Name; Fairy's Regret
Genre; Angst, Tragedy (warning; Character Deaths. Duh, I'm writing it.)
Background; I have been excited to write this story for so long. I was so excited that I decided to start it without having an ending in mind, but that was fine. I could work it out. But I hated it. I hated writing every chapter, I hated the brainstorming, I hated the brick walls that I was put against while writing this mess. I wasted so much time and effort trying to make this work and in the end... it is now an Unpostable. Enjoy!
Introduction
"Oh Natsu…" Lucy shook her head with the softest of sighs on her lips. She tucked her blond hair behind her ear with one hand while the other propped up her favourite dragon slayer, feeling his weight against her. "And Happy calls me heavy…" she murmured.
"That's because you are heavy, Lucy!" the exceed told her helpfully.
"No one asked you!" Lucy yelled at him, glaring while looking utterly shocked at his insult. She was even less impressed as she felt Natsu's body shiver under her with his own laughter, forcing the celestial wizard to resist the urge to drop him in the street.
The celebrations of finally returning to their old guild after a long seven years away had felt endless. They had drunk and laughed and fought into the small hours of the morning for almost seven days in a row, boasting loudly of their victory at the Grand Magical Games and exchanging their favourite stories from years ago. It filled her heart with warmth day after day and night after night, but only now could she see the constant partying was finally taking its toil against her friend. "I can't believe you actually drank that stuff…" she half-laughed, not sure if she was supposed to be looking at him with pity or seeing him as the idiot he clearly was.
"It wash a dares…." he murmured under his breath, putting a hand through his pink spikes.
Lucy rolled her eyes. She had heard his 'dare'…
"This smells funny… Ice Block, drink this!"
"No way, Flame Brain, you drink it!"
Somehow it had all resulted in her carrying one very drunk dragon slayer home. "Honestly, I don't know why I bother…" she muttered to herself.
"Hey Loosh…?" he slurred, his footsteps growing slower as he leaned heavier against the blonde. "I don'ts…. Feel sho good…"
He was swaying and nothing that the celestial wizard could do would stabilise him. She wasn't surprised that he wasn't feeling well but her eyes grew wider as she realised that his entire body was beginning to glow. There was an unnatural warmth under her fingertips as she grasped onto his arms, magical energy tingling against his now golden skin. "N-Natsu?" she gasped, grasping onto him tighter. "Natsu what's happening?!" she asked. Even the exceed looked confused and scared, putting his tiny paws on his shoulder as they both tried to shake an answer out of him.
Natsu could say nothing, having no real answers to give and unable to even open his mouth in case the nausea took control. Everything was blurring before him, the blinding white light spinning the world. He could feel himself falling, sinking into a strangely comforting magical pool of energy.
In a moment, all three were gone.
Part 1
Chapter 1
The floor was soft but cold. Natsu could feel his fingertips pushing deep into the ground as his eyes scrunched tighter shut, fighting the waking pain that would no doubt shortly follow. He could taste the alcohol still at the back of his throat, a nuzzling instinct that suffering usually came after such a wonderful night, as if he had borrowed the next day's happiness. The amount of joy that he and his friends had been through made him feel he had not only borrowed the next day's happiness but the one after that and the one after that. His body would certainly punish him for this as soon as his eyes opened.
Beside him he could hear a soft pawing against the ground and even softer fur brushing gently against his hand. "Not yet, Happy…" he murmured. "Five more minutes…"
There was a quiet giggling, not the one that he had expected to hear. It was familiar yet sounded as if it was ringing from a distant memory, one that he had affectionately buried deep into a painful part of his heart. It filled him with happiness, her joy was infectious, but a frown still rested on his face. Slowly his eyes began to open, widening to the blurred image of a white-haired girl that focussed more with every blink. "L… Lisanna…?" he croaked, pulling himself up.
As he did so he noticed several things. Firstly, and the one that he was most thankful for, was the fact that he did not have a hangover. He was quite safe, somehow, and felt it was only appropriate to thank every god of alcohol. The second thing he noticed was that he was outside, at least in some sense of the word. The ground beneath him was made of dirt, leaves and sticks, and the only thing that covered the sky was a crudely made thatch roof. It was enough space for two children, but with two teens and a cat the space was a little tight. "Our 'home'…" he said, recognising the workmanship of their den away from the guild. Everything about it just seemed perfect but he had no idea why they would have returned here after so many years. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd come here and stepped inside the short walls, especially not with Lisanna beside him. "What are we doing here…?"
Lisanna giggled again. "Silly Natsu…" she said, reaching over and pulling a stray leaf out of his pink spikes. "Don't you remember? You said that you'd help with my winged takeover and then you fell asleep."
He didn't remember any of that at all. He remembered the Grand Magical Games, remembered lifting the trophy for the adoring fans of Magnolia, remembered copious amounts of alcohol as they regained their old guildhall… Through all of that he could barely even remember Lisanna.
"Hey Natsu, is it just me or do you look a lot bigger?" Happy questioned suddenly.
Natsu turned to his exceed, his eyes growing suddenly wider. "I'm not bigger you're… SMALLER!" he exclaimed, reaching over and picking up the blue cat by the paws and trying to stretch him out. "What's happened to you? Why are you so tiny?" he said.
"Natsuuuu that hurts!" Happy squeaked.
"Natsu!" A very panicked Lisanna suddenly reached out and grabbed the blue cat from the dragon slayer, wrapping Happy into a ball against her chest and looking back at him in disbelief. She cuddled Happy closer, her hands protectively over her feline child with a reprimanding look. "What do you think you're doing to our Happy?"
It was then that Natsu realised that Lisanna too looked much smaller. Her cheeks were round, her eyes wide and filled with a childlike innocence he had not seen for years. Not since before he had lost her. Then there were the things he couldn't see, hear or smell. There was the feeling inside his chest that still wanted to hold onto her, that made his heart race seeing her without any fear. He, too, had an innocence and he glanced down at his hands. They were smaller, his entire body smaller and more slender than before. Even sitting down, he could tell that he was slightly shorter than her, a fact that would change in the two years that she disappeared. "I'm… I'm small too…?" he asked.
Lisanna's face curled into concern. Natsu wasn't meeting her eyes for a long time, staring at his own body, his surroundings and his exceed and trying to make sense of some mystery that she just couldn't understand. "Natsu…" she breathed lightly, reaching over and putting a hand on his forehead. "You're warm… are you feeling OK?"
"I'm a fire dragon slayer, I'm always warm!" he bit back, finally looking at her. He could feel his breath being taken away as he stared at her large eyes. There was something perfect about the way that she looked right now, something that matched seamlessly to an image he had treasured and worshiped and dearly missed. "Lisanna…"
She buried her face into a frown. "Let's go for a walk, Natsu," she said eventually, giving him a small smile. "Maybe the fresh air will do you some good."
Lucy groaned, clutching onto the feather pillow beneath her fingertips tighter. There was a rattle and the familiar sound of heavy curtains skimming across the track, and a less than pleasant feeling of the morning sunlight resting on her cheek and urging her to wake. She groaned and gripped the pillow tighter, trying to block the light out of her view. "Just five more minutes, Happy…"
"Ms Lucy, you really must wake now."
The dream world and reality seemed to be merging the closer that she came to consciousness, listening to the soft murmurings and the unforgettable urgency to Ms Spetto's breathing as she fluttered around the room. There was the musical chime of a tea set against a silver platter, a low creak as the wardrobe as opened and a rattle of the grand freestanding mirrors being rolled into the room. Everything felt familiar, as if she was watching an old photograph replaying but able to reach out and touch every part of it. She could smell the breakfast, feel the soft cotton of her far smaller curves filling her pyjamas, hear every murmur of her loved housekeeper. It had to be a dream.
Her entire body shivered under her silk sheets as her eyes crept open slowly. It was the exact shade of deep fuchsia she had stared at for years. Her fingers raced across the soft folds as it shimmered under her touch, remembering the way that she had demanded her parents for countless copies of the bedding so she could never be without her favourite design. She remembered the way that her father had turned away, not wanting to belittle himself with such trivial matters as a child's favourite colour, but she had got what she wanted.
"Ms Lucy… are you crying?" Spetto asked, stepping closer to the side of her bed and watching with wide eyes.
She glanced up, only then feeling the way her eyelashes stuck to her cheeks every time she blinked. She pushed herself up, staring at the four walls that she had felt like a caged animal inside. For years, she had tried to gather the strength to leave this place and now she was somehow back inside, floating outside of the realms of reality but seeing everything from her memories in painstaking detail. "Spetto… what's the date today…?" she asked.
The old lady seemed surprised not only by the sudden question but the grave tone with which the lady spoke. She wrung her hands together as she watched the young celestial wizard, trying to decide if she had come down with a sickness overnight. "It's September 17th, Lucy," she said, and in case she somehow didn't believe her, she pulled the magazine from the silver platter. "You see, your latest copy of Sorcerer Weekly came out today!"
Lucy glanced back over to the pages within Spetto's hand. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stared down at the front cover, Mirajane and Erza taking the centre-stage with their shining armour and fiercely passionate expressions, both looking as terrifying as the other. These weren't the faces of two women reaching their early twenties, however. They were both far younger and as Spetto said, the date very clearly said that this was September 17th. Except this was the year X784, almost three years prior to their Grand Magical Games victory - ten if you included their seven-year sleep.
The faces on the paper reflected the ages of the S-Class wizards just as she would have imagined. Lucy had rarely seen the dominatrix that was the Mirajane from years before and it always caught her a little off-guard when she thought of the sweet barmaid she had become. Even Erza seemed to have a cold confidence in her eyes that had melted away into kindness over the years. Lucy took the magazine into her shaking hands. She remembered this issue as it had been one of her very favourites. A full ten-page spread on the leadup to Fairy Tail's approaching S-Class trial, including the details of the current S-Class wizards, last year's trial, their last victor and the predictions of who would be nominated and who would succeed. She was not surprised to see Natsu and Gray were suggested, though the editor was keen to point out that they were both possibly too impulsive and reckless to be the next face of Fairy Tail. "Well, some things never change…" she whispered to herself, scanning briefly through the rest of the names and faces. There were a surprising amount that she didn't recognise, some who had even joined other guilds in the last few years and many more that had separated during the seven year absence, but her curiosity grew as a black silhouette with a question mark took a large portion of the page. "I suppose this will be the year that Mystogan won…" she thought out loud.
"No, no, no, this is just too weird! This isn't real!" She cursed herself quickly as she threw down the magazine and covered her ears. It was all just too much for her to handle as she reminded herself that time travel wasn't real, she was currently in the year X791, a Fairy Tail wizard and any moment now she would wake up to the sounds of her friends once again breaking into her home.
"Ms Lucy, your father…"
Her eyes flew open. If this was a dream it was a convincing one, one enough to make her breath catch. Her father was alive in X784. She glanced up to Spetto, expecting the elderly lady to break the bad news and suddenly retreat back into reality but, although shaken, she seemed steady. Everything felt far too real to be a dream. Perhaps this really was happening, perhaps she had been sent back in time.
Her entire body shivered as she pulled herself from the bed, catching a glance at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were rounder, her hair much shorter and her chest weighed a little less. She didn't want to admit that maybe Happy was right and she had gained a little weight over the years, but that was completely normal for a growing woman, especially when the majority had been on her chest. As she walked closer to the mirror she put her hands on her curves and gently pinched her side. Pain. So, this wasn't a dream, at least. The explanations were running short and she was now juggling between time travel and her own insanity. Both seemed equally plausible right now.
Just in case she wasn't insane, the celestial wizard nodded back to Spetto with a wide smile even as tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. She would get to see her father today, one last time. "I want to look my best."
Chapter 2
It didn't take long for Lucy to remember why she escaped this world and the outfits that she had spent years trapped inside. The corset made her feel like she couldn't breathe and more than once she convinced herself she would pass out, but Spetto insisted both on her perfection and on their time limit. She spoke quickly of the meeting that Lucy's father was traveling to that morning and how he would be absent for a long time. Now that Lucy knew how close her father really was to his financial ruin, she could hear the smallest hints and flutters in Spetto's voice as she spoke of the important partnership deals and their hope for the future. Lucy didn't care much about the money but she knew how heavily the stress of losing it all had weighed on his aging body. Her heart beat faster, wanting at that very moment to rush out and spend every last moment she could with him before he disappeared once more, but Spetto insisted that she stay put until 'decent'.
The final result was a beautiful princess with a twisted red dress, long velvet gloves and a dazzling tiara. She was the epitome of a regal beauty, despite the flushed red face and racing out of her room with all grace forgotten.
"Dad!" she called, running into his familiar office. Everything inside smelt of him, felt of him, so close that she could almost touch it. It was empty. She bit her lip, gripping onto the doorframe and pushing herself away as she continued to run down the grand hallways. "Has anyone seen him?" she asked desperately to anyone that would listen, running to the next aid even before the first could speak a word.
"He's just going into the carriage now, Ms Lucy, hurry and you might catch him!"
She lowered her head and ran quicker, holding tightly onto her dress and cursing her heels. Her entire body felt weaker than it had in many years and she despised that greatly. She knew in the future she would be stronger, faster and braver and right now she could only hope to conjure some of those strengths into her younger body. "Dad!" she called, watching as the man began to disappear into the carriage.
He stopped, staring back at his young daughter with a slightly furrowed brow. "Lucy?" he questioned, a slightly scolding tone against her name.
Before he could say any more she ran forwards. Her eyes were blurred into tears and her arms extended out, throwing her entire body against his and burying herself there. This was her father. Now she had no doubt about it. Everything about him seemed more vivid than even her dearest memories. This was his warmth, his smell, even the way that his entire body stiffened at his daughter's touch. He may not have been the best or most caring father in the world but he was hers, and she held on as tightly as she could. "I… I miss you…" she whispered.
His eyes grew wider at the sudden assault, caught between pulling himself back into the carriage and the small woman that had latched her arms around him. He could not see her tears but he could feel her body shudder with no clue as to why. He could feel the tightness of her arms over his chest. He simply didn't know what to do. The father stood dumbfounded for a more few seconds before awkwardly clearing his throat and giving her a gently pat against her shoulder. "Come now, I'm going to be late…" he said.
She shivered as she felt his low voice ripple through his chest. She wanted to absorb every part of this memory, no matter how true or false it was, wanted to remember the way that his breath caught against his thick moustache and the way that he always stood tall no matter how vulnerable he felt. She held onto him for every last second of pulling away, eyes scanning over the gentle giant and finally looking up to his eyes with her own tear-filled gaze. She gave a brave nod. "I love you, dad…" she whispered.
He frowned, unsure how to take the sudden confession. It had felt like years since he had heard those words from his daughter, and years more since he had spoken them back. He had no idea how many more it would be before he could finally understand their weight. "Be good, Lucy," he told her, putting his hands on her shoulders once more but this time to gently move her backwards as he leaned back into the carriage. "Don't get up to trouble while I'm gone."
She nodded, ignoring the tear that was now rolling down her cheek. Her hands clasped together when they were freed from her parent. Plastering a smile on her face, she whispered one last time "Goodbye… Dad…"
Lisanna could only watch in confusion as Happy and Natsu continued to point out all the remarkably normal landmarks across Magnolia. It seemed that every step they took was followed by a 'and this is still here!' or a 'wow I can't believe that is so old now!' and laughter between the two friends. Lisanna couldn't understand it, wondering if there was some kind of inside joke or new prank that she had not yet been opened up to yet. It was by far not the strangest thing that either of them had done, however, and she was just happy to be included in their new little game, even if no one had quite explained the rules to her yet.
While the dragon slayer and exceed were happy to wander aimlessly, Lisanna had her own path to take. They avoided the guildhall despite their hearty objections as she insisted that she needed to go to into the town and gather supplies first. There would be plenty of time to re-join Fairy Tail for the evening's celebrations and general atmosphere later. "I'm not entirely sure what I'll need to take…" Lisanna admitted as she led them forwards, her eyes wide as she glanced at the stalls and all of the beautiful goods that they were trying to push towards the Strauss sibling and her companions.
Natsu was distracted, pointing out every shop keeper that he recognised and commenting on how much younger each one appeared when he finally focussed on Lisanna's absent statement. "Hm?" he tilted his head to the side. "Take for what? Are you going somewhere?" he asked finally.
Lisanna hummed to herself as she leaned down to the nearest jewellery stall. This wasn't anything required but it certainly caught her attention all the same. "For my first S-Class mission with Mira, silly!" she gasped, clasping her hands together as she smiled so widely her eyes closed. "I can't believe you forgot!"
Natsu didn't forget. He couldn't ever ever forget that day. Suddenly the stalls seemed haunting, the shadows of the darkening sky threw themselves down into the alleyways of market-stalls. His smile vanished. Every ounce of happiness from the day had washed away when he remembered where he was, when he was, staring up at the image of the woman he'd cared so deeply for and realising that she looked so perfect in this moment because this was his last memory. This was the last time he woke up by her side, this was the last time that he had taken her to the market and the last time it had been only the three of them. Even after Edolas, even when she had returned from their two long, painful years of grief, he had not been able to bring himself to do these things with her. Even after she'd returned he had not been able to look at her without some distant pain he smiled so hard to hide even from himself.
"Lisanna. Don't go."
She blinked. In the half decade that the two children had known one another she had never seen this look on his face. She'd never before seen his eyes sparkling in a determination brewed from such a deep pain. It made her take a half-step back, not certain why a creeping fear was crawling across her skin. "Natsu… what are you-?"
"Don't go," he said, taking huge leaping steps forwards and holding onto her arms as tightly as possible.
He was impossibly close but she felt no comfort from staring into his wide eyes, shivering under his heated touch. "Natsu you're… scaring me…" she said suddenly. Was this jealousy? He had been uncomfortable with her going on this mission from the start but after a few soft words and reminding him that Erza would no doubt take him and Gray on an S-Class mission of their own soon he had seemed much more confident. There had been some glimmers of worry, but they all knew the ferocity of the devilish S-Class wizard and her brother, both of whom were growing stronger every day. This came from something more raw and terrifying. Natsu's hands seemed to grip harder by the second, unflinching until she gave a response. "I-I have to go…!" she whispered, not sure what else to say though he was making it clear it was the wrong answer. "Mira and Elfman are-HEY!"
With her small yelp Natsu had picked up the tiniest Take Over wizard and slung her over his shoulder. "Sorry, Lisanna!" he said. "This is for your own good…"
Chapter 3
As soon as Lucy had said goodbye to her father and he had disappeared onto his vastly important diplomatic meeting, she was sharply reminded of another of the many reasons she left the mansion. She was outstandingly bored. She had never felt more alone within the four walls, unmoving for hours while afraid that she would burst out crying once again at the simplest reminders. When she finally regained some of her old strength and determination, however, she knew she could not sit and wait for answers. Somewhere there was a Fairy Tail, her Fairy Tail, and she wasn't going to sit around in beautiful clothing for them to come and save her. Gone were the days of being the damsel in distress staring at the horizon for a prince charming. There was no such thing, and if there was, he was certainly not punctual.
Firstly, she set to work on her outfit, riffling through all of her dresses and garments for something a little more practical. Though she would attract attention regardless, if things ended up in a fight – which in Fairy Tail was an almost certainty – she didn't want to be left in a fancy frock and killer heels. The closest thing she could find to a 'normal' outfit, however, was her horse riding gear. It looked far from casual but with a few amendments here and there it was at least easy to walk around in and far more practical in a pinch.
The staff watched her in confusion and concern as she rushed around her home eagerly trying to plan her trip. They begged and pleaded with her to see sense, or at least to see a doctor, but she shook her head every time and refused to stand still. She offered them all her warmest wishes and ordered her carriage regardless, promising them all that she would see them soon – a promise that she knew that she could keep with a certainty only a time traveller had.
The streets of Magnolia filled her with joy and comfort. Her eyes grew wide as she walked the familiar route, sharply reminded of the very first day that she had come here. She smiled to herself, amazed that she hadn't even recognised the 'Salamander', but then it was clear the real Natsu didn't lend himself well to that kind of attention. That day had brought her such happiness and chaos that it was hard not to think of it with a smile, despite how long it had taken her to do so, and she bristled with excitement as she thought of walking back through the doors of Fairy Tail and introducing herself for a second very first time.
For every part of her that had been weak when first entering Fairy Tail, however, she knew that she had only half of that strength in her current form. Once again her hand rested against the golden and silver keys and lovingly felt their energy through the pouch. Aquarius, Lyra, Crux and Holligium. Taurus she would discover the following year and Cancer was still in Spetto's care where he would remain until she was ready to leave home for good. She felt lost with only one zodiac key after months of having almost a full collection, thinking of each of her close comrades and-
"Well hello there, beautiful."
She screamed instinctively. She had been so lost in her own world that she had barely even noticed the light spirit's presence beside her. Every muscle in her body tensed, suddenly face to face with one of the spirits that she had been dreaming about. "L-Loke!?" she gasped, heart racing in her chest.
"I see my reputation proceeds me," he said, smirking charmingly as he took her hand and gave it a soft kiss, casually winking at her through his darkened glasses. "It's quite alright to feel overwhelmed. If you are going to faint you can do so in my arms."
"Uh…." Lucy wasn't entirely sure how to act at the blatant flirting, wondering how he usually managed to make women fall head over heels with this kind of behaviour. It was then that her eyes grew wider, realising that this man had absolutely no idea who she was. Not only that, he was just a man, a mortal man. This was one year after his exile from the celestial realm and two years before he would once again be given a key and a master. She took a small step back. "I, uh, I'm fine! Really!" she said, holding out her hands defensively.
"Oi, Loke." Lucy blinked, recognising the low rumbling voice of the Ice Maker even before she turned. Somehow, she just knew he would also be naked. What she hadn't expected was for Cana to be standing by Gray's side, both looking impatient. "Are you coming or not?"
Loke either didn't hear or didn't care, practically throwing hearts out of his eyes as he glanced at the beautiful blonde before him. "I would recognise an angel like you in Magnolia if I'd seen you before. Tell me, do you need somewhere to stay the night?"
Lucy recoiled, pulling her hand away sharply. Part of her was tempted to throw in his face that if she was his master he should be treating her with more respect, but then his friends didn't know that he was a celestial spirit in this time. She could feel her heart sinking, remembering from her books that in time travel the number one rule was to change as little as possible. Well that was going swimmingly well so far, she thought to herself with a groan, trying desperately to think of a way of avoiding her old friends and keeping her appearance as unremarkable as possible.
"Oi oi, Loke," Cana growled, before tilting her head to the side. "I didn't think celestial wizards were your type."
The spirit physically froze. His eyes grew wide in disbelief, as if Cana had somehow revealed that Lucy was a monster from the depths of hell. Although Lucy understood the reason she couldn't help but be a little offended as he suddenly flinched away, practically running back to Cana and Gray's side. "Aha, my mistake! Bye!" he said. "Cana, Gray, we're going. NOW."
Gray looked in confusion, scratching the back of his head as he picked up his pace after his strange friend. Cana smirked to herself proudly, glancing back at Lucy briefly and giving a small wink. "Welcome to Fairy Tail," she grinned widely before turning back to the boys, running after them. "Yo, Perverts! Wait up! I still have to tell you about this S-Class mission!"
Lucy found herself blushing, unable to move as she stared after the three friends. She would have never guessed that the three of them would be so close, wondering absently if this was a chance encounter for the three of them or if, as she suspected, they were an actual team. She'd never heard Loke mention either Gray or Cana, though she'd seen Gray close with both and remembered the S-Class trial where the two boys had teamed up together. She'd been completely in the dark about their friendship then and felt even more so now. She instinctively reached down to her keys as she promised herself that she would question Loke about it when she returned home.
Another confused frown rested on her face as she looked down at the pouch, and the keys that were safely hidden from sight inside.
"PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!"
Lucy glanced upward, drawn away from her confusion as she heard yet another familiar voice from the guild. Her first instincts were to run and hide as she remembered her badly taken advise to not chance anything in the past. She had come to Magnolia for a reason, however, and that reason had been for the trusting arms of the guild she cared for in her own time. Without them she would be completely lost. As it happened she didn't even have much of a choice regardless; the vision of Lisanna slung over Natsu's shoulder kicking and screaming to be put down had frozen her in disbelief.
"Hey, Luce," Natsu said calmly as he walked past her, ignoring the yelling of the Take Over mage and the confused glances he received from the people of Magnolia.
Lucy just blinked as he walked straight past her. It took more than a few seconds to realise that Natsu wasn't supposed to know who she was, no one in Fairy Tail was, not yet. "Natsu? Happy?" she called back to them, tilting her head to the side.
Natsu stopped suddenly, obviously coming to the same conclusion quickly as he turned back around and ran straight back to the celestial wizard. "Hey, you're Lucy!" he said, as if it wasn't the most obvious statement. "Wait, if you know who I am three years ago… Have you always known who I am?!"
Lisanna was thrown into silence, staring too at the newcomer that Natsu seemed to be very familiar with.
"No, you idiot!" Lucy yelled back at him, "I'm from the future too!"
"Ohhh….!" Natsu's eyes grew wider, and then finally his grin. "That's awesome! I thought me and Happy were the only ones!"
Lucy looked at them both in disbelief but with a lingering comfort. She had to admit that she too had been afraid that she'd been lost in this time travel by herself, but knowing that she had Natsu by her side now filled her with comfort. "What… what are you doing with Lisanna?" she asked cautiously, watching the struggling girl who was not looking at her with the same recognition as the dragon slayer.
"Natsu put me down this second!" Lisanna yelled, throwing a kick to the distracted pink-haired boy's abs.
The dragon slayer seemed to finally remember that the he was holding her with the sharp reminder, dropping her down as she took several steps back. As soon as he dropped Lisanna, his attention kept on Lucy. "Oh right, you can help too!" he exclaimed. "Luce, we need to stop Lisanna from going on the mission tomorrow!"
"Mission?" Lucy blinked at Natsu, trying to interpret the determination that now rested in his eyes. "What mission?"
"The mission that'll kill her, it's tomorrow and we need to make sure she can't go on it!" he said suddenly.
Lucy's eyes grew wider in realisation, taking a half step back as she put a hand on her mouth. "Tomorrow? You're certain?"
Natsu nodded, the memory firmly imprinted in his mind in the least pleasant of ways. "Yeah, everything about this day is right. We need to-" he turned around, eyes glancing back to the white haired mage. Or at least where she was supposed to be. "Lisanna?!"
Lucy's fist slammed into the back of Natsu's head. Though it did very little damage she felt it fully represented her irritation. "You don't just tell a girl that she's going to die tomorrow!" she exclaimed, running forwards. "Lisanna! Lisanna!" she yelled out, her desperate calls quickly matched by both the exceed and the dragon slayer. Lucy just couldn't imagine what must have been going through the Take Over mage's head right now. She didn't know how she would react knowing that she was going to die. Her and Natsu had spoken in such a clear way that it didn't leave much doubt, they had both seen the future and neither of them had even mentioned that that Lisanna was going to be okay. She may have died to the rest of Fairy Tail but she survived in Edolas, but now she was running around Magnolia with only her own mortality to fear. Cold terror washed over Lucy as her heart bled for the poor girl. It wasn't fair for her to hear such a thing, especially not in the way that Natsu had so inconsiderately blurted it out. "Lisanna!" she called out again, hoping and praying the poor girl would at least have the sense now to save her own life.
So much for not changing history.
Lisanna ran. Her eyes grew wider with every step, heart suddenly pounding in her chest as she replayed the conversation between the dragon slayer and the stranger in her mind. She had only caught half of the conversation and wasn't entirely sure she believed all of it, but more meaning sunk in than she was willing to admit to herself. Her legs shook. Her head swam. Tomorrow the Take Over wizard would die.
Her entire body felt like it would give out with every slam her feet made against the ground. At first she didn't know where she was going, guided only by her panic and the growing misfortune that she knew would take place. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to think about dying. She thought about her friends, her guild, her loving brother and sister. She saw their smiles as she closed her eyes, imagining them replaced with frowns and tears. She didn't want to die. She saw again the look on Natsu's face when she told him that she was going on the S-Class mission, remembered the tension hung dangerously in the sudden silence. She would not die tomorrow.
She slammed her front door shut, pressing her entire body against the wood as if it would somehow block out all fate. She was still panting heavily and despite having stopped she was struggling to regain her breath. Tears were running freely down her face and she clutched her short white hair tightly. She'd never before felt so afraid, never had such reason to feel fear. Natsu had always told her that he would protect him, but somehow, he had failed. Somehow, he would fail.
"Lisanna?" Elfman peered down the corridor and straight to the front door. He had his familiar soft kindness in his eyes, a stark contrast to the devilish woman that was standing behind him. At the sight of their youngest sibling's tears both were quick to action. "Lisanna, what happened?" he pushed, stepping forwards.
"I can't…" she suddenly stopped her words, eyes wide. She knew that she would die and she didn't know how she would die. If the mission was so dangerous then she couldn't just exclaim that she wasn't going to go with Mira and Elfman. Mirajane had already threatened to pull the mission from them several times, yelling that she would go alone they improved their strength and basically acted as her slave for a month. The Strauss siblings had all been so excited to take on the quest that she had no doubt if she didn't go her two family members would go without her. She couldn't let one of them die in her place. "M-Mira… I don't feel well…" she murmured, putting a hand on her forehead.
Mirajane exchanged a sharp glance back to her younger brother, and then stepped forwards. She placed her hand on Lisanna's cheek and forehead, her touch slightly rough as she examined. "You don't have a temperature," she said.
"No-no but I feel…. I feel just awful…" Lisanna mentioned, and she truly did. The news had twisted knots into her stomach, the apprehension conjuring a pain that felt very real. "I don't think I can go t-tomorrow… Mirajane I don't think we should…." Her words faded. Suddenly she was falling forwards, all energy drained from her bones, feeling her brother and sister's strong arms as she fainted.
Part 2
Chapter 1
When Lucy next awoke, it was in her own apartment. She had a smile on her face even before she opened her eyes, able to feel the soft brush of her pillow against her cheeks as the lace curtains blew gently in the breeze. Her window was open, as it always was, an invitation to some of the less polite members of her guild but she did little to close it. She didn't want to block out any amount of light into her life.
With a yawning stretch her arms pushed up to the sky, small pyjama top rising with her morning breath. She felt as if she had slept for an age. As she opened her eyes she began to realise that that very much might have been true. She looked around her room, finding absolutely nothing remarkable about it but the memories of how she had returned home were lost on her. She could remember running through the town and screaming Lisanna's name, their desperation to save the small girl from losing her life to dive into Edolas, but waking in her own bed had almost convinced her that was just a dream.
The only evidence to the contrary was that something just felt wrong. She looked down at her hands, as if her palms and nails could somehow give her the answers. There was a weakness inside her, not overly different to that which she had felt when waking in her old bedroom in the grand mansion, but far less tangible. Every time she tried to grasp what was different, or what was missing, the thoughts seemed to run away from her.
Her heart caught in her throat as she heard a sudden muttering from the other room. Natsu. She frowned, but while she was unable to remember if she'd invited him into her home or whether he'd invited himself via an open window she found herself unable to instantly feel anger. Ignoring what she now considered a dream, she vaguely remembered that both she and Happy were trying to protect Natsu from his impending hangover – a hangover that from the sounds of it had finally caught up with him. She was a little smug as she walked back through, arms folded across her chest.
"Lucy…." he whimpered, falling off the sofa with a heavy thud as he tried to reach out to her. "Why is the room moving…?"
He was hopeless. He was useless. He was severely hungover. Perhaps some of the alcohol had been even stronger than she thought; she hadn't exactly been sober herself, which would explain her own weakness and the strangely vivid dreams. "Well, I did warn you not to touch strange drinks," she told him with an eyeroll, moving over and trying to pull him back onto the sofa.
He groaned loudly as her arms tucked underneath his shoulders, hoisting him up back onto the comfortable furniture. Everything was spinning, but at least if it was going to spin he wanted to be on something soft. "Lucy… did we save… Lisanna?"
Her eyes grew suddenly wide. "L-Lisanna…?" She was in complete disbelief. She could not have believed such a thing was even possible but Natsu sharing her dreams was too much of a coincidence. It was real! "I-I'm not… I'm not sure," she admitted, not only unsure of what they had done but what they should have done. Every piece of writing and every story she had ever read all pointed to time travel being exceptionally dangerous, typically following the chaos theory, more commonly known as the 'butterfly effect'. She couldn't remember exactly why it was called this, but she knew what it meant – changing the past could lead to disastrous consequences in the future. They had seen that all too recently with the Eclipse Gate.
"I'm not sure if we'd even know. That was nine years ago, and Lisanna was never really dead…" she continued frown, trying to imagine joining the Fairy Tail guild if Lisanna had been there. She was told months later how much she reminded so many of her nakama of the fallen girl and she had always secretly wondered if they would have given her such a warm reception if that had not been the case. Seeing the way they had become instantly close to the likes of Juvia and Wendy she had assured herself that the warmth of the guild's welcome was Fairy Tail's true heart, but she still suspected Natsu was more welcoming to her than anyone.
"I don't feel any different!" Happy said as he spread out his wings, diving into the air and doing a quick and excitable backflip.
Lucy smiled back at Happy, glad to see that he was his normal cheerful self. With he strange feeling inside of her and couldn't quite agree, but while she wasn't sure if that was from the time travel exhaustion or from something deeper she didn't dare say it out loud. "What about you, Natsu? How do you feel?" she asked him.
"I feel… sick…" he whimpered, burying his face into the sofa.
Lucy sighed. "Right…" She'd almost forgot the pale look written across the dragon slayer's face, the exact same expression he always seemed to have when they were moving long distances in vehicles. "You know, I remember hearing that time travel is supposed to feel quite nauseating. I suppose it must be much worse for a dragon slayer. And a hangover," she said. She was going to let that explanation slide completely. "I'm sure you'll feel much better after some food! How about we go to the guild and grab some of Mirajane's cooking for breakfast?"
Natsu managed to rise his head, almost as if he could smell the bacon already. "R-right…" he agreed, somehow gathering the strength to pull himself back up to his feet.
Now that he was finally starting to help himself Lucy was only too happy to help. She was also eager to find her way out into the real world so that they could start to put some of the pieces together. She was almost too excited as she quickly helped drag him out of the flat, wishing her landlady well and promising her that she would get their rent on time this month (though she strangely seemed to have no screaming back in disbelief this time). She dragged him along the riverside, waving to the men who warned her not to stand too close to the edge and thanking their concern, dipping through the familiar paths and routes as she always did with the dragon slayer by her side.
"Everything seems normal!" Happy exclaimed as he kept a short distance behind the pair, looking into all of the windows and staring at the names of the streets as if they would suddenly change.
Lucy nodded, having realised this herself too, though she was still a little worried. "It all seems fine so far," she agreed, though the walk had not returned any of her lost strength or the nagging feeling that she was forgetting something. As per usual, her hand went to her pouch, lending her spirit's power as they wandered the world lost. "Perhaps there really wasn't any change made. It could have just been a dream," she guessed. "I hear that people can share dreams sometimes, though it's very rare."
"Rarer than time travel?" Happy asked.
"Considering Eclipse, I'm not sure anymore…." Lucy had to admit, pulling an awkward face as she stopped in front of the Fairy Tail guild, pushing open the huge guild doors.
It was a very quiet morning in the Fairy Tail guild. Natsu seemed to suddenly snap out of his delirious state as he looked around the halls, his eyes surprisingly sharp as he paid the closest attention now. He could see many familiar faces but not nearly as many as he had expected and there was something else confusing his senses. "It smells wrong…" he muttered under his breath as they took the few steps up to the bar.
Lucy looked back at Natsu in confusion. He seemed to be ignoring the kind waves and greetings, a strangely serious frown on his face. "Smells strange how?" she questioned.
Natsu just couldn't place his finger on it, but something felt different and that alone was reason for him not to like it. This was his guild, his Fairy Tail, and even when things could be significantly improved it would take a long time for him to grow familiar enough to see their worth. The smell was strangely more pleasant than usual, but it only made him frown more. "I don't know, just different…" he said slowly, looking around. What was worse was that amidst all the missing scents that made his guild special, he also couldn't smell the tiniest whiff of Mirajane's cooking. He looked around, stopping before they came to the bar and realising that a white-haired woman was sitting on the wrong side of it. "Yo, Mira," he greeted with a wave. "How about some grub?"
The white-haired woman turned around, her eyes flashing dangerously bright to the dragon slayer. She looked borderline demonic with the wild fury in her eyes, as if Natsu could not have said a more insulting question. "Do I look like I work here?" she sneered at him, pulling herself to fully height above him. Her heels made the tall teen even more dominating, leather gripping her body in all of the appropriate places and very little else but there was something more intimdating that sexy about both her expression and her image.
Lucy found herself squealing and ducking behind Natsu, but the dragon slayer seemed to barely even notice the difference, tilting his head to the side as he took a few moments to work out what was so different about the Take Over wizard. "Huh? What are ya on about? Of course you work here," he said.
"N-N-Natsu…" Lucy gripped onto Natsu's shoulder tightly, creeping further behind him but quickly wishing she had chosen a safer shield. "I don't think Mirajane agrees with you…"
He continued to tilt his head to the side, receiving the threatening glance from the kind-hearted barmaid. It took a long time for him to realise that although they were one and the same person, the woman standing before him was nothing like the Mirajane they had only seen the night before serving them drinks and warning them against drinking Cana's lethal concoctions. It didn't mean that she wasn't familiar, however, and that was where the difficulty in his memories lay. This was Mirajane in her full glory, the same venomous violence that she had before the disappearance of her beloved sister. "You're… not a barmaid anymore?" he asked, finally understanding.
"What do you mean 'anymore', punk?" she demanded of him, grabbing him by the scarf and dragging him upwards.
"I-I-I think he's just a little out of it this morning!" Lucy tried to defend him meekly, though there was no doubt if the Strauss sibling looked her way she would be the quickest to run out of the door. "Right, Natsu?"
Natsu wasn't sure that he wanted to flinch away from a fight – curiousity raged through him at the prospect of beating the S-Class wizard in her full strength, but another question was lurking. "If you're running the bar… then who is?"
Both Lucy and Natsu turned in unison back to the counter at the sound of high heels clicking against the polished wooden floor. Long legs led upwards to an incredibly short black skirt and white pinafore, the cute maid outfit almost breaking beneath volumptious curves. Long red hair shaped around her breasts as the S-Class requip wizard held onto the silver tray with her fingertips.
"Erza… Erza has replaced Mirajane?!" Lucy couldn't help but shriek in disbelief. This world had officially turned upside down. Mirajane was terrifying and Erza was the sweet barmaid. It sounded too crazy for her to even begin to believe it, certain now that they had shattered time beyond repair.
The redhead turned at her own name, her eyes wide and curious. Then the familiar glare fell back on her face, the fierceness that only Erza could hold as she ignored the glasses she held and swooped her tray against the back of Mirajane's head. "What have I told you about leaving him alone, asshole?" she glared back at her rival.
"I take it back…" Lucy groaned. Same old Erza with her same old violent streak.
"Who are you calling asshole, freakshow?!" Mirajane hissed back, replacing her grip on the dragon slayer's scarf and instead yanking against neck of her bursting outfit, ignoring or not caring that most of the men of the guild were now watching and waiting for a beautiful disaster between the two women's outfits.
"Well that explains why I can smell so many strawberries…" Natsu thought out loud, now sure that he could smell a variety of strawberry cake, strawberry pancakes, strawberry cookies, strawberry cheesecake and many more delights that only Erza could stomach in such quantity. "Yo, have you seen Lisanna anywhere?"
Erza blinked in surprise as she looked back at Natsu, temporarily forgetting her heated argument against Mira. "I was assuming to meet with the three of you."
"Ohh, ah, yeah, you've just reminded me!" Natsu lied quickly, grabbing Lucy by the hand and taking a few tactical steps away from the two vicious women. "C'mon, Luce, we gotta find Lisanna before she thinks we've forgotten about her!" he said, dragging Lucy out before she even had time to squeal.
Lucy was still rubbing her arm after Natsu had yanked her violently out of the guild, her mind reeling as she thought about what she had seen. The guild had been much quieter than it had been even before the seven-year break and Mirajane's appearance had been shocking but it still left Lucy in doubt. She had to agree with Natsu, something had just felt different and she was once again met with the feeling of losing something, her eyes drifting down to her keys for the strength she lacked. "Do you think that it's possible?" she thought out loud, her words carrying away in the growing winds. "Do you think that we might have… changed the past?"
Natsu kept walking, thinking to himself and, like Lucy, trying to decide exactly what had felt so different about the guild. It wasn't just the strawberries that had smelt different, it was almost as if the place had a different atmosphere just from stepping into the four solid walls. "I guess we'll find out when we find Lisanna," he shrugged.
"Natsu, please try to be a little more sensitive this time…" Lucy sighed, already knowing it was hopeless.
"What do you mean by that, Lucy?" Natsu asked.
"I mean you can't just go and tell someone she's died! It's just not done!" Lucy screamed back at him.
"Ohh…" Natsu said, finally remembering the message that Lucy had been trying to give him before. A smile plastered back onto his face. "Well, we can't exactly tell her that now since she's OK!"
"Aye!" Happy agreed.
Lucy decided it was more than hopeless. She was arguing against stupidity and somehow still losing. Her heavy sigh was quickly drowned out by the sounds of Natsu and Happy's stomachs growling in unison, and even Lucy had to hold onto hers as it painfully reminded her that they had left on a mission to get food and returned empty handed. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get some food on the way…" Lucy said, wondering if she would be able to see any more differences as they reached the market.
"I'd kill for some of Mirajane's cooking right now," Natsu mused to himself unhappily, hands behind his head as his stomach moved his feet forwards.
"She always has so much fish…" Happy agreed between the grumbles of his stomach. "Natsu, do you think that if we changed time we might never be able to eat Mira's cooking again?"
Natsu twitched uncomfortably. "We'll have to put up with endless strawberry cake…"
"Aye..." Happy's voice wobbled unhappily, imagining a fish placed on a bed of strawberries and doused in sugar, a playful Erza in a pinafore dancing over her meal proudly.
Natsu stopped as he was suddenly coated in darkness. There had been nothing threatening about the sights and sounds around him, almost something comforting as he felt soft hands wrap themselves over his face. A playful giggle was against his ear as the small white-haired girl leaned closer. "Guess who," Lisanna's voice spoke softly into his ear.
A beaming smile quickly replaced all apprehension of a guild filled with the redhead's favourite deserts. "Lisanna!" he spoke quickly, taking her hands as they dropped down and brought the light back into his eyes. As he turned he could see her again, the gentle smile across her own face. "You're not dead!"
Lucy and Happy both collapsed to the floor in the certainty that their friend was a complete fool. "That didn't take long…" Lucy whimpered, receiving a wobbling 'aye' from the cat beside her.
Lisanna just blinked back at the dragon slayer, confused. "Not… dead?" she asked, not quite able to bring a step away from him as much as she couldn't lean closer. It felt as if she stared at him for an eternity, waiting for all of the pieces to slip into place. Natsu was smiling at least, his beaming grin from ear-to-ear that brought her and the rest of the guild joy even through their darkest times. It seemed even brighter than it had in years. Everything about him seemed brighter and lighter and she felt her stomach dropping.
"Yeah, you're OK!" Natsu grinned confidently as he ignored his companion's reactions. "You look just the same as you did but I guess you were always OK though, huh…" he frowned in thought, remembering that in this fact that both worlds would be the same and he was actually no closer to the truth than he'd been before.
She could feel her heart skipping beats inside of her chest, eyes widening as she looked back at one of her oldest and dearest friends. She glanced to Happy and Lucy, her mind reeling back to that day so many years ago. "Natsu, Lucy, Happy…" her voice wavered, feeling as if her knees would give out at any moment. "Do you finally remember saving my life?"
The three stared at Lisanna in disbelief. Lucy rushed forwards, her heart racing and her voice reaching a high-pitched squeal. "Did we do it? Did we change the past?!" she demanded of the small girl.
Lisanna hesitated, but slowly nodded as she brushed the hair gently behind her ear. Lucy was screaming something wildly in disbelief in a voice that only dogs, cats and dragon slayers could hear, running around as she bounded between happiness and complete terror. Natsu didn't move an inch, staring at his old friend with a growing smile on his face. He'd saved the day. He'd stopped the sadness and the grief before it had even started. Edolas could not have his Lisanna, she was his victory prize and he couldn't wait for the heavy feeling in his chest to finally disappear.
Chapter 2
"You mean… I was never dead?"
Natsu shovelled the food quickly down his throat, somehow still managing to utter the words between his chewing "Not really! This is really good, thanks Lisanna!"
Lisanna blushed, looking at the dragon slayer as he munched and chewed on hundreds upon hundreds of jewels worth of food for his hearty breakfast. She certainly didn't regret offering to buy them all a meal after hearing their stomachs rumbling but she just wished that they would be a little more considerate of her purse. "A-Anytime…" she said with a half-smile.
"You were in Edolas the whole time," Lucy continued, having the respect and good upbringing to not speak to her friend with food in her mouth. "The entire of Fairy Tail thought that you were dead for two years."
"Oh, I see," Lisanna said thoughtfully, taking the straw of her smoothie and swirling the green liquid. "So when you and Natsu saved my life, you thought that I was dead?"
Natsu swallowed a large load of food, pushing back the one plate and pulling forwards a second. "No, we knew you were alive," he explained. "I just didn't want you to leave again."
"From what I can tell, losing you was hard on the entire guild," Lucy said slowly to Lisanna, knowing how hard it must have been to hear the sorrow that she had brought on her friends and family. "We didn't exactly have much time to think about what we were doing. You know they say that time travel is dangerous. Who knows what other changes have happened so far," she wondered aloud.
"Aye, Natsu said that the guild smelled different!" Happy said with a mouth full of fish.
"That's right!" Lucy said, remembering how different she had also felt since waking that morning. The coffee and pancakes weren't lifting her strength the same way that she had hoped, only waking her senses more to a feeling of forgetfulness. "Mirajane seemed very different too."
"She didn't seem that different to me," Natsu shrugged.
"Are you crazy?" Lucy's eyes almost popped out of her head. "Everything seems so different. I can't believe that Erza was running the bar instead!"
Lisanna put her hand over her mouth, giggling and having to stop herself from taking another sip of the healthy smoothie. "Erza isn't running the bar, she's just covering for me."
"You mean we won't have to put up with strawberry fish?!" Happy asked quickly, his eyes lighting up with the sudden ray of hope.
Lisanna shook her head, looking at Happy with a motherly kindness. "Not unless you really want to, no," she told him. "I really can't imagine Erza running the bar in any reality," she shuddered. "But then I can't imagine Mirajane running it either. I remember seeing a Mirajane who ran the bar when we went to Edolas…"
"Wait, you went to Edolas in this timeline too?" Lucy asked, her eyes wide.
Lisanna nodded, swirling the green drink again as she smiled back at the memories. "I imagine that we must have gone on a lot of the same adventures that you did," she realised aloud. "We've just won the Grand Magical Games, only a few days ago!"
"Us too," Natsu said, his face once more filled with food. "And then the Eclipse gate."
"Were you in the games too?" Lucy asked curiously. It was difficult to tell what 'us' meant when Fairy Tail was such a unity and the crowds of their nakama played such an important part to their victory, but a Lisanna that had not spent two years in a world without magic would undoubtedly be even stronger.
Lisanna confirmed her suspicions and nodded. "Mhmm. We changed around quite a bit but for most of it it was the three of us and Erza and Wendy."
"Wait, you replaced Ice Block?" Natsu asked, already sniggering. "What about Fairy Tail Team B?"
Lisanna looked thrown back, eyes widening a little as she looked between Lucy and Natsu. "I-… there wasn't a Fairy Tail Team B. Unless you mean the reserves? There was Mira and Laxus and a few others that helped…"
Lucy shook her head, trying to be helpful. "In our timeline, Fairy Tail had two teams join, which merged into one for the final few days. Our Fairy Tail A Team was Natsu, Erza, Gray, me and Wendy, though she was also replaced with Elfman for the first day. Did you really not have any of that?"
Lisanna pushed back the table as she suddenly began to stand. A serious look flashed in her eyes, a sudden seriousness that did not dare shelter too much emotion. "There's something you need to see."
Lucy, Natsu and the exceed exchanged glances. The change in the tension in the room was clear even to the most oblivious Fairy Tail Mage. Lisanna was quickly pressing the money into the hands of the waitresses and before anyone could object her hand wrapped tightly against Natsu's as she began her march.
"Lisanna, what is it?" Lucy asked, struggling to keep up as she stormed forwards, Natsu curiously following.
She didn't answer.
"Lisanna you're acting really strange…" Happy remarked as he flew over their heads.
Again, the take over wizard said nothing, continuing to march east through the heart of the city centre.
Natsu watched with wide eyes, still expecting the find differences even in the faces of the strangers he passed. The only thing he could see was surprise as the tiny white haired girl led along the athletic young man with luminescent hair. He was used to stranger looks. Everything else was identical. The streets took the same paths, the shops sold the same goods, the cathedral loomed above all growing larger as they drew closer.
He lost his grip on her hands as he realised just where they were being led. She didn't miss a heartbeat, instead grabbing onto his wrist and turning her leading into dragging. His footsteps were heavier with every movement closer, his heart racing faster as they moved to the side entrance of the ancient building. "Lisanna…" he warned her. He didn't want to be here, even now. His instincts pulled him back even as every logical part of his mind told him that the beautiful childhood friend was not buried here.
She said nothing, carrying on through the headstones and freshly picked flowers.
Suddenly they were all brought to a stop as the take over wizard halted in front of the place of her own gravestone. This time it was not printed with the Strauss name, however.
Here lies Gray Fullbuster
Time hung in silence. The words were unmistakable, etched deep into the stone, a decade of erosion only just beginning to make their mark against the crisp chisels. The ground before it was untouched, grass growing unheeded from what lay far below. The four Fairy Tail mage's eyes were pinned to the new and terrifying difference before them.
"Is this a joke?" Natsu asked, glancing back to Lisanna. He was so looking forward to punching the ice maker right now, yelling at him for once again pretending that his life was something to belittle. He told himself this was exactly the sort of thing that Gray would do, the stupid and cruel prank he could expect from someone that he disliked so much, but every part of that trail of thought was completely false. It wasn't Gray's typical behaviour, it wasn't a prank, and he certainly didn't dislike him. That was why when Lisanna didn't answer right away he knew the answer. He knew that she was not finding this any easier than he was. He just couldn't bring himself to admit it.
"No…" Lucy suddenly breathed, her eyes brimming with new tears. "No no no no…" The celestial wizard's eyes had veered away from the stone that Natsu and Happy had been looking at and were not tracing the one to the left. It took Natsu a few seconds to realise that her eyes were not just faded but staring at a second tragedy unfolding
Here lies Loke of Fairy Tail
Lucy took a step towards the second grave, her hand once again quickly to her pouch for comfort although this time there was a new desperation. She emptied her keys so quickly they all fell onto the floor from her numb fingers and she crouched to her knees, picking each one in turn. Every failure made her more desperate to find the elusive golden key, now finally realising what had been missing the whole time, what had been drawing upon her sense of weakness.
Natsu stared blankly between Lucy and the two graves, the reality taking too long to sink in. Beside him, Lisanna was looking back at Lucy's reaction more than confused. As far as she was concerned, Lucy had never met either of the two fallen wizards, and her reaction to her keys seemed inexplicable. The answer was now clear, they had had no idea these graves existed or the story that they told. Natsu's eyes were once again back to the Take Over wizard's, quietly asking "Lisanna… what happened?"
Lisanna swallowed hard. "It was a training exercise years ago," she said, her voice small and her hands wringing together. "Cana, Loke and Gray had stolen one of the S-Class missions from the guildboard, but they'd underestimated. The boys were both killed and Cana, who was the one who had stolen the quest and convinced the other two to join her, was exiled."
"I don't have it," Lucy breathed, looking at the keys that she'd laid out neatly in front of her, hoping that one would suddenly jump out and prove out. "I don't have his key. He's really not here, Natsu," she looked up at him, tears rushing down her cheeks. "He's really-"
"We can fix this," Natsu said quickly, gripping his fist tightly and looking as if he was about to march into a long and difficult battle. "We can undo the spell, we can put it back to the way it was. Lucy, how did you do it?"
"Do… do what?" Lucy asked, her breathing calming as she saw the hope that the dragon slayer projected wildly.
"The time travel! How did you send us back?" Natsu asked quickly, staring at her.
Lucy blinked. She couldn't speak. Her mouth hung for a second, staring at the dragon slayer and realising that every bit of lingering hope was shattering before her eyes. "Natsu, I didn't do anything, you did."
"What do you mean I did?!" Natsu barked.
"You did," Happy said quietly, reaching over and putting his tiny paw on Natsu's leg. His eyes, too, were filled with thick tears that had been making small puddles in the ground beneath his feet. "You were glowing and we grabbed onto you."
Natsu recoiled, taking a staggering step backwards. There would still be something to fight, something to fix, something to do. He couldn't stop for long enough to think of what was in front of him or how it made him feel or why there was a burning pain inside of his chest. He just wanted to leave this place and run as far as his feet would carry him, away from the painful words etched deep into stone. "Then I just have to remember!" he said, determination resting in his eyes even as his voice wavered and he took another step back. "I have to remember how we did it and then we can undo this!"
"But Lisanna…" Happy said sadly, looking up to the kind-hearted woman beside him.
"Lisanna came back, dammit!" Natsu hissed, but then he took a leap forwards. "That's it, isn't it?! They'll be in Edolas, they would have been in Edolas like you were there, weren't they?" he said, suddenly grabbing onto Lisanna's arms tightly.
Lisanna's eyes grew wider, a fear she couldn't hold back as he stared at her with his fevered determination and denial. "Natsu, there was no one in Edolas from our world…"
"Then you missed them!"
"Natsu, they would have returned with the rest of the magic users like Lisanna had," Lucy said quietly, standing slowly as she collected her remaining keys together.
His head was swimming as he tried to think of new ways to break whatever was inside before it consumed him. The reality was starting to sink in and every moment it began to feel more real. 'Here lies…' No, it was a lie in itself. Even if there was the slightest hint of truth, he would fix this. 'Loke of Fairy Tail'. They didn't even have a surname for him. Of course Natsu knew the true reason why but it felt disrespectful. Lucy had saved Loke, Loke would not have gone so easily. 'Gray Fullbuster'...
His thoughts stopped dead, his chest turning cold.
"We can fix this," he promised with a strangled voice.
Chapter 3
It didn't take long for Natsu to pinpoint what exactly about the guild was now different. There were smells that had not lingered in the halls for many years now. The distinctive scent of the ice maker that naturally repulsed the fire wielder was only the second most obvious, the first being strong liquor. It was a mixture of several types of drink which, while still sold in plenty, had rapidly declined in sales and spillages since the card Mage had been exiled. Cana may not have had the strongest scent herself but her drink was particularly poignant and she had spent more time in these halls than almost any other member of the guild. There were others missing beside the three but while most of the guild were making the most of the influx of missions from the success of the games it was difficult to tell.
Loke's absence was more of a physical one. His smell was missing but it had barely been there since moving to the celestial realm. Lucy's hand never left her pouch, as if afraid that suddenly another key would slip away from her grasp and that she would have to face the loss of another friend. She felt both exhausted and alone, no matter how much she was asked she couldn't bring herself to explain exactly what was wrong. The guild had quickly learned of their difference but she refused stubbornly to tell Loke's secret while he was unable to tell it himself. This Fairy Tail still believed he was a ring Mage, and there was more than one suggestion that Lucy had been caught in his charm, which was a lie she had little reason to challenge. Natsu had said he would fix things and she had no doubt he would find a way.
There was not a glimmer of uncertainty in the dragon slayer's words as he described the world that they would rekindle. His focus was not on the differences or the people they had lost but instead he told stories and intently listened to those around him. By the end of the night he had challenged every member of the guild to a fight. No matter how many times he was knocked down he would get up again, fighting harder and faster with every swing until he realised he needed this.
The evening was still young when he left for the day, giving some half-hearted excuse about wanting to get up early the next day. His hands still itched, however. His fists clenched and unclenched with every step as he pointedly ignored Happy's concerned looks.
Their home wasn't even in sight by the time that Natsu's fists struck the first target. A huge and ancient tree that was in no way in their way took the brunt of one of Natsu's hardest punches. He stopped dead in his tracks, hand pressed against the hard bark and waiting for his breathing to calm.
Another of his fists flew through the air, followed by another, each making contact against the hard wood and splintering the bark with bloody knuckles. He needed to hit something and his favourite target was gone. His breathing quickened as another strike hit against the tree. He remembered every single one of his nakama that he had fought and every time that he had been downed. It had been too easy. He was weaker. With every punch against the solid tree he felt his strength was not what it had been.
His new audience did not make him feel any more comfortable with this fact. His fist stayed against the bright white wood that had cracked through the broken bark, pressed hard against the solid object to stop it from shaking violently. He should have been filled with confidence and happiness at the companion's presence, but instead he found himself desperate to push these uplifting emotions outwards to her. "We're going to fix this," he promised yet again, pushing his hand deeper into the wood. "We're going to change all of this and put everything right again, the way it should be. We're going to bring them back."
The air seemed to shift. As the dragon slayer turned back around slowly he saw the tall woman's poise shifting, a flicker of something in her eyes that disappeared so quickly he could only see the new cold reflection staring back at him, so devoid of emotion it left the redhead looking almost disappointed. "I see," she said, her voice just as cool as her expression. A gust of wind blew between them, capturing the beat of silence. "Do you have a plan yet?"
He did not. He didn't have anything at all. 'Plan T' was useless when there was no physical enemy to take down. The frown was clear on his face, the sheer determination that would usually only ignite in the heat of the fiercest battle resting against his features. "Not yet," he said. "Lucy said she was working with Levy to research time travel. Then we attack," he said, his fist against his hands.
Erza paused, watching him carefully. She did not move for some time, staring at the fierceness in his eyes with none of her own to mirror back to him. Then, slowly, she nodded. "Good luck," she said simply, turning on her heels and beginning to walk away.
Natsu's frown turned into one of surprise, not even allowing her to take three steps forward before suddenly asking "Aren't you helping us?"
Erza stopped obediently. If anything, she seemed to flinch to a halt. She met his eyes as she glanced over her shoulder to him, every word controlled. "No, Natsu, I won't be helping you this time."
His eyes opened wide, his jaw hanging loosely open as he stared at Erza in disbelief. This was Erza, who had been in his team for years, his friend for almost a decade, and supposedly one of the closest friends to the lives he was trying to save. She had been the one to bully him into working with his fallen nakama in the first place, both as a training partner while they were children and as an actual team when they both became older and Lucy joined the guild. Now she only had an uncaring look in her eyes. "What do you mean you're not helping?!" he roared, taking a step forwards and ignoring the way that Happy was shivering under his anger. "How can you not help with this?! Don't you know what's at stake here?!"
She turned forward once more, the smallest of sighs against her lips as she held her hands both out in front of her. Her beautiful and dazzling light materialised around her fingertips, spinning orbs of magic forming two weapons. She held onto them both tightly, a concentrating frown against her face before she swung back around and threw one against Natsu's chest.
He was instantly winded as the thick wooden shaft threw against his abs, slamming him back against the tree. The wooden pole landed in both of his hands awkward, but before he could yell at the unexpected assault or question the strange gift, Erza was explaining. "I will give you the same opportunity I gave you before, Natsu," she said, her voice clear and commanding, pressing every one of her words deep into his memories. "I won't stop you if you want to take on this fool's quest, but if you want my help you have to earn. If you can land one strike against me, I'll come with you."
He pulled himself slowly back to his feet, pushing himself off the tree and staring back at Erza in disbelief. She had no hint of humour in her expression, looking more like a titan than a human as the wind brushed back her beautiful scarlet hair. "You're saying if I hit you once, you'll help?" he asked, waiting for the catch.
She nodded stiffly.
He gripped the wood rod tightly in his hands. It wasn't a weapon he knew particularly how to use but like almost every part of his instincts, he would learn through fighting. A small smile appeared on his face, his bright fangs flashing as he placed himself into position. "OK," he said, sweeping the stick through the air. "You better get ready to help us!"
Erza did not return the smile, sliding her own weapon across the palm of her hand and listening to the soft brush of wood against her gauntlets. She said nothing, meeting his eyes. His first attack was quick but predictable, her own counteraction faster as she threw her pole into both hands, using it to not only meet his downwards slash but also to send him sliding back through the ground. The dance had begun.
Chapter 4
"Who would have thought that there were so many different types of time travel" Levy asked as she pulled back yet another page, unveiling yet another complication to the string of time.
"I remember looking up some theories on time travel for a book I was going to write," Lucy said with a sigh, leaning back and doing her hardest to try and focus on the pages she had been staring at for hours. "The difficulty is that there are plenty of types of time travel magic, but to do the kind of time travel we need is… incredibly rare."
Levy looked back at her curiously. "What type of magic is it that you think we need?" she asked, tilting her glasses up.
Notes on Chapters that were never written...:
Lucy and Levy talk and Levy asks about Lucy's relationship to Gray and Loke
Natsu comes in after fighting Erza again. The others explain this is an old tradition of theirs.
Natsu rants about Erza not wanting to help Gray and is generally bitter he keeps losing
Talk about trying to do time travel
Chapter 5
Natsu is determined to take down Erza and recruit her once and for all
They fight and Natsu realises that Erza is crying. She explains that she was the one to recover the bodies and that she knows if she starts she won't be able to handle failure. She starts to explain that giving up is important but natsu boinks her on the head with the stick while she's distracted and 'wins'.
When they go back to the guild Lucy, they hit a rainstorm. Confused but carrying on they go into the guild, discovering that a gift has been left.
Loke is summoned.
Chapter 6
Loke explains what happened the day of 'S-Class' and why he couldn't return. First person chapter?