, but it wasn't her. Erza would never needlessly harm someone who hadn't raised arms against her or her comrades the way this girl just had. Not even someone she'd deemed her enemy.
"That kid better still be alive, or I'll make sure you never see another day." Harry seethed. He could feel his magic seeping into the air. It felt wrong, like the world was trying to soak it in.
Erza's look of shock at his statement and magic morphed into one of condescension rather quickly. "You and what army?"
The soldiers behind Erza didn't seem so inclined to find out as she did. They were shifting nervously at Harry's display.
"I don't need an army, Erza." He glared. "Wendy?"
"He's breathing." Wendy reported, sounding upset. "But it's bad."
She sounded frustrated. If Wendy said it was bad that meant he needed to finish the fight quickly. He was needed over there. Wendy didn't have her magic right now. She couldn't do much in the way of healing. This Natsu likely didn't have long if Wendy sounded that upset.
Erza made the first move. Her strange spear-like weapon swung down. He deflected by hitting the shaft at the base of the pointed end as it drew close. Erza smirked and tried to detonate another explosion. Harry wrapped it in a contorted shield before it could spread more than an inch from the thing's surface and ripped the weapon from Erza's hands with a twist that caught her off guard. It likely only worked because she'd been too focused on assuming her magic would land. She wasn't nearly as skilled a combatant as the Earth Erza if he could take her by surprise so easily. He broke the spear in half and set the pieces on fire.
"Leave." He growled, magic flaring once more.
Erza's eyes flicked from Harry to the group behind him. Harry let his magic whip through the air threateningly in a surge of wind and snaps of lightning.
"I detest killing and that is the only reason you're still standing there. I suggest you LEAVE before I decide to revisit my stance."
Erza's eyes narrowed, but she did take several steps back to balance herself against the sheer pressure of Harry's malice in that moment. "This isn't over Fairy Tail." She spat before beating a strategic retreat.
"Harry!"
Harry whipped around and was at Natsu's side in two seconds. He pushed a diagnostic spell into the kid and winced at what he found. The wound wasn't horrible at first glance, but it had hit hard and broken most of his ribs on his right side. Two had managed to break loose and puncture his lung. He was barely conscious and struggling for every breath and failing. His skin was already startlingly pale, lips blue. Lucy held his hand in hers and was crying so intensely that Harry was having a hard time not feeling like he was looking at their Lucy. This was surely the same response the Lucy he knew would have if Natsu lay mortally wounded in front of her. It was heart wrenching.
"Alright Natsu, this is going to hurt, but bear with me if you can hear me. Wendy." Wendy braced Natsu's shoulders against the ground. She was breathing deeply and he was surprised to note the presence of her own magic. She seemed to be channeling the magic he'd been emitting in his anger. Her small spell to keep him breathing was faltering now that Harry had reined his temper back in.
He didn't have time to think about Wendy's instinctual channeling of his magic. He had to stabilize Natsu or they'd lose him. Harry directed his magic forward and the two ribs ripped free of their new location in Natsu's lung. Natsu let out a blood curdling scream with what little breath he had before he slumped into unconsciousness. Lucy shoved Harry back and he hit the floor with a surprising amount of force. Anger warred with sadness on her face.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" she cried, but all her energy seemed to have been spent on the initial push. Wendy pulled her back.
"I'm going to heal him." Harry explained, unoffended. "But I need you to not interrupt or we could lose him. Do you understand?"
There was no answer, but she didn't pull herself from Wendy's hold either. Harry pushed himself back to his knees. In those precious moments Natsu's chest had begun to flood with blood. It was going to be a fight to get everything back the way it should be and Harry felt nauseous already from his display earlier. It didn't matter. He pushed forward. It may not be their Natsu, but a kid's life was still at stake here. He'd be damned if he let him slip away because he felt a bit queasy.
Harry pushed magic into Natsu's chest in a slow and steady effort to repair damage and vanish blood from places it definitely shouldn't be. Twice Natsu tried to stop breathing on him and Harry forced his diaphragm to start working again with his magic. About twenty minutes of hard work later Harry felt like absolute crap but Natsu was breathing a bit better. Harry had repaired the holes in the lung and reinflated it. Natsu was out of immediate danger, but his ribs were still very broken and Harry just needed to…
The world blurred. Harry could barely see his hands on the kid's chest. Something was wrong and some of it had to do with his pushing magic out without any flowing in, but there was something else. Harry sat back, nearly falling in the process.
"Harry!" Wendy was at his side in an instant. "What's wrong?"
Harry focused on the feeling now that he wasn't pushing magic out himself. It felt familiar, but he couldn't place it for a moment. He blinked, trying to clear spots from his vision. "That idiot." He said after a minute. It was the anima spell. It was pulling magic from him, sending it back to Earth in droves. It felt a lot like the Eclipse Gate at the Grand Magic Games. "Jellal opened the anima in reverse."
"Jellal?" Lucy sounded shocked. "Like… Prince Jellal?"
Harry focused for a minute and severed the draw on his magic the way he'd done back in Crocus. Immediately the tightness in his chest lessened and his vision cleared a bit. He flopped backward. Wendy let out a cry of surprise as he took a few deep, steadying breaths. "So much for helping him out. Guess he had it under control."
"Is Natsu okay?" Lucy was crawling forward. She seemed already to have put aside the Jellal comment in favor of checking on the boy in front of her.
"He'll be fine." Harry assured her. "His ribs are still broken and I didn't get to do any surface work so he'll have a nasty scar for sure."
He forced himself back into a seated position once he felt he wouldn't vomit on his impromptu patient.
"Give me just a second and I'll see if I can't at least get his ribs set and partially healed." He said, trying to keep his head from spinning. The nausea was definitely back with a vengeance. "Wendy, the blo-"
He didn't even finish the sentence before Wendy had handed him a blood replenishing potion. He huffed a laugh. "You're getting better at this." He said with amusement.
She flushed under the praise. Golden streams of light were beginning to lift into the air around them.
"What's going on?" Lucy asked, her hand slipping through the weird light.
"It's the reverse anima." Wendy supplied. "It's going to remove all magic from your world."
Lucy's face went pale. "It's… all magic will be gone? That's horrible!" her face twisted. "How can you just say that so calmly?!"
Harry finished knitting Natsu's bones back into some semblance of normalcy. "She witnessed something similar recently. The effects were more ominous for them though."
"Harry…" Wendy was giving him a 'you don't have to talk about this' look. He shrugged.
"If the people had been successful in their plan our world would have died." Harry said seriously as he uncapped the blood replenishing potion and sent enough of a jolt through Natsu's body to wake him. He immediately groaned in pain. "Drink. Losing magic isn't great, but at least you can survive without it."
"The guild…" Lucy looked down at the barely conscious Natsu.
"Can stay a guild. You'd just have to change from a magic guild to something else right? You guys were already functioning mostly without magic anyway." Harry shrugged. "Fairy Tail was never about the magic. It's about the people."
Natsu moved a hand weakly to settle on Lucy's. Harry smiled at the action. He must've misread the dynamic between the two. In the heat of the moment Natsu had overcome his cowardice to save Lucy's life, and now he was perfectly accepting of her presence despite the air of terror he'd demonstrated earlier at her attention.
"We need to get the two of you back out of the palace." Harry said, standing with only the slightest of wobbles. "Do you think you can walk, Natsu?"
"Yeah… maybe?" Natsu winced as he sat up.
Lucy pulled Natsu to his feet and supported him on his uninjured side. "I can get him out if you need to keep going."
Harry glanced down the hall they'd been venturing toward. He glanced back at Natsu, leaning heavily against Lucy. Then he watched the spiraling magic drifting into the air. Not only was Natsu still injured the two would be devoid of magic even in their strange weapons by now. Harry had no doubt that Lucy packed a mean punch, but that wasn't going to do much if they got surrounded by soldiers. Fairy Tail was wanted still. He wouldn't take the chance that he was leaving them to walk to their deaths.
Wendy looped her arm through his. "I'm sure Mystogan has this." She said, sounding more certain than he felt. The group drifted back to the exit together having accomplished pretty much nothing. They'd set out to do, but at least feeling less tension between them.
Outside was an absolute wreck, worse than when they'd gone in. The palace walls were smashed down and townspeople were grouping together and talking loudly as an impassioned speech rang above the crowd. Pieces of rock were crashing into the ground from above. It was generally just an absolute wreck of a scene.
"Is that… Natsu?" Harry stared in disbelief at the Earth version of Natsu on top of a building. He had strange horns strapped to his head and he'd thrown on a dark cape that looked worryingly similar to Harry's and Wendy's. He was cackling madly and declaring himself a demon king.
Harry tugged his hood up quickly and watched Wendy pull hers on more securely. It wouldn't do to give away their identities to their Fairy Tail so close to the end of this weird trip.
"Natsu! That's enough!"
"Oh, guess he's safe then." Harry nodded toward Jellal who'd just yelled out at the 'demon king' Natsu.
"I forgot about this." Wendy was clutching her cloak and she sounded embarrassed. "We were putting on an act so that everyone would think we were the bad guys who stole all the magic away."
"Why would you do that?" Lucy asked, confused. Natsu was nodding along to the question.
"So that people wouldn't blame Jellal." Wendy said defensively. "He was just trying to help, but the only way he could stop the king from trying to turn more Earthland towns into lacrima was to get rid of magic in Edolas."
"Oh…" Lucy seemed to be realizing the extending implications of what their king had done. Harry knew they hadn't exactly been on the kingdom's side, but they apparently hadn't been keen on trying to stop it either.
"They're fighting now." Harry pointed out as Natsu and Jellal started to trade blows. "Oh, Natsu's pulling his punches for sure. I didn't think he was capable of restraint. Color me surprised."
Wendy slapped his arm, but he didn't miss the laugh that escaped at the same time. He gave her a grin, but he wasn't sure she could see it beneath the hood. He gave an undignified yelp as he started to lift off the ground. He cast a sticking charm on the soles of his shoes and latched onto Wendy's hand.
"It's okay." She didn't' sound surprised or frightened. She'd clearly been bracing for the movement. She was floating at about face height now. "It's the anima sending us home."
Harry frowned. He'd barely felt it the first time. It was so much more gradual now.
"I…" Lucy drew his attention, she shifted uncomfortably. "Thank you. You didn't have to do what you did…"
Harry gave her a pat on the shoulder with his free hand. "Sure I did. You're Lucy after all." He pulled something from his pocket and forced it into Natsu's hand where it was still draped over Lucy's shoulders. "In case we don't get to meet again. It'd be a shame never to get to show you an SE car. So, take care of yours, okay kid?"
Natsu opened his hand to reveal a bright green lacrima. It was smaller than the one he'd given the Fairy Tail guild, but more densely packed with energy and stayed firmly in Natsu's hand. It didn't attempt to drift toward the anima spell at all. Natsu stared at it, shocked.
Harry let go of Wendy's hand and she finally reacted to the floating by flailing a bit. When he didn't immediately join her she looked panicked. "I'll be right behind you Wendy." He said with a smile. She was drifting faster now and almost seemed to be trying to fight her way back down.
"Harry!" she yelled.
"I'll meet you on the other side!" he yelled back. He didn't care if the floating figures of Earth's Fairy Tail heard him. They wouldn't know his voice yet. He was safe enough.
He withdrew the watch he'd transfigured the clock into and gave it a wistful look. "Here." He held it out to Lucy. "The Lucy from Earth had a special connection to the Infinity Clock. It seems appropriate to leave it in your care."
Lucy took the watch uncertainly, turning it over in her hand with care.
"Protect it with your life." He said, dead serious for once. "People might come after it if they find out it exists."
Lucy locked eyes with him and gave a determined nod. "If you say it's important I believe you. We'll protect it. We owe you that much."
Harry smiled. He could see their Lucy in the determined set of this one's brow and the unflinching resolve of her promise. "Who knows, maybe your clock will wake up like Earth's did." He said, giving the watch one last look. "Good luck either way."
He set his eyes on Jellal who was watching Harry's Earth guild members drift back to where they belonged. Harry turned and was sort of relieved when he was able to apparate. He landed just behind Jellal and immediately recast his sticking charm. He could swear he heard startled shouts coming from the sky above them. Jellal just turned to look at him in shock.
"The anima could close without you." Jellal looked a bit panicked once the shock wore off. It was probably the most emotion Harry had ever seen on that face. "I didn't even know you got dragged through the anima."
Harry looked down at his feet, still firmly glued in place and felt the hum of magic firmly trapped in his chest (though it was fighting desperately to follow the rest of the magic to Earth). He shook his head. "Don't think so. I have more magic inside me than all of Edolas had left when I arrived. I doubt it would be willing to leave that much magic here when you gave it the instruction to remove all magic."
Jellal gave him a complicated look before he shook his head. "You really are a Fairy Tail mage." When he glanced back at Harry there was more warmth there than he'd seen in most of their time travelling. Not that they'd had the chance to travel together particularly long. "I'm glad that you will be there to watch over them now that I'm gone. Fairy Tail likes to get itself into the strangest fights."
Harry laughed. The pull from anima got stronger. "Don't I know it." He grinned. "I don't think I've gone more than a month or two without some crazy battle or another."
"They're worth it."
"They are."
The two stood there in a very brief, companionable silence. Harry knew he probably needed to end this conversation quickly and be on his way.
"Work with the Fairy Tail here." Harry said, nodding toward the two members easily visible in the courtyard below. Natsu and Lucy stuck out amongst the milling citizens. "They aren't the same people, but they're good people all the same. Keep an eye on this Natsu and Lucy. If I ever make it back and those kids aren't alive I'm going to be very upset."
Jellal laughed and nodded. "It's a promise."
Harry let the sticking charm release. "I'm holding you to that." He said, drifting upward weightlessly, his cloak billowed in what was probably an ominous way to the people below them. Harry pulled out the item he'd been holding onto and chucked it back Jellal's way. The man caught it with one hand and raised it with confusion. "Makarov gave it to me when he first invited me to join Fairy Tail. I might've modified it a bit."
Jellal inspected the Fairy Tail emblem hanging from the cord. Then he looked back up at Harry who was drifting toward the anima faster now. "Take care of them!" Jellal yelled.
Harry didn't get more than a wave in before the world disappeared into a blaze of white and disorientation.
He blinked his eyes open again as magic rushed back into him like a battering ram. He sucked in a breath at the disconcerting feeling. Then he wheezed it back out as weight crashed into his chest.
"Don't do that!" Wendy sobbed. "You're the only one here with me. What am I supposed to do if I lose you too?!"
Harry felt his gaze soften at the words and he pulled the girl into a hug. "Sorry." He apologized. "Won't do it again. Promise."
She nodded against his chest. After a long moment, where they both reveled in the feeling of not being stuck in a world uniquely unfit for their magic, Wendy pushed back and wiped her eyes. "What now?"
"More of the same I guess." He shrugged. "We'll probably need to come up with some alternate names and find some sort of work for now."
Wendy nodded hesitantly. She looked a bit put out. They had just interacted with Fairy Tail members in an alternate world. He knew it was tempting to just walk into the guild hall and explain their situation, but Harry had to assume that it wasn't a good idea. There was a caveat though.
"We could hang around Magnolia for a couple of days and see if we can run into Lisanna though."
Wendy perked up.
It wasn't a lot. They still couldn't talk to the majority of their guildmates, but at least one person knew their secret. That was better than none.
There were two things she remembered. Carla and Wendy. Her name was Carla, she suspected. It felt right to connect that name to herself. So, when she'd been found collapsed on the side of the road without a single memory or connection to her past and they'd asked her name she'd told them it was Carla.
A nice elderly couple had taken Carla in. They'd taken pity on her lack of memories and given her a place to stay. She'd been here since the accident that caused her memory loss several months ago. She'd grown complacent after a few weeks for the most part. No one had come looking for Carla despite her young appearance. Many suspected her parent or parents were caught in the explosion that had rocked the South side of the town. The scar of the explosion still remained as a vivid reminder of Carla's less than peaceful arrival here.
Each day Carla would help out on the farm, fetch fresh eggs from the chickens, and run into town to buy anything the family needed if necessary. It was how she earned her keep at the house while she worked on trying to recover her memories.
It was a Tuesday just after the four month anniversary of her arrival when her peaceful life came to an abrupt end. She'd grabbed the eggs the old woman had set to the side for her to bring into town. She'd be trading them for some milk from a dairy farmer up the road before she went to the general store for some flour. She swung the eggs and money into a little satchel that hung easily off her shoulder and set out on her simple chore.
She was nearly half way up the road when she saw someone approaching from the opposite direction. It wasn't unheard of for people to come into town from this direction, but it was a bit odd. The mountains lay in that direction and not much else. Most people wandered in from the East or West, the general direction of other towns.
Carla watched the figure approach. It was a woman. She sashayed in a confident walk but her eyes seemed to be glued to something in her hands. When they were nearly on top of each other Carla was finally able to pick out the details of her face and it froze her in her tracks. The woman took a few steps past her and then seemed to halt as if confused by something. The bag on Carla's shoulder slipped and crashed to the ground.
Memories broke through the dam in her head like a flood. She wasn't Carla the amnesiac orphan whose parents were dead. She was Carla, the exceed who'd vowed to stick by Wendy's side through thick and thin. She wasn't even human. A tear slipped down her face.
"Hey, you seen a little girl with a talking cat around here somewhere?" Cana's voice cut through her mental crisis. She was stepping around Carla who was still frozen in place. "They might've been travelling with a dude with dark hair and gre… you okay?"
Cana had stopped moving the minute she'd spotted Carla's face. Carla quickly wiped the tears away. "Cana." She greeted, much to the woman's confusion. "It's me, Carla."
Cana just blinked, owlishly. Her face turned skeptical after a moment. "I'll admit you've got the whole white hair thing going on, but you're gonna have to try harder than that to convince me. Carla's a cat."
Carla swelled indignantly. Of course, she was still an exceed. She'd just have to resume her normal form. Except… she couldn't figure out how. Carla had been stuck in this body so long that it felt like the one she was supposed to be in. She stared at her hand.
"It's transformation magic." She said, staring at her hand. It was so familiar now, but with her memories restored somehow it was also foreign. "I… I can't remember how to undo it."
Cana was considering her slowly. "Okay, supposing you are Carla, where're Wendy and Harry? I can't get a fix on them, but you should've been travelling with them, right?"
Wendy and Harry were missing? What? Carla's head throbbed in pain and she winced. That's right. They'd been on the verge of taking the last item from those damned treasure thieves. Some massive explosion had rung out and Carla had been helpless to stop them. They were gone. Wendy was gone. Carla could feel those tears brimming again, but it wasn't shock this time. It was grief. She collapsed to the ground, legs suddenly too weak to support her.
"Okay… uh… what the hell…" Cana knelt awkwardly in front of her. "You good, kid?"
"They're gone." Was all she managed to get out for a long minute and silence stretched between them. Cana eventually sighed and sat down on the dirt road, fixing Carla with a stare that Carla had a hard time meeting.
"I'm gonna need you to elaborate." Cana was leaning on one propped up arm. It was very reminiscent of Harry, actually. Which was upsetting in a different way for Carla. She'd just barely started to genuinely like him when it all happened. He was a good influence on Wendy. She'd really started growing into herself. Her confidence was something Carla had worried she'd never see Wendy gain after her meek and timid childhood.
Carla started from the beginning. She explained the search for the strange building with the old artifacts Harry had coordinates to. He'd never explained where he'd gotten them, but it hardly seemed relevant now. Then she'd explained the stolen cursed items and their resultant hunt for them. Which led to her explanation of what happened four months ago in this town. She'd just finished when Cana let out a huge sigh.
"I mean, if it helps I doubt they're dead."
Carla was shocked by the statement. She wanted it to be true, but empirical evidence said they'd literally exploded that day. "How do you figure?" Carla asked, skeptically.
Cana shrugged. "After everything that happened with Harry and that creepy group that was mind controlling him we did learn that Harry dying would probably be a really destructive kind of event."
"There's a giant crater on the South side of town." Carla said dryly.
"Harry took out a chunk of forest roughly a third the size of Magnolia when he was almost killed before, and that was with him holding it in and not actually dying. Unless you're downplaying the size of this crater I don't think it's big enough."
Carla stared at Cana. It was a valid point. Could they really still be alive? Hope fluttered weakly in Carla's chest.
"The question is where they went. If they'd just ended up somewhere else without you I'm sure they would've made their way back here by now. My tracking spells couldn't find them either."
"So they didn't just get displaced somewhere on the planet…" Carla followed Cana train of thought. "They're on another world, like Edolas?"
"Or they bounced back in time… or they could even be in a stasis spell like the one on Tenrou."
Carla nodded along to the suggestions. She stared resolutely at her hands.
"It doesn't matter." She said clenching them into fists. "Wherever they went, I'll find them."
"Good." Cana stood in a fluid motion and offered her hand to Carla who took it immediately. "I was sorta looking for our guild mates anyway. Heard a rumor we're wanted back at the guild hall. So I guess your S class senpai is gonna have to help out here."
This concludes the side stories. We'll pick back up in chapter one of the sequel!
How exciting!
I hope everyone found this okay. The continuation will be called The Primordial Magic. Keep an eye out because it should be posted within the next week or two.
Much love to everyone still following, reading, and reviewing. You guys rock.
I feel the need to note that somehow my email notifications got turned off for reviews on this site. If you've asked me anything please send me a pm or leave it in a new review. I do usually read them as I get them but they've been off for months and I didn't realize and it's quite the back catalogue to read through.
See you in the next one!
~Kanathia