When Lucy woke up, her neck ached like crazy. She winced at how stiff it felt, raising her hand to massage the pain away, only to realize her hands were bound together by a strong magic restrainer. Her eyes widened as she looked around, finding herself to have been left in a sitting position on the ground of a cold and dirty looking cell. A small cot was next to her and the first thought that came to her mind was the fact that whomever had taken her captive couldn't have at least laid her on the piece of cloth.

She crawled to the metal bars of her cell, peaking through the bars to see if there were any guards around. Unfortunately there were none. The blonde empress couldn't believe her predicament. She remembered passing out after greeting Nashi and the dragons (who knew her secret arts could tire her out) and now she wakes up to be in a cell. She doesn't even know if it was still the fourth day or if it was already the fifth day since the Grand Magic Games started.

Wanting some answers, Lucy swung her arms so that the magic restrainers could hit the metal bars, the sound being produced ringing through the air. She called out for anyone to reply to her (she was actually glad that none of her nakama was there with her) and explain why she was being locked up. She didn't remember doing anything wrong and if she did, what kind of indecent person just arrests her while she's clearly asleep and regaining her strength. Her celestial key pouch wasn't even on her!

Before she could continue yelling through the empty corridors, she heard someone shush her. The blonde empress momentarily stopped, not hearing anything else before starting her shouting spree only to hear someone shush her again. Lucy was getting mildly annoyed that whoever was in the room with her was not revealing themselves. So she decided to back away from the bars and her face of anger replaced itself to a sulking one, not bothering to scream again.

In a low voice, she was sure that they could hear her regardless, Lucy got the attention of the person silencing her. "So you're gonna just shush me and not say a word? Hardly seems fair, don't you think?"

After a few more seconds of silence, Lucy could make out one of the manholes (which was conveniently in front of her cell) be lifted from below and a hooded figure's head pop out. Before Lucy could say anything, the hooded figure just placed a finger in front of their mouth to silence her again. "Shh... just stay quiet for a little longer." They said in a very hushed voice.

"So this was the guy that's silencing me? Why?" Lucy thought, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll get you out in just a second, just don't say a word to the guy that's gonna try to interrogate you." They continued. "Don't say anything. Don't show any emotion or reaction. Don't even flinch."

Lucy, for some unknown weird reason, trusted the figure and just closed her mouth shut, nodding to the figure who gave her a thumbs up and disappeared under the manhole again. Once the manhole was closed, a booming voice was heard coming from the stairs. "I'm glad that you are finally awake, Miss. Heartfilia. I was starting to think you would never wake up."

When Lucy looked at the man that stood before her cell, keeping in the hooded figure's advice, she had to suppress her eyes from widening slightly. The blonde empress had read about him whenever she was reading newspaper articles about the capital. The chief commander of the Cherry Blossom Holy Knight Squadron; Arcadios. The bearded man stared down at the blonde girl as she stared back at him with unexpressive eyes. Lucy had figured out that this was the person the hooded figure had mentioned just now.

When she made no effort to move or respond, Arcadios' expression hardened as he sighed. "Would you prefer it if I called you by your actual title, Miss. Dragon Empress?"

The blonde had to do everything in her power to hold back her surprise and her words. This must be the reason why the hooded figure told her not to do anything. Her identity was known. If she gave out any sort of reaction, whether denying or ignoring the fact, would result in confirmation that she knew something. So, Lucy continued to stare at the man without saying a word, the action itself proving to be quite irritating to Arcadios. She definitely had to thank and question that hooded figure once she was out.

"How did they even know that Arcadios was coming here in the first place?" She wondered. "More importantly... how does someone like Arcadios know of my identity!?"

The chief commander sighed once more and turned away, getting the hint that Lucy wasn't going to talk. "If you don't want to speak then very well." He said, making his way to leave the room. "But your plan to have your dragons and invade Fiore shall not succeed."

After she heard a door close from atop the stairs, Lucy's anxious expression finally made itself known. Who on Earthland could have informed Arcadios of her identity? There was no way it could have been Fairy Tail, no one in the guild would betray her like that. Perhaps someone from the bar heard about it the night she brought Nashi to Igneel? But no one had mentioned her being the empress that day. And what the heck was Arcadios saying about invading with the dragons!? None of the dragons wanted to be on Earthland.

As many thoughts swirled through her head, the hooded figure finally came out of the manhole and stretched his body. "Man, about time that guy finally left." They said as Lucy snapped out of her thoughts and they placed their hands on the metal bars. "Bastards... they even convinced those royal army guys that you were going to invade Fiore."

"Hey, who are you and why are you-!?"

Lucy's words soon lodged themselves in her throat, unable to finish her sentence. She watched at the hooded figure began to heat the metal bars and bent them so it would create a large enough opening for her to step out. The scent that followed after the smell of metal causing her to freeze and stare at the man in front of her. He let out his hand so she could stand up after crawling out of the small space and when she placed her own hands atop his, she just stared in disbelief as he tried to burn off the magic restrainers on her wrist.

"...Natsu?"

The fire dragon slayer stopped what he was doing, chuckling at her questioning tone but not looking up to meet her eyes. "Gheez Luce, save the questions for later and help me out here first." He said. "The magic restrainers just absorb my magic so melting them isn't going to work. Gonna need a different idea."

"Huh? But how-"

The blonde shook away her shock and then looked around the magic restrainers, finding a keyhole on the side. Luckily, she remembered that she kept few bobby pins and a hair tie in her pocket just in case. At the same time, the fire dragon slayer also looked like he got an idea and pointed to her pockets. "The bobby pins!" They both cried in unison.

Lucy stared at the man in front of her as he laughed about them being in sync and getting the bobby pins from her pocket. Now that she took it in, as sad as it was to admit, there was no way Natsu could have come here on his own accord without anyone else. Even if the guild knew she was taken, Makarov wouldn't have allowed her pink headed partner to anything of the sort. He didn't seem hot headed or clueless like he usually is while his voice and his overall demeanour was just more mature than normal.

After a couple of seconds, he finally picked the lock and smiled in satisfaction as the magic restrainers fell off the blonde's wrists. Lucy massaged her wrists as Natsu threw away the deformed bobby pin he used to to pick the lock. The fire dragon had yet to meet eyes with her and the blonde empress couldn't help but be suspicious, regardless of the fact that his scent was practically confirmation that the person in front of her was no doubt to be Natsu.

"Okay, now that we got you out of those things, let's-"

"First thing's first Natsu, how the heck did you get here without anyone else?" Lucy asked, standing up and crossing her arms. "How did I exactly get here and how did you know that guy would come down and interrogate me? Just what is going on here?"

The fire dragon slayer paused and looked at the blonde girl from underneath his hood. He placed one hand on his waist while the other pulled down his hood. When Lucy took in his appearance, her eyes widened as she quickly realized that the person before her is not the Natsu she currently knows. In fact, the qualities that she had thought were different earlier, were nothing compared to his appearance. The most notable difference? This Natsu had a scar on his right cheek.

Aside from the scar, this Natsu looked significantly older than the one she had teamed up with when battling against Sting and Rogue. Even though he seemed much older, his body was definitely still well toned. He still wore the same kind of clothing the Natsu now is wearing (his vest exposing his torso) but also had a bandage wrapped around his left arm. Underneath the cloak he wore was his scarf and underneath the scarf looked like a locket. On his left hand, on the ring finger, a golden ring.

"Well for starters..." He began to say while ruffling his hair. "As you can probably tell... I'm not really the Natsu you know."

Lucy stared at him in shock as she pointed at him with a shaky hand. "Then... who-"

She immediately stopped herself from saying anymore, remembering what Hemika, Kumiko and Mirai had told her while she was in the Dragon Realm. There were other than Nashi and Vetani, there were four other unknown time anomalies that were present in the current time period. Seeing the Natsu in front of her, Lucy knew, that he was most definitely one of the four. There was no way, on Earthland, that the Natsu she knew would have come here without someone else per Makarov's orders.

"As always, you never fail to figure things out Luce!" Future Natsu said with a grin before pointing at himself using his thumb. "I'm Natsu Dragneel from fourteen years in the future and right now we gotta get you outta here so I can fill you in on some details."

Lucy stared at the time traveller with a dumbfounded expression. Hearing that he's the Natsu from more than a decade currently didn't surprise her. In fact, the thing that made her speechless was the golden ring on the ring finger of his left hand. That could only mean one thing... and the blonde couldn't help but ask. "Y-You're married!?" She exclaimed.

Future Natsu gave her a confused expression at first, but then brought up his hand to look at his wedding ring. After staring at it for a second, a smile formed on his face as his eyes looked to Lucy. The way he looked at her making her blush almost instantly. "Well... yeah." He admitted in a shy tone. "Took awhile for her and I to realize it though, wish I knew it sooner."

The blonde empress couldn't believe her eyes. Even though this was Natsu's future self she was talking to, the fact that he even knew and understood what the concept of love meant was surprising. But at the same time, she could feel her heart drop as she hung her head low with a regretful look. "Your wife... do the you during this time and I know her?" She asked out of curiosity.

The fire dragon slayer looked at Lucy's blushing face and tried his hardest to stifle his laugh. But as he tried to hold it in, the blonde girl noticed and immediately began to sulk at his response. Regardless of what time period, Natsu will forever remain the same and tease her whenever he thought something was obvious while she didn't. Future Natsu immediately stopped himself, not wanting any sort of guards waiting up the stairs to hear his laughter. But Lucy was just too cute for him to ignore.

"You'll meet my wife soon enough." He said, gesturing to the manhole next to his feet and basically telling Lucy that his wife was also in this time period as the other unknown time anomaly. "But first, I gotta get you outta here and tell you her plan. She's probably on her way to meet the guild with Jellal, Ultear and Meredy."

"Huh!?"

Future Natsu immediately jumped back down the manhole, Lucy looking down at it only to see him gesture for her to hurry up and jump in as well. The blonde empress rolled her eyes and began to make her way down using the manhole's ladder, threatening the dragon slayer that if he looked up her skirt, he'd get a drop down Lucy Kick to the face. Luckily, he complied and once she reached solid ground, both Future Natsu and Lucy began to run down the passageway towards the exit.