Chapter 2! Yay! Fairy Tail is introduced in this chapter.

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Chapter One.

"Another one?"

"Who is it?"

"What? Again?"

Lucy shoved her way through the crowd of mages that gathered in front of Fairy Tail's bulletin board.

Not again, she prayed, please don't let it be that, please let it be something else —

Her hopes were dashed as she recognized the notice pinned on the bulletin board. It was a notice she had seen many times before in the guild, for it was updated weekly.

It showed a list of powerful mages who had mysteriously been murdered for the past two months. Lucy forced herself to read; telling herself she had to know who had been killed this time.

Celine Rose — a mind manipulation expert.

Tempest Fey — Mistress of Air.

Zion d'Angelo — a manipulator of storms and lightning, or, as Lucy liked to call him, a "weather man."

May Vidara — a user of requip magic, similar to Erza's.

Nikolai Alexandre — an Illusionist.

And below that: killer still on the loose.

Goosebumps crawled down Lucy's neck. What if the killer (or — Lucy shuddered to think — killers) started targeting Fairy Tail?

Gildarts had been targeted two weeks ago, but he had thankfully escaped and gone into hiding.

Lucy slumped down on Mira's bar, head buried in her arms.

"Tempest was an old friend. She was a . . . formidable mage," Master Makarov spoke from Lucy's right, situated on a tall chair from the bar. She had never known how Makarov managed to sneak up on her so many times, and she hadn't the heart to ask now.

Lucy looked up. "I'm sorry, Master."

He grunted in reply before jumping down and trotting away, no doubt to think about the series of murders that had been committed this time.

For several months now, Fairy Tail had been a lot quieter and more subdued. It still had its warm and comforting aura, but there were fewer fights, fewer friendly brawls — Gray and Natsu could sit next to each other and not pick a fight — something Lucy had never seen before, even with Erza around.

Mira deposited a smoothie in front of Lucy.

"Thanks, Mira-chan." Lucy idly twirled the smoothie straw around with two fingers, while silently contemplating exactly what is going on with the murders.

"No problem, Lucy."

Lucy barely heard Mira, though, for one thought kept playing itself around her mind.

The mages that were killed were powerful people — even Master thinks so, especially Tempest Fey. How can they be killed that easily?

But another, more pressing thought surfaced into her head.

Why were they killed in the first place?

At seven PM, the guild was nearly empty. On a normal day, Cana would still be drinking with Macao and Erza would be busy preventing Natsu and Gray bashing each others' brains out.

Now, most of the members had cleared out, and as Lucy grabbed her coat to get ready to go home, she heard Mira call out.

"Lucy! I forgot! There's a letter for you — it came this morning!"

Mira handed her a plain white envelope with a seal in front. Lucy took it somewhat gingerly, as if worried the letter might be a time bomb designed to explode at any second.

Mira chuckled. "Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous. Master made sure of that."

"I'm not sure what your definition of 'dangerous' is, Mira-chan," Lucy smiled wryly.

The S-class mage smiled while Lucy carefully opened the letter.

It was written in neat, friendly handwriting, about half a page long and — Lucy thought this was very queer indeed — the handwriting was very similar to hers. She pushed the thought aside and started to read.

Dear Lucy,

I don't know how I'm going to tell you this, but here goes. I am your future self, five years into the future.

I know you don't believe me — after all, I know myself, don't I?

So here's some proof.

I know you still keep your favorite bunny PJs from when you were fourteen, I know that boy with pink hair often barges into your house, I know you act like you don't like him intruding your privacy but you actually enjoy his company, deep down —

"You like Natsu's company, Lucy?" Mira had somehow wormed her way over to Lucy's shoulder and was also reading the letter.

Lucy let out a very high-pitched shriek. "MIRA-CHAN! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I wasn't sneaking," Mira said innocently. "I was just reading."

Lucy shot daggers at her.

Mira picked up a glass and started wiping it absentmindedly. "Anyway, go on, Lucy."

Lucy picked up where she left off.

— and you should notice by now that our handwriting is similar, if not the same.

Is that proof enough for you?

We need to talk, Lucy. Face-to-face. Mages are being killed right now, aren't they? I know what's causing them — I have experienced them first-hand. Bad things will happen, really bad things, unless you stop it now, in your time, or all of Fiore's future will be terrible, as I have experienced in my time from the future.

I can tell you what's going, why the mages are being killed, but you must stop the murders before they are too late. They're connected to something bigger — a dark plot used for evil intentions.

I've probably made you more confused now, but I promise you, I will explain everything. Meet me tonight at eight in front of the café.

There was a stunned silence.

Mira snatched the paper from Lucy's limp grasp. "I think . . . we should talk to Master about this."

An hour later, at eight PM, in front of the café, Lucy sat on a chair with a cup of espresso sundae wrapped around her hands. Levy was there with her, to provide support if "things go wrong", as Master had put it.

The café was deserted except for the occasional waitress that strolled around the shop, making it an ideal place for a private conversation.

At five past eight, a figure wrapped in a jacket slid into an empty seat across Lucy.

The celestial spirit mage looked up.

And gasped in surprise at seeing another Lucy look back at her.

The other Lucy had longer blond hair and a fuller face, a taller body and a different outfit than the one present Lucy normally wore to the guild, but the hair was tied up in that signature ponytail, and the eyes were the same playful brown.

Levy was staring at the other Lucy in openmouthed shock, and present Lucy was pretty sure she looked the same too.

No doubt about it, the person sitting on the café chair was Lucy, five years into the future.

Future Lucy leaned back into her chair and grinned at present Lucy. "Hello, little me."

Reviiieeeewwwww?

-TheAliensDidIt