Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

by Fergus Flamacron

Six years after the attack by Acnologia, a catastrophic event leads the entire island of Tenroujima and everyone on it to be flung headfirst into another world. A world with different people, different magic and different threats. What happens when Dragon Slayers meet with the Boy Who Lived? Pairings mostly, but not entirely, the same as canon. DISCONTINUED

52. Messages From Beyond

This chapter may not be what you're expecting. But I very much hope you'll enjoy it and it'll be quite the pleasant surprise.

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Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 52:- Messages From Beyond

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With the help of the Raijinshuu, the clean-up of the whole Tenroujima incident was swiftly carried out by the Order and the Hogwarts staff. Thanks to Wendy, all of the students looked none the worse for wear, although some of their robes had been a little frayed and had to be magically repaired as well, so when the next day rolled around Umbridge didn't suspect a thing. She had no way of knowing that any of the DA members had been involved in a battle the previous day.

The DA members that hadn't been present on the island, such as the three Gryffindor Chasers, were rapidly filled in on what had happened. None of them were quite sure whether they were relieved they hadn't had to endure the experience or disappointed that they hadn't been there to see Fairy Tail and the dragons in full action. It took quite a bit of convincing to make them believe that the latter had even happened.

And the crew members on the ship which had transported Makarov, Laxus and Bickslow to the island in the first place were soundly dealt with, their memories modified to remove all traces of their encounter with the Fairy Tail members from their minds. As far as they were concerned, they'd done nothing but fishing all day yesterday. It was highly likely nobody would believe them if they told others what had happened, but it was best not to take any chances.

There were few secrets that Makarov had to keep from his brats, but now he found himself with two. Not only did he have to refrain from telling them about Harry's true situation, but Lumen Histoire was something that only the Master of the guild was supposed to know about, which was why neither he nor Mavis mentioned anything about their suspicions that it was holding open the tunnel between their worlds to anyone. Mavis also suspected that this tunnel was also allowing a little of their world's Ethernano to spill through, filtering through a tiny little crack like a keyhole which was why they could still replenish their magic here, even though it took longer to do it.

However, that didn't stop them from mentioning their suspicions that the tunnel existed somehow, which was exactly what they did the very next morning when all of the Fairy Tail members had finally woken up. It took a while, as many of them had ended up sleeping on the floor instead of adjourning to their chambers (and the boy's dormitory had grown an extra four beds without needing to be asked) but once they were all up, Mavis shared her belief that there might just be a way for them to eventually return home if only they could figure out how to use it.

"I know we're becoming invested in the struggles of this world," she addressed the amassed audience. "But sooner or later we'll have to go home. Finding a way to do that is still a high priority and when we do… who knows if we'll ever be able to return."

"We can't do that surely," Mirajane protested. "We've made some wonderful friends in this world - we can't just leave them in the lurch. Shouldn't we stay and help them work out their problems first?"

"And what about the problems in our world?" Gajeel asked fairly. "I don't want to just abandon this lot any more than you do but we don't have a freaking clue what's going on back home. What if we're needed more there than we are here?"

"Gajeel has a point," Erza gritted her teeth. "The very last thing that happened before we were frozen in time involved Zeref himself leaving our island to return to the mainland. Who knows what havoc he could have wrought since then."

"Or he could have ended up being transported to this world like us for all we know," Charla agreed. "We just don't have enough information."

"If only there was a way that we could communicate with the rest of our friends," Levy sighed, gazing off into the middle distance. "Jet and Droy must think I'm dead. They probably all think we're all dead. And I really hate sitting here knowing that they think that when we're not."

"It's a horrible experience," Lisanna bit her lip, looking down at her toes. Levy instantly felt guilty, knowing full well that Lisanna spent two whole years living with that feeling. But Lucy placed a consoling hand on Levy's shoulder just as Mirajane pulled her little sister into a hug.

"Levy's right though," Pantherlily nodded firmly. "If we could at least talk to them…"

"You can."

Everyone started at the sudden new voice that entered there midst and several of them moved aside to allow Loke to step through, his hands in his pockets and a warm smile on his face.

"Loke? What are you doing here?" Lucy blinked. "I didn't summon you."

"You didn't need to. I was listening in to your conversation," the Lion Spirit said simply. "And it seemed like a good time to interrupt. Because I happen to know a way that you can do as Levy says and communicate with the rest of the guild."

"How?" Natsu asked.

"Through me of course," Loke smiled. "I can help act as your messenger."

"You can?" Lucy frowned. "But how?"

"Wait a minute," Happy gasped. "Wouldn't it be possible for us to get home by travelling through the Spirit World? Natsu did that once back in Duke Everlue's Palace!"

"I did?" Natsu blinked. "I don't remember that."

"Yeah, yeah, it was when you were fighting Virgo, back when she used to look like a gorilla-woman. You had hold of her, but then Duke Everlue summoned her to where he was and you managed to keep hold of her and pass through the Spirit World with her to appear somewhere else instantly," the blue cat said excitedly. "So… couldn't we also use the Spirit World as a stepping stone to get back to our world?"

"I wouldn't think so," Lucy shook her head. "For one thing the Spirit World is an inhospitable environment for us…"

"That could be nullified as long as you wore clothes from the Spirit World," Loke interrupted. "But that wouldn't help you get home I'm afraid. The Spirit World is a surprisingly fragile place and can be easily influenced by foreign forces. It's very rare for something from any human world to be brought into the Spirit World and when that happens, the Spirit World recognises it as foreign and tries to destroy it - like antibodies against a virus, which is why wearing Celestial Spirit clothing can help stop the effects for a while. And when something does get transported from the human world to the Spirit World, it can only leave via the same gate that it came through. That's why Natsu went from one place to another that time - he went through Virgo's gate and came back through Virgo's gate. And that's why I couldn't at this moment transport you all home."

"He's right," Lucy nodded. "Celestial Spirits can't just appear anywhere that they choose. They have to appear in the vicinity of their Gate Key because that's the item that opens their Gate from the Spirit World. Loke can't open a portal to Earthland anymore because his key is here."

"And if the key in question comes through the gate to the Spirit World, then the gate remains open in the same place until the key goes back," Loke added. "So, if Lucy came to the Spirit World with me, I couldn't send her anywhere other than straight back here. And if she stayed behind and the rest of you came with me, I still couldn't send you anywhere except where my key is. So I'm sorry Happy, but we Spirits can't help you get home."

"…Oh…" Happy's ears drooped slightly. "Well… never mind then."

"It was a good idea, Happy," Charla patted his back reassuringly. "It's just a shame it couldn't work."

"Indeed, but, as I was saying," Loke smirked. "I can still help you communicate with your friends back on Earthland."

"How?" Erza frowned. "If you can't go to Earthland then how could you do that?"

"Because there are other Spirits in the Spirit World who can still go to Earthland," Loke chuckled. "Lucy doesn't have every Celestial Spirit Key in existence after all. There are many more silver key Spirits out there and two other Golden Zodiac Keys that she doesn't have. And the keys to all these other Spirits are still on Earthland."

"…Of course!" Lucy cried, slapping herself in the forehead almost powerfully enough to knock her over. "Why didn't I think of that sooner!?"

"No, sorry, I don't really get it," Natsu frowned. "What does he mean?"

"He means that he's going to set up a messaging system, idiot," Gray grinned. "Whereby we give a message to him and he gives the message to another Spirit who can then pass it on to someone on Earthland."

"That's right, I am," Loke nodded. "As a matter of fact I've already spoken to one of the other Spirits about it. Her name is Libra, the Heavenly Scales and one of the two Zodiac Spirits that Lucy doesn't have, along with Pisces. Their Keys are currently in the possession of a young girl named Yukino Aguria, who is apparently a member of a guild known as Sabertooth."

"Sabertooth?" Gray frowned. "I've never heard of them."

"Juvia hasn't either," Juvia murmured. "They must be quite a small guild."

"Actually no, they aren't," Loke laughed. "They used to be, but not long after you lot were frozen in time they began to rise amongst the ranks. They've become a lot more powerful now than they were. However, that's not important. What is important is that Libra tells me Yukino is a very kind and generous girl. She believes that if we relayed a message from you to her, she would only be too happy to get in touch with the rest of Fairy Tail and pass it on."

"This is wonderful news," Mirajane beamed. "Whyever didn't you mention this before, Loke?"

"Because I wanted to wait until all of you were accounted for before I did so," Loke replied. "I didn't want to start sending any messages back to Earthland until we could confirm that all of you were safe and sound, which we now can."

Without warning, Lucy scrambled upwards and dashed over to envelop Loke in her arms, practically squashing him against her in a fierce hug. Loke looked momentarily startled but it didn't take him long to return the hug, placing one hand on the back of Lucy's head to hold her close.

"Thank you, Loke," Lucy whispered, a few tears of happiness beginning to leak their way out of her eyes and trickle down her cheeks to soak into the shoulder of his suit. "Thank you… I really don't know how to thank you enough."

"There's really no need to thank me," Loke said, stepping back so he could look Lucy in the eye before sweeping his hand up and placing the other on his heart, declaring loudly, "For there is nothing that my love for you would not spur me to do in order to make you happy!"

"…Uh-huh…" Lucy coughed, suddenly feeling a lot more awkward. "Well… yeah… thank you so much anyway."

"He liiiiiiikes you," Happy snickered, which was met by a swift smack to the back of the head from Charla.

Clearing her throat loudly, Lucy tried to pull her focus back to the matter at hand. "Well then I guess we'll just have to figure out what to say in the message."

"And here are the tools to help you do it," Loke said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a roll of paper and a pen. "Objects from the Spirit World like these can go through the gates of any Spirit so if you use these to write down a message then all me and Libra have to do is pass it on. It'd be a more direct way of communication if you write to Yukino."

"Good idea," Lucy beamed, taking the items from Loke's hand. "Well then I'll get right on that. Thank you, Loke."

She hurried away to sit at the table Levy usually sat at to read her books and began to plan out her letter. Several of the others gathered around her to watch her at work, but Makarov and Mavis simply stood together and watched from a distance.

"Truly we are blessed that Lucy ever came to our guild," Makarov said quietly.

"Indeed," Mavis nodded. "And there is further good news to this. Perhaps the people back in our world can be the ones to find a way to bring us back."

"Yes," Makarov cupped his chin thoughtfully. "And do you know… I might have an idea of where to start. But making contact is the first step. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

---

It was a considerably less joyful morning for Harry. For a blissful moment when he woke up from a dreamless sleep, courtesy of the draught that had been delivered to him by Dobby the previous evening, he didn't remember all the horrible things that he had learned yesterday. But when they all came crashing back in on him again a few minutes later he almost screamed, but compromised by burying his face in his pillow.

He didn't want to look at the world. He didn't want to face the world knowing that there was piece of Voldemort's soul inside him. He didn't know if that fragment of soul was capable of any conscious thought, but the idea that it might be looking out through his eyes in the same way he could look through Voldemort's was terrifying and threatened to make him throw up again.

And he stayed like that for half an hour before any of the other boys in the dorm stirred. As Neville, Dean and Seamus made ready to head down to breakfast as per normal, Ron watched Harry quietly from his own bed. Worry gnawed at his gut. He hadn't been able to get anything out of Harry when he'd come up the previous night but they hadn't been alone so he hadn't tried that hard.

Now though, he waited quietly for the other three to leave before he sat up and said, "All right, Harry. What's up, mate? You're really starting to freak me out a little bit."

Harry didn't reply. He just lay there with his face in his pillow, and if it hadn't been for the fact that Ron could see him breathing he might have thought that Harry was dead.

"Come on, mate, you've got to tell me if something's up," he tried again. "Mum always tells us that you can't just keep things all bottled up inside. It's not healthy. What the hell happened in Dumbledore's office that made you like this?"

Harry still didn't say anything. Or move.

"Dude, we got two whacking great big talking dragons on our side last night," Ron pressed. "I still can't believe that happened really, but I would have thought that was a reason to celebrate! This is the complete opposite of what you should be doing…"

"Ron," Harry looked up at last and glanced across at his best friend, his expression dead. "I don't… want to talk about it, okay?"

Ron was taken aback by just how… empty… Harry looked. Like something inside him had died. Which was ironic because Harry was at that moment very much wishing that something inside him would die.

"Don't shut us out, man," Ron said earnestly. "It doesn't solve anything."

"Just… please… leave me alone," Harry whispered. "Please Ron… if you're my friend at all… leave me alone."

And he buried his face back in his pillow again, with such an air of finality that Ron could tell immediately he wasn't going to bring it out again any time soon. He watched Harry silently for a few minutes before sighing and getting up to head down to breakfast. Harry listened to him shuffling about nearby, wracked with guild for cutting his best friend out but… he didn't want to tell him. He didn't want to tell anyone… because… he didn't want them to look at him differently.

Mavis had encouraged him to tell his friends but… how could he tell them that he had a piece of the Dark Lord inside him and had since the day they met him? Ron was terrified of Voldemort and Hermione wasn't much better. Harry was certain that if they knew the truth, they would look at him with the same revulsion, fear and horror that he now felt about himself. And he didn't know if he could stomach that. He'd spent a whole year receiving stares like that when people thought he was the Heir of Slytherin in their second year but Ron and Hermione had stuck by him the entire time. If they looked at him that way, he was certain he'd never recover from it.

Especially since all those stares in their second year were well-founded apparently. In a way, everyone had been staring at the Heir of Slytherin when they looked at him.

Eventually Ron moved downstairs where Hermione was waiting to meet him. "How is he?" she asked worriedly.

"Not good," Ron sighed. "He won't talk to me. He just kept asking me to leave him alone and from the looks of things I don't think he's planning to get out of bed all day."

"He'll miss lessons?" Hermione fretted. "Harry's been through some tough things in the past but he's never skived off lessons unless he was sick or injured, though it's not really skiving if that's an excuse. What in the world happened?"

"Do you think we should ask Dumbledore?" Ron asked.

"I doubt he'd tell us. He'd probably say its Harry's secret to tell or something. Should I try talking to him?"

"You can try. But I dunno it it'll work. If you ask me, I don't think there's really a lot we can do about it until he's ready to tell us. And right now I don't think he is."

"Then I hope he'll be ready soon. Or whatever this is is going to eat him up inside."

---

Draw back from Hogwarts… draw back from Scotland… draw back from the Earth… draw back from the universe itself and whoosh right across the void between them to enter another and settle down in a field on the edge of a bustling city. And in this particular field, two enormously long eel-like fish are zooming through the air, coiling in and out and around each other in pursuit of two individual humans dashing across the ground beneath them. The white fish streaked in towards a man with spiky blond hair and a single pendant earring dangling from one ear while the black fish arced down upon another man with untidy black hair and wearing a dark cloak.

"GYO-GYO!" the fish cried as they rushed in for the strike, their mouths agape and their tails lashing like the world's biggest bullwhips. But the blond haired man leapt upwards and out of the way of the white fish, rolling deftly onto his shoulder and flipping back onto his feet with his hands crashing together and generating a light of such bright intensity that it seared at the eyes of anyone that looked directly at him.

"HOLY RAY!" he bellowed, unleashing a huge multitude of light beams that surged in towards the white fish and pummelled against its body despite its best attempts to manoeuvre through them, sending it crashing down onto its side to flatten the grass and furrow the ground.

Meanwhile the black-haired man had taken quite a different approach, having surged forwards towards the black fish and then destabilising himself into a shadow across the ground that zipped beneath the fist just as it slammed itself face first into the spot where he'd just been, merging with its own shadow and leaping up beneath it, dark energy gathering between his teeth as the fist uprooted itself to search for him.

"EIRYUU NO HOUKOU!" he shouted, and a humongous blast of darkness surged from out his mouth to smash the fist right in the face and sending it reeling, smashing it head first into a large rock.

However, the black fish's massive body convulsed wildly like a huge live cable and its tail completely caught the black-haired man by surprise and hammered him straight in the chest, sending him flying backwards across the field. Meanwhile the white fish surged up from the ground with startling speed and arced its body around to home in on the blond man once more. Again he leapt upwards but this time the fish followed him and pummelled him in the chest with its nose, flinging him away across the field. But both the men were able to land to skidding halts on their feet and charge forwards again, the blonde man grinning widely and the black haired man's gaze creased in concentration.

Fish and men danced and coiled around each other, hammering at each other with body and magic alike. And watching the whole thing was a woman in a white minidress and an exuberant white cloak. Her hair was short and snow-white with a blue rose adorning one side.

This was Yukino Aguria, and the two fish were one of her Celestial Spirits - Pisces. And considering the fact they couldn't use any magic in this form, the fish were doing reasonably well against their current opponents.

Sting, the White Dragon Slayer.

Rogue, the Shadow Dragon Slayer.

Collectively known as the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth.

"Go, go, go!" cheered a small russet-brown cat standing next to Yukino. "I know you can do it, Sting-kun! Go on, grill that fish!"

"Lector-sama, that's not a nice thing to say," said Yukino gently. "This is just a training exercise after all, and those fish are my beloved Spirits."

"Fro thinks so too," a green cat wearing a pink frog-suit (for some reason) raised a paw in agreement.

"Yeah, well, I do get carried away when I watch Sting-kun fighting," Lector shrugged. "But that's just because he's so unbelievably awesome that I can't help myself."

"Fro thinks so too," said the green cat again.

"That's not to say that Rogue-sama isn't amazing too, Frosch-sama," Yukino looked down at the frog-cat with a smile. "They're both amazing fighters indeed."

"Fro knows," Frosch hopped from side to side enthusiastically as he watched the fish looping up and over together for another pass. But as Sting and Rogue readied themselves for another assauly, Yukino held up her golden key and initiated a forced gate closure. Pisces were strong but she knew that Sting and Rogue would defeat them if the fight extended much further and she had no desire to see them too hurt. Though it left the Twin Dragon Slayers slightly perplexed when their opponents suddenly vanished into thin air.

"Wha…?" Sting blinked, looking back over his shoulder. "What happened?"

"Apologies, Sting-sama," Yukino dipped her head respectfully. "But I think that's enough for one day."

"Seriously? Man, I was just getting warmed up too," Sting wrinkled his nose. "Ah well, I am getting hungry I suppose."

"Sometimes I wonder if you think of anything else other than fighting and eating," Rogue said quietly, accepting that the training match was over without complaint and making his way back over to Yukino and the waiting Exceed.

"I think about other things," Sting grinned as he walked over with his partner. "But those are the two things I find most fun I admit."

"Maybe we should think about going on another job soon," suggested Lector as the five of them began to make their way back towards the guild together. "That way you'll hopefully be able to fight to your heart's content if we find the right one, Sting-kun. And we're running low on funds."

"Fro thinks so too."

"Might not be a bad idea," Sting mused, walking with his hands behind his head before he glanced across at Yukino. "Gotta say though, those two fish were pretty tough. Keep up the good work, Yukino and you might just be able to help us curbstomp all the other guilds into the ground during the next Grand Magic Games. Again, that is."

"I hardly think so," Yukino said, blushing a little at the praise. "I doubt I'll become strong enough to take the place of either of you two, or Rufus-sama, Orga-sama or Minerva-sama. But thank you all the same."

"You could take my place. I don't really care about the games anymore," Rogue said. "We've already proven we're the strongest guild five times in a row. Do we really need to do it again?"

"Hey now, you can't back out of the Games, Rogue. It wouldn't look good if only one of the Twin Dragons bothered to take part."

"I suppose," Rogue shrugged. "Still, we've got several months before the next games anyway. We don't need to decide the roster for months yet."

Yukino smiled lightly to herself. As guilds went, Sabertooth was very militaristic and Yukino didn't really like Master Jiemma. It sounded bad to say that from her perspective but she couldn't deny it. She'd only been part of the guild for a few months but she'd already watched him boot out three members who had failed the jobs that they'd taken up for the guild. And watched as all of the other guild members watched them go, doing nothing to intervene. She herself had wanted to step in, ask the Master if he would give the unfortunate individuals another chance, but she hadn't had the courage to do so alone. She was very proud to be a member of the strongest guild in Fiore and now that she'd joined she didn't want to risk being kicked out. She'd have nowhere to go if she was.

That side of her guild really didn't sit well with her. But when Master Jiemma wasn't watching the other members of the guild were often quite fun to be around. Granted, they were headstrong, often brash and quite arrogant in their strength, but when they weren't fighting they were friendly enough as long as you were strong. And fortunately for Yukino, she was strong. If she were weak, no member of Sabertooth would even give her the time of day. But she tried not to think about that. After spending so many years alone, she finally had a home in Sabertooth. And despite its many flaws, she would do anything for it.

Sting and Lector were in the middle of bragging about how well they'd done in the last games when suddenly Yukino was distracted by one of her keys flashing. She paused in surprise - it was Libra's key. The little golden object with flickering with a bright light which indicated that her Spirit wanted to be summoned. Which was very unusual indeed, especially for Libra, who rarely ever said anything more than a few words at a time and even then only in response to something Yukino had said first.

"What's that, Yukino?" Frosch piped up, drawing the others' attention.

"It appears Libra wants to talk to me about something," Yukino said. "Please go on ahead. I'll catch up."

The Twin Dragons nodded and strode away, with Yukino letting them get about one-hundred metres away before she summoned Libra. Instantly the graceful Spirit appeared before her, balancing herself on one toe as usual and her expression, though mostly hidden behind the cloth she wore over her lower face, as blank as ever.

"Uh… hello Libra," Yukino smiled warmly. "Did you want something?"

Libra said nothing. Instead, she merely held out her hand and as well as the scale dangling from her fingers she was also holding a rolled up piece of paper. Yukino blinked, completely nonplussed but gently taking the paper from Libra's grasp and unrolling it. It was some kind of letter… which made Yukino even more confused. Who could possibly be writing her a letter that Libra, of all people, could deliver to her?

But as she read through the letter, her eyes began to grow wider and wider, her breath slowly being stolen from her body when she realised what it was:-

'Dear Yukino,

We've never met before but I'm afraid that I need to ask you for your help. My name is Lucy Heartfilia and I am a Celestial Spirit Mage from the Fairy Tail guild. I'm not sure what things are like back home right now but it's possible that you may have heard about an incident six years ago where a black dragon completely wiped out an island containing all of the strongest members of Fairy Tail, including it's Master. But I can now reveal to you - we are not dead. Every single member of the guild that was on the island is alive and well. However, we are currently trapped and unable to return home.

Allow me to explain. We survived the attack from the dragon because we were shielded by one of the great magics of our guild, known as the Fairy Sphere - a magical shield that enclosed the entire island at the last second to prevent it from being destroyed. But that shield also froze time itself within its borders, putting us all in suspended animation for the past six years. But unforeseen circumstances arose and we have somehow also been transported to another universe before we unfroze and that is where we are now. We are currently stuck here but we are searching for a way to return home now. However…' (something that looked like the word Loke had been crossed out here) '…Leo, the leader of Zodiac Spirits, suggested using the Spirit World to communicate with people back home. Which is how I come to be writing to you now.

I implore you, on behalf of everyone in Fairy Tail, please send a reply to this message as soon as you can so that I know it arrived successfully.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Heartfilia.

P.S. Leo says that Libra will provide you with the Celestial Spirit paper and ink you will need to send a return message through the Spirit World.'

Yukino was completely blown away. She'd heard of that incident of course - there were very few people that hadn't. But it was of particular significance to her as she had hoped one day for a chance to meet all of the golden Celestial Spirits, as well as Lucy herself, but when she'd heard that Lucy had been on Tenroujima when it was destroyed she'd never thought she'd get the chance. But she wasn't dead… none of them were! And as of this moment, it was likely she was the only person on Earthland who knew it.

"I don't believe it," she whispered in astonishment. "I… I don't… I don't believe it."

Libra smiled - which was hard to see thanks to the cloth over her face but Yukino could tell she was doing it from her eyes. The Heavenly Scales held up her other hand which contained another blank piece of paper and a pen. As soon as Yukino took hold of it she vanished back to the Spirit World, leaving Yukino standing alone in the field, robbed of breath and struggling to process what was going on, for Libra's smile had cast aside all thoughts that this might be some elaborate practical joke.

She'd been sent a letter from an entire other universe from a woman long thought dead. It was like getting a message from beyond the grave. But it wasn't. The woman who'd written to her was very much alive.

Before she even knew what she was doing she'd spun around and was dashing back towards the city, her cloak streaming out behind her as she went. She didn't even know what she would say but she knew she had to do something. There was no way in hell she could ignore this.

She ended up catching up with the Twin Dragons and their Exceed and haring right past them at the edge of the city. "Wha-hey!?" Sting cried as she passed. "Oi, Yukino, what's up?"

"I'm sorry, I'm in a hurry," Yukino turned around and offered them a quick bow. "I'll return to the guild shortly," she promised before turning around and running off again.

"What was that about?" Rogue frowned. "She looked quite excited."

"Must have been something that Libra said to her," Lector murmured. "Dunno what that could be though."

"Fro doesn't know either."

---

The moment she got home, Yukino all but leapt onto her desk and unrolled the paper so she could begin writing her reply.

She wrote:-

'Dear Lucy-sama,

I was shocked to the core when I received your letter. You are quite right - everyone in my world believes you and your fellow mages to have perished in Acnologia's attack. I am both extremely honoured and very flattered that you chose me to write to, for I have heard many things about the men and women that were on that island that day and to hear that you are all still alive is a relief beyond words. If there is anything that I can do to help you, you have my word that I will do it.

Yours faithfully,

Yukino Aguria.

P.S. I eagerly await your response.'

And with that she rolled up the parchment and grabbed Libra's key, summoning the Scales back to the human world once again and passing her the letter.

"Please, deliver this as fast as you can, Libra."

"Roger," Libra nodded, and vanished with a shower of sparkles, leaving Yukino sitting on her chair and fiddling with the coat-tails of her cloak anxiously.

---

"She replied! We have a reply!" Lucy cried, waving Yukino's note in the air as soon as Loke delivered it to her. "She's very polite too - she called my 'Lucy-sama.'"

"That's awesome!" Natsu cheered. "Here, let me read it." He tried to grab the note only for Erza to grip him by the shoulder and haul him backwards.

"If you tear it, I will not be happy with you, Natsu," she said warningly, which very quickly stymied his excitement.

Lucy quickly read the letter out loud, and everyone's faces became instantly very sombre when they heard about their supposed deaths, but brightened considerably when they heard Yukino's offer of help. "What a generous girl," Makarov hummed to himself. "It is almost a shame that she is apparently already part of another guild or I might offer her a place in Fairy Tail automatically for this."

"We'll definitely have to find some way of thanking her for this when we do get back," Gray nodded.

"Gray-sama!" Juvia gasped, steam coming out of her ears. "Thanking her? Surely you can't be thinking of… with her…?"

"I DIDN'T MEAN THANKING HER LIKE THAT!" Gray yelled. "NO CHANCE!"

"…Right, well, anyway, I'm going to write a reply," Lucy said as she sat back down at the table. "What should we ask her?"

---

Yukino seized Libra's key the moment it started flashing again, like a Muggle anxiously awaiting a telephone call, and summoned her once more. This time the message read:-

'Dear Yukino,

You have no idea how relieved we are that you're willing to help us. I suppose the first thing you can do for us is answer a few questions. Because we're sealed away in another universe we are extremely uninformed when it comes to current events in our world. So, if you could please answer the following two questions for us, we'd be extremely grateful:-

1. I don't know whether you were aware of this but apparently the Black Mage Zeref was on our island that day but he apparently escaped before Acnologia attacked. What has he been doing since then? Has he been causing any trouble?

2. What's happening with our guild? How are Fairy Tail getting on?

Thank you so much,

Lucy.'

This time Yukino was a lot more hesitant with her reply. She suddenly felt a little awkward when it came to the second question. After all, she knew that Fairy Tail used to be known as the most powerful guild in Fiore and now… well… that was the position that her guild held now. And the last thing she wanted to do was make it seem like she was rubbing that in their faces so she phrased her next reply extremely carefully.

---

Again, Lucy read the reply aloud:-

'Dear Lucy-sama,

Certainly I can answer those questions for you but I'm afraid this is very much a case of good news and bad news. I had indeed heard that Zeref was somehow involved in the struggle on Tenroujima, but there has been no sign of him these past six years. If he did escape from Acnologia's attack then he has been lying low, just as he apparently did for the last four-hundred years. And there hasn't been any sign of Acnologia since that day either, just in case you wanted to know.

The bad news is that your guild hasn't been faring that well. You see, after you disappeared the King of Fiore established an annual tournament for mage guilds called the Grand Magic Games, which allowed them to go head to head with the winner being declared the most powerful guild in the country and the other guilds being ranked accordingly. I'm sorry to say that Fairy Tail hasn't done well in this tournament, so much so that they have dropped down to the very lowest rank in the country. The guild currently at the top is Sabertooth, which I myself joined a few months ago. From what I know of Fairy Tail now (which sadly isn't much), they don't get a lot of jobs and don't have many members left. Their current Master's name is Macao, I think, but I couldn't say for sure.

I'm terribly sorry to have to be the one to give you this news. But if you can find a way home I'm quite certain Fairy Tail's reputation will instantly begin to climb again.

Yours apologetically,

Yukino.'

There was a heavy silence after that. Yukino's message had done it's job - none of them thought for a moment she was showing off about her guild's status. And for many, the fact that their guild was no longer on top was not an issue but the idea that their friends could have been put through some severe humiliation in the course of this tournament was a lot harder to swallow.

"So, Macao took over as guild master after we vanished, huh?" Cana said. "I guess he was a decent candidate for the job out of those that stayed behind."

"It boggles the mind," Mirajane murmured, placing a hand on her cheek. "To think that our guild could have dropped from top to bottom in such a short space of time. I can only imagine what the others must be feeling if they had to deal with that."

"Especially on top of thinking all of us died," Lisanna agreed.

"Yeah, maybe, but there's quite an obvious solution," Natsu clenched his fist and pounded it into his palm, a wide grin spreading across his face. "If there's a tournament to decide which guild is the best then all we have to do is enter it and blow them all away! And Fairy Tail will be back on top in one go!"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Gajeel smirked.

"Tournaments are manly," Elfman chimed in. "And with some of us right here, how could we possibly lose?" he added, his eyes flicking in particular to Gildarts and Laxus when he said it.

"And at the very least, we know Zeref isn't causing trouble yet. That's good," Mavis nodded. "I get the feeling that when he does finally make his move we should be there to counter it."

"So what do we ask her now?" Levy asked.

"Well, it seems to me that there's only one thing we can ask her," Gildarts said. "Oi, Loke… you wouldn't happen to have a camera in the Spirit World we could use, do you?"

"As a matter of fact we do," Loke smirked. "There's a silver key Spirit known as Pictor, who likes to create images through painting and most recently branched out into photography. I'm quite certain I could convince him to let me borrow his camera for a bit."

---

This time Libra brought Yukino four things; two separate letters, a camera and a photograph. Naturally Yukino's eye was drawn to the photograph first and she gasped in delight when she saw it. She'd never laid eyes on any of the people in the photograph in person, but she'd seen pictures of some of them before in the Weekly Sorcerer. This had to be them - all of the missing Fairy Tail members standing together and grinning widely at the camera. Yukino actually felt a tear or two appearing in her eyes at the sight of them. It was one thing for disembodied words to say they were okay, but a whole other thing to see it.

And for some reason they were all holding their hands up, the backs of their palms facing the camera with forefinger pointing at the ceiling and their thumbs jutting out to the side, like a backwards L. She wasn't sure what that meant, but it seemed significant to them.

One of the accompanying letters was pretty similar to the first one that had been sent to Yukino, but slightly altered and addressed to Macao. The other letter read:-

'Dear Yukino,

We appreciate your honesty and not trying to sugar coat the fate of our guild from us, but now comes the biggest favour we would ask of you. We implore you to please go to the town of Magnolia and deliver the other letter and this photograph to the Fairy Tail guild. They've spent so long thinking that we're dead and as they have no Celestial Spirit Mage (as far as we know) we need you to change that. And we may wish for you to do this kind of thing again in the future.

I realise we may be asking a lot if you happen to be busy but this is very important to us and if you want, we will find some way to repay you for your help if and when we do return home. Tell them that we're doing all we can to find a way home but it certainly wouldn't hurt if they were trying to find ways to bring us back too.

Thank you so much,

Lucy.

P.S. If you could also send us a picture of yourself, that would be nice, just so we can put a face to your words.'

Yukino paused, biting her lip thoughtfully. Instinct drove her to write back instantly and tell them that of course she'd do that, but there was one thing that made her stop and think… and that was Master Jiemma.

There was no chance that he would approve of Yukino doing something like this. He probably wouldn't even approve of her correspondence with Lucy through letters. Jiemma was insistent that all other guilds were beneath Sabertooth, that they were weak worms that deserved no sympathy and that Sabertooth members shouldn't associate with them under any circumstances. If Yukino went to Magnolia to tell Fairy Tail that their friends were still alive, she risked being kicked out of the guild for 'taking pity on the weak.'

She wrung her hands nervously. She didn't want that. But equally she couldn't just sit on this discovery and do nothing surely. Jiemma might be cruel but Yukino didn't have an unpleasant bone in her body. And in her excitement she'd already promised Lucy she'd do anything she could. She certainly couldn't back out on a promise now.

But that wasn't the only motivator that made up her mind. Her hands tightened when her thoughts settled on her own family who she had lost as a child to an attack from supporters of Zeref… her parents… her older sister, Sorano… she'd give absolutely anything for someone to walk into her life and tell her that they were still alive. Especially her sister.

She could never in good conscience refuse to do the same for Fairy Tail, even if she did get kicked out for it.

"I'll do it," she said aloud to herself. "Of course I'll do it."

"Do what?"

"EEEK!" Yukino screamed, whirling around with eyes wide to see Sting and Rogue both standing in the doorway behind her, watching her carefully. Sting, who had been the one to speak, was looking at her curiously while Rogue looked a little guilty.

"Sting-sama! Rogue-sama… you… you broke into my house?" Yukino gasped.

"We wanted to know what was going on," Sting said. "You looked kinda pumped when you ran past us before."

"I was against breaking in," Rogue coughed. "But Frosch was worried about you…"

"Fro was," the little cat nodded from where he was hovering behind Rogue on his faintly glowing wings.

"You could have just knocked," Yukino pouted. "I would have answered you know."

"Yeah well, we're here now," Sting shrugged as he walked into the room. "So, what are you going to…" he stopped when he spotted the photograph on Yukino's desk. Before Yukino could stop him he bolted forwards and snatched it up, staring at it with eyes wide.

"Natsu-san…" he breathed, staring at the pink-haired Dragon Slayer in the image. "That's Natsu-san… the Salamander."

"What?" Rogue frowned, looking over his shoulder and was similarly shocked when he caught sight of another Dragon Slayer. "…Gajeel…"

"These are all the Fairy Tail members who disappeared six years ago." Sting breathed. "Yukino, where did you get this?"

"…Libra gave it to me," Yukino sighed, knowing she couldn't keep this a secret now. "It turns out that they're all still alive."

"What!?"

Yukino outlined what she'd learned as quickly as she could, leaving both the Twin Dragons absolutely dumbstruck.

"All this time," Sting whispered. "All this time and they were still alive… this is excellent!" he face split into a fierce grin. "This is absolutely brilliant!"

"It is?" Yukino blinked, not having expected such a reaction.

"Hell yeah," Sting cried. "I looked up to most of these guys when I was younger. I always thought they were all so cool. We were still kids when Acnologia attacked their island, weren't we, Rogue?"

Rogue nodded, and Yukino felt a smile creeping onto her face. "I see," she said. "It is indeed wonderful news, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I always wanted to get stronger so that I could face off against Natsu-san one day… so that one day I could take on and defeat the famous Salamander. I made a promise to you, didn't I, Lector?"

"You certainly did, Sting-kun," Lector beamed. "You promised me you'd one day take the Salamander down, in public for everyone to see. To prove everyone who called me a liar for saying you killed a dragon wrong."

"When I heard that they'd died I never thought I'd get to fulfil that promise," Sting clenched his fist. "But if Natsu-san's alive, that means I can. And you can finally face off against Gajeel, can't you Rogue?"

"I'm not interested," Rogue said blandly.

"Sure you're not," Sting rolled his eyes, before turning back to Yukino. "So, what are we going to do?"

"We?" Yukino gasped. "You want to help?"

"Damn straight."

"But… wouldn't Master Jiemma be angry if he found out about this?"

"Probably. So we don't tell him. We can try and find a way to bring them back without him knowing. And when we do, I'll finally be able to keep my promise."

"I know you will, Sting-kun!" Lector cheered. "I have absolute faith that you'll kick the Salamander's ass."

"Uh…" Yukino sweatdropped. "You know there are reasons for doing this besides just getting a chance to defeat one of them in battle. We'd also be doing it to reunite a family that had long been divided."

"Yes, that too," Sting nodded distractedly, which made Yukino purse her lips. She wasn't happy with the fact that Sting's primary motivation for helping was just for a chance to punch one of them. That was entirely an selfish reason and she'd much rather he was doing it altruistically just like her. But at least she'd be getting some help and she wasn't about to push that away.

"What about you, Rogue-sama?" she asked.

"I have nothing better to do," Rogue shrugged, feigning relative disinterest though nobody believed that it was real. "I might as well tag along."

"Fro will too."

"That's the spirit!" Lector pumped his little fist into the air. "Looks like we've got ourselves another job… though we probably won't be paid for this one."

"We can find one where we get paid later," Sting suggested.

"Or you could go and do it now," Yukino countered. "I wouldn't really be doing anything but delivering a message at the moment and I don't particularly need help for that. If we're going to do this without the Master finding out we need to select a real job from the request board. Then maybe you can go off and do that job while I do that and you can join me at Fairy Tail when you've done."

"That's a good idea," Rogue nodded. "The Master would think she's on a mission with us when she's not. Let's be honest, Sting. There's not a lot we'd be able to do to help in returning people from another dimension. I know nothing of dimension travel and neither do you. But if Yukino is required to take repeated trips to Magnolia then we can help by covering for her."

"Hmm, can't deny that," Sting shrugged. "Alright then, let's do it."

---

Yukino's reply to Lucy took a little longer than expected, but when it finally arrived Yukino wasn't alone in the picture. She was sitting in the middle, looking a little sheepish, with two Exceed sitting on her lap and two guys on either side of her. One with black hair looking a little indifferent and one with blond hair who was clearly holding the camera and grinning almost savagely. And of course she sent another letter with it:-

'Dear Lucy-sama,

Of course I will be happy to go to Fairy Tail and deliver the wonderful news to them. And as you can probably tell from the picture I sent, I will have some help. As I recall, your guild has three Dragon Slayers in it, does it not? My guild has two and they are the ones in the picture with me. The White Dragon Slayer, Sting Eucliffe-sama, is the one holding the camera and the other is the Shadow Dragon Slayer, Rogue Cheney-sama. The cats are their respective partners, Lector-sama and Frosch-sama, and the four of them have to decided to help out in any way they can in bringing you home.

I will send you another message when I have delivered the reply to your guild.

Yours sincerely,

Yukino.

P.S. Sting-sama is adamantly telling me to send a message to Natsu Dragneel-sama that he is looking forward to battling him one day. And I get the impression that Rogue-sama is interested in a match with Gajeel Redfox-sama.'

"What!?" Natsu vaulted over and seized the picture the moment that he heard that. "Two more Dragon Slayers? And they're in the guild that's at the top right now? Oh hell yeah, this has to be some kind of fate." He lit his free fist on fire and forced Lucy to yelp and snatch the photograph back from him before he accidentally burned it to a crisp. "Don't worry, Sting. When we get back home, it is so on!"

"I didn't realise there were any more Dragon Slayers out there," said Gray. "How many more of you lot are going to come crawling out of the woodwork I wonder."

"And they've got cat partners," Lucy agreed, passing the photograph to him. "Guess it must be a recurring thing amongst Dragon Slayers."

"I bet they still got theirs before Gajeel though," Natsu snorted.

"WHY YOU…!?" Gajeel snarled and jumped on him, another fight breaking out right then and there which Erza had to step in to break up.

"Hmm…" Gray blinked in surprise when he examined the photograph.

"What?" Lucy asked.

"Well look. This is Yukino, isn't it?" Gray pointed to the girl in the middle. "The other Celestial Spirit Mage. And… she looks a lot like you, Lisanna."

"She does?" Lisanna blinked.

"Hey, Gray's right, she does," Lucy said as she looked over Gray's shoulder at the picture. "Short white hair, cute face… she definitely looks like you. And she's very pretty."

Lisanna blushed a little at Lucy's compliment and took the photograph that Gray offered her. She had to admit, there was a striking resemblance between herself and this Yukino girl. But oddly enough, that part of the picture wasn't as interesting to her as the two Dragon Slayers that shared the image with her.

So this is them… she mused quietly. The other two Dragon Slayers that have dragons hidden within their bodies.

Indeed, Igneel rumbled quietly at the back of her mind. The hosts of Weisslogia and Skiadrum. How fortune has smiled upon us. Now, when you do return home, you won't have to go in search of them. We know which guild they're at now, and they might even be waiting for us when they arrive.

Can you imagine Weisslogia and Skiadrum's surprise when we tell them we may have found a way to get our lives back? Metalicana grinned.

I'm just pleased that Sting and Rogue have been informed that we're alive, Grandine said. Weisslogia and Skiadrum probably spent the last six years thinking we were dead as well. Thinking that it was only the two of them left to oppose Acnologia. They must be jubilant that we're not dead right now.

I'm happy for you, Lisanna smiled. I can't wait to meet them.

But she said out loud, "Wow, I kinda look forward to meeting her. I wonder if she has any siblings that bear any close resemblance to you two, Mira-nee, Elf-niichan."

"That'll be the day," Elfman snorted while Mirajane smiled. "Though if there's another person out there that looks like me, he's sure to be a Man."

Lisanna laughed, but decided not to mention his Edolas doppelgänger.

"Well, I guess all we can do now is wait," Makarov said. "Wait for Yukino to deliver our message."

---

Yukino's plan went off without a hitch. Master Jiemma wasn't the one that handled the job requests but he was watching when Sting and Rogue took a job and said that Yukino would be coming with them, giving the excuse that they wanted to put her through her paces as a Sabertooth Mage. The three of them left the guildhall together and stayed together until they reached the train station, where Yukino boarded the first train to Magnolia while the Dragon Slayers set off on their own with their Exceed, adamantly refusing to take a train to get to their own destination.

The journey to Magnolia was uneventful, though Yukino could feel her heart hammering the entire time, wondering what would happen when she got there. She had the letter and the photograph tucked safely into an inside pocket of her cloak but she kept checking on them the whole way, as if worried that they might have suddenly vanished.

Yet when she arrived at the large, Fairy Tail building at last she was rather surprised. The structure had once been grandiose and majestic, but quite clearly it had fallen into disrepair - its walls crumbling, its wooden doors rotting and a great deal of ivy having spread across the walls. And though she couldn't be sure, it seemed like parts of the roof had fallen in.

"This is the Fairy Tail building?" she whispered to herself, nonplussed, as she stood before its gates. "It looks so… forlorn… and empty…"

"You look lost, Madam," a voice behind her said and she turned round to see a middle-aged man behind her with his head cocked to the side curiously. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Yes, actually," Yukino said. "Um… is this where Fairy Tail is supposed to be? It doesn't look like anyone's been in that building for a long time."

"That's because they haven't," the man said, a little bitterness creeping into his voice. "Things just haven't been the same in this town for the last six years. After most of Fairy Tail was wiped out…" he looked physically pained to say that. "What remained struggled to keep going. And their losses at the Grand Magic Games decimated their reputation. They ended up getting so little income that they were forced to rely on loans from another guild that set up in the town, Twilight Ogre. But they couldn't keep up with the payments and eventually gave Ogre their guildhall as payment. But Ogre didn't use it for anything - they just left it there to remind anyone that walks past that Fairy Tail aren't the top guild of the town any more."

"That's horrible," Yukino whispered, feeling a little sick. Fairy Tail had already fallen from the top - was it really necessary to drag their name further through the dirt? "But… if they don't live there now then where do they live?"

"They set up a small guild building on the edge of town next to the Eastern Woods," the man replied. "Barely bigger than a barn. And they're still in debt to Twilight Ogre. So little lady, if you were thinking of joining Fairy Tail I'd reconsider if I were you. Unless you want to end up in poverty."

Yukino thanked him and hurried off, making her way through the winding streets until finally she arrived at the edge of the woods. And sure enough, there it was. A cobblestone path that ran down to a ramshackle building of wood and stone, a single tower protruding from the centre with a tattered windmill attached. A few random piles of wood and barrels lay about outside, with some rickety fences to act as chicken pens. If it hadn't been for the banner with the famous Fairy Tail sigil hanging beneath the windmill and the makeshift words 'FAIRY TAIL' made of bits of wood and nailed to the archway above the front door, Yukino would never have guessed who lived here.

As she approached, Yukino spotted one person outside - a woman with deep purple hair, wearing a green and white dress and hanging out some sheets on a clothes line to dry in the wind. When she heard Yukino approaching she turned to reveal a slender, pretty face with dark green eyes and a pleasant, albeit surprised smile.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello," Yukino said in return. "Are you a member of Fairy Tail?"

The woman chuckled lightly. "Not really," she said. "I'm on staff as a waitress and barkeep and general cleaner, but I'm not a proper member because I'm not a mage. My name's Kinana. Who are you?"

"Yukino Aguria," Yukino dipped her head respectfully. "I didn't realise mage guilds hired people who weren't mages as staff members."

"Most don't. But Fairy Tail took me in when I had nowhere else to go and gave me a home, even though I have no magic," Kinana smiled fondly. "The kindness of the previous master, Makarov, was incredible. He could have turned me away but he didn't. And I've stayed with the guild ever since, working only for room and board. Because that is all I really need, along with good friends."

"That sounds wonderful," Yukino smiled. "But I'd like to speak to the current Master if that's okay. It's important."

"Is it? Well that makes a change," Kinana's smile turned a little sad. "We haven't had anything important coming our way for a good long time. But by all means, follow me."

She led Yukino over to the front door and pushed them wide open. "Master," she called as she walked inside. "You've got a visitor."

The inside of the guild was about as bare as the outside - a single small room with wooden floors, a single bar at the end, a request board on one wall… and apart from a few plain wooden tables and chairs that was more or less it. Yukino couldn't help but notice the request board had only two pieces of paper on it, neither of which appeared to be jobs that paid very well. There was a scattering of people inside, all of which turned to look at her curiously. But it was a man sitting at the bar that answered Kinana, his hair and moustache mostly blue in colour but both definitely starting to go grey.

"Well if its someone from Twilight Ogre again, they can tell Banaboster I'm gathering together the last bits of his next payment now."

"Oh no, I'm not from Twilight Ogre," Yukino assured him quickly. "I don't have any affiliation with that guild."

"Thank goodness," said another man with short brown hair and a cigar in his mouth, in a voice that Yukino suspected was supposed to be much quieter than it was. "She's far too cute to be with a bunch of bullies like them."

"Pipe down, Wakaba," the Master said as Yukino blushed fiercely. "Anyway, welcome to Fairy Tail. I am Master Macao Conbolt. What can I do for such a sexy…" he stopped and cleared his throat. "I mean… lovely lady such as yourself?"

"I'm here with a message for you, Macao-sama," Yukino said, pulling the letter out from her pocket slowly. "Well… technically… it's a message for the whole guild actually. Um… is this… is everyone here?" She looked around her at the various faces around her - mostly men but one young boy and a couple of women, including a green-haired one that was currently holding a small child that had to be only about four years old.

"Yeah, this is all of us," said Max Alors with a certain despondency. "Go ahead and rub it in, we've got almost nobody at all left now. Most of the others have upped and left for better prospects and I can't really blame them."

"Oi, Max, don't you dare start to say stuff like that," Warren Rocko chided him. "We may not be the great guild we once were but we've still got to hold up the spirit that we once had."

"Oui," Reedus Jonah nodded in agreement. "If we start to think like that, we'll lose the guild altogether."

"Sometimes I wonder if its just a matter of time before that happens," Jet muttered quietly. "Droy, would you please stop spraying breadcrumbs all over me!?"

"Shut up, I'm training," Droy grumbled, his rotund belly pressing against the table as he chomped down on another piece of chicken.

"Please excuse us if we seem a little down," Alzack Connell said, holding his wife Bisca close to him and offering Yukino a tight smile. "It's really not our intention to make you feel uncomfortable if that's what we're doing."

"Happy thoughts, happy thoughts," cheered the little girl in Bisca's arms.

"You heard Asuka. Happy thoughts everyone," Bisca smiled proudly. "Let's not bog our guest down."

"Oh but that's just the thing," Yukino said quickly. "I believe the message I've been sent to give you will cheer you all up no end."

"Yeah right," Macao's son, Romeo, muttered from where he was drawing little patterns on the table with his finger. But Yukino was undeterred by his pessimism. She hurried across the room to pass the letter to Macao just as he took another swig from his tankard and placed it back on the bar. Macao took hold of the letter but Yukino held onto it for a moment, locking eyes with him when he looked up at her questioningly.

"I promise you," Yukino said to him quietly, but the rest of the guild could still hear her. "This is not a joke."

That most definitely got all their attention, especially Macao's. Yukino let go of the letter and stood back, watching him unfold it slowly and begin to read it. As he did so, his eyes began to get larger… his hands started to tremble… his breathing became noticeably more ragged until he clamped one hand over his own mouth… and tears began to form in the edges of his eyes.

"What? What's going on?" Wakaba asked urgently. "What does it say, Macao?"

"What is the scoop?" Laki Olietta agreed, in a bizarre turn of phrase that made Yukino blink. But Macao didn't answer either of them. Instead he just looked up at Yukino with a hauntingly desperate light at the back of his eyes.

"You are certain this is no joke?" he croaked. "This letter… is it genuine?"

"It is," Yukino nodded, pulling the photograph out of her pocket next and handing it to him. "It came with this."

Macao took one look at the photograph and if he hadn't already been sitting down he would have completely lost the use of his legs. As it was he still almost fell over and had to grab hold of the bar to steady himself, much to the alarm of the others. Romeo in particular stood up and almost ran over to him, but Macao quickly put paid to their alarm by gasping:-

"They're alive… They're alive! THEY'RE ALIVE! ALL OF THEM ARE ALIVE!"

"What!? Who's alive?" Nab Lasaro cried.

"All of them!" Macao said madly, leaping to his feet and passing the photograph to Wakaba, waving the letter around in the air like a lunatic as his face switched from shock to adulation and joy. "Everyone who was on Tenroujima six years ago! They're not dead! They're all alive!"

"WHAT!?"

"THEY CAN'T BE!"

"BUT THE ISLAND WAS GONE!"

"IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" several voices shouted at the same time, while Wakaba's cigar dropped nervelessly out of his mouth and slumped to the floor of the guild hall. A million and one questions seemed to be hurled Macao's way in rapid succession but Macao quickly shushed them and began to read the letter out loud as Wakaba dazedly passed the photograph on to Bisca. The letter outlined everything - what had happened on the island and afterwards, how they'd all come back together in the alternate world that they were trapped in now, and how Loke had suggested communicating via Spirits which was why a Celestial Spirit Mage like Yukino had come to learn of their survival.

Yukino looked around at the tumult of faces and their expressions seemed to be constantly in flux - shock, awe, disbelief, wonder, joy - they couldn't seem to pick one to settle on. But as Macao reached the end of the letter and they all got a good look at the photograph they began to settle on joy. Tears began to flow, streaming from almost all their eyes and as soon as Macao finished they broke into a tumult of excited cheers and babbling.

"I don't believe it! I don't believe it!" Max leapt up and down uncontrollably.

"I never thought this day would come!" Vijeeter Ecor was throwing his hands out and seemed completely unable to contain himself.

"And they all look just like they did when they left!" Nab agreed, clutching the photograph like it was a lifeline.

"LEEEEEEVVVYYYYYYYYYYY!" Jet and Droy screamed at the same time, hugging each other and bawling into one another's shoulders.

"Thank you!" Laki seized Yukino's hands and pumped them up and down enthusiastically. "Thank you so… you have our hat tips until the day that we are all snuffed of life!"

"…Er… what does that mean?" Yukino asked, though her smile was wide, thrilled that she'd been the one to bring such joy to those that had so long been downtrodden.

"She means you have our gratitude until the day we die," Kinana deciphered. "And she's right. Thank you so much. You have no idea what they've been through all this time… I haven't seen them this happy since Asuka was born."

"You're quite welcome, Kinana-sama," Yukino nodded brightly, watching as Alzack twirled his daughter through the air jubilantly. "Do you hear that, Asuka? You're going to meet all those great heroes that we told you all those stories about one day."

"Whheeeeee, hooray, hooray!" Asuka cheered.

But there was one member of the group that was a little more sceptical and that was Romeo.

"How do we know this is real?" he said, his voice carrying over the din. "How can we be sure that this isn't some kind of trick?"

"What?" Yukino blinked. "I promise you, I'm not lying."

"No, she's not," Warren said as he placed a couple of fingers to his head. "I can tell. My telepathy's telling me she's definitely telling the truth."

"Yeah but what if she's being lied to?" Romeo questioned sceptically. "How are we meant to just believe this based on a letter and a photograph that anyone could have written or magically created? I mean, maybe if Loke came to tell us this directly… Natsu-nii and the others have been missing for so long… I need more proof than this."

"Well then, if there's anything that I can do to help you find proof you seek, I will."

Romeo considered for a few moments before asking, "Can you write back? I want to try asking them a few questions. Questions that only they are really likely to know the answers to."

"Certainly," Yukino whipped out one of her golden keys and summoned Libra into the room once again. The Spirit was already prepared with another piece of paper and a pen, and Yukino was very quick to take it and get to work, seating herself down next to Romeo as she did.

"So, what should I ask them?" she asked.

What she ended up writing was the following:-

'Dear Lucy,

I have arrived at the Fairy Tail guild, and I'm afraid I was right. It has seen better days. The old guild building that you remember has been abandoned and what remains of the Fairy Tail members now use a much smaller guildhall by the forest. I was right, the current Master's name is Macao Conbolt, and the other members are as follows:- Wakaba Mine, Laki Olietta, Jet, Droy, Max Alors, Warren Rocko, Nab Lasaro, Reedus Jonah, Vijeeter Ecor, Alzack and Bisca Connell (and their daughter Asuka) and lastly Macao's son, Romeo. The waitress you took in, Kinana, has also stayed with the guild. They are overjoyed beyond measure to hear that you are alive, but some among them wish for a little more proof as to your identity. They'd like to ask you the following questions:-

1. What did Lucy-sama name her pet Canis Minor Spirit?

2. Where was Lisanna-sama for two years when people thought she was dead?

3. What are the names of the dragon parents of each of the three Dragon Slayers?

4. Who did Elfman-sama partner with in the S-Class exam you were on when you vanished?

5. What are the favourite foods of all three Exceed?

6. What did Macao-sama turn himself into so he could pretend to be Natsu-sama when the real Natsu-sama wanted to slip off to save Erza-sama from her arrest at the hands of the Magic Council?

We eagerly await your reply and we've enclosed a photograph of the guild members on this side.

Yours sincerely,

Yukino.'

The photograph in question mirrored the one that the others had sent, with each of them holding up their hands with their hands in the strange backwards L shape from before. When Yukino had sent Libra off with the message she turned to Kinana and asked, "That sign… what does that mean?"

"It's a Fairy Tail thing," Kinana smiled fondly. "It's a message… meaning that no matter where you are, even if we can't see you, we'll always be watching over you."

"That's beautiful," Yukino beamed. "I wish Sabertooth had something like that. I can't help but wonder if I'd have joined this guild instead had it been the same as it was six years ago right now."

"Eh? You're from Sabertooth!?" cried Jet and Droy at the same time.

"…Didn't I mention that? Oops."

---

It wasn't long before they received a reply, which Yukino read aloud to them all.

'Dear Yukino and everyone at Fairy Tail,

Oh my goodness, look at you all! We didn't know what to expect after six years but most of you look really different. Macao - Master Makarov sends his congratulations at succeeding him as the Master of the guild. Romeo, you've gotten so much bigger! Kinana, you've really matured too. And Droy… well… never mind. But I think we were all stunned beyond belief to hear about Alzack and Bisca's news. Erza practically flipped out when she heard you were married now! And you have a daughter! Congratulations to both of you from every one of us! Your daughter's so cute - we absolutely can't wait to get home so we can introduce ourselves to her properly!

To all of you now, we give a massive apology that we haven't been able to be there with you for the last six years. We've heard about this Grand Magic Games that started up after we left and it seems that several of us are very keen to enter it as soon as we get back and blast our way back towards the top. No offence to you of course, Yukino. But a tournament's a tournament, right?

But it's understandable you'd be sceptical after a stranger walks in and declares something you've known for six whole years to be wrong. So, here are the answers to your questions.

1. Plue

2. Edolas

3. Natsu's dragon parent was Igneel, Gajeel's was Metalicana and Wendy's was Grandine

4. Evergreen

5. Happy's is fish obviously, Charla claims Darjeeling tea is her favourite thing (even though that's not a food) and Pantherlily currently has a very strong craving for kiwi

6. A lizard

Does that sway any of the doubts you have?

Yours sincerely,

Lucy and everyone else.

P.S. Alzack and Bisca have a daughter!? My mind's still reeling. Also, Levy says she can't wait to reform Team Shadow Gear again.'

"Are those all the right answers?" Yukino looked up at Romeo when she'd finished reading.

"…They are," Romeo whispered, his breath practically being stolen from his body. "They even got the one about you right, Dad… and nobody knew that apart from us surely."

"You see, Romeo?" Macao knelt down and gripped his son's shoulders, his smile feeling as broad as a barn door. "It is them. They really are okay."

"They're okay…" Romeo whispered, his lips twitching as a smile began to stretch into existence. The first smile that Macao had seen on his son's face in the last six years. "They're okay! They're really okay!" And he leapt forward to hug his father tightly, tears beginning to stream down from his eyes as with most of the other people in the room. Yukino too could feel herself choking up at the sight of the joy enveloping what had been such a forlorn little place a mere hour ago.

"This calls for a party!" Macao eventually shouted when he could stand up again. "Kinana, can you bring out some of the best booze we have left!? We're going to be going for quite a while I think!"

"Yep, and as soon as that's done we can start searching for ways to bring them home," Wakaba agreed. "There's got to be one out there somewhere."

"We should let some of the other guilds know immediately," Bisca suggested. "Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale in particular would probably be all too willing to help us out. If we all pool our resources together I'm sure we can come up with something."

"Good idea," Macao nodded. "Maybe we should even approach the Magic Council about this."

"Hmm, maybe, but they never exactly held us in high esteem," Laki pointed out. "They might not be too raring to help us. It might be better to keep things hushed, lest Twilight Ogre try and make things onerous for us because of it."

"We can worry about that later," Max grinned as he grabbed a tankard and made his way to the bar as Kinana pulled out a large bottle of sake from underneath it. "For now, we party in proper Fairy Tail style once again!

"TEAM SHADOW GEAR REUNITED! TEAM SHADOW GEAR REUNITED!" Jet and Droy cried.

Yukino watched with a bright smile as they danced and whooped and cheered like there was no tomorrow. She may have come here for completely altruistic reasons but she had to admit she was very happy that she'd been the one to cause this. It was as if all the worries and fears which had been bogging them down for the past six years had flown away at once, even though they were still in poverty and still had to find a way to bring their friends back home. If Yukino hadn't been determined to help before she was now. She would do anything within her power to bring this little family back together where they belonged.

For now though she sat herself down to write out one more reply.

---

"Alzack and Bisca have a child," Erza muttered as she stood in the corner, with her head pressed against the wall and repeating the same phrase over and over again. "Alzack and Bisca have a child. Alzack and Bisca have a child."

"Good gods, I think she's broken," Cana observed.

"It's amazing to think about it though," said Wendy. "And its a sign that not everything's been terrible for those we left behind if they have such a young child to look after."

"What I can't get over is how Droy managed to get so fat," Gray snorted. "I mean… I barely recognised the guy! No offence to him but I hope that never happens to me."

"It could never happen to Gray-sama. Gray-sama has a perfect physique!"

"Which he is currently showing off to everyone," Charla said dryly. "Put some clothes on before you lose your boxers as well will you?"

"GAH! WHEN DID I…!?"

"So now that we've got a way to contact them what's the plan?" Happy asked.

"Well, to be honest, this doesn't really change a lot in the short term," Mirajane pointed out. "After all, it's very unlikely we'll be able to find a way of getting back that soon. But I suppose we can send the regular updates to let them know what's happening if Yukino is willing to do that. And we can just hope that one side of us can work out a way of crossing the dimensional barrier between our worlds."

"Whichever way you look at it, that's still a very big ask," Freed acknowledged.

"But it'll happen," Natsu said adamantly and nonchalantly at the same time, his hands behind his head and a contented grin on his face. "Even if we have to freaking punch our way back to our own world, we'll get there."

It was at this moment that Loke popped in again, carrying with him another reply from Yukino, which he passed to Lucy.

'Dear Lucy-sama,

It seems the answers to your questions have allayed their suspicions and they are currently celebrating, very loudly and very energetically. There was talk of getting some of the other guilds that are on good terms with Fairy Tail, such as Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale, involved when it comes to searching for a way to bring you back. I hope that meets with your approval.

However, I can't stay with the guild for very long I'm afraid. I didn't get permission from the Master of my own guild to come here - I don't think he would approve of what I'm doing very much if I'm honest. So while I am happy to continue carrying messages between you and your friends here, I don't think I can do so at any time. I can probably stay for about two days this time though so if there's any more that you want to say to them, now would be a good time.

I hope things work out and I'll be able to meet you all soon.

Yours sincerely,

Yukino.'

"Her Master wouldn't approve?" Makarov frowned slightly. "Of a relief mission such as this? If that's the case then I have a feeling I would not get on very well with this man."

"Indeed," said Erza as she peeled her head away from the wall. "But at least Pegasus and Lamia would make good allies. Maybe Hibiki can find something in his Archive that might be useful."

"Then I suppose I'll get cracking on a letter detailing exactly what's been going on since we got here," Lucy said brightly. "Phew… this is going to require a lot of ink."

"I'll head back and fetch you some," Loke said. "But if I may, Lucy, can I suggest something?"

"What?"

"I think that there's another letter you might want to consider writing. Of everyone here in Fairy Tail, you're the only one who still has family left outside the guild if I recall correctly."

Lucy froze, every muscle in her body stiffening when she realised what Loke was suggesting. "Papa…" she whispered. To be perfectly honest, she'd been so caught up in the excitement of writing to the guild members, the idea of writing to her father had completely passed her by. But now Loke had brought it up, she felt suddenly uncomfortable. Last time she'd spoken to her father they'd parted on… reasonably good terms but still… the idea of writing to him was more than a little nerve-wracking.

What should she say? What could she say? Hey Dad, guess what I'm not dead? How would he even respond to that?

But even as she felt her throat tightening Loke laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly, a gesture that Lucy was instantly profoundly grateful for.

"He deserves to know," Loke said. "I know you've had… difficulties… with your father in the past but if he finds out you're not dead and you had a method of communicating with him to let him know you're alive but that you didn't use it… well… the chances that the two of you can repair your relationship would probably plummet after that. You don't have to do it straight away of course… but I really think you should think about it. Right?"

"…Yeah…" Lucy nodded slowly. She knew he was right. And she did want to fix her relationship with her father. After watching Gildarts learn who Cana really was and asking for the right to love her, she had been seized with an immediate desire for something like that with her own dad. Could now be the time to get that kind of relationship at last? How had her father felt when he heard she'd died, as he surely had? How would he feel when he learned she was alive?

…She guessed there was only one way to find out.

"Thank you, Loke," she whispered, giving him a grateful smile. "I keep thanking you today it seems… but I do mean it."

Loke nodded. "And I meant what I said earlier. I really would do anything for you, Lucy."

Lucy felt her cheeks colour a little, unable to tear her gaze away from his own for several moments before he stepped back and vanished back to the Spirit World to fetch the extra ink.

"He liiiiiiMMMGHH!"

"Shush!" Lucy cried as she seized Happy by the face to cut him off before he could finish that sentence. "There's nothing going on between Loke and me, understand, cat?"

Happy squirmed his way out of Lucy's grip and coughed slightly before saying, "Maybe not now, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind. I actually think he might really like you, Lucy."

"Oh come on," Lucy shook her head. "You realise this is Loke we're talking about right. He's said that kind of thing to hundreds of girls before."

"Aye, but I'm never seen him say that kind of thing as sincerely as he did then to anyone else."

"…Really?" Lucy blinked, before shaking her head quickly. "Well regardless… it's not worth thinking about it. He's a Spirit and I'm a human. Neither of us can live in the same world as the other for very long without dying, or at least not feeling horrible. There's never been a relationship between human and Spirit before, because they just wouldn't work."

"Has anyone ever tried?"

Lucy hesitated. She didn't know the answer to that question. Had anyone ever tried to form a relationship between a human and Spirit? Had anyone ever tested something like that out to see how plausible it really could be? Might anyone in the future?

Wait… why was she thinking about this anyway?

"It doesn't matter," she said. "Loke's an outrageous flirt. He's been with lots of human women but never in a proper relationship. He knows they wouldn't work out well just as much as I do so… there's no point thinking about it…"

Though she did keep thinking about it as she sat back down at her desk. At least until Loke returned with the ink and her thoughts switched track to focus on her next letter. And what she would say to her father when the time came to write that one.

---

Hehehe. Well this chapter was mostly focused on the Fairy Tail side of things but not to worry - most of the next few chapters will focus much more on what's going on in the HP world and how Harry deals with what he's learned. But, this isn't the last we'll be hearing from Yukino and co. Every so often we'll have a chapter that focuses on what's going on in the FT world, much like this one, but mostly the story will stay in the HP world. I hope that you will all look forward to both.