Natsu sat on a bride towards the western half of Magnolia city, staring down at the crystal water underneath him, the water reflected the twinkling stars in the night sky perfectly it was like staring at a blanket of diamonds, he flicked a small stone in his hand and stared up at the sky with a sigh 'I wonder what you'd be doing if you were still here Lisanna, I found my brother's, I think you'd like em, even if they are foolish at times.' He thought sadly as he sat up, tossing the stone in the air as he got to his feet he caught the small rounded object before tossing it along the surface of the water, rippling the reflection of the stars as he skimmed the rock four times before it finally sank, he jumped from the stone railing of the bride and landed with a light thud, placing his hands in his pockets as he walked towards the guild hall.
As Natsu walked along the empty streets of the city he got a gradually increasing feeling that he was being followed, he whipped his head around and saw nothing he chalked it off as his imagination and shook his head, the longer he walked along the eerily quiet streets the more uneasy he got, a single drop of moisture hit his cheek and he looked up, the stars he had been staring at only minutes before were obscured by angry looking black clouds, a loud crack rang out around the city as lighting split the sky in a brilliant blue light, a footfall caught Natsu's ear and he whirled around in time to catch a falling cloaked man, the man coughed and sprayed the white of Natsu's undershirt with blood, Natsu laid him down slowly and pulled the hood back, the black haired boy that stared back at him could not have been older than him, the boy's blue eyes were lighter than the sky on a clear day and he stared up at Natsu almost sadly, the boys mouth moved but Natsu caught nothing, leaning a little closer to the child, Natsu caught the last of his sentence.
"I'm sorry." Was all that he said, before his head lulled to the side, his chest moved up and down rhythmically, so he was still alive 'Exhaustion?' Natsu questioned in thought 'Why did he apologize?'
"Natsu!" His name brought his head up to the three members of his team as they ran over to him.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Erza asked as they neared him.
"No, what happened?" Natsu asked quickly.
"The whole city is empty, we went to the guild first when no one was there we thought they might have just gone home early, but on our way back through the city I couldn't sense anybody at all, so I walked into a few houses, no one it was like everyone just suddenly vanished." Raken explained quickly.
"Who's this guy?" Wendy asked curiously as she leaned down.
"I don't know, he collapsed a moment ago and only told me he was sorry." Natsu replied.
"Could that mean he was the one that took everybody?" Erza asked a little angrily.
"I doubt it," Wendy cut in. the group looked at the blue-haired dragon slayer and waited for an elaboration "His bodies different to ours, everyone from our world has a network of magic energy within their bodies, that is what allows us to cast spells, his magic energy is external, in fact it's all contained in this."
She held up a small crystalline bottle full of small round red pills, popping the lid she placed one in the boys mouth and leaned his head back, a few minutes passed by before the boy's eyes finally opened again. He stared at the four people in front of him in surprise.
"How are you still here?" He asked confusedly.
Erza growled and gripped the boy by the collar of his black cloak "What do you mean how are we still in our hometown you little shit!?" she demanded angrily.
"Erza, calm down," Natsu said flatly placing a hand on her shoulder she tensed for a moment before letting go of the newcomer "Who are you? What do you mean how are we still here? And what's going on?"
The boy stared at Erza then back to Natsu then towards Raken and Wendy "My name is Koran (A/N: Pronounced Cor-ran) I came here to try and stop the what has happened to your town."
Another crack of lightning lit the street around them with blinding white light and the four had to close their eyes for a moment, when Natsu opened his eyes again his feet sank a few inches into soft mud, he looked at the ground in surprise before lifting his head and staring at the empty area around him, it was like Magnolia just vanished along with the rest of the people, leaving only a wide clearing that was gradually becoming a muddy swamp.
Koran looked at the sky and Natsu swore he saw anger cross the boys eyes "I'm sorry, I couldn't stop the Anima from absorbing your village, I didn't have the strength."
"Anima? What do you mean? Where the hell did you take Magnolia and everyone in it?!" Erza demanded shoving Natsu to the side as she grabbed Koran by the collar again this time lifting him off the ground slightly, her anger shown by the small licks of flame that enveloped her hair and lifted it from the ground slightly as she glared at him.
"Y-your Dragon slayers?!" Koran choked out, Erza loosened her grip slightly.
"Yeah, what of it?!" She demanded angrily.
"Y-you might be able t-to save y-your friends," the boy choked out as he tried to free himself from Erza's grip, she dropped him and he fell with a heavy thud on his back, he sat up a little slowly "You will have to get through that." He pointed to the sky, a large swirling hole had opened in the clouds lightning crackled in the clouds ominously.
"Why should we believe you?" Raken asked flatly.
Koran stared at them for a moment "Because you don't have any other choice if you want to see your friends again."
"Why do you need those pills for magic energy?" Wendy asked
Koran pulled the bottle up and looked at it for a second "Where I come from Magic is not something everyone is born with the power to use like in your world, we have to channel it through things externally, these pills give me a small portion of the limitless supply your world has and allows me to use it as you would." Koran explained "You will each need to take one of these if you want to use your magic in my home."
"And what's your home?" Natsu asked.
"We call it Edolas," Koran answered flatly "It is similar to a mirror of your world."
"Why is your world taking people from ours?" Erza demanded, she seemed to have calmed down a little.
"Because we are going to run out of magic energy," Koran answered "My father is taking it from your world."
"I doubt your people know that you are killing others for this energy?" Natsu asked
Koran nodded "I tried to persuade my father to see reason, yo cancel the project but he is more obsessed with magic than I thought, so I did the only thing I thought I could, I came here to try and stop the Anima from absorbing your people, to save people."
Raken sighed "Well, we don't really have a choice, Fiore's Number One guild never backs down from a challenge right?"
Natsu nodded "Looks like it."
Koran stared at the pair before nodding "You will each need one of these." He tossed a red ball to each of them "I hope you can succeed where I have failed."
"Okay guys, come closer to me." Natsu said flatly, the other three obliged crowding around him, he closed his eyes and focused on the ground beneath them raising a small platform before launching it into the sky, lighting cracked around them as they flew into the large swirling vortex in the sky, another blinding crack made Natsu lose his focus and he felt the sensation of falling, he blinked his eyes a few times before everything came back into a view, the sky was clear no more than a few white puffy clouds dotted the expanse around them, they were falling straight towards a thick over-growth of tree's.
'Requip.' Natsu thought quickly, his body glowed gold as his shifted into his black wing set, spinning around and leveling himself out he moved towards Erza, catching her arm and pulling her against him as he looked around for Raken and Wendy.
"Oi Natsu! Down here!" Raken shouted from the top of the tree's.
Natsu could make out the faint outline of gold around his younger brother 'He used meteor to get them both to the ground.' He realized as he angled himself forward and landed on the ground lightly.
Erza finally opened her eyes "So this is Edolas, huh? It's kind of nice, I could build a summer home here."
"We aren't here on Vacation," Natsu scolded dropping the red head on the ground with a soft thud "Saving the guild remember."
Erza wiped the dust off her clothes as she stood up "I know, I was just saying, I mean the people here can't even use magic it will be easy."
"They may not use magic like us, but everyone had method's of fighting we should be careful." Raken said simply.
"If this place is a mirror to our world, that means we have landed somewhere in the east forest from the looks of things," Wendy noted looking around at the expanse of tree's around them "Whatever passes as Magnolia will probably be around here too."
Natsu nodded "Maybe we can get some information."
A/N: I know this is a weird place to cut the chapter and technically it's 6 minutes too late to be Tuesday but I was sitting here writing it and I have no idea how I am going to go on from here, so this is basically the set-up/filler for the Edolas arc and I will have most of the arc fleshed out by the next chapter (Which is in two weeks now, New update schedule in case you don't read my other fictions )