Maine woke up feeling sore and exhausted. She couldn't see a thing at first, but wherever she was smelled of rust and death. She heard what sounded like drops of water hitting something metallic. Someone groaned.
"Ultear?" She called, and found her voice weak and raspy.
"Yeah…" Ultear sounded even weaker, "what… where are we?"
"You two missed quite the show," Rob's voice made Maine look to her left, but she still couldn't see a thing, "we're going to die soon, so go back to sleep if you can."
"We won't die," Simone said with certainty, "Kori's gonna get help."
"Whose help?" Rob scoffed, "Nashi was a mess, I doubt she's fully recovered by now, certainly not enough to deal with what we've found. Yume and Aiden were the ones who spent the most magic out of all of us before we ended up in this time, and unfortunately they happen to be the ones whose magics take longer to recover. That leaves Lyra…"
Ultear giggled, and Rob stopped talking.
"I'm sorry," she said, still giggling, "I just pictured Lyra barging in and singing our rescue song. It's not funny, not really."
Rob - or Maine assumed it was Rob - sighed.
"We survived all that crap to die without taking out even one of them."
"Eh, three died," Simone pointed out, and Maine sighed. Mauri was supposed to be able to take out more than that.
She tried to move and winced as a sharp pain shot through her arms. Nails clipped them to the wall, something she failed to notice.
Suddenly, lights appeared in candles, revealing what looked like ancient ruins. They were in the center of an old city, tied up - to the ground or walls through nails - and the dripping sound she had heard was her own blood falling on the metallic chains. To her left, Rob was tied to the ground, completely unable to move, and Simone was a bit further on another rock.
"Why isn't-" she started to ask, but something painful hit her in the stomach and she gasped.
"Be quiet, Offering," a male voice made her try to find the attacker, but she couldn't. She saw shadows of people in the ruined houses all around them, but there was no way to pinpoint the attacker.
"We are gathered here tonight, my brothers, to witness the Ascension. It is finally time for the Goddess to walk this Earth again, and these young tainted souls shall provide enough sustenance for Her. Let the Goddess shine upon us!"
"Let the goddess shine upon us," the chanting made Maine feel a bit dizzy.
"Goddess? The hell is that about?" She asked, gasping in pain again after another attack and wishing someone could kill those people.
The chains binding them moved, and suddenly they were all hung in the ceiling, and far ahead, behind a few old stone houses, she saw what seemed like a dark pit.
Children were gathered in dozens of cages above it.
"What the-"
The first kid fell into the pit before Maine could even ask what was happening. The little girl cried all the way until she disappeared in black substance. Maine watched, horrified, the second cage open and drop three more children. By now the others were crying and begging for help, and she heard Rob and Ultear struggling hard against their restraints, cursing the cloaked people.
"Mauri, come back out!" Simone shouted, and Rob and Ultear immediately shouted at the red haired to shut up.
Maine wasn't very interested in dealing with Mauri twice in such a short time, but she didn't fight it.
The calling was all it took. Suddenly she felt like always before she blacked out, and suddenly she saw everything from a lens, and her body wasn't her own, and even her hair seemed different - if the sudden feeling of a fringe was anything to go by.
Suddenly she was moving. Falling
The cloaked people moved away from her, alarmed and visibly scared. She laughed, and it sounded cold and amused at the same time.
"Heh, I get a five minute rest and you losers manage to get captured?" She asked, looking at Rob and the others, and suddenly they were all free - and they all crashed in the ground. Maine herself landed gracefully while holding a Scythe?
"Screw that, take them out! They're killing children!" Simone asked, and whoever was in Maine's body nodded. "Go, Mauri!"
"Who the hell is this? The girl transformed!" One guy shouted.
"Name's Mauri," she said out loud in between cutting two people up and launching herself at the third. Maine always felt a rush when Mauri took over: she was moving so fast it felt like flying, and at some times Mauri kind of flew. She jumped at the lateral of a building, but her feet barely touched it before she jumped even higher, as if those were trampolines.
The Scythe in her hands changed shapes, and adapted into three weapons: the scythe itself, two short blades, and a lance. She did the most damage with the short blades, fighting close ranged with the cloaked people, and used the lance to shoot out magical lance tips at them from a distance - the lance itself felt like a gun.
Down there, Ultear and Rob were trying to find the way to get the cages away from the pit, while Simone watched their back, ready to fight as much as she could if needed.
You know, she heard Mauri's voice in her head, we're lucky that you stored half your power instead of giving it all to Nashi.
As she said that, she killed the last of the cloaked men. The children rooted, and Maine realized her body was quite popular as Mauri. The fighter landed near Rob, who had finally found the machine that moved the cages. Slowly, he brought them to safe ground.
The children got out and immediately ran at Mauri.
"Ugh, kids," she said in disgust, and Maine could feel her disgust at them, too, "I'm going away, have the weakling back," she said to Rob. Maine wanted to curse at her but just returned to her usual self.
"I really wish someone could separate us," she mumbled, feeling relief over having control again.
Why are you complaining? I'm the one who spends most of the time passively watching.
"Hey, hey, blond lady! Can we see your other look again? It's so much more badass!"
"When I grow up I wanna fight like that! I'm gonna jump really high and punch people really fast!"
"Can we go home now? I want my mommy?"
Rob and Maine calmed the kids down enough to walk out of the ruins, finally reaching open ground and seeing the soft blue of the morning sky. Maine inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of dirt and grass - and blood.
"Careful," Rob spoke to all of them, "they're bound to be around still."
"I can't believe we're relying on Mauri for help" Ultear spoke in a lighter tone, "remember when N… N…"
Ultear's words failed, and she stopped moving. Intending to ask her what she was going to say, Maine turned, and saw the dark haired girl's face turning red as she struggled to breathe.
Maine raised a barrier around her instantly, and Ultear managed to draw in air.
"Get back here!" She called Rob and Simone, who walked ahead, clueless to the small exchange. They did comply though, "we're under attack!"
She expanded the barrier around all four of them and the children, but that meant making quite a big barrier, and the ones who blocked away magic took a lot of her power to stay.
"I suffocated," Ultear explained to Rob as Maine looked around, "it's probably Hiyori."
"The Knight? How do we defeat her without Wendy? I can't keep my barrier forever!" Maine protested.
"Well… any chance Mauri wants to help out? Hiyori isn't alone," Ultear spoke nervously, and Maine growled. "Nevermind…"
"Oh, they're plotting and planning," Hiyori spoke teasingly, and someone else giggled in the shadows of the forest.
"So adorable," a male voice spoke, "it makes me want to cry…"
It started raining. Not normal, regular rain, and not Juvia-style rain either: the water was sharp, it hurt the skin, and it only fell around their group. Maine expanded the barrier, focusing on blocking magic and physical things, because the rain made the children cry in pain, but she couldn't hold for long.
"I'm sorry," she said, feeling her barrier weaken when a new attack came at it from the east - blades, that felt like they had some magic to them.
"Blood blades," Rob recognized, raising his hands, "Blood drive: on."
The usual red magic circle formed beneath him, and suddenly the blades stopped - just in time, for Maine's barrier vanished.
"What-" Hiyori's voice faltered when the blades circled Rob, pointing outwards, and some towards her. "How is this kid-"
"I hate using blood magic," he said, and he sounded pained, "controlling someone through their bloodstream is just… awful. But blood blades? That's like giving me toys," he smiled, and pushed his hands forward. The blades all flew in different directions, towards Hiyori, the rain man, and whoever threw them in the first place.
None of them hit.
"Blood magic, huh,' Hyiori smiled, "I wonder, which one is stronger? Your blood control, or my Oxygen?"
She raised her hand, and suddenly Maine felt the air leave her lungs, and no matter how much she breathed in, she still felt like she was suffocating. Around her, the children fell down, grabbing their throats or noses or stomachs, gasping and crying in pain, and Maine, too, fell to her knees.
She felt like fainting - and figured that she'd meet her end staring at old enemies in the middle of a rainstorm.
Thunder crashed.
Fast, powerful, deadly. A lightning bolt hit Hiyori and each of the other attackers, driving a loud scream off them and bringing them down. Maine's lungs got air again and she turned, relieved, to see her brother. He looked beyond angry.
"Run, now," he commanded and everyone there complied, running towards him and then after him. He stopped and launched a second attack to keep the Knights back long enough for them to reach the shore. A ship waited and they boarded.
Simone, who had fought the least, quickly powered the PE system. Ultear added her magic to it to move the ship faster.
Once they were far enough away to feel safe, Maine hugged her brother.
"I'm sorry," she spoke, "I'm sorry I was so angry. I'm sorry I left!"
"We're sorry too," Rob spoke, shaking Aiden's hand, "I'm glad to see you, man."
"I'm guessing Kori reached you?" Ultear asked, and he nodded. "Is she…"
"She'll be fine, she's being treated. She's safe."
"And Nashi?" Simone asked and her voice failed.
"She's alive, no thanks to any of you," he said bitterly, "she's recovered, though we're all still weak when it comes to magic. Where are the others? I couldn't sense them,"
"We parted ways in Giltena," Simone said, "most of them really didn't want to fight anymore. They went as far away from any conflict areas as possible," she added and Aiden nodded. He couldn't really blame them, "we wanted-"
"I know what you wanted to do," he cut her short, "I don't get why you thought you could do it after giving Nashi most of your magic though."
"We assumed they'd be weaklings," Rob explained timidly, "we were wrong. How did you recover so much magic?"
He looked down.
"I didn't," he admitted, "we had help," as he said that, they approached the port where a tall man stood by a small ship. Maine stopped walking and everyone tensed, looking at her. "Don't freak out," he quickly spoke to his sister, "I assume that by now you've all realized that we'd eventually meet up with them…"
"Because we came back in time, sure," before they could do anything, Maine had switched back into Mauri's form, and the slayer looked like she wasn't shaken by the situation. She took the lead and walked into the boat, where Laxus looked intrigued at the girl who suddenly changed.
"Thank you for helping us, sir," Rob spoke, bowing cordially, "I'm Rob, these are Mauri and Ultear," he added. "The girl you saw down there before Mauri showed up is Maine."
"Wait, you have a different name for each look?" Laxus inquired while Aiden moved to steer the boat, "why?"
"They're different personalities, different people altogether," Aiden explained from where he stood, leaving the steering to Rob, "what I don't get is why were you not surprised?"
At that, everyone turned to face her.
"Because I knew," she revealed, shocking the group. "Nashi didn't think she would survive the spell to send us all here, so she needed someone who'd know her plan to keep it going. Of course, neither of us counted on you idiots going after a fight right after arriving without any magic," as she said that, Rob and Ultear looked down, clearly embarrassed.
"You knew we'd time jump? Why didn't you tell me?" Aiden demanded, now clearly angry.
"Because it wasn't my plan…"
"I'm the leader of the Resistance, Mauri! I'm Phoenix' guild master, not Nashi! If a plan that literally sends us into another timeline is set in motion, you had to tell me!"
"No, I did not," Mauri wasn't moved by his words, "this plan was extremely dangerous and the less people knew about it, the safer it was. You have no idea of how much it took for it to succeed, Aiden. Did you notice Nashi's keys?"
He frowned, puzzled.
"We sacrificed stuff too," Ultear spoke timidly, "and we didn't even know we were sacrificing it. What about everyone else? What about Levy and Wendy?"
Aiden tried to shut her up in time, but the damage was done. As soon as the name escaped her question, Laxus changed his posture.
"Levy and Wendy?" He repeated.
"I take it they don't know who we are?" Mauri asked her brother, who messed in his hair in frustration. He knew they could tell the truth without altering their existences, but if he were to pick anyone from Fairy Tail to tell the truth to, Laxus would never be it.
"We were told you all come from a century in the future," the lightning dragon slayer spoke, "care to clarify that?"
"Well, sure, you were lied to," Mauri spoke matter-of-factly, and Aiden frowned. "What? My deal with Nashi was that I wouldn't bother with fake stories to spare anyone's feelings. That's Maine's thing," she shrugged, "we come from a few decades in the future. In fact, you're our father," at that, she pointed at herself and Aiden.
For one thing, that freed Ultear and Rob from having to worry about talking to Laxus. Mauri's words pretty much made him focus on her and Aiden and nobody else, and Aiden himself seemed very interested in jumping into the ocean.
Mauri smiled calmly.
"It's not that big of a deal," she said, "you're a mage and so are we, and that's it. We don't actually have any bonds, not really. The Laxus we knew as a dad is someone else, so don't freak, ok?"
He seemed to process the information, his eyes shifting between the two siblings.
"I guess the lightning magic comes from me," he muttered, eyes falling on Aiden, who nodded, suddenly crimson red. "And your magic?"
"Well, Maine uses barrier magic," Mauri started, "while I am a demon slayer, but I don't use magic, I use curses. The theory Nashi has is that when our mother was pregnant with the two of us and we merged, I took over the demonic genes and Maine took over the defensive ones."
"Demonic genes? I'm not…" he seemed at a loss, but as his words died down, it was clear his mind was connecting the dots.
After that, he had dozens of questions and Mauri answered as many as she could about herself, Maine and Aiden. Rob and Ultear, left aside, noticed that at no point the Fairy Tail Wizard seemed to care about the actual future: he seemed much more interested in his future children.
By the time they arrived at Fairy Tail, things were very different from how it was when Aiden had left.
For one, Mavis was there.