Author's Note: Here I am with another update! I'm gonna trail off a bit from the usual gang because I'm sure there are a lot of other characters from this story you're concerned about. So we're going to check up on a few other friends this chapter! Note this: current time refers to the regular time of Fairy Tail (the time period Lucy was brought from), while Twenty Years Later takes you back to the time the story is otherwise set in. Just wanted to point that out. Don't forget, Read, Review, Rejoice!

Chapter 8:
Back and Forth

Nowadays in Magnolia, there are some places that never receive the sun's lights and remain forever dark and cold. These miserable areas where many fugitive mages hid their faces from the world, wallowing in the damp filth that the world left behind. The wind rarely blows and it seems as if time itself had stood still for years.

Rain was falling for hours on end in this forsaken area, which is a welcomed source of water for its inhabitants. A hooded man grunted heavily as he wandered through the alleys and crevices. He staggered with every step he took, huffing and puffing every step of the way. His heavy boots made splashes in the proliferating puddles beneath him.

Suddenly, the man stopped as his attention was caught by a large, rusted dumpster. An extremely skinny mother dog had just recovered a large portion of spoiled meat that she was about to share among her four starving puppies. The man stared down at the pitiful dog, his red eyes gleaming. The mother dog in turn, seemed to plead for him not to steal the little food she collected. It was a good amount for what could usually be found in this sort of place.

The man was quick as his arm quickly shot downwards. He kneeled, his hand locked onto his food. He pulled down his hood revealing his face, pierced multiple times around the nose and eyebrow areas. He picked up the pipe he had grabbed from behind the family of canines and lifted it close to his face. He snarled, "You're damn lucky I prefer iron."

As he ripped into the pipe with his razor sharp teeth, his meal was interrupted by another guest. He stood to his feet, a toothy grin on his face. "Bout time you showed up!"

"You know how hard it is for me to ditch those guys, Gajeel." The blue haired woman responded. She carried a big black umbrella and was slightly short in stature.

"Whatever." the iron dragon slayer scoffed. "You bring my payment?" he asked, almost demanded, with an extended arm.

"First the information." she insisted.

"Fine." Gajeel grumbled. "Those fairies are still fluttering about as strong as ever, last I checked anyway. Apparently that fire breathing leader of there's was working on some kinda gadget, but I hear its gonna be a flop."

"What kind of gadget?"

"Some kinda time machine or some other bull crap. In any case, my payment. Now!" Gajeel commanded.

The woman pulled out a pen and wrote out an enchantment, producing a bag full of various metals. She threw the sack at Gajeel's chest and proceeded to turn away. Just as she was about to walk off Gajeel stopped her. "One more thing…", Gajeel called with a mouth full of screw and bolts. "They're worried about you Levy."

Levy froze for a moment, but remained silent. A few moments passed before she responded. "You know, you're not as bad as you try to make people believe. I want to go back, but, it's not time yet. I need to gather more information, and I can't drag everyone else down with me."

"Last I checked, you were all a big, damn mushy family that would face everything together."

"Things change every second, the gears of time stop for no one."

"They'd want to help you." Gajeel persisted.

"They don't know the things I've learnt here. And what I've learnt could be the difference between victory and defeat in this war."

Gajeel opened his mouth to press on but he seemed to change his mind at the last second and smirked a toothy grin. "Don't say I didn't warn ya then!"

Levy smiled and started to walk away. Just before she was out of ear shot, Gajeel called, "Be careful out there." He turned on his heels and walked away the same way he walked in, staggering still, but he seemed to have gotten some of his energy back after eating.

(Fairy Tail - Current Time)

Often times Levy found herself exploring Fairy Tail's library, flipping through the old texts and scrolls. It was a quiet place where she was not only surrounded by books and knowledge but all of her fond childhood memories in Fairy Tail. With that in mind, she walked toward one of the tall bookshelves with a ladder in tow. She climbed up to about the fourth row where she immediately picked out her book and descended back to the floor. Just as she was about to open the book, a blinding light seized her vision. In a flash it was gone, but her vision was still a bit blurry. As she peeked her eyes open, the shelf wobbled slightly and some of the books fell, followed by a loud "Kyaa!" sound.

Levy was a bit shaken at first, but quickly she balled her fist and took a stance. "Whoever you are, come out now! You have a lot of nerve to think you could sneak into Fairy Tail like that!" Her voice quivered a little as she yelled and she was hoping the supposed enemy hadn't realized it.

"That voice, is that Levy?" The familiar voice called back from beneath the pile of books. "Mind giving me a hand?"

Levy didn't quite recognize the muffled voice from beneath the books, though it was obviously female. Still, she proceeded to dig them out. As she got closer to the person book by book, she began to make out the blonde haired mage. "Lucy!" she yelled eagerly as she reached down to pull her out, but as the celestial mage rose up, Levy was shocked. "What kind of magic?"

"Huh?" Lucy stood confused.

"What kind of magic did you use on yourself!" Levy yelled excitedly as she grabbed her friend in a bear hug. "Is this what you've been doing while you've been gone?"

Lucy didn't want to let go of her blue-haired best friend. "Levy…" She called her name almost breathlessly. "It's been so long…"

Levy pulled away and looked at Lucy, confusion lining her face. "What are you talking about? It's only been three days."

"Three days-"

Levy grabbed Lucy's hand and dragged her up and out the basement. "Everyone, Lucy's back!" she announced to the room of drunken fairies.

Almost immediately Natsu hopped excitedly in their path roaring flames. "Yo Lucy, where ya be-"

"Natsu!", Lucy grabbed the pink hair dragon slayer and pulled him into a tight embrace. He nearly suffocated between her breasts due to their current height difference.

"Oy, you're going to kill him if you keep it up." Gray warned snickering under his breath. Meanwhile Erza and Happy also joined the gathering, completing the team. "Weren't you shorter last I checked?" Gray pointed out.

"This is one of those growth spouts I hear so much about!" Happy yelled excitedly.

"That's growth spurts Happy…" Erza corrected the overzealous blue cat. "And they don't happen this quickly."

Lucy slowly released Natsu, leaving him gasping for breath. Her face wore a smile from ear to ear contrasting the few teardrops welling up in her eyes. The blonde mage stepped back, flicking away those pesky tears; she was too happy to cry.

"Where do I begin?" She asked, provoking the attention of the fairies. "So many things have happened."

"If it will make things easier, you can just summarize your report." Erza advised.

Lucy looked at them, her smile dropping slightly. "How do I summarize twenty years of information?"

(Underground Magnolia - Twenty Years Ahead)

After Charle regained consciousness and of course received her apology after giving a long and detailed lecture, Layla explained her situation thus far.

"I never would have thought that someone could actually invent a time machine! Wow!" Wendy admired childishly.

"Never mind that, I never thought that Natsu of all people would be the one to create such a mechanism. Although, calling it the 'Time-Travel Doohickey' sounds exactly like that hot-headed slayer." Charle ridiculed.

"I'm always telling you that he's better than you have him for." Wendy defended.

"Hmph." The white cat scoffed. "While I acknowledge his strength, his only real achievement that I'll recognize is the fact that he actually got the guts to propose to Lucy."

"Charle, you're belittling Natsu. That's no good." Gerard interjected.

"It's true." Layla spoke up, her fists balled tightly and the tears streaming down her face. Suddenly she lifted her head and attested "He's always screwing things up and making a mess of everything! When he isn't fighting with the other senior members, he's too busy to do anything with me! He doesn't care about me or mom, he's probably out there having fun, not even caring about what happened to mom or where I am."

The young mage's testimony shocked everyone, especially Charle who actually felt bad now. "When I said that stuff, I didn't mean-"

"That's not true!" Wendy opposed. "Natsu cares about you AND Lucy very much! Of that much I'm sure enough to lay my life on! At this very moment he's probably trying to locate both of you to the point that he's neglecting his own personal health."

"I don't know Natsu very well." Gerard added. "But, in the short moments that I was able to communicate with him, I've learned so many things about his personality. One of those things is that he would never turn his back on his nakama and he definitely would not turn his back on you, his own flesh and blood daughter with the woman he's been in love with for so long."

"Then… why doesn't he ever show that, then?" Layla asked quietly.

"He probably does and you just don't notice it." Charle pointed out, confusing the blonde halfling slayer. "Just like we've all established, Natsu's a bumbling idiot, so you usually have to deeply examine the things he does to understand the point. He's not used to showing emotions, but don't ever think he doesn't care."

Layla's mouth tucked towards its edges, creating a slight smile. She quickly brought her fingers up to her eyes to knock down the tears that still lingered around. "Guess that means I should go home then?"

Her head shot up as she felt a heavy pressure on her shoulder. Gerard's hand rested on the girl's shoulder as he smiled to her, "Stay as long as you think you need to."

"…Thank you."

Author's Note: There are a lot of gears turning at the same time and who knows how things are going to go down. Time is such a strange thing to deal with and you never know what results to expect. 'Til the next chapter, I bid you, adieu!