Fairy Tail y x793

Damn it, Nashi!

Yume cursed at her best friend a hundred times in her head, feeling only slightly guilty about the fact that she was still injured.

When she and Aiden woke up, Wendy had arrived and was healing Nashi, who seemed a lot better. She was still asleep, and the dreamer was surprised to hear that she had awakened in the middle of the night and told Makarov and the rest of Fairy Tail that they came from 100 years in the future.

Yume could understand her thought process: if she lied about so far ahead, she could tell them all about the disasters without scaring them too much, but she'd like to align the story before dealing with Fairy Tail by herself.

"Your friend sounds… cold," Erza spoke, talking to Yume in Nashi's recovery room. Aiden and Lyra were also there, quietly observing Mira and Wendy.

"She's lost a lot," Yume sighed, "she's cold and a little rude, but she saved our lives," she added and looked at her best friend. She had never seen Nashi look so weak and vulnerable, and something about that image felt just wrong.

"She told us that time traveling was a last resort to save everyone and to prevent everything from happening again," Erza kept going, "could you tell us more?"

Yume looked at Aiden, but he shrugged. He was a leader when it came to battle, not this. He couldn't lead what he didn't even understand and he was too pissed at Nashi to bother trying.

"I'd rather wait for her to wake up," Yume tried, and saw distrust in Jellal's eyes, "the truth is, none of us know why we're here or what happened," she pointed at Aiden and Lyra, "we were in a fight, Nashi asked us for our power in order to do something and the next thing we know we were falling in Hargeon with a nearly dead Nashi."

Erza frowned and Jellal raised both eyebrows, clearly not expecting that.

"She did sound like she had an entire plan in action," Erza told Jellal, "her words were carefully chosen too, so it sounds like Yume isn't lying given how Nashi talked to us last night."

Jellal was about to say something when a loud explosion sound made the whole guild shake. They all turned towards the door, tense and confused. Aiden and Yume quickly assumed a battle stance.

"Something's wrong," Yume said, running downstairs just in time to see Romeo and Max pinned down by some form of ice magic that Romeo couldn't melt. She didn't recognize the attacker, he looked like an ordinary man.

"Who are you?" Cana asked, sending a fire card at the ice, but the guy blocked it. Yume focused on him, but she was also blocked by something.

"He's not himself," she spoke, recognizing that magic, "this is mind wipe," she told Aiden, who tensed, "but Thorin isn't supposed to learn…"

"We figure stuff out later," Aiden announced when the ice started hurting Romeo. He raised his arm, "Lightning Devil's Spear!"

A huge lightning bolt fell from the sky towards the attacker, surprising Cana, who didn't expect that kind of power, but the mage simply blocked it as if it were nothing.

"Since when can Thoros power people up?"

"He can't, we're the ones who are weak. We gave most of our magic to Nashi prior to waking up here. No way we've recovered while we walked, talked and dealt with the tension of almost losing her," she told him, "still… Dream summoning: fire sword!"

Erza's Fire Sword appeared in her hand, and she handed it to Aiden, who nodded, making electricity shot through it right before he moved for a physical attack. While he did so, Yume tried to summon another thing, but she failed.

"I'm out of magic!"

"I can't sing either," Lyra announced, now looking very scared, "Yume-san, what will happen…"

Thunder stroke again, this time hitting the mage with such power that he barely managed to shout before falling to his knees. The ice disappeared from Max and Romeo, who quickly stood and ran away. At the door stood Laxus, looking very annoyed and very powerful.

"We leave for a few minutes and someone already manages to wreck the guild?" Laxus asked, visibly annoyed.

Aiden felt a surge of pride seeing his father standing there like that, even if the enemy weren't that big of a deal. He also felt ashamed: he had hoped that when he first used magic in that time, it would have been impressive, something Laxus and the others would admire. Instead he only managed to make a fool of himself.

"Maybe they're behind this attack," Max suggested, still a bit shaken, and most of the guild members moved away from Yume, Aiden and Lyra.

Aiden felt angry. Nashi was to blame for all of that crap. They didn't even know what the heck was going on to begin with!

"Wait-" Yume tried, but people started talking at the same time. Words like 'danger' and 'enemies' were thrown around a lot, and it was clear as day that they weren't getting any fonder of the group as they talked.

"SHUT UP!" Erza shouted, using a sound card to increase the volume in her voice. People cringed from the high pitch but stopped talking and looked at her, "they are not enemies," she vouched, looking at Laxus, "I've heard part of their stories… or enough to tell you they're not enemies! When their friend is stronger she will give us all the answers we want, but for now we trust them."

"We're not enemies, ok? We're not even strong enough to be threats right now, due to exhaustion. We just came here to ask for help with Nashi, and once she's up we'll probably be on our way-"

"We can't," Yume interrupted Aiden in a softer tone, "not yet. I know who is behind that attack just now. You should know all about him if he's coming for you."

Everyone waited.

"His name is Thorin, he's one of the Twelve Knights of a guild called Demon Raider," Aiden started, "his magic… It's dark magic. He can add intent and memories to a person's head. One intention and one memory per person, and the only way someone survives that magic is if he adds something that fits the person's personality or circumstances, but that's enough to cause damage if you know how to use it. Anyone Thorin uses his magic on has their magic increased harshly. And he can use it without people even noticing it, which makes him incredibly dangerous."

"So it's a sort of mind control magic," Levy spoke, arriving with Gajeel, who seemed very interested in what he overheard. Yume nodded.

"You've faced him before? If his magic depends on others, he should be easy to defeat once you get close."

"We've only read about him," Yume lied, remembering the detail about their group being from too far ahead in the future to know the adults in the present time. "He can change people from anywhere, so he's virtually unreachable. We don't know how to track him down, or why he's here," Yume replied in a concerned tone, "but I don't like it."

"Heh, we can handle one annoying mage. What's that guild, Demon Raiders?"

Yume was about to reply when she lost her balance and fell. Aiden grabbed her before she hit the floor, but she had blacked out.

"Yume!" Lyra called, running to check on her, "is she sick? I can't sing!"

"She's just exhausted," Aiden assured her with a weak smile, "you should rest too, Lyra. You need to recover your magic."

"Go back to the infirmary and get Wendy to help," Laxus spoke authoritatively, "we'll talk more once you're all rested."

Grateful, Aiden carried Yume back to the infirmary and gently put her down. Lyra climbed into a second bed and he took a third one. Wendy was still working on Nashi and simply smiled at them. As soon as he lied down, sleep came.

Aiden dreamed of storms and tsunamis and weird puppets. His dreams mingled together, so creepy and disturbing that it didn't take him long to wake up, sweating and panting.

The window was open, and moonlight shone through it. Restless, Aiden got up and went outside, eager for some fresh air. It was so pure and peaceful that it overwhelmed him.

He barely noticed the soft footsteps approaching him. A gentle touch in his shoulder was enough for him to know who it was.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," she smiled, sitting down on a bench near the guild entrance. Aiden sat next to her and they both looked up, "sorry for the trouble. I didn't realize how tired I was."

"Lyra and I fell asleep as soon as we touched the beds, we were all exhausted. We did give Nashi almost all our magic before we woke up here."

Yume bit down her lip and looked at her hands.

"I wonder if that's how she ended up so wounded."

Aiden didn't know why he did what he did next, whether it was the uncommonly peaceful time or the fact that Yume's hair seemed to shine under the moonlight, something he couldn't appreciate before due to sheer lack of time - and clear moonlight, but he reached out and held her hand, pressing on it reassuringly.

Yume raised her head, but didn't show any sort of shock or signs that what he did was wrong or weird, so he relaxed.

"We would have died," he said, his words not at all matching their comfort, "you heard Wendy, that was it. I don't know what Nashi did, if we won or not, but if we didn't give her our magic we would be all dead right now. I'm sure she knew that too."

Yume nodded, smiling at the moon.

"It's weird, isn't it? Talking like this, looking at the starry sky, in a perfectly built town with townspeople going about their lives during the day… It feels like a dream."

"Who dreams of this?" He asked, curious, and Yume rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean," she said, elbowing him playfully. Aiden smiled, nodding. He knew, and he agreed.

Sitting there, talking to Yume and holding her hand - only then realizing he hadn't let it go - made his anger towards Nashi go away. Whatever else she might have done wrong, taking them there wasn't on the list. It felt right.