AN: This one's brand new, even if you read the original story start to finish repeatedly you haven't seen this yet, and I really hope you all enjoy it. As always please feel free to comment about whatever you like, whatever you didn't, what you're looking forward to or excited about, I'm happy to discuss.

Chapter 24: Warnings

The scrubland turned into savannah as we flew on, and when night fell, we made camp under a little clump of trees. The girls had all been very excited about getting to see a couple of giraffes who had been standing around. A pulse of Sense of Security had kept them from running off and they'd actually even let us meet the baby giraffe which the girls of course cooed over and found adorable. The giraffes had wandered off eventually, but we decided it was a good place to make camp anyway, so we did. It was a very beautiful night, and with no civilization around, even with the moon at half full, we could see all the stars. All of them. I could've quite happily laid flat on my back and just star gazed for hours.

Natsu had spent the entire day and looked like he'd be spending the night utterly cocooned in chains. Gajeel was quite insistent on not letting him do anything stupid again for at least a week. Natsu was…much less recalcitrant and whiny about it than I would've expected. It wasn't until that night while I was keeping watch that I found out why.

"Hey Jerry? You still awake?"

I almost didn't recognize Natsu's voice. He was actually being quiet and he sounded…sad? I sat up and gently pulsed my sleeping magic to make sure everyone else was asleep, "Yeah, what's up?"

Natsu was quiet for a moment and then, "Is everyone else asleep?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I just zonked 'em all. What's up?" He wouldn't have checked to see if everyone else was asleep if he just needed to pee.

"I really fucked up didn't I?" Natsu asked quietly.

"Which time?" I asked bluntly, noting the pained flinch before continuing, "Yeah Natsu, you fucked up pretty bad. That firestorm you kicked off would've killed anybody and everybody in a matter of minutes. Levy, Erza, Gajeel, me, Lucy…" Natsu looked like he might be sick.

"And most of all," I continued, "You."

Natsu looked at me, "I what?"

"You would've died if we'd left you in there. That white phosphorous you set off is deadly poison, you'd have had nothing but that to breathe until that firestorm died down. You'd have died, no ifs, ands or buts about it. Do you think we want you dead?" I asked flatly, "You're my friend dumbass. You're Levy and Gajeel and Erza's brother. You're Happy's…whatever you and Happy are. Even if she's ROYALLY pissed at you, and you better not doubt for a second that she is, Lucy still considers you a very dear friend. That's a big part of why we're upset with you. How do you think we'd have felt if we had just let you run around in there like an idiot and you'd died?"

Natsu shot me a downtrodden look, "How?"

"Imagine if you could've warned Mira and Elfman about what was going to happen to Lisanna and didn't because you forgot to." Natsu flinched like I had punched him square in the face.

"Your current situation is entirely your fault," I declared quietly, "Yeah man, you screwed up. You nearly got Gray killed with the Galuna stunt. You nearly got all of us killed with the Phosphor-mites. You think Gramps was mad about the Galuna stunt? How do you think he's going to react when he hears about this?!"

Natsu went ghost white, "He'll…he'll kick me out…"

"There's a damn good chance of it," I agreed dryly, "You've only got until we get back to the Guild Hall from this mission to prove definitively that you've learned your lesson. That little stunt with the Phosphor-mites was a pretty good piece of proof of the exact opposite. Erza's been fretting herself to tears over the prospect of what Gramps is going to do when he finds out about this, and if you think he won't find out, you're even more of a damned fool than you've been acting like. Levy and Gajeel are terrified for you too. I'm not at all pleased with the idea myself."

"But, none of you would tell Gramps right?" Natsu asked hopefully.

I sighed in aggravation, "Natsu. It doesn't matter if we tell him. He knows Mind Reading magic! And he raised Erza, Levy and you! Do you really think he won't know if you three are trying to hide something?"

Natsu grimaced, "Gramps always knows…"

"And even if he didn't, do you think Lucy wouldn't tell him about this if he asked?" I asked sharply.

Natsu jerked like I'd slapped him and I had to pulse my Sleep magic hard because I could tell from his expression and the way the temperature immediately started rising that he was about to get loud. "LUCY WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" Natsu shouted, "SHE'S MY FRIEND! SHE'D NEVER RAT ME OUT! CELESTIAL WIZARDS NEVER BREAK THEIR PROMISES AND SHE JOINED MY TEAM! THAT MEANS WE'RE PARTNERS NO MATTER WHAT!"

I flicked my finger and bopped him between the eyes with my telekinesis as I pulsed my sleep magic again, "Quiet you, are you trying to wake everyone up?"

Natsu was still scowling at me as he hissed, "Lucy would never do that!"

"You nearly got her killed a few days ago Natsu," I pointed out coldly, "You endangered her dream of being a Fairy Tail wizard by making her think stealing an S-Class quest was just a little misbehavior, and you lied to her about why you were doing it. If you'd been up front and just asked her out, she might very well have said yes. Instead, you lied to her and got her in a massive amount of trouble that nearly cost her what she's wanted more than anything since she was a little kid. What you did there was tantamount to her finding Igneel, letting you see him, and then snapping her fingers and making him disappear in a puff of smoke. That is what you nearly did to her Natsu."

Natsu looked like I'd punched all the wind and fight straight out of him. Not one to let up when I have the advantage, I carried on, "On top of that, you've not been a very good partner to her. Do you remember the boar job? You better bet your ass that she remembers you letting her get dragged through a pigsty and laughing your ass off while she was screaming at you for help! Then you started a brawl when you got back to the Guild Hall and completely deprived her of the peace and quiet she needed to recover! She came home limping that night, and so sore and exhausted that she had to have painkillers to even climb the stairs to her apartment!

"How often do you let things like that happen to her Natsu? From what she's told me, that's every job she goes on with you that Erza or I don't come along on! If she hasn't been hunting for a new partner, then she's either got the patience of a saint or thinks she can't for whatever reason," I declared sharply. I hadn't meant for this to turn into an ass chewing session, but I was on a roll by this point, and I knew from what I'd heard in Lucy's head every time she discussed Natsu that I was right.

"It doesn't matter if you think your shenanigans are normal, they. Are. NOT." I snapped, "You've got the raw power and skill to be S-Class! You? Me? Erza? Gramps?! Everybody else in the Guild?! We all know that you could do it! The reason you're not is because you keep pulling bone headed stunts and acting like a reckless hyperactive child! Do you know why nobody teamed up with you except Happy before Lucy and I joined the Guild? Did you ever even consider it?! It's because everybody knows that sooner or later, you're going to do something stupid that'll lose them the reward money, get them seriously hurt, maybe even killed, or both! You don't think Natsu, and a lot of the time you act like you don't know how! Are you a brainless idiot who doesn't care about his friends Natsu? You've done a damn fine job of convincing everyone that you ARE! That's why we're out here on this mission Natsu! Because you finally convinced GRAMPS that you don't care about anybody but yourself!"

I heard something run through Natsu's head and snapped, "And I can still hear your thoughts! How DARE you think that maybe we aren't really your friends?! The only reason we're out here on this quest with you is because we care about you moron! You're our friend or we wouldn't have bothered trying to help you out! You think Erza wanted to come on this quest? There were three other options that paid more money and were closer to home. She chose the most time-consuming quest she could find because she's trying to keep you out of trouble until your probation's over! She's giving up cake for months on end, to help get your head off the chopping block!

"You think I wanted to be away from Mira this long?" I demanded, "Do you think Levy wants to be this far away from her books? Do you think Gajeel wouldn't rather be back in Fiore looking for Sting, Lyos and Wendy? Have you given any thought to anybody besides yourself? You very clearly haven't and that's why you're here!"

I climbed to my feet, "I once lost every friend I had because I was thoughtless and didn't think about how my words and actions impacted those around me. Someone I should've cared for far more died because I didn't bother to consider how much my words and decisions could hurt someone. It was an outlier of an event, a one in over a hundred million chance. There was no way in hell I could've known. There was no way anyone could've known. It doesn't change that my one cruel, thoughtless, throwaway sentence got her killed, and no matter how much anyone claims what happened to her wasn't my fault, I know damn good and well it was, and so did everyone who was with me that day! I didn't have a friend again until I went so far away that nobody at all knew me or what I'd done. I didn't deserve the friends I found there, and I don't deserve the ones I've made here."

I walked over to Natsu and leaned down to look him square in the eye, and yes I may very well have teared up a bit while I was ranting but my eyes were dry as I snarled, "You've been doing a lot worse than talking Natsu, and you've nearly gotten ten of your friends killed just in the last month. I've already lived through the hell of having one of my mistakes ruin my life, and I damned well deserved it. You haven't yet, but you're barreling headlong into that hell just as fast as you can. I'd recommend stopping to think the next time you get an impulse, because so far every impulse I've seen you follow has resulted in something getting destroyed. How long will it be until the things getting destroyed wind up being something or someone you care about?"

"Even all the greatest heroes in the world together can't save a fool from himself," I told him quietly as I straightened up, "The only person who can save a fool from suffering is the wiser man the fool becomes when he learns from his error. Those who refuse to learn will only suffer more and more until there's nothing left of them but aching, miserable shells of who they once were. You've still got time Natsu," I told him quietly, "You know what you've done wrong, and you know what it may cost you, what it will cost you if you continue to do such things. All that's left to do now is learn and grow from it, and nobody can do that for you. How you live your life is up to you, but don't you dare endanger our friends like that ever again."

Without waiting for a reply, I shot up into the sky where I could calm down in peace. As the world fell away beneath me, it felt as though my worries fell away with it. A wave of nostalgia washed over me as I saw the world splayed out beneath me, and on a whim, I conjured a platform with Archive to sit on. How long has it been since I looked out at the world from the step of the King's Throne?

I mused idly that it had been ten years since I'd sat in the sky over Fuyuki, Japan. I smiled as I voiced the same thought I'd had then, "Magnificent…" Then I was hit with the horrific realization that I'd forgotten something of the utmost importance. I spun but even as I did, the shape recreated by my subconscious vanished into glimmering motes of golden dust as I hung in the air, a memory lost just beyond the reach of my outstretched hand.

The face of the girl who'd greeted me on the doorstep of the afterlife flashed in my mind and for all that it terrified me as I racked my brain, even though I knew as her laugh echoed in my mind that she had been one of the most important people in the world to me… even with Archive's help… I couldn't remember her name.

After racking my brain for what felt like hours on end, frustrated to tears at my inability to remember, I caught sight of something… rather unusual. I swooped down and found that no, my eyes did not in fact deceive me. That was indeed a herd of glowing elephants. They had a faint white glow, almost like they were on fire that didn't hurt them, but as I floated down to get a better look at them, I realized they were translucent.

"Holy shit…" I breathed, "Elephantoms!" Just as I reached out to touch one, something whizzed past my outstretched hand, missing me by scarcely an inch. I jerked my hand back as the elephantoms bolted, I whirled to see what the hell had just attacked, scanning for any signs of mental activity because that looked a hell of a lot like an arrow that just missed me. Angry natives?

No, it wasn't local hunters. At least, not people, although the face could've confused someone.

It was the size of a pick up truck, feline in body, and the tail behind it had to be a foot thick and twenty feet long. More importantly, that tail was covered in spines half as long as my arm. At least now I knew what had almost skewered me, but the face was what really disturbed me. It had the face of a human, or at least a neanderthal, with tan skin and glowing blue eyes as it growled at me. Then it roared, revealing three rows of shark like teeth, and I thought for a mad second it must've swallowed a trumpet because somehow it sounded exactly like a blaring trumpet, which is not what I expected a pickup truck sized tiger to sound like.

It took Archive a second to churn up what the hell I was looking at, and as it did, I went as ghostly pale as the elephantoms that had just run off. Oh fuck me, that's a manticore… For anyone who doesn't know, manticores are as I just described, but there are three other very important details on top of the fact that they're quick enough to run down antelope and built like XXL tigers:

.

-First: Those spines on its tail are ultra deadly poison, a single one packs enough toxins to kill anything smaller than an elephant in one hit, reputed to be damn near an instant kill.

-Second: They lose to lions. ONLY lions. Why? I don't know, but it's a conceptual weakness akin to Achilles' Heel… as in 'they're supposed to be essentially invincible against anything else'. There are ways around that of course, lion hair wrapped around arrows or spears, lion teeth used for arrowheads, things like that to pierce the protection that conceptual defense grants them… but I didn't have anything like that right now.

-Last and most problematic is their meal of choice: Humans. Their name outright means 'man-slayer' because they're known to slaughter entire groups for dinner. Or shits and giggles, they're cats. I'd only ever met one talking cat and a feral giga-Happy would definitely tear somebody apart for laughs.

.

Worse still, all that was in my old world, where magic was a hell of a lot weaker. That meant that these were even stronger. I started to reach for my keys only to realize with horror that the one lion I had on call wouldn't come. It was night time, Leo was unavailable. Then I heard another growl from behind me and remembered another nasty thing about manticores. I glanced over my shoulder in horror, Yep… so that's true too… Every spine it flings grows another whole ass manticore if it doesn't kill something.

The second one was smaller, about half the size of the first one, but that's still big enough to kill basically anything. I forced a grin that came out a grimace and assumed a combat stance midair, "Well, like hell I'm not gonna make you two work for it if you think you're eating me."

I wreathed myself in a three inch thick shroud of Absolute Void, Let's see you get through this! Then another spine shot right at me, and I barely dodged it, noting with horror as it ruffled my hair that it had punched through Absolute Void like it wasn't there, and my Void Shroud had dissipated where the spine touched. My heart started hammering as I realized, Oh fuck, these things are packing ANTI-MAGIC…THAT'S WHY NOTHING CAN KILL THEM! "CRAP!"

I fled as fast as my telekinesis could carry me, unloading lasers behind me like a fighter jet dropping flares hoping to convince them I wasn't worth the trouble to chase. No such luck, and now there were THREE of them… Or, wait a minute… I checked with my telepathy and no, there was still just one, but in its own way that was almost worse. The second two were constructs made of…whatever the heck kind of crazy anti-magic poisons were loaded in those spines, which meant the constructs didn't have minds for me to read and be able to predict their moves. On top of that, it meant the manticore was smart enough to understand and run pack tactics by itself, and if it could make and command clones of itself, then what the hell all else could it potentially do?

I twisted midair and unloaded a laser beam right at the original. I hit it square in the face now that I was aiming… and it didn't even slow down. I started teleport spamming as I flooded the area with lasers via portals, and on top of it doing absolutely nothing, the manticore and its steadily multiplying clones never lost track of me as the volleys of death spines reminded me every couple of seconds.

I grimaced, Well if I can't beat them maybe I can at least contain them… Loading a massive amount of power into a finger gun, I appeared directly over the manticore and its clones, thanking Virgo profusely for teaching me her magic as I prayed that this would work. "SPICA HOLE!"

The target wasn't the manticores this time, and they very politely moved out of the way for me to nail my actual target: the ground they were standing on, which promptly vanished and dropped them all down a deep dark hole. How deep and dark a hole? Hell if I know, but it bought me enough time to land at the edge of said hole and slam my hands to the ground, "EARTH MAKE: COURTYARD!"

I breathed a sigh of relief as the earth listened to my command and slammed shuta hundred feet thick lid over the entrance to the pit I'd dropped the manticores down. As it was forming some very nicely patterned cobblestones with a nice big lion emblem on it, I straightened up grinning and dusting off my hands, "Let's see ya get through that."

I turned to leave and then I felt my telepathy tingle. I turned in horror, that damn thing was burrowing through the lid I'd slammed over the hole! I cranked my absorption rate as high as I could, "EARTH MAKE TOMB! EARTH MAKE BIGGER TOMB! EARTH MAKE ROYAL TOMB! EARTH MAKE IMPERIAL TOMB!" I stood at the base of the massive pyramid I'd just summoned over three smaller nested pyramids, put my hand on the stone and panted, "Holy shit I hope that's enough…" If it was able to break through three hundred feet of stone and still be ready for a fight, I wasn't sure what the hell I was going to do.

I felt my heart skip a beat as I realized I was about to have to find out and shot away from the base of my pyramid which, now that I looked at it was actually really kind of incredibly freaking huge. It wasn't quite the Great Pyramid of Giza, but it was damned close! I was pretty sure that was the biggest thing I'd ever done with my magic outside of the fight with Ajeel and Wall.

Unfortunately, it was not enough to stop the manticore, because it burst out of the stone not ten feet from where I'd been sitting less than five minutes later, and charging straight at me. I teleported out of the way and unleashed another Thundering Spring nearly as big and fierce as the one I'd cut loose on Ajeel. That amount of water and pressure would've wiped out a small town no problem.

The manticore just plowed right through it. I did notice one interesting thing though, none of its clones were still running around, and it wasn't making anymore. I got a glimpse of its tail as I cut off the power to my Thundering Spring and realized that if nothing else, I'd caused it enough trouble that it ran out of death spines. Small victories!

Unfortunately, this apparently meant it now had more power to devote to being absurdly fast, because as soon as the water stopped holding pressure against it, the manticore closed the quarter mile distance between us in seconds, and a teleport was all that kept me from looking like a Jerry sized packet of Fancy Feast.

After that began a deadly game of cat and mouse as I discovered the manticore had reflexes and agility sufficiently off the charts to be capable of dodging my attempts at my next recourse which was attempting to send it into orbit with my portals. The only solace I could take was that if it was chasing me, it wasn't going after everyone else. Then I saw a wave of flames on the horizon and went ghostly pale as I realized where all the clones must've gone.

…

…

"It's no good!" Erza shouted as she saw Natsu's flames fail to even startle the smoky monsters surrounding the massive steel cage Gajeel had made around the encampment, sticking their paws through and trying to maul whatever they could, "Look at the smoke! They're made of Anti-magic Barrier Particles!"

"You mean we haven't got anything that can hurt these things and they can kill us with a scratch?!" Gajeel demanded over the blaring, discordant trumpet sounds the beasts made.

"We have to get out of here!" Erza declared, "Where's Jerry?! He's the only one who can get us out of here!"

"He's over there fighting the original!" Elric exclaimed, pointing off towards the massive, was it a hill? That had grown on the savannah while they slept and where Erza could now see through the press of bodies lights flickering.

Erza grimaced, "Then we just have to hold out and hope that he can win."

…

…

I racked my brains for any sort of lion deity I could pray to because at this point I was running out of options. The manticore was shrugging off everything I threw at it like it was nothing, and now I realized that it had probably dozens of clones trying to rip apart my friends, my friends who I couldn't go help without leading the original right back to them. I needed miracle, so I latched onto the first lion deity I could think of. It was actually a lioness, but given her domains, I figured she must be at least okay with me, if she was out there listening.

"Great Mistress of Dread with bloodthirst untamed,

Great Goddess Sekhmet I call out thy name!

I beseech you this night to lend me your might,

Death nips at my heels, my weakness it wields.

Glorious goddess of hot desert wind…"

I narrowly escaped the Manticore's fangs closing on my foot as it lunged from a direction I hadn't expected it to be and whatever eloquence I might've mustered for the rest of my improvised prayer went out the window.

"I'm seriously begging for any help you can send!"

I didn't have time for words after that, the manticore had gotten too close and seemed to be steadily gaining speed. Every time I teleported it seemed like it was on top of me again in seconds. Looking back with Archive, I realize now that it didn't just seem like it, the manticore was on top of me again seconds after every teleport. For what seemed like an eternity, all I could do was teleport spam and try to dodge, hoping my prayer might've been heard.

Then a massive wind blasted across the prairie, forcing me and the manticore to root ourselves to the ground as best we could lest we be blown away. Unknown to me at the time, the manticore clones attacking my friends popped like soap bubbles as the wind ripped through them.

As the wind passed, the manticore shook its head, clearly disoriented. Unless my eyes deceived me, I thought I saw it trembling.

Then I didn't see it much at all because a lion's paw the size of a house slammed down from out of nowhere and crushed it like a bug!

The impact of the massive paw made the ground jump and knocked me flat on my ass. All I could do for a moment was boggle, completely and utterly gobsmacked. My jaw was dropped, my eyes were as big as saucers, and whatever words I might come up with later were not coming right then!

It was a sphinx! A hundred feet high by over three hundred feet long of unstoppable divine protector beast! Its fur was softly shimmering gold and every inch of fur belied incredibly powerful muscle beneath. On its head sat the nemes of a pharaoh and its face was faintly man shaped but looked as though it were made of the night sky behind it. The wings sprouting from its back were feathered, and appeared as white gold. As it lifted the paw it had unceremoniously smashed the manticore with to lick it clean, I saw that its tongue was silver.

I cast my head about, Which way do I shout my thanks? Whatever, skyward it is! "THANK YOOOOOU!" I shouted to the sky, "TEN THOUSAND BOTTLES OF OUR VERY BEST RED BEER AS SOON AS I CAN! I'LL EVEN THROW SOME OF MY OWN BLOOD IN THE MIX FOR YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH LADY SEKHMET!"

A small hot wind tickled my cheek and I couldn't shake the feeling that a goddess was giving me a pleased chuckle along the lines of 'Aren't you cute?'

I nodded, convinced the goddess was pleased and cemented it in my head to make good on my promise. Sekhmet would not be a good goddess to offend. I looked up to the massive sphinx towering over me, "Is there anything I can give you for thanks, friend?"

The sphinx looked down at me and spoke in a voice that was simultaneously like the whisper of the wind and rumble of an earthquake,

"In the crucible of stars, where moon and sun will align,

see the king reborn and the sun again shine.

By great mentor's hand his power concealed,

there again will emerge, and force darkness to yield.

At the great dance of spirits was thine fate decided,

As thy inheritance was claimed and solace provided.

Thine mark is near made, the Throne notice takes.

Thine vow nears fulfilment with the greatest of stakes.

The greatest hero of man to madness descended,

In his wrath he comes, his battle unended,

reminded of reason will his fury prevail,

but if faced with weakness all recourse will fail.

Race now to the end, the dark mountain's heart,

for when the tree falls... the end of days starts."

The sphinx bowed and then went on its way, leaving me nearly shitting my pants as I deciphered the meaning of its words. Wherever this so called 'Crucible of stars' and dark mountain are, we've got an apocalypse incoming…

I nodded, "Right… save the world. You got it." HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT OH CRAP HOLY SHIT SHIT SHITSHITSHIT!

I flew back to the team and found them standing in the middle of a cage of steel pillars. I landed, "Hey Levy, Lucy, Miguel? You three know anything about ah, 'The crucible of stars'?" I noticed Lucy had summoned Cancer, so since he was available and who would know more about a 'crucible of stars' than a Celestial Spirit, I turned to him, "Cancer? Do you know what the sphinx meant?"

"Yeah man, he's talkin' about Mattachu," Cancer replied, "It's where the Celestial Gate Keys were forged ya dig? Oh and Lucy, I hate to say it, but you gonna have to keep our contract on the down lowest of low while you there. We didn't take bein' bound to keys real well at first and we kinda kicked up a pretty major fuss. The people o' Mattachu are probably still mad since we went all out. It didn't work and I at least don't mind now as much as I thought I would, pretty sure none of us do since it really helped us get back in touch with people, but I doubt the Mattachites will be as willin' to bury the hatchet ya dig?"

"You mean, there are still people there?" Miguel asked in shock.

"Were last time I looked at it," Cancer confirmed, "Of course, the mortal world and the Celestial Realm run on different clocks, I'm not sure how long it's been down here. Anyway, I don' wanna give away too much, but Miss Lucy, even if you there, you can still call me any time you need me, ya feel?"

Lucy nodded, "Thanks Cancer, and thanks for coming to help, I know this was really dangerous for you."

Cancer laughed, "Don't worry about it! Have fun!"

Before we could ask any further questions, Cancer disappeared in a flurry of golden sparkles. Something about it made me blink as it rang a bell in my head, but before I could pin it down and try to figure out where I had seen something like that before, and it was not just Virgo and Leo, I knew that much at least, Serena asked me something that threw me for a loop.

She tilted her head, "New cape?"

I looked at her in surprise and then glanced down to find that at some point my cape had turned from the tough old black fabric I'd bought two months earlier into what looked and felt an awful hell of a lot like white linen. Royal linen, some part of my brain supplied. I blinked stupidly at it, "Um… when did that happen?" Nobody had an answer for that one but Serena, Lucy and Erza, all agreed it looked good. After electing to have two of us on watch from then on instead of just one, we all bedded back down and went back to sleep.

Or, I tried to go to sleep. Despite my exhaustion, my brain just would not stop chasing the sphinx's words and the growing surety that I'd forgotten something incredibly important around the inside of my skull. If I got any sleep at all that night, I don't know about it. I wasn't alone though, I could hear Miguel, Lucy and Elric's minds racing the entire night. I had no idea what about, but racing they certainly were.