4th Chapter

Cornelia had dealt with Gildarts and his antics for a very long time and therefore, she was not as surprised as she should have been as she carried the pink bundle into Cana's warm room where she kept her daughter's old clothes. The baby inside the bundle, maybe a few weeks old from the looks of it, had blue curly blue hair and the eyes that opened slightly as the small body warmed up were deep blue as well. The Card Mage barely managed to keep her rage under control and hints of her magical power surrounded her, illuminating the room in a dark shade of purple. She was a mother before everything else and the idea of trying to kill a vulnerable little child did not sit well with her. But for the sake of the little girl she forced herself to contain her rage – at least until the next S-class job. She picked out a set of pink baby clothes and as she threw the wet sheets onto the floor, she noticed the blue embroidery on the hem. Juvia, it read and according to the locket around the girl's neck, the full name of the little girl would be Juvia Lockser.

"Don't sleep yet, little Juvia-chan," the Card Mage cooed as she held the baby close to her chest. "I will bathe you first and then, you will get some warm milk. And yes, afterwards, you can sleep. I am sure that Cana won't mind to share her room with you, darling."

She hummed an old lullaby as she quickly made her way to the bathroom where she bathed the girl that seemed to love the feeling of the water surrounding her. At least, little Juvia did not act like Cornelia was trying to drown her which Cana had done all the time as a baby.

"What are you going to do now, Conny?" Gildarts asked as he rested his hands on her shoulders.

She sighed deeply. "I would love to keep her," she muttered. "Some tried to drown her, you said? Tsk, drowning a Water Mage is most likely as impossible as … as a Fairy Tail mage completing a job without property damage. And what kind of person would even try to kill such an innocent child?" she added and her carefully regained composure nearly fell apart.

"I have no answer for you," he admitted as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "Say, what's her name?" he inquired, trying to change the topic.

"Juvia," his wife said softly. "Juvia Lockser."

Gildarts felt as if someone had emptied a bucket of cold water over his head. This was impossible and yet, it was not. Cana had warned him that his time travel would most likely have influence on the original timeline and this made sense, lots of sense. He had returned with the mission to be a better person after all and to reach this goal, he had to interact with other people and especially with his family and his guild. The first major difference from the last time was that Zephyrus Heart's second-in-command had survived her run-in with the black dragon. He was not sure what exactly had happened the last time around but as far as he had been concerned, she had vanished and had never returned from this stupid mission. The second major difference was that he had saved Juvia, Juvia who would have been a Phantom Lord mage at one point and who would not be a mage of Fairy Tail's biggest rival now. He tried to figure out what had happened the last time … either, she had not been thrown into the river in first place, or someone else had saved her.

But then again, Cornelia had just said that Water Mages could not drown (which made actually sense to him because everything else would be really stupid) and so it might have been that Juvia had been found somewhere else, a long distance away from the peaceful village. He could trust his wife on her expertise with Water Mages because her guild master was a powerful Water Mage and Cornelia had spent quite a few years as assistant and adviser to Serena Alen.

"Lockser…" Gildarts muttered, trying to remember whether the Juvia of the future had ever said something about her past but everything he could remember was that she had grown up in an orphanage because she had been found as a baby and no one had been able to find her parents.

"Dynasty of powerful Water Mages," Cornelia supplied as she frowned as well. "I believe that Master Serena is distantly related to them but I am not sure about it."

"And would you consider it as realistic that this family would try to kill their offspring?"

She shook her head as she looked down at the baby. "No," she said confidently. "They are quite popular around here … and from what I know, they live in a castle somewhere in the forest – to make sure that the villages and towns are not bothered by the rain. Water Mages tend to be quite emotional and you have seen what happens when Master Serena gets mad. Try to imagine what would happen if ten or more Water Mages would be upset after an argument…"

"I will investigate the castle tomorrow," Gildarts sighed. "If we would find a babysitter for the kids, I would love to have you by my side … we are a pretty good team after all."

She nodded before she grabbed a towel to dry Juvia. "I guess that I can get Master Serena to babysit the kids," she shrugged. "She owes me a favour and I will never get to call it in otherwise."

"Thank you very much, Conny," he said before a frown reached his forehead as he realised how desperate she was fighting for composure. This had rarely happened before. Of course, she had always been hot-headed (which was part of the reason why he loved her so much that his heart could barely contain it), but she had rarely radiated killer intend before and only once before he had seen how her magic oozed out of her like fester from an especially deep and dangerous wound. And this one time had been when her old guild master had been murdered right in front of her and words could not even come close to express how much Cornelia Alberona had always relied on Aerona Mills. The older woman had offered her a place in Mermaid Heel after Cornelia's parents had died and when she had been killed, Cornelia had nearly lost it completely. She would have end up killing her mother figure's murderers if it had not been for Serena Alen who had stopped her then by casting Water Lock.

Ironically, this event had inspired the creation of the card magic spell Stabilised Water Prison later on because Cornelia had wanted such an effective binding technique for herself because she had felt how powerless the victim of such spell was.

"Oi, calm down," he said as he hugged her tightly. "We will investigate what happened and everything will be fine again."

She was trembling in rage and he realised that this was the reason why she could still best the young mages in her guild, greedy and strong, with ease. They might be interested in her position inside the guild, the very same position she had had basically since the day she had joined Mermaid Heel – the position as the guild master's confident and right hand – but for one reason, they would never be able of taking it away from her: Cornelia was Fairy Tail material and when she fought, she fought with all her soul as long as there was something she wanted to keep.

For a moment, he considered trying to investigate the castle on his own because Cornelia was just as dangerous as she was strong when she was this angry. She was mad at whoever had tried to kill Juvia and at the same time, she was mad at everyone who had ever harmed a child before.

She was a mother after all and as a mother, she had to defend all the children in this world - starting with those close by and ending by those who were far away.

Serena Alen was the kind of woman who was easily roped into babysitting. She loved children and when very young mages joined her guild, they often stayed at the mansion where she had grown up – the mansion she no longer lived in herself because it was also the mansion where her older sister had been killed and therefore, the building carried many bad memories for her. She was also single and approaching her thirties quite fast which meant that the window in which she would be able to have children was closing. Therefore, she currently rather played the babysitter than to fight the council for more support for her guild. She had accepted that, compared to guilds like Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail, Mermaid Heel would forever be second best – and she tolerated this. What she could not tolerate, however, was that Blue Pegasus got more money from the council than her guild because in her eyes Blue Pegasus was the most pointless of all guilds in Fiore. An all-women guild made sense because female mages needed a basis and a voice in a world that was partly dominated by men. Fairy Tail also made sense – the concept of second chances was an important one and while Mermaid Heel was yet to turn a woman down who wanted to join, they only accepted women while Fairy Tail accepted both genders. Blue Pegasus' concept was, however, that beautiful and handsome mages had their own guild and no matter how charming Master Bob could be, Serena could not stand this. If she was completely honest with herself, the only guild she tolerated without any doubts was Zephyrus Heart and this was because Philippe had been her friend for ages and for this reason alone, she would already cooperate with his guild.

But back to the babysitting assignment – Serena acted like it annoyed her but inwardly, she already thought about all the stories she could tell the children as a bedtime one.

"My grandfather says that you are a scary woman," the blond boy revealed as he looked up to the renowned Water Mage. "I don't see why he would think so … you seem very nice, Serena-san."

"We once got into an argument and I let it slip to your grandmother," she replied as she used her magic to get her tea water to boil faster. "Seeing that she got pretty mad at him, it's safe to assume that he learned his lesson: it's really smarter not to cross me when I am already agitated."

He tilted his head and looked around. "Did your husband cross you? Is that why he isn't here too?" he asked in all innocence. "Serena-san, why is your face so red?"

"H-husband?" she asked as her blue eyes widened and she began to look truly ridiculous. "I don't have a husband! I don't need one either. I am absolutely fine without one."

"I think you are lying," he said as he scrutinised her. "Your face got all red when I asked you."

"Just to humour you, little one, who did you assume to be my husband?" she inquired.

"The master of Zephyrus Heart, of course," he declared. "He was looking at you just like Gildarts looks at Cornelia-san when he thinks that she's not noticing it so … so I assumed."

She smiled as she ruffled his hair. "You are a lot like your grandfather," she muttered. "He has been teasing me about the same thing since we've met … he should try something else one day."

"…and you are sure that this is the right way?" Gildarts asked. "I mean … you do have a tendency to get lost and to be too late when it comes to a battle…"

His wife blushed crimson. "That was one time, okay? One time that I got lost and arrived too late for the battle," she huffed. "And while I get lost quite often, I always find a way home."

"Yeah, because your guild master ordered you to invent a freaking transportation spell because you got lost too often," he grinned. "Anyway, it seems like we were here a few times before, Conny. Can't you cast some spell to make us find the way?"

"Unlike you, I got not endless reserves of magical power on my hands," she replied. "So the answer is no, I won't cast spells until I have an idea what's going on in the c-castle…"

"Why are you stuttering like that?" he asked worried as he looked around.

"The castle, it's right here!" she exclaimed as she mentioned towards the huge building which was basically right in front of them. For a moment, she wondered how Cana would fare later on because with a constantly daydreaming father and a mother who might manage to get lost in her own house, it would be hard to achieve something in life.

"We finally found it," he nodded. "After only a few hours of walking – I am quite surprised."

She glared at him before they quickly approached the lone castle. The closer they got, the more she felt like something was terribly, terribly wrong at the moment. It was too silent, not a single sound came from the huge building. Unconsciously, she grabbed Gildarts' left arm and held onto it. She was used to fear, having faced it again and again along the years but she was not used to this kind of fear. The blood in her veins felt colder than eyes and her heart beat too loud as well. She was not paralysed by it though and this was currently the best she could say about it.

"Are you scared?" he asked as they reached the front gate. "We can turn around, you know?"

She shook her head and took a step forward. "We won't turn around now," she said and as she found this determination, the fear fell off her like it had been never there in first place. This was when she realised that it had been most likely only a spell, a spell used to keep travellers away from the building. She looked around and stopped for a moment. "It does not rain," she stated.

"And this matters why?" he asked as he tilted his head.

"Like I said – so many water mages and not even one is upset enough to let it rain?" she asked back. "And there were most likely two spells to keep us away – one confusion spell the second we entered this forest and one that made us feel fear and was supposed to make us turn around. The first one explains why you did not see the castle and the second one was supposed to keep us away from this castle. So it's probably quite save to assume that something is really wrong around here." She looked at him. "Can you crash any other spells that might be here?" she asked.

"Only the ones you already mentioned," he shrugged. "I am sorry but I need to know what I crash before I can go through with it. Can't you put up some kind of barrier?"

"Good suggestion," she said as she took out her cards. "Let's see what I got here … Strength, Tower, Eight of Coins, Three of Staves – Great Mental Barrier!"

"Crash," he ordered strictly and for a second, the world turned faster around them before it came to a halt again. "Are you fine, Conny?"

"Yes," she said as the four cards swirled around them. "Within the cards, we should be safe from any magical influence. I am sorry that I didn't think of it earlier … some kind of S-class mage I am … I do not even consider the most obvious risks … I have been out of business for too long…"

"Don't worry," he said with a smile. "You will be capable of fighting properly again in a few months. It's only natural that two years without an important and dangerous job let you become a little bit rusty, Cornelia, but if you train again, you will be just as strong as you used to be soon."