As Future Natsu and Lucy made their escape (giving Lucy her celestial keys that he had retrieved earlier) so that he could explain what was going on and the plan he had forged with his wife, Crime Sorcière and the other hooded figure, Future Natsu's wife, were on their way to rendezvous with Fairy Tail. Ever since Jellal came back from meeting with the guild and confirming that what the hooded figure had said was true the night before, she had not uttered a single word and awaited the time until she met with Fairy Tail.
She was lost in deep thought. She already knew that Future Natsu had succeeded in breaking Lucy out, not by any communicative means but more so through her instinct and the bond they shared, so it was now her turn to go forth with the plan. Memories of the events that led her and Future Natsu to come here flooded her mind. The destroyed guild hall (but when was it never destroyed somehow some way), the screams of the people, the fires and destruction.
Before she could even let out one tear, Jellal announced that they had arrived to the restaurant and bar where the fairies were waiting. Her breath hitched and she looked up at the door in front of her. The hooded woman stood behind the trio and she couldn't help but hold in her breath. Even though she didn't need to worry about Lucy understanding everything Future Natsu tells her, this was Fairy Tail that she was meeting. Many of them would probably get a headache from what she was about to tell them.
When the group entered the restaurant and bar, everyone from the guild was seated somewhere while Makarov and Mavis sat at the bar counter. The fairies turned towards the door the minute they heard it open, greeting the independent guild with a wave before staring at the hooded woman behind them. She didn't say or do anything at first except scan the room to see who was present, but then she turned to Jellal, Ultear and Meredy to gesture them to sit down.
After the trio had some somewhere, the hooded woman then bowed to Makarov then turning to bow towards Mavis, whom the fairies knew that was not visible to anyone unless they were a Fairy Tail mage. "Hello first master and... it was sixth master now, right?"
Makarov nodded in confirmation to the woman's question, her voice ringing familiar to everyone present. He made eye contact with Mavis and the ghost nodded in return. The old guild master faced the hooded woman and his eyes narrowed. "Are you not going to show us your face, child?" He asked. "I'm sure we would all like to see the face of our informant."
The woman couldn't help but laugh, the fairies realizing that it sounded very familiar as her scent finally reached the dragon slayers' noses. Natsu's eyes widened immediately when she brought up her hands to remove her hood, the pink guild mark on the back of her right hand only belonging to one person. However, just as he was about to celebrate, the fire dragon slayer was stopped in his tracks while the rest of the guild gasped when they saw the person before them.
She looked significantly older than when they had seen her just the day before, the growing dark circles under her brown eyes showing just how tired and/or stressed she was. Her long blonde hair was loosely braided, resting on her right shoulder and exposing a small flame-like tattoo that rested on the side of her neck. Her body, though she was older, was very well maintained and she wore a blue sleeveless top, a locket around her neck, a white skirt and a pair of thigh high boots.
However, many of the members could care less about the way she looked at the moment. Their eyes, especially Natsu's, were drawn to the golden ring that was placed on the ring finger of her left hand. The women of the guild, especially the ones that stayed behind during the seven year gap, knew that the blonde woman before them was not married. In fact, she never wore a wedding ring in her life so they couldn't help but just stare at the woman with dumbfounded looks.
"I know what you must be thinking..." Future Lucy finally spoke again, downcasting her eyes. "But please understand that I am not the Lucy you all know and love."
"But... but how...!?" Erza asked.
"There's no way you could be the Edolas version of Lucy, nor could you be Gemini turned into Lucy." Carla noted. "With the way you speak and act, differs much from the both of them."
"So... if it's not Edolas or Gemini then..." Wendy trailed her sentence off, looking toward the blonde woman. "...who are you?"
Future Lucy pursed her lips as she clasped her hands together, Natsu noticing them slightly shake. The blonde woman lifted her head and her eyes narrowed to show just how serious she was. "I'm... the Lucy Heartfilia from fourteen years into the future." She revealed, making the fairies' eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. "Though... to say I'm still a Heartfilia isn't necessarily true."
"Hold up, back up just a second here!" Natsu finally spoke up, making Future Lucy's eyes turn to him. "Lemme get this straight, so you're the Luce from the future!? How the heck did you come here!? What do you mean you're not a Heartfilia anymore!?"
The time traveller blinked twice before attempting to hold in her laugh. If she told Natsu that she was a Dragneel now, not only will he begin to freak out but so would the rest of the guild and that wasn't really important at the moment. Though it would probably be better to get the unnecessary things out of the way first so that they could just go straight into important matters. Deciding as such, Future Lucy brought up her left hand to lovingly stare at her wedding ring. Her husband was certainly lucky to just deal wit her past self.
She couldn't help but allow herself to chuckle, glad to know that her Natsu never changed even after fourteen years. "To get unnecessary topics out of the way, I'm no longer a Heartfilia anymore because I got married around six years from now."
"YOU'RE MARRIED!?" The entire guild yelled in surprise, Crime Sorcière sweatdropping at the scene before them.
"Is this really the time to be talking about this?" The trio thought, maintaining their calm composure.
Future Lucy couldn't help but blush at embarrassment, especially since her husband's younger self was practically sending out his dragon instincts to claim dominance over her. Even though he was the younger self of Future Natsu, the blonde could still sense those kinds of things thanks to their mated bond. Because of all the things that were going on, the couple couldn't afford to just joke around and if they did, it would only be for a short while. This change of atmosphere was a nice change for her.
She nodded in confirmation to their question and guild couldn't help but stare at the lovestruck smile upon her face. "It took a long time for the both of us to admit it... but marrying him was one of the happiest days of my life." Future Lucy said in a gentle voice. "If I hadn't met him... I wouldn't have been able to become the person I am now."
When Natsu heard that, for some unknown reason in the back of his mind, he had the smallest feeling Future Lucy was directing her words towards him. He had no reason to think that way, but his heart warmed at her words. "Luce..."
"Do we know who this husband of yours is right now?" Gray asked, genuinely curious as were the other guild members. "I mean has the Lucy of our time already met him?"
At the ice mage's question, Future Lucy remembered the task at hand and her expression hardened. "You'll meet my husband soon enough." She said, the mages raising an eyebrow at her words. "As of right now, he should have broken your Lucy out of her prison cell and is going forth with explaining the plan to her."
"Your husband is here!?" Ultear asked, earning a nod from the time traveller. "So he must be the partner you were referring to."
"Now that you mention it, Jellal did say that you knew why Lu was taken in the first place and also had a plan to break her out yesterday." Levy added, finally recovering from her fangirling about Future Lucy being married. "Why exactly was she, or I guess you, taken by guards from the royal army?"
Future Lucy's expression darkened as she took a seat, recalling the events of the Eclipse. "In my memory, I was originally arrested because the royal family planned to use mine and Yukino's celestial keys to open a door that was supposed to lead 400 years into the past." She explained, shocking the mages about such a plan. "The gate they used was known as the Eclipse."
"The Eclipse?" Happy asked. "But why would they want to do that?"
"The plan was for them to travel back to the time before Zeref became the Black Mage and kill him to prevent any of his creations to roam free. However, the risks of changing the past were far too great as it could alter our present and I refused to cooperate. As such, I was arrested and my keys were taken from me by force."
"To kill Zeref in the past..." Mavis mumbled, thunking back to the time before Fairy Tail was established. "There are many things that would be different if he were to be absent..."
"What happened after they took your keys?" Gajeel asked.
"What the royal family failed to realize, however, was that there was one factor they failed to consider." Future Lucy continued. "They opened the door when the Grand Magic Games had ended, when a lunar eclipse took place. Instead of opening to the time period before Zeref became the black wizard... the Eclipse was locked to the era when the dragons were still at war with humans."
"Don't tell me..." Laxus said, trailing off only for Future Lucy to nod.
"As you can guess... instead of going through the Eclipse to slay Zeref, a total of seven dragons came through the door." She said as the mages all gasped. "Time had been warped and these dragons began to destroy everything as they were the dragons who were opposed to human and dragon coexistence. They destroyed Crocus and I was unable to go to the Dragon Realm to ask for help."
"Hold on... you said 'originally'?" Mira asked. "Do you mean that something is different now?"
The time traveller nodded, clasping her hands together again as she recalled the reason for her and Future Natsu to be here. "As you can gather, we ultimately won that battle but three others from the future have also come to this time period to change the outcome. It is for that reason why your Lucy has been taken into custody."
"What did they do?" Natsu asked.
"After tracking them for some time now since the games started, it seems they told the royal family that your Lucy is the Dragon Empress. And from what my husband had heard, they claimed that they have come from the future in order to change the reality wherein Lucy leads an invasion of dragons to Crocus to bring back the era of dragons."
"The nerve!" Makarov shouted, holding himself back from cursing out loud.
"Even though your Lucy has been arrested, they told the royal family that the dragons would still come to invade Fiore and rescue their empress. They lied and said that the only chance the country had in order to beat the dragons was to use the Eclipse as a sort of cannon, that the magic power stored within it can be used to defeat the dragons. This way, the gate could be opened early."
"And as a result, it is likely that more than seven dragons will come." Erza finished.
"There is still one thing I fail to understand." Jellal spoke up after carefully considering the situation. "If what these people wanted was for the age of dragons to return, why did they not just use you as leverage to gain some kind of control over the dragons in the Dragon Realm rather than going through all this trouble to do it in this time?"
Future Lucy's body began to shake even more as she recalled the events that happened before she and Future Natsu came to the past. Natsu noticed this and wondered what could of happened in the future to make the time traveller so frightened and traumatized. He had so many questions whirling around his head. The most prominent one being what the heck was his future self and the rest of the guild doing while Future Lucy was going through all this.
"Actually, they have tried before coming here." The time traveller admitted. "They went against the whole guild just to get my power. During the chaos, in order for them to give up, I realized that there was only one thing I could do... I can't be the Dragon Empress."
"What-"
"My child, though very young during that time, had strong magical prowess... enough to hold and hide my dragon slaying magic in their body." Future Lucy said, cutting Ultear off as gasps rang through the room. "I sealed my powers within their body and using Kumiko's time magic, I sent her to a few years before now. But one of the three mages followed her but was unable to get close to my child."
"You sent your child here!?" The mages cried.
Future Lucy began to shed tears, the pain of sending her child away finally catching up to her. "Both my husband and I had to!" She said as tears fell onto her hands. "We needed our child to be safe even if we weren't. Nothing mattered to us more than protecting that child. Kumiko was able to oversee her security and that was enough for the both of us!"
It was silent for a moment, the mages understanding her perspective as a parent. "So what now?"
Everyone turned to Natsu as Future Lucy slowly regained her composure and wiped away her tears. "The Eclipse gate will open as written in the threads of time and the dragons will come. But unlike in my memory, we will be prepared." She said. "My husband and your Lucy should be in the Dragon Realm by now and explaining the situation to the dragons."
"So you're saying we should just focus on the games." Makarov stated as there was nothing they could do until the Eclipse is opened and Future Natsu and Lucy come back from the Dragon Realm. "What of your child and our enemies?"
Future Lucy just looked out the window and watched as the clouds passed by. "My child is in a currently hidden in a safe place away from all of this. So long as they stay there, no harm shall come to them. As for who your enemies are..."
The time traveller's expression turned into one of anger. The faces of her foes flashing through her mind. The green haired masked woman that utilized strong explosive magic. The navy blue violet headed and obsidian eyed man that could cut through anything and everything in his way. The silver haired and grey eyes woman who not only had the power to manipulate vines of thorns like a certain etherious demon, but also held the power of dragon supremacy.
"One of them is Vetani, the masked woman who's explosion magic can destroy all of Domus Flau. The man is Ushin, his magic is a combination of chain magic and a form of blade magic that Takeo and Arhad uses." She explained. "But Ushin's twin sister, Usami... that woman can pierce your body with vines and... has the power to control a dragon's mind."