Here's the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy!
July 7, X791
It was now officially the seventh day of July; exactly fourteen years after the Dragon Slayers' dragons had disappeared. All of the wizards that were called to defend Fiore from the impending threat of thousands of dragons, stationed in various parts of the city.
Up in the sky, the moon began to turn red.
"Why's the moon turning red?!" Sakura panicked. "Are the dragons coming?!"
Sakura shook Spiral frantically and the boy put his hands on her shoulders to stop her.
"No, it's just a lunar eclipse." Spiral said. "It has nothing to do with the dragons… I hope…"
Lucy stood before Eclipse as it began to open up, the other side of it obscured by a blinding white light. The guards and everyone else around the gate stared at it in both wonder and dread.
Back in the castle, Natsu and Lionel were still combating with Future Rogue when they all heard the sound of giant doors opening.
"What's that sound?" Natsu wondered aloud.
"It is Eclipse opening." Future Rogue answered as he swung a shadow-coated arm at Natsu.
Lionel quickly got between them and stopped Future Rogue's attack with an electrically charged fist.
"See?!" Lionel growled. "The door opened without you having to kill Lucy!"
"But she will definitely stand in the way!" Future Rogue said. "She is fated to close it!"
Future Rogue pushed Lionel away, but Natsu quickly came up with his fist on fire.
"Lucy wouldn't do that!" Natsu shouted. "There's no way she'd ever ruin our future!"
"Be gone."
Before Natsu could strike, Future Rogue summoned a geyser of shadows from underneath him that forced the Fire Dragon Slayer and Lionel off of the ground.
"Lucy WILL die by my hand." Future Rogue stated.
Natsu bounced his feet off of the wall. "I won't let you!" Electricity began circulating around Natsu's body. "Lightning-Fire Dragon Mode!"
As Lionel recovered, a white aura surrounded his body.
"White-Lightning Dragon Mode!"
Both Dragon Slayers launched themselves at Future Rogue, but he blocked their attacks. In spite of this, the ground and walls around them were trembling from the sheer force of the attacks.
"So, THIS the power you've hiding all this time." Future Rogue smiled.
Before Natsu and Lionel could throw another punch, Future Rogue widened his left eye and they were both blinded by white light as half of Rogue's body became that of a shadow.
"White-Shadow Dragon Mode!"
When Natsu and Lionel regained their vision, they were both slashed on their sides in the blink of an eye, blood spurting from the wounds.
"This…" Future Rogue appeared to have dashed well past Natsu and Lionel and turned around to face them. "… is the fusion of light and shadow! White-Shadow Dragon Silk Threads!"
Needles of light and shadow came from every direction around Natsu and Lionel, piercing through their skin and forcing them to scream from the intense pain. They both fell to the ground and could barely stand back up.
"White… shadow…?" Natsu could barely speak.
"I killed Sting and took his powers." Future Rogue said as he walked over to the downed Dragon Slayers.
Natsu struggled to lift his head as he gnashed his teeth in anger.
"Of course, in your time, that's still a bit in the future." Future Rogue continued speaking.
"So you…" Natsu spoke. "… really don't care at all… about anyone else's life!"
"That's right." Future Rogue grinned sinisterly. "Which is why you'll BOTH die here, too." He inhaled. "White-Shadow Dragon…"
Before he could unleash the final blow, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that there were a bunch of crystal balls surrounding him from every direction.
"Flash Forward!"
All of the crystal balls converged on Future Rogue's position and caused a huge cloud of dust to rise. A shadow was seen leaping out of the dust and vanished out of sight. The new attacker was Ultear and she was accompanied by Meredy carrying a box in her arm.
"He got away!" Meredy said.
"Natsu, pull yourself together!" Ultear called out to the nearly unconscious Dragon Slayer. "Meredy, first aid! Immediately!"
"Right!" Meredy responded as she rummaged through the box she was holding.
Meredy looked at the deceased Future Lucy lying on the ground and felt sadness that she had to keep in for now.
"Wait-What is this?!" Ultear gasped.
Ultear was holding onto Natsu's arm as he was being dragged into a shadowy void. Another shadow was also sucking in Lionel's motionless body.
"Meredy, get him before he's sucked in!" Ultear shouted and pointed to Lionel as she tried her best to keep Natsu out of the void.
In front of Eclipse, as the doors opened the soldiers began cheering.
"That's a lot of magic, huh?" Happy said as his whiskers were twitching.
"It's like when Lionel touches me, only not as impressive." Volt commented.
"It just might be enough to take out the dragons!" Carla said.
"To have this much magic in one place…" Pantherlily said.
"This should save our future, right?" Wendy turned to Lucy,
"Yeah." Lucy was still staring at the light within Eclipse.
"It makes you think of the Lucy that came from the future for us, huh?" Mira asked as she shed a tear.
Lucy remained silent and continued looking at the light. Eventually, her feet started walking forward.
"Ms. Lucy?" Wendy asked.
"No…" Lucy spoke up. "We… can't open the door… We have to shut it right now!" She began shouting. "Shut the door! Right now! You can't open that door!"
"Ms. Lucy…" Wendy gasped.
"What's gotten into you?" Mirajane asked.
"What's she saying?" Arcadios was also taken aback.
The doors were still opening.
"Please!" Lucy kept shouting. "Close that door!"
"We cannot!" Hisui protested. "This is the only weapon that can defeat that horde of dragons! If we close it now… then we cannot fire the Eclipse Cannon!"
"There IS no Eclipse Cannon!" Lucy pointed at Eclipse. "This is a door! A DOOR that connects two points in time!"
"The Eclipse Cannon fires all the accumulated magic energy!" Hisui continued arguing. "That's what it is!"
"No, it doesn't! This isn't a weapon at all!"
"Enough!" Arcadios intervened. "You stand before the princess of this country!"
"Right now, the door… leads 400 years into the past…" Lucy stated.
BA-BOOM!
The Phoenix Dawn wizards could feel the ground shaking and a loud noise was heard from the palace.
"What's going on over there?" Azusa wondered as she readied her armor and rings for battle.
Spiral placed his hand on the ground and tried to sense the vibrations of whatever was happening at the palace.
"… No… way…" Spiral gasped in shock.
"What is it?" Hikari inquired.
"There's something at the palace right now…" Spiral replied with his hand still on the ground. "And it's huge…"
Yukino and Kyo were making their way back toward the palace when they felt the earth trembling. Yukino almost stumbled, but Kyo managed to catch her.
"Thank you, Kyo." Yukino said as she regained her footing.
"Has the dragon invasion already begun?" Kyo wondered as he looked toward Mercurius.
"We should head back to the palace! Immediately!" Yukino said.
They both started running back to the palace courtyard with Yukino leading since she knew more about the Eclipse plan than Kyo did.
Around the Eclipse Gate, everyone managed to recover from the shaking ground and saw a towering shadow loom over them.
"Ahh…" Lucy gasped in terror.
"No way…" Happy was frozen in place.
Nobody could move at the sight of the monstrosity before them. A humungous, scaly dragon was coming out through the Eclipse Gate and it let out a deafening roar.
"A dragon… from the door?!" Hisui spoke in horror.
With another loud roar, everyone around the gate was forced back and the stone statues and pavement were cracking apart. The dragon put down its right frontal leg and released a shockwave that destroyed every house in the capital straight in front of it.
The Phoenix Dawn wizards were far enough from the palace that they could make out the dragon stomping about.
"A… dragon?" Aqua looked at the creature in terror.
"Where did it come from?!" Sakura questioned. "We should've seen or heard it flying by!"
"That's the thing." Spiral said. "It's like it came out of nowhere…"
Sakura then recalled how Eclipse is a door through time.
"… Eclipse…" Sakura muttered.
"You mean that cannon?" Spiral asked.
"It's a time door!" Sakura answered. "If it didn't come from the sky, it must've come from Eclipse!"
"Are you saying it came here from another time?!" Hikari asked.
Sakura nodded.
More dragons were coming out of the Eclipse Gate, one at a time. Hisui couldn't take her eyes off of the terrifying dragons coming from the gate as Lucy got in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"How do you close the door?!" Lucy asked in a panic.
Hisui didn't respond to Lucy's question.
"Hurry!" Lucy shouted to get the princess's attention.
Hisui's mind finally regained enough composure to answer. "Th-that pedestal over there…"
The princess pointed out a pedestal on the right side of the gate and Lucy made a mad dash for it. When a dragon composed entirely of flames roared, Lucy was knocked back and Wendy ran over to help her up.
"Ms. Lucy, hurry!" Wendy shouted.
"Right!" Lucy grunted as she got back up.
Another dragon came out of the door and the soldiers were panicking, but resolved to protect the princess and hold their ground. Lucy finally made it to the pedestal and reached for the handle as best as she could with the shockwaves from the dragons' footsteps.
"I just have to pull that trigger right?" Lucy's voice strained as she stretched her hand.
"So the ten thousand dragons…" Hisui started tearing up. "… come THROUGH the door?!"
"Ms. Lucy!" Wendy yelled. "When did you figure out the truth?!"
"It wasn't me!" Lucy stood up and held onto the handle. "I asked Grandpa Crux to look into it a while ago! But his report on the door only came through a few minutes ago! It's a machine that mixes that magic of the Book of Zeref with Celestial Magic! Normally, it would let you set time coordinates and move through time! But today is special… The lunar eclipse is warping its magic!"
"It's Lunatic…" Arcadios said.
"That's why it isn't responding to our controls!" Lucy continued. "It leads to 400 years ago… An age when dragons ruled the world!"
"No…" Darton spoke under his breath as he was rendered immobilized from the sight of the dragons.
A dragon made entirely of stone and rocks came out of the gate.
"Ms. Lucy, can't you close the door yet?!" Wendy yelled.
"The dragons keep coming out!" Mirajane shouted.
"Why?!" Lucy grunted as she was pulling on the handle to no avail. "Why can't I close this door?!"
"Because…" Hisui began mumbling and tuned out the soldiers requesting her to leave the area. "Because of my mistake… The world will end!"
The sighting of more dragons was drawing every wizard's attention.
"There's more?!" Frost exclaimed. "What the fuck's going on?!"
"Language!" Spiral shouted as he pointed at Azusa before looking back toward the palace. "And how should I know? You and Sakura are the only ones that know about that Eclipse thing!"
"No!" Hikari fell to the ground and clutched her head. "I don't want the world to end yet! I want me, Spiral and our kids to live happily ever after!"
"Could you please focus?!" Melody screamed at Hikari.
"You know what?" Spiral interjected Melody's comment. "She can use that as motivation to stop the end of the world."
Sakura had been staring at the palace and the dragons for a few minutes now. She clenched her fists and started running off toward the castle.
"Sakura, what are you doing?!" Spiral questioned. "Get back here!"
"I'm a Dragon Slayer, aren't I?" Sakura shouted back. "So I'm going to do just that!"
A/N: There's the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed because I am going to be addicted to Pokemon Sun & Moon for a while! Stay tuned for next time!