ALERT! FROM THIS MOMENT IN THIS AND FUTURE CHAPTERS THERE MAY BE MINOR SPOILERS FOR "100 Years Quest" AND THE MOVIE "Dragon Cry"!

Chapter 4 – Eclipse Gate

Meredy and Ultear stared at the person Jellal had brought. This is Lucy Heartfillia, who supposedly came from the future. Several changes were visible. She was a little taller, and her hair had grown and now covered her entire back. The rest of the body was covered in some sort of armor that was normally hidden under the cloak but was now shown to them to drive home the point.

"So... you're from the future?" - Meredy repeated, still not sure what to think.

"X798 to be exact." - Lucy repeated. Her face was unsmiling and looked grim almost all the time. Her eyes showed great sorrow and loss.

"Let me guess." - Ultear said, looking at Lucy - "The future is bad. Very angry."

Lucy looked up at the sky, as if thinking. Then she said - "On July 7, an army of over ten thousand dragons will attack. Almost everyone in the capital died. I was one of the few survivors who survived this massacre. Shortly thereafter, these dragons united with the few remnants of dragons still living on the continent of Guiltina, slaying Acnologie and beginning an attempt to take over the world. This led to 6 years of constant war. Ultimately, we managed to win, but not before losing over 95% of the planet's humanity. Entire continents have become uninhabitable, and many dragons are left to live as remnants and prepare for another war. Do you have any other questions?"

Crime Sorcière just stood there, unsure of what to say.

"You're still listening." - said Lucy.

After a while, Jellal spoke up - "Yes. It's just a lot to take in."

"Good, because I have a plan to stop it." - Lucy said, immediately catching their attention - "First of all, you need to watch out for the royal guards and the area around the palace. The people there may be controlled by another visitor from the future. I don't know who or why. Maybe when Zeref got cursed and went crazy. Maybe it's one of the hiding dragons. There's also the possibility that he's just some fool who wants to overthrow the kingdom and doesn't know what he's getting himself into. But someone is there, and we don't have time to find out who it is. Additionally, dragons will arrive from the Eclipse portal, but currently, the timeline is so unstable that we will have to allow a few, maybe a dozen dragons to pass through."

"And why exactly should we do this?" - Ultear asked - "Not to say anything, but what's the worst that could happen?"

Lucy sighed and said - "Since the people now don't know how Eclipse was originally activated, they decided to charge it with magical energy with power similar to Aetherion. If we don't free it by opening the gate, instead of the capital, we will have a huge crater stuffed with corpses and rubble. And then we have to take into account that this could completely destabilize Fiore, so other countries may try to attack. And that's before we take into account that these gates are connected to the Celestial Spirit World, so they too will feel the negative effects. Should I continue with my problems?"

"No." - Ultear said.

"All right. In any case, once these dozen or so dragons are ahead, the energy should be discharged and returned to the environment. Then my current version and Yukino will close the Eclipse gate. Then we need to kill some dragons and then we will be able to destroy the gate. This should stabilize the space-time line enough and everyone should return to their timelines."

"I hate to interrupt this plan, but how do we defeat the dragons?" - Meredy asked - "Only one defeated all of Fairy Tail, and we'll be fighting 10, maybe more!"

"Acnologia was a special case and the rest aren't nearly as powerful. Well, maybe apart from Dragon Gods, but even they don't have much of a chance in a 1v1 fight. But I'm not going to underestimate them."

Suddenly, a box appeared in front of her, with bracelets with dragon head symbols on them.

"These bracelets add the Dragon Slayer attribute to the mage wearing them. This doesn't change your strength, but your attacks should be effective. I have a total of 100 of them. Distribute them to S-class Mages and Saint Wizards in the city, a few hours before the fight. Although, maybe you'd better give them to Fairy Tail and let them distribute them. As for the strength of the dragons, they will most likely be at the level of our Saint Wizards, maybe stronger. I don't know what types will arrive first, but several dragons had the magic of creating armies of smaller minions in the form of golems and such. If this happens, let the unarmoured mages deal with them. Or let them support the fighters defensively. Besides, I have a few more plans and spells, but that's for later. I need to finish a few things early. See you in a few days. A. Also tell Fairy Tail not to send help from my modern version. I'll take care of it myself. You can also give them a message from me."

Crime Sorcière, began to listen carefully.

Arcadios and Yukino led the small group of Fairy Tail mages toward the great gate. There, Arcadios began to explain the Eclipse project.

"Wait a minute!" - Lucy thought - "Great Gate, Eclipse, it takes Celestial Spirit magic, it's Zeref's artifact! And this is from 400 years ago! They haven't been able to build it for seven years. Something doesn't add up here. I have a really bad feeling. Better to keep quiet for now."

Of course, her thoughts on this subject were interrupted as dozens of soldiers rushed into the room and surrounded them. Before we could express our displeasure, a small man, the size of the Master, with a scar on his face and wearing the clothes of an important royal official, spoke up - "Please do not resist, Captain Arcadios."

Startled, Arcadios quickly turned around - "Minister of Defense, what does that mean?"

The man, now identified as the Minister of Defense, calmly replied - "That's my question. Revealing secret details of a secret plan and military secrets to outsiders is worthy of stigmatization."

Arcadios tried to defend himself - "These are not outsiders, and you know it! These people will play key roles in our operation!"

"It's not some trivial thing that you can decide on your own."

Arcadios approached but was blocked by two guards. Nevertheless, he continued - "You are simply against the project! Please stop this show immediately!"

"Of course he objects!" - shouted the Minister of Defense - "Do you realize how dangerous it is to change the past, kid?!"

All of the Fairy Tail mages were confused by the situation, trying to process what was happening. After the Minister of Defense gave the orders, Lucy suddenly asked - "Wait, why me too?!"

Natsu almost immediately prepared to attack, but Eclipse drained his magic and left him on the ground, exhausted. Yukino, Lucy, and Arcadios were arrested and the rest were thrown out of the palace.

Sometime later, at the inn where Fairy Tail was staying.

"I don't care if they keep their word!" - shouted Natsu tied to the pole - "I'm going to save her right now!"

"Calm down, Natsu." - Jellal said as he entered the bar, followed by Meredy and Ultear.

"Jellal." - Erza said surprised.

"What are they doing here?" - asked Droy.

"I don't know." - Jet replied.

"The situation is more complicated than it seems." - Jellal added.

"That is?" - Gray asked.

Ultear decided to interject - "This Zeref magic is a time travel portal known as Eclipse, the same one that Arcadios showed you. This was told to us by a person from the future who wants to keep her identity hidden for now, but she will save Lucy. She also said that you shouldn't get involved in this because you would kill her. Especially Natsu, because like that person said, 'That Fire Berserker will expose us immediately with his screams and we'll go crazy.'"

"It's hard to disagree." - thought the entire Guild, except for Natsu, who finally broke free from his bonds, but was immediately stopped by Makarov.

"Something else?" - Makarov asked.

This time Meredy intervened - "Another traveler from the future is also here and will want to bring an army of 10,000 dragons. Unfortunately, we have to enter several, maybe a dozen or so, before we can counteract them. To make it easier for us, we were given special bracelets that give the wearer the aspect of a dragon slayer. We are to distribute them to the most powerful wizards after GMG. A. Probably this other traveler from the future controls some of the kingdom's leaders. We don't know who, but he will try to sabotage us. I guess that's all."

After a moment of silence, Cana said - "I'm going to need a drink."

After a moment of thought, Makarov said - "Let it be. Although I still don't know if it's a good idea."

"Thank you." - Jellal said and he, Ultear and Meredy left.

"Gramps, I disagree!" - Natsu shouted - "At least send someone from Fairy Tail to help her, and not a complete unknown because Jellal recommended her."

"Why do you think this person isn't from Fairy Tail." - Mavis said suddenly, immediately catching the attention of everyone present.

"First, what are you talking about?" - asked Happy.

"Is the traveler from the future a member of Fairy Tail?" - he asked Lily.

"Yes." - Mavis said, in her cheerful tone - "But I won't tell you who it is."

"Why?" - Levy asked.

After thinking for a moment, Mavis replied - "Because then there wouldn't be a surprise."

The entire Guild practically collapsed from this response.