The world was in shambles.
Where was once homes filled with lively people, now rubble everywhere.
Thick, dark clouds had blocked out the sun causing all the trees to dry up and wilt.
There was no life as far as the eye could see.
Magnolia had become a true dead wasteland.
The only sign of life appeared to be someone covered by some rubble.
"Luke…..Luke~~~…Lucas!" A deep, male voice bellowed a name.
The rubble moved and out of it came a young boy who looked to be 15 years old. He had blonde spiky hair (similar to a certain fire dragon slayer), was fair skinned and had black eyes. He was wearing a simple red t-shirt, a pair of long brown cargo pants, he had a white stripped scarf tied around his waist and had the guild mark for Fairy Tail on his neck.
The boy looked to have been through hell. There was a cut by his mouth, which exposed his teeth, a cut above his left eye which was bleeding and multiple scratches and bruises adorned his face. The boy however didn't let that stop him as he got in a fighting stance and glared hatefully at his enemy.
"Oh my, you seem rather tired." The voice spoke again, as the sound of heavy metal boots got closer, "Can you even continue?"
The enemy was wearing pitch black knight armour, with a black cape as well. His skin was a bit tanned, he had red eyes and messy black hair with some red tips. He had an 'x' shaped scar on his right cheek.
Luke's glare sharpened at the man, "I won't fall….not until you're dead!" He declared.
The man laughed, cracking his knuckles and grinning at boy, as if telling him to bring it
Luke braced himself for upcoming battle, right now it was do or die.
'If I can just get in close and find an opening….I can win.' Though Luke.
Luke then punched into the ground, lifting hup a hefty slab of concrete and chucking it at the black knight.
However, the man smirked and with one punch, completely obliterated the slab. But this provided an opportunity for Luke to appear behind him and attempt to land a punch.
Too bad for him though as the knight grabbed his fist and attempted to flip him over his shoulder. But Luke was too quick, landing a kick to the man's head, causing him let go of his fist.
Luke then sat on the man's shoulders and continuously rained down punches and elbows on the knight's head.
However this seemed to greatly annoy the knight as he palmed the young blonde by his face and forcefully slammed him into the ground, causing Luke to literally bounce off the ground and cough up some blood.
The knight wasn't done however as he grinned sadistically and kicked the boy hard in the back, sending him flying into a huge boulder.
Luke barely had time to recover as he dodged a punch from the man which completely destroyed the boulder.
"You know, I have to say that I am a little disappointed." The man began as he turned to face Luke, "For being the son of the strongest Dragon Slayer, I expected a bit more from you."
"God, you just like to hear yourself talk, don't you?" Luke asked with an annoyed expression.
The two then meet in the middle, with their fists clashing. This caused a large shockwave that destroyed a good portion of the environment they were fighting in.
After the clash, they began trading blows with each other, trying to bring the other one to the ground.
Luke landed an elbow to the face, the man countered with a knee to the abdomen. Luke then landed a right hook and the man countered with a left. Luke managed to hit a headbutt and the knight countered with an uppercut.
However, Luke managed to duck underneath one of the Knight's punches and engulfed his fist in flames, "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
The hit connected square on the man's nose, sending him skidding back a few feet.
Though, instead of clenching his now broken nose in pain, the man laughed, "There he is…There's the son of Natsu Dragneel."
'Damn….even one of dad's attacks barely phased him! This might be a lot harder than I thought.' Luke thought.
The knight then smiled even more as he used his dark magic to create a sword made of the vile power.
"I didn't think I would have to use this against you! But you are really impressive boy!" The man grinned.
Luke still stood his ground and decided to reveal a new technique he had been working on himself.
"Fire Dragon's Flame Blade!" Luke shouted as a sword made of literal fire was crafted in the boy's hands.
"A battle of swords huh? Do you really think you can keep up with me?" The man grinned.
"Aunt Erza made sure to teach me and unlike my older brother, I found this pretty fun." Luke said with a small smirk.
The two then rushed at each other once again, clashing with their blades. Luke was forced to be put on the defensive, not only because he was much shorter than the dark knight, but because the man was physically stronger than him.
At one point Luke ducked a slash aimed for his head and was immediately caught with a hard gut punch, literally lifting him off the ground and causing the boy to cough up some blood.
In the next instant, he was grabbed by the neck and started choking, "You know, I don't understand why you're still fighting." The knight said applying more force to the boy's neck, "All your family and friends are dead, you have nothing. And even if you manage to beat me, you still lose…..Because only I know the spell that can bring back all life on this planet. Restarting it with a clean slate."
Shockingly, Luke let out a strained laugh at that, "You…..ruling the world….now that's a nightmare that shouldn't be allowed to happen." With an almost feral grin, he ignited his feet.
"Fire Dragon's Claw!" Luke shouted as he brought both of his feet up and connected with a hard hit to the man's chin, which caused him to let the boy go. Luke kept up the attack by continuous kicking the guy in the face (He was basically doing Liu Kang's bicycle kick.).
Using the man's chest as a jump pad, he leapt off and turned upside down in the air. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" The young man let up a hefty stream of fire from his mouth, connecting straight on the dark knight.
Luke fell to the ground panting heavily as he did so, "It's over….." He said with a sigh.
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"I don't think so~"
Luke looked up in shock and horror, the man walked out of the smoke with minor burns and is armour destroyed, but that was it.
"Your attacks are getting weaker Lucas. What? No more fire for you to eat?" The Knight grinned.
'Shit. I hate that he's right. My attacks are a lot weaker than before.' Luke growled in his head.
The man sighed, "While this little game was fun…..Unfortunately, it ends now." The knight had taken a few steps to finish off the boy, when suddenly he stopped.
A painful sensation came from within his body, the man dropped to his knees and groaned in pain, "What the hell is this?"
"That would be me." A new male voice started.
Luke turned around and was shocked by what he saw. It was a boy around his age, he had dark blue hair in the style of a certain Ice Mage and had black eyes. He was also currently bare back and only wearing a pair of short black trousers.
Though his body was currently lined up with lots of cuts and bruises, though the most shocking of all was what looked to be a stab scar which was covered up with Ice magic right in the middle of his abdomen.
"Leon!" Luke called out in surprise.
"Fullbuster…How…..you were supposed to be dead?!" The knight growled.
Leon smirked, "Maybe next time, you should confirm your kills before moving on."
"Damn you! What in the world did you do?!" The man demanded.
"When we fought, I managed to blow some ice into the open cut on your face. Right now it's currently freezing your bloodstream, you'll die in probably a minute, maybe two. This is checkmate, you arrogant bastard!"
The knight let out a feral growl, "DAMN YOU!" He forced himself up and charged at the Ice Mage. Deciding that if he was going to die, he'd take the little brat straight with him.
However, he was intercepted by Luke, who had his fist cocked back, engulfed in fire, 'I only got enough juice for one more attack. I'll make it count!'
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He threw the punch, square in the knight's chest, with his fist puncturing the skin and going straight into the man's chest.
The two stood there in silence, the man gaining a shocked expression on his face, however that expression quickly changed to pain when Luke started to push his hand further.
'Not yet…..Not yet!...NOT YET!' Luke screamed in his mind as tried to go straight for his heart.
Eventually he managed to gain a hold of the man's heart and with a war cry torn his heart from his chest.
The man stood there in shock at what had happened, only staring as the blonde dragon slayer held his heart, "Don't be like that Richter…..At this rate, you're gonna see your precious Zeref again." Luke said, his voice cold and deadly as he crushed the heart in his hands, blood leaking through his fingers.
The knight, now named Richter stood there for a second before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and fell to the floor dead.
Luke then fell to his knees as his breathing became laboured. He was then tapped on the shoulder to see Leon offering him a hand.
The blonde took it and the Ice mage helped him up, "We did man…..we won…." Luke drawled out, before he slipped into unconsciousness.
"Yeah…we won." Leon said as he carried Luke away from the battlefield.
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2 DAYS LATER
It had been two days since the death of the black knight at the hands of the two boys.
Luke was now looking up at a large memorial stone with thousands of names carved into it. This showed all the mages and warriors who sacrificed their lives to protect the world.
Though Luke couldn't help but look at a few names in particular.
Mira Dreyar
Laxus Dreyar
Luna Dreyar
Erza Fernandez
Jellal Fernandez
Elsa Fernandez
Eric Fernandez
Wendy Marvell
Gajeel Redfox
Levy Redfox
Ethan Redfox
Zane Redfox
Gray Fullbuster
Juvia Fullbuster
Ur Fullbuster
All those names of his friends and family, of people he would never see again. He then looked at the last few names.
Natsu Dragneel
Lucy Dragneel
Igneel Dragneel
Juste Dragneel
His parents and his brothers, he couldn't help but tear up a bit as the knowledge that he'd never see them again.
"I thought you'd be here." Leon said as he walked up from behind.
Luke wiped some tears away from his face, "Yeah, I was just visiting them again."
"I know." Leon said, coming right next to him and looking at the memorial stone, specifically at the names of his parents and younger sister.
The two boys stood there in silence, simply looking before Leon spoke up, "Hey Luke." He said, causing the blonde to turn to him, "Do you think we should just…end it?" Leon asked.
It took a few seconds before Luke figured out what his friend was implying, especially when he noticed Leon staring at a cliff.
"I….I won't lie…..I thought about it…..but then we'd just be giving up." Luke said.
"But what's the point in continuing on? We literally have nothing left to lose! Our parents, friends and family are all dead!" Leon shouted, his voice echoing in the wind.
"The trees are all dried up too, which means we're going to run out of oxygen and die soon anyway! So I ask again….What's the point?" Leon questioned, his voice tired.
Luke looked down, "M-Maybe there's some way, some spell, a relic, something to bring everyone back." The boy insisted.
Leon scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous. As much as I hate to agree with that bastard, he was right…..even though we beat him, we still lost! He was the only one who knew the spell to bring everyone back! And if that wasn't enough, he destroyed the book which had the damn spell in the first place! There is nothing we can do!"
"So what? You're just gonna give up?" Luke asked incredulously.
"Is it really giving up, when we have nothing left to lose?" Leon responded, turning away from Luke to stare at the memorial stone.
Luke stared at him for a bit before he turned around and walked off.
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Honestly Luke didn't know where he was going, he was just walking. To be fair, there wasn't even anywhere he could go, after all his house was freaking destroyed.
The young blonde Dragon Slayer was still thinking about Leon's words from earlier and was beginning to wonder if they really should just end it.
'I mean, we do have nothing left…..so really what's the point?' He asked himself, before shaking his head, 'No! I can't give up! There has to be someway to save everyone.'
Eventually he came upon a cave, "Huh? I wonder what's in here?"
The boy went inside the cave and began looking around, conjuring a small flame in his hands to help him see.
As he was walking, Luke noticed a small light. Walking over to it, he saw that it was a small green crystal.
"Woah! It's so shiny."
"Hello!" A female voice came from the crystal.
"HOLY SHIT!" Luke exclaimed with a shocked anime expression, jumping away and dropping the crystal.
"Ow! That hurts ya know!" The crystal complained.
"Uh….Um…..Sorry." Luke apologized as he slowly walked over to pick up the artifact.
"That's fine, Luke." The crystal stated.
"Hang on…..How do you know my name?" Luke questioned.
"That's not the only thing I know."
"What?"
"Lucas Dragneel, son of Natsu and Lucy Dragneel. Younger brother to Igneel Dragneel, the only man to complete the 100 years quest and older brother to Juste Dragneel."
"Wow…you know a lot about my family." Luke said in surprise.
"I also know how you can save them and everyone else." The crystal said.
Luke's eyes widened in shock, "Wait…..Are you for real?! Can you bring them back!?"
"Not exactly….."
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"Time Travel?" Leon questioned.
Luke had ran back from the cave to find the Ice mage to tell him about the Crystal that he found.
"Yes. I can send you both back in time to prevent this tragedy from happening." The artifact explained.
Leon looked unsure, "I don't know…" He didn't want to get his hopes up.
"Come on man! This is our best chance to save everyone!" Luke exclaimed with a hopeful expression.
"Besides, we'll get to see everyone again!" Luke said with a smile.
"Unfortunately, that is not going to be the case." The crystal stated.
"Huh?" Both boys went.
"Even if I sent you two back to your births with all your memories intact, that still won't be enough time. The 'Children of Zeref' were already making moves at that time. While they were much smaller, their plans were still going underway. In the end the result would be the same, maybe even worse."
"So what do you mean sending us back in time then?" Luke asked.
"I will be sending you both back to after both Zeref and Acnologia were defeated." The crystal stated.
"EHHHHH?! So far back!? Our parents weren't even dating at that time!" Leon exclaimed with a shocked anime expression.
"I understand that, but the cult was still in it's early stages at that point and hadn't made any drastic moves to result this outcome." The Crystal explained.
The two boys both looked at each other, contemplating their choices.
"I should warn you two that if you agree to this, there is a very high possibility that you two might cease to exist." The crystal said, shocking them.
"You both will go back and change a huge event, this could spur some changes. For instance, your parents might never even end up together, they might even switch partners and even if they do end up together, there is no guarantee that you or your siblings will ever be born." The crystal stated.
There was silence in the wasteland as the boys listened to the words spoken to the magic crystal. The fact that both of them and their timeline might just cease to exist…..it was terrifying.
"…..We'll do it." Luke said.
"Even if our timeline and us cease to exist…..knowing that there is a future where none of this happened is good enough for me." Luke explained.
"What he said." Leon agreed with him, "Once was already bad enough, we won't let this happen to anyone else."
"I see…..well is there anything you both want to take before you go?" The crystal asked and both boys reached in their pockets, pulling out pictures of their family.
They took one last look at them before sighing and putting it back.
"Nah, we have everything." Luke said with a toothy grin.
"Let's just get this over with. I'm starving, hopefully they have some good food in the past.
"Very well." The crystal then began to glow very brightly, until it eventually engulfed the two.
'Mom…..Dad…..we will save you….' Those were the final thoughts of the boys as the light completely enveloped them.
TO BE CONTINUED