this for you, roggerlopez99
a/n: English is not my first language, so excuse me for any typing mistakes.
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The dragons let out a roar that reached the sky, the vibrations echoing between the buildings that remained standing. The structures shook as their corners trembled. The town's edifices were set on fire by scintillating flames, as anything that got in the path of the dragon's flames was destined to melt and burn.
On the ground, the mages have been fighting desperately against the dragons and the children of Mother Glare, and luck does not seem to be on the humans' side. In the sky, the Dragon King and Natsu Dragneel were fighting atop the armored body of the dragon, Mother Glare; At the same time, Mother Glare was fighting against the fire dragon, Atlas Flame.
Dragons against humans, dragons against dragons, humans against humans. This is the words that can describe what is happening.
All this devastation and destruction happened because of one man, and that man is Rogue Cheney, or rather, his future. The future Rogue tricked the princess into opening the Eclipse Gate in order to free the dragons, but the gate was soon closed after seven dragons emerged from it; Although the number of dragons was small, this did not negatively affect the plans of the future Rogue, who controlled the dragons with mysterious magic and then declared himself the Dragon King.
Rogue watched everything happen and felt pain and terror; Rogue knew that the man he would become in the future was the same man who now aspired to destroy the world.
Rogue may have been a cold person, but he was not evil.
So why is all this happening? What happened to his future self to make him become like this?
Finally, Natsu was able to overthrow the Dragon King after he united his powers with Atlas Flame and then turned it into one attack, but it was very destructive, as the power of this attack was enough to bring down the future Rogue with Mother Glare and destroy the Eclipse Gate, which was made of the hardest materials found in Earthland. .
Rogue quickly ran to the place where Natsu and the Dragon King fell; He had a lot of questions and wanted answers.
Natsu was standing in front of the Dragon King who was lying on the ground, his body full of wounds and dirt. They obviously fought hard.
"The Rogue I know will never be like you." Natsu spoke in a decisive tone.
Rogue was about to open his mouth but someone spoke before him. That person is Lucy Heartfilia.
"Well done, Natsu!" Lucy shouted, standing ten meters away from where her pink-haired friend was. "After the Eclipse Gate is destroyed, the dragons will disappear as if they never existed. Look!" Lucy looked at the dragons, whose bodies were now glowing with a yellow light, then she looked at Future Rogue, who had the same thing happen to him.
Lucy, Natsu, and all the mages in the town smiled. It's over, they've won.
"Haha..hahaha.."
The three heard a giggling sound, this sound was coming from Future Rogue.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Future Rogue laughed sarcastically. Even though his body was in a very bad condition, he was laughing as if he had heard a good joke.
"Why are you laughing?" Natsu asked confused. Rogue and Lucy were feeling uncomfortable.
"Lucy Heartfilia, did you think destroying a gate was the solution? Stupid girl." Future Rogue couldn't help but laugh again.
"What do you mean--" Lucy stopped talking when she saw something that made her blood run cold.
Not just dragons and future Rogue; The town, the mages, the neighboring towns, even the sky! Everything was shining with yellow light.
"What the hell is going on?!" Natsu shouted in horror as his body slowly began to turn into golden dust. Not only Natsu, but everyone in the town had the same thing happen to them.
"The Eclipse Gate is a magic term created four hundred years ago by the black wizard himself, Zeref. The purpose of its creation was to travel to the past." Future Rogue smiled, looking completely unfazed. "You wanted to defeat me by destroying the Eclipse Gate, right? But have you thought about the consequences of that? Do you know what will happen to the past if the Gate is destroyed?"
"What do you mean?! The future and the present cannot affect the past!" Lucy shouted in fear.
"You're right, but that doesn't apply to the Eclipse Gate." Future Rogue rose to his feet, despite all the damage he took he didn't falter. "The Eclipse Gate is not subject to the rules of space-time, which means that destroying it now is not much different than traveling into the past, specifically four hundred years, and then destroying it. Do you know what that means, my little miss?" The Dragon King's smile widened. "The past, the present, and the future, everything that happened during these past four hundred years will be completely changed. Will the temporal events be changed in accordance with the disappearance of the Eclipse Gate? No, a lot of things have happened during those four hundred years and I don't think the world will endure such massive temporal changes like This." Future Rogue laughed a little. "This is what happens when we let ignorant people take over. Because of you, the whole world will disappear."
"Are we going to disappear then?!" Rogue shouted. "Did you forget that you will disappear with us too?!"
For the first time since he started this conversation, the Dragon King's smile disappeared and his facial features became calm and free of madness. "My goal in all of this was to kill Acnologia at all costs, even if it meant making everyone go to hell." Future Rogue looked up at the yellow sky and then closed his eyes. "Actually, I wasn't sure that this would happen, otherwise I would have destroyed this gate a long time ago. But now, as long as Acnologia will disappear, I can die without any regrets."
Rogue and Natsu could hear the screams of their friends and the other witches, sure enough they were starting to disappear. Natsu was feeling intense pain and remorse because he was the reason for the world's demise. The same thing happened with Rogue, but for different reasons, as he was to some extent the cause of all this chaos, in addition to the fact that he had some remorse for what he had done in his past.
Natsu and Lucy were the first to disappear, Rogue was about to disappear but the last thing he saw was the features of future Rogue's face; The Dragon King was neither happy nor sad, but rather empty, like a man who had lost everything important in his life.
/ /
"Hhhmm.."
Rogue opened his eyes and found himself in a completely strange place; There was no sky or earth, just endless white space.
"where am I?" Rogue spoke. The last thing he remembered was that the entire world had completely disappeared.
He noticed that his body was floating in the air, but he didn't care much about this because he saw things that caught his attention. There were buildings and trees, as well as animals and even people; They were all floating in the air, but unlike the Shadow Dragon Slayer, they were not awake.
"I didn't expect you to wake up!"
Rogue quickly turned back to see the owner of that voice, that person was none other than Future Rogue.
"What's that face? You look like you've seen a ghost." Future Rogue smiled mockingly. Although his clothes were still dirty and torn from his last battle, his wounds were no longer there.
Without thinking, he activated the Dragon Force and then charged towards the Dragon King and began throwing dozens of punches and kicks at him. Future Rogue didn't do anything to defend himself, but instead let the attacks rain down on him.
After ten full minutes, Rogue began to feel tired and his punches became slower than before. On the other hand, Future Rogue looked completely unscathed as there was not a single bruise on his face or body, in fact, he looked like he had never been beaten in the first place!
"Stop, you're overexerting yourself unnecessarily. Death, destruction; these concepts don't exist in this place." Future Rogue smiled. How does he know that? Well, once he found Acnologia's body, he launched several magic attacks that could kill a real dragons, but failed miserably; It took a very long time before he realized that any kind of attack would have no effect. Just thinking about it makes his blood boil.
Rogue stopped attacking as his anger turned into intense sadness. In addition, his mood was not improved by the Dragon King's smile.
"Why?!" Rogue shouted, tears streaming from his eyes. "Just tell me?! Why did you do all this?! I wouldn't hurt innocent people, so why are you so intent on killing everyone?!"
"But you will." The Dragon King spoke, his smile disappearing, replaced by a calm and sober face. "What you see in front of you now is your future and your inevitable fate."
"You lie!"
"One year after the end of Grand Magic Games, your world will collapse." The Dragon King spoke without caring about Rogue's words. "Frosch will die and you will be unable to do anything about it. The pain of his death will be unimaginably great."
Future Rogue felt a pain in his heart. That memory still hurts him, even after six years. The day that Frosch died was the day that future Rogue felt that his happiness had disappeared forever.
"That was just the beginning. The beginning of my own hell, or should I say, our hell." The Dragon King continued to speak.
"What--what do you mean?" Rogue still can't believe that Frosch is going to die. The mere thought of Frosch's disappearance made Rogue's heart clench painfully. Frosch was his closest and only friend, and his life would be meaningless if Frosch died. "You're lying. Please say you're lying.." Rogue's voice was filled with sadness and despair.
"I wish that was a lie." Future Rogue answered completely honestly. "All the people you know will die one by one, and only Sting will remain, but the shadows have already gotten hold of you, which is why you will kill your partner and take his power. Then you will not think about anything except how to eliminate the person who ruined your life, Acnologia."
"You're lying!! You're lying!!" Rogue shouted before walking away. He closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears. He was in denial.
Future Rogue quietly stood up, his right hand now covered in shadows, then placed that hand on Rogue's head. Suddenly, Rogue felt immense pain that words could not describe, as he began to see memories of the future Rogue. This was not a nice experience, the future Rogue knew that well, but it was necessary.
When the pain was over, Rogue started sobbing, he knew very well what kind of life his future counterpart lived. All that death, all that bloods, all that despair; Future Rogue lived in a living hell, no wonder he became like this.
"The truth can no longer be denied; I am your future, and you are my past!" Future Rogue spoke out loud for the first time since this conversation had begun.
Rogue opened his eyes and removed his hands from his ears.
"I have done unforgivable things, but I will not forgive you too!" Future Rogue shouted angrily.
"how..?" Rogue looked surprised.
"You didn't care about strength and you weren't serious about your training! If you really cared about your comrades, you would have done everything in your power to become stronger than everyone else so that you could protect them! But you didn't! We both lost everything because of you!!" Future Rogue shouted angrily. "Now! I am so strong, so strong that I can fight a fierce battle against Acnologia and come out alive! But..but.." Tears began to fall from Future Rogue's eyes. "What's the point of being strong if I can't change my fate?"
At this moment, Rogue moved quickly and placed his hands on Future Rogue's shoulders.
"I am a fool and you are a coward. I am the one who created our fate and you are the one who surrendered and made us slaves to fate. I did not care much about what was happening in the world and neither did you care about what would happen to the world anymore; we were both wrong, but... does this mean that we have to stand idly by?" Rogue spoke.
"Anything you do will be useless. When your opponent is fate, losing is all you get." Future Rogue answered.
"If I were serious about my training then I would become strong enough to protect Frosch and my friends. If you were not weak-willed, the shadows would not have gotten to you. You are wrong in what you said; fate is the result of our actions, which means that we create fate and not the other way around."
There was silence for a full minute.
"Do you think it was possible to change our fate?" Future Rogue asked.
"I don't know. But if we don't try, we will inevitably fail." Rogue answered.
Future Rogue was about to speak, but the place started shaking and making a sound like breaking glass. The dragon slayers didn't know what was happening, but they had different reactions; Rogue was confused, but Future Rogue was just indifferent.
The last thing Rogue saw was a bright, blinding light...
/ /
Rogue opened his eyes and looked around, but soon felt a severe headache. He was lying on a simple bed; He no longer existed in that white world, but he certainly did not return to Crocus.
So, what is this place?
Rogue got out of bed and put his feet on the floor, but noticed that the bed was rather large and high. He didn't care much about it and continued to inspect the room.
But..
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!" Everyone in the city heard the sound of a childish scream.
"is this me?!" Rogue spoke in disbelief. He was standing in front of the mirror; He became a ten-year-old child.
"How did this happen?" Rogue spoke, feeling his face and body.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened and two people entered and...a flying green cat wearing pink pajamas.
"Ryos-kun!!!!" The cat flew towards Rogue and hugged him.
"Frosch?" Frosch looked younger. Rogue looked at the two people still in the room; The first person is Gajeel Redfox, and the second is Totomaru. "What happened?"
"I was going to ask you the same question." Gajeel spoke. "Everything was normal in the guild before you started screaming like you were in hell. Then a lot of blood came out of your ears before you fainted; you stayed asleep for three days. Seriously, what happened to you?"
"What is the date of today?" Rogue spoke.
"X782." Totomaru answered.
"I see.. I see.." Rogue muttered, staring into nothingness.
"I think it's best to leave him alone now. Gajeel, Frosch, let's go." Totomaru spoke.
After everyone left, Rogue sat on the ground and started thinking.
'I've gone back in time, all the evidence proves it. but how?' Rogue thought, he didn't know why but he thought it had something to do with the Eclipse Gate.
'But why me?' He didn't understand why he was chosen, since there were many mages who deserved this opportunity, such as Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus and even Sting. They are all suitable for this task; They were stronger and more capable than he.
The Shadow Dragon Slayer sighed. He knew there was nothing he could do about this suspicious situation. So he started thinking about what he would do in the future; He has experiences and memories from his past life, as well as memories of future Rogue.
"With all this knowledge and informations, maybe I will be able to make a difference in the future." Rogue spoke, looking at his small hands. "I have been given a very valuable opportunity. I may not deserve it, but I will not waste it."
In his past life, Rogue had no interests or ambitions, but things are different now! He now has two goals that he will strive to achieve; To be very strong and change some events to suit his plans so that the Apocalypse scenario will not be repeated.
