Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything aches or hurts in some way. My body threatens to fall over every time the wind blows. The wind is soothing and dries the blood on my face and body. My head was pounding and my gaze was hazy. I drop my improvised weapon of a rebar pipe and heave out a breath as I watch my enemy's chest finally stop rising. My body was weak from the blood loss and my over-exerted muscles were screaming for a break. I was covered in blood, grime, bone shards, and brain matter. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that I was also covered in piss and shit. 

Everyone was gone. Everything was gone. I stand in the middle of a wasteland that used to be a bright and bustling town. There were bodies everywhere. There was blood everywhere. The carnage was now what was considered to be a normal sight to see. My friends were scattered about the land in varying stages of decomposition and some were even mutilated beyond recognition, their only defining feature being their guild mark. They always made sure to leave their guild mark alone that we knew when we lost one of ours.  I stare into the sky and in the back of my mind, I take notice of the clouds that were starting to roll in, ready to purge this land of all sins and wash away the blood on the ground. 

We won the war. 

I won the war. 

But I also lost. 

There were no winners here. I certainly didn't feel like a winner. 

My chest rattles as I breathe and even though my legs shake and plead for me to take a seat. I stand up straight. 

I'm not done yet.

I head to where the guild is. Or at least where it's supposed to be. All that was left was a crater of flattened land, bits and pieces of rubble lying around. I can even make out the partially destroyed stage in the distance. I see the Fairy Tail Logo that was covered in dirt and its tail was broken. There was a large crack down the middle. In the middle of the crater, I spot who I'm looking for. 

"Natsu." My voice is raspy and dry due to my lack of hydration and my continuous screaming during battle. My voice was now reduced to a whisper, unable to go above that level of sound. My throat aches. 

I slide down the crater and practically launch myself towards his body. I collapse next to him and just as I thought my tears had run dry, they start back up again. My hands shake terribly and hover over his body. I was scared to touch him. Terrified. I dig my nails into the palm of my hands before gently pressing my hand to his cheek.

It was freezing. 

I sob, knowing exactly what that meant. I press my forehead against his and continue to cry my heart out. My cries rip at my throat mercilessly but I can't find it in myself to care. My heart clenches as I cry for him and everyone that I lost. Everyone that was lost. Everything that once was. I grip his tattered vest and pull back to see that my tears had cleared away paths through the dirt on his face. I brush away his matted pink hair and stare at his face. He looked so peaceful. Like he was just taking a nap after messing around with Happy in the dirt.

My head snaps up and the thought of Happy and I look around. Spotting him not too far away, I get up and lay him next to Natsu. I look around for anyone else that was remotely recognizable. I spot Zerif lying in his own puddle of blood also not too far away and anger is quick to surge through my veins but I let it go. He's dead. There is nothing that I can do. I return to my spot beside Natsu and cradle Happy on my lap. I brush through his fur, pretending as if we were just in my living room after they had snuck in for the millionth time. I shuffle and rest my head against Natsu's chest and for the first time in a while, I let myself fall asleep. 

I gasp and shoot up, scanning my surroundings. A sharp pain shoots up my side and I wince, looking down before realizing that I still had Happy in my grasp. I look to the sky and it was now covered in dark, looming clouds. It reminds me of Juvia. I smile. She never liked the rain but whenever it did, I always made sure to play in it. Show her that the rain was never a bad thing. 

My thoughts are cut short when it starts thundering. I feel the rain start and I simply lay my head back onto Natsu's chest and put Happy next to Natsu's head before spreading out my arms, closing my eyes and letting the rain wash everything away. 

I hear thunder strike and footsteps approach. I simply ignore them and continue to feel the rain land on me. 

"This war has taken a toll on you, old friend."

"It's taken a toll on everybody."

".. Yes."

The Celestial King stays silent for a moment and I crack open an eye to look at him. 

"I've come to you with a proposition."

"Are you going to kill me? If you are, please do so quickly. I'd like to join my friends." The Celestial King shakes his head.

"I've been working on a magic spell that will send a subject back in time. I'd have gotten it to you sooner but I had to be sure that everything would go perfectly. A number of things could go wrong in terms of time travel so I had to be 100% sure that you would be safe and that I was sending you to the right Universe and time before coming to you."

My head was spinning. Time travel? That was impossible. But was it really? The Celestial King liked to joke but joking about something like this was cruel. 

"So I have just one question to ask you. Are you willing to travel back in time in order to save the future from this outcome?" I freeze and look into his eyes for anything that might hint that this was just a cruel joke. 

No such hint comes. 

I look down at Natsu's now clean face and pretend that I am him for a moment. I breathe deeply and a fire settles itself in my belly. I remember every single good memory and mentally kick myself at my willingness to give up not too long ago. I harden my resolve before looking away from him and looking the Celestial King dead in the eye. 

"What do we need to do?"

He grins and his mustache (nose hairs?) flares outward. 

Chapter Text

"Going to the celestial spirit world?" The Celestial Spirit King nods his head but says nothing. I sat atop a cliff so that he could hear me better. I mindlessly swing my legs and look at my shitty makeshift cast and arm sling. 

I was covered, head to toe in makeshift bandages and the few actual bandages that the King had so helpfully provided. 

"But I can't breathe when I'm there." The King shakes his head.

"Don't you remember? Before the Grand Magic Games, I had invited you and your friends into the celestial spirit world for a celebration for the day." 

I smile at the memory. "Oh yeah. I can't believe I forgot." 

"You were able to stay there for a short amount of time because we had provided you with celestial clothing."

I nod my head in understanding before furrowing my brow. "Why can't we just do the spell here?"

"I already have everything prepared in the celestial spirit world and being on Earth slowly depletes my magic. I need it to be full in order for this spell to go as smoothly as possible. It's just a precaution in case anything goes wrong." He produces an ensemble that reminded me of Lucy and hands it to me. I look at it and set it aside before looking at the King. 

"Before I go, there's something that I have to do. Will you help me?"

"Of course."

For the rest of the day, the King helps me gather my friends, he calls upon Virgo to help us dig holes and we give everyone a proper burial. It hurt to say goodbye, but this was something that I needed to do. 

When we were done, I watch as Virgo planted a tree in the center. It was nice. Behind me, I hear the other Celestial Spirits appear and we stand there for a moment in silence. A hand slips into my own and I turn to see Loke. I squeeze his hand and turn back towards the large grave sight we had made for everyone. 

After a while of us just standing in silence, Virgo approaches me with the celestial clothes and I nod my head. She helps me bathe myself in a nearby river and helps me change and then we're off to the celestial spirit world. 

It was as beautiful as always. Deep blues and purples, pinks and oranges, greens and yellows. Not to mention the stars decorating every surface. The Celestial King motions for me to follow him and I do so. He leads me to a flat area where I see a large magic circle had been drawn. He stops me once I'm directly in the middle and hands me a card. Its overall colors were blue and purple, on the front was a cartoony version of the Celestial King and on the back, it said 'send magic through this card to contact me!' I looked up at the King.

"This card is so that we can communicate once you've been sent to the past. It works a lot like a lacrima phone but instead of calling multiple people, it will only call me."

"You won't be affected by the time jump?" 

"None of the celestial beings will be affected. Everyone except for Loke." I snap my head towards Loke and he shoots me a smile and a thumbs up. 

"What- what- why? Why is Loke going to be affected by the time jump?"

"I'm going to send you to a time before he had joined the guild, meaning he was still with Karen Lilica."

"WHAT! Loke can't go back with that woman! She was a grade-A asshole and a #1 abuser! And what about Aries? Karen used Aries as a shield!"

"Yes, I know. I'm afraid I won't be able to do anything for them, they had explicitly asked me not to interfere."

"Why?"

"Loke said that Lucy saving him was a large catalyst for their relationship and Lucy's personal development. Loke also has a plan, you'll just need to trust him on this." I sigh and look over to Loke.

He was the only other guild member left. I didn't want him to go through such pain again but I can't stop him if this is truly what he wants. I watch Loke flirt with another celestial spirit before being punched in the face. I snicker as I watch him sulk before he shoots back up and flirts with somebody else. He'll be fine.

With that, I turn my attention back toward the Celestial King and nod my head. "Okay. Let's just get this thing over with. I have people to save."

The Celestial King nods his head and walks off to check over some things.

"Are you ready?" I turn to see Loke with another bump on his head and I grin at him. 

"Ready as I'll ever be. I can't help but feel anxious. What if it doesn't work?" Loke places his hand on my head

"It'll work. The king had been working on this for the longest time. He doesn't show it, but I think he's the most nervous out of all of us." 

"I don't want to fail."

"You won't be doing it alone. You've got us, and the Master. I'm sure he'll gladly help you change things around to protect his children." I grin and nod my head.

"You're right, he'd do practically anything to keep us safe." Loke ruffles my hair

"I'll see you in the past."

I scoff "You can't get rid of me that easily." Loki smirks before he turns serious and he looks straight into my eyes.

"Save them."

"Don't gotta tell me twice." Loke ruffles my hair again and I go to swat him away but he makes his escape before I can. 

The magic circle I'm standing on top of suddenly lights up purple and I'm reduced to a human shapes bundle of nerves. I look at the Celestial King and his mustache flares outward. All 12 Zodiac spirits surround me and I could feel the immense magic power being used. I start floating in the center and I try my best to stay calm. This has to go right. I look at everyone's face. They were all concentrating intensely. 

"Hey! You better not die or I'll kill you myself!" Aquarius yells and I laugh

"I can't die yet! I've got to save everyone first before I can even think of dying!" I yell back and- Oh? Do my eyes deceive me? Aquarius has tears streaming down her face but she's grinning.

"You better!" I nod my head and soon enough, my eyesight is blinded by white. 

I'm suddenly overcome with the feeling of falling and my eyes snap open. I see the entirety of Magnolia, not a desolate land. My eyes take in everything and I almost think I'm dreaming. The wind is loud as I fall and my hair whips cruelly at my cheeks. Tears fill my eyes but the wind is quick to dry my tears. I can see the original Fairy Tail building and the street where we hold the Fantasia Parade. I can see where Natsu and Happy are going to live even though right now, it's just an empty plot of land, I see the river and the bridge leading to Guildarts' house.

I see a large hand extending towards me to catch me out of the sky. I land harshly on the Master's palm and the air is knocked out of me. I gasp for air and struggle to breathe for several moments. Makarov gently rolls me to the ground and almost instantly, there are hands roaming my body to check my vitals. I simply lay there as they check me over and I instantly recognize Polyusica. She practically drops me when she's done checking me over and someone picks me up in the princess hold.

I look up to see Macao's familiar face and I smile slightly.

"The child will be fine, she's just in slight shock and her hearing will have to be checked over later." Came Porlyusica's extremely muffled voice.

Child? I gave myself a once over and realized that yes, I was indeed child shaped. I resisted the urge to sigh. This'll make things 10 times harder. I'll have to tell the king about this when I get the chance. 

Makarov walked up to me with a warm and kind smile.

"Are you okay?" I stare at his face and my brain practically drinks in the memory of his face, burning it in my memory forever.

I smile back but as soon as I feel my lip shake and my eyes water, I turn my face to hide it in Macao's coat in an attempt to hide my tears. 

If they noticed, they didn't say anything about it which I appreciated greatly. 

I found myself spending the rest of my day inside the Fairy Tail infirmary. Why they decided to bring me here? No idea, but I wasn't about to miss this opportunity to speak with Makarov and tell him about the war with Alvarez. People would step in occasionally to look at me before walking out and it felt like I was a part of a circus show before I finally had enough and decided to go up to the master's office. 

It was a miracle that nobody noticed my 'escape' from the infirmary. I'll have to fix that later.

I knocked on the door and entered before he could grant me entrance. Makarov kept his eyes on me as I closed the door and activated the silencing runes around the rooms. He looked mildly surprised that I knew they were there but he still didn't say anything. I breathed deeply to try and smooth over my nerves before looking him in the eye. 

"I know this might sound crazy but I really need you to listen. You can ask questions when I'm done." Makarov nods his head and I mentally align everything in my mind before speaking.

"I'm from the future- no interruptions." Makarov closes his mouth and lowers his hand.

"Yes, I know that sounds crazy, just listen. I come from a future of death and loss. Many years from now, Fiore will go to war with Alvarez and the results will be devastating. I was the only survivor." Makarov gasps and I feel pressure settle on my chest.

"After the war was over, the Celestial Spirit King approached me with a spell he had been working on. It was a spell that would send me back in time so that I could hopefully prevent that future." I pinned him with a serious look. "If we do not get everyone on our side to be stronger than they were in the Last Timeline, we will lose." I stay quiet for a moment and let the weight of my words settle in before speaking again.

"I don't want that to happen again. I cannot allow that to happen again. I come here to ask for your help. If you could somehow pump up the guild members into getting stronger, maybe some friendly competition or tournaments to go against one another every year like the Fantasia parade, something. It really will help. Of course, you could tell them but I don't want them to worry about a war that won't be happening for years. If you could do that, I could do my thing in the background to get as many people on our side."

I stop talking and I watch him process my words, a serious expression on his face and his hands folded together to hide his mouth. He straightens and looks me in the eye. 

"This is a lot to take in at once." I nod my head. "Is there any way you could prove that you're from the future?" I look around the room for something to help me before an idea smacks me in the face. I lift up my shirt and show him my guild mark. It was placed on my hip. 

"Last time around, I was, I still am, a member of Fairy Tail." I let Makarov look at my mark a little longer before lowing my shirt. Makarov finally nods his head. 

"Alright, I'll trust you."

"Thank you, Master."

"I'll think of something to encourage everyone to get stronger, you do what you need to do." I nod my head and I release the silencing runes before walking out of the room. 

As I walked out of the room, someone practically ran me over and I turned to give them an ear full only to see Ivan. I trail down his arm to see him holding Laxus by the wrist. He wasn't completely a kid, if I had to say, I'd say he was a few years older than I was. 

"Watch where you're going, brat." He storms off, pulling Laxus along with him. Laxus looked frail, definitely not what I imagined him to look like as a kid. I frown, concern drowning my senses and I silently follow them. 

Ivan drags Laxus into one of the side rooms used for storing extra furniture and kitchen supplies. I walked past the room to make it seem like I was just passing but as soon as everyone looked away from me, I made a U-turn and headed as close as possible before leaning against the wall and casually pretending to check over my nails. I feigned boredom as I heard Ivan speak to Laxus.

"Laxus-chan, I visited a friend a few days ago to see if we could do something about that pitifully weak body of yours and he gave me this." It was silent for a moment so I guessed that Ivan was showing Laxus what I was also guessing was the Lacrima. "Now Laxus-chan, this cost me a lot of money so you're going to have to pay me back."

"But I don't-"

"You'll pay me back my being strong, Laxus-chan. After all, only the strong can survive in this world. The weak have no place here." 

Anger was pulsing through my veins as I heard all of the crap Ivan was spewing at Laxus. I knew that in the end, this lacrima would be good for Laxus and his overall health but all of the crap Ivan was saying was making me mad. It took everything in me to not storm the room. Last time around, I hadn't joined the guild this early so I never met Laxus as a kid but I did hear talk of how sick Laxus would get before the lacrima was implanted in him. I left the guild and waited around the front of it for a while to see if Laxus would leave.

I had to un-brainwash Laxus of Ivan's teachings before it could root too deep. After forever and a half, Laxus finally left the guild. I frowned at the fresh pink lightning scar that was on his face but I quickly shook it off. I watched Laxus look around himself before heading towards the forest. I followed at a safe distance and had to hide or pretend to be with someone else whenever he turned around.

That got me a few looks but I ignored them.

After a while, he sat in front of a river and I stayed in my spot for a moment before walking toward him and sitting next to him without saying a word. We watched the river for a while, basking in the silence before I decide to break the silence. 

"It's nice here," I say quietly. He says nothing. 

"I like to come here to think. You know, get away from everything once in a while. What are you thinking about?" He glares at me and scooches away from me. 

"I just thought that it would be nice to tell me since I'm a stranger." I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know anybody you know, you don't know anybody I know. It's nice to vent once in a while. Even if it's to someone you don't know." That was actually how I met Cana for the first time. Though she was drunk and we were in a bathroom. We ended up becoming best friends. 

It stayed silent for a while before Laxus sighed. 

"It's my dad."

I stayed quiet, not wanting to scare him out of talking. 

"He... He put this lacrima inside of me and said something." He pointed at his eye and I nodded my head to show that I was listening.

"He said that only the strong survive in this world and that the weak have no place."

"Do you believe him?" I watched him struggle with answering the question. 

"I don't know. My grandpa is like, the complete opposite of my dad and he says that I need to be strong so that I could help protect people that can't. It's so confusing! I don't know what to believe." He gripped his head in his hands and I hummed. 

"Well, as someone from the outside, I think your grandpa might have the right idea." He snaps his head at me.

"But my dad can't be wrong! He's my dad!"

I nod my head. "Yeah he's you're dad, but that doesn't mean he can't be wrong. Like him saying that weak people don't have a place, that was definitely wrong. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I bet even your dad is bad at some things, not even he can be good at everything." Laxus stays silent and stares into the river water. 

"My dad hurts me."

Oh. I didn't think I'd get this far.

"That means he's not really your dad then. Family isn't supposed to hurt family." We stay there for a while and I could practically hear the cogs turning in his head. I noticed that the sun was starting to set and the water began to reflect the oranges and pinks from the sky. 

"I think.. in this kind of situation, you just have to do what feels right. Even if it's scary. Y'know?" Laxus nods his head and I get up to leave. Before I leave the clearing I turn my head towards him.

"You should tell someone that your dad hit's you. Maybe your grandpa. He sounds like a good guy." I turn and leave altogether. 

I rented a room for myself at one of Magnolia's few hotels and once I was in my room, I pulled out the card that was given to me. I send a small pulse of my magic through the card and promptly drop it when a full-body hologram of the Celestial King pops through. The hologram wasn't as large as the King so at least I didn't have to try and explain that. 

"It worked?" I nodded my head and spun around to show him my body in its entirety. 

"Though I would've liked to know that I'd turn back into a child." The Celestial King hums.

"That seems to have been the only side effect of the spell, yes?" I nod my head.

"From what I can tell, my magic is still there but it might end up being a problem for this small body. I might end up having an overload of magic." The Celestial King hums again and I wonder if that's the only thing he knows how to do. 

"We'll have to keep an eye on that but until then, we need to come up with a plan." I nodded my head and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. 

"I was actually thinking that the best course of action right now would be to create a timeline of when events happened. You could fill me in on blanks in the timeline and I go based on what I already know." The King stays silent so I continue to talk.

"There's really nothing we can do about Natsu and the other dragon slayers until July 7th, X777 so it's not our main concern. I was also hoping to find all of the zodiac keys so that I could return them to Lucy. I was also thinking that if I were to give Yukino her keys, she should learn some other type of magic and/or learn how to fight hand to hand to better protect herself. I might even give her a sword or a bow maybe? As for Gray, Ur, Leon, and Silver. I think there's a solid chance to save Ur but Silver is a little iffy. From what I know, Silver was actually dead but that Keys guy did something to his body? I'm not 100% sure but I know it happened when Deliora was on its rampage so that's a really small window of time to work with."

My pencil quickly scratched against the surface of the paper as I talked and I was slowly getting overwhelmed with everything that I had to do. I breathe out and put down my pencil. 

"I'm getting ahead of myself. First things first, Zoldeo. Right now we're at X768 so Capricorn is fused with that guy, right?" I turn to the Celestial King and he nods his head. I nod my head as well. 

"We'll have to separate them and hopefully we can do that before Hades finds him." I also need to have a talk with Layla and have her train Lucy a little more. Maybe even convince her to get somebody to teach Lucy self-defense?

Yeah, that sounds like a good place to start.

Chapter Text

The next day, the first thing I did was look for leads as to where I could find Zoldeo. I asked the Celestial King where he was or if he could somehow sense where Capricorn was but he said that because Capricorn was fused with a human, he was unable to do so. 

My next idea was to search any and all newspapers, job listings, magazines, anything that might have some sort of clue as to where I could find him. It seems that he was popping up anywhere and everywhere at the same time. Does he not know how to take a break once in a while? 

Other than the fact that I cannot find him, I have no idea how to separate the two when I do find him. Do I just beat the ever-loving crap out of the guy until they separate? I'll have to see If CSK (Celestial Spirit King) knows anything about how to do that. 

I sighed, slumped in my seat and head resting on my hand while the other mindlessly flips through papers.  My eyes tiredly scan the paper before moving on to the next one and then the next one. My eyes land on a picture of Jude and Layla Heartfilia holding a baby Lucy. I stare at the picture a little longer before I shoot up when an idea so obvious, it smacked me across the face and called me stupid. 

I jump out of my seat, snatching some money and my coat before bolting it out of the door. I pulled out my card and held it up to my ear so that the hologram wouldn't activate. 

"CSK!" I shout the second he answered my call.

"CSK?" He questions but I simply ignore it.

"Do you think Layla would know anything about Zoldeo? He used to work at the Konzern, that's when she gave him Capricorn's key. She might have a way to contact him." He hums and I grab a pole to launch myself around the corner. I weave through the crows and slam my money onto the ticket master's table. They stare at me with wide eyes and wearily take my money. 

"I know that they did in fact know each other, in fact, Zoldeo was loyal to Layla. It is very likely that she has some way to contact him." 

"Yes! Thank you, I'll call you later!" I slip the card into my pocket and look up at the ticket-selling guy. 

"One ticket to the Heartfilia Konzern please!" I beam up at him and he seemed ready to deny my request but before he could, I said "Mommy's working there and she said that Miss Layla gave me permission to have a playdate with her daughter! I'm so excited!" I jump in place as I watch the man hesitate before giving me my ticket and I ran away with the ticket in my hand. 

I got on the train, picking the first empty seat I see. I mindlessly swing my legs back and forth and thoughts of Natsu fill my mind. 

Getting into the house was much easier than it should've been. I was hidden in some bushes, watching the guard rotations when an opportunity presented itself to me. 

One of the workers, a gardener judging from her clothes, kept walking in and out of the building, all the while leaving the door wide open for herself so that she wouldn't have to open the door when her hands were full carrying bags of soil or fertilizer. Eventually, another gardener offered his help which she had gratefully accepted. I watched them go inside, coming out with more sacks of soil/fertilizer than what she had been able to carry on her own.

I watched as they walked away before quickly scanning the area for guards. My eyes landed on two who were headed in my direction but their attention was thankfully pulled by another guard running up to them. 

I took that chance to bolt it through the door. I looked around to see more bags of soil by the door and produce by the archway on the other side of the room. I peeked my head through the archway and I look around the kitchen. It was empty. Finally, my eyes landed on a food cart. It was covered in a cloth that perfectly hid the bottom part of it. I spotted the covered plates on top and smiled.

I scrambled underneath the cloth and settled myself in a comfortable position. It's a good thing that I had hidden there too because right after I was perfectly hidden underneath the cloth, I hear footsteps approaching. The footsteps stop for a moment before rushing over to the cart. I freeze, thinking I had been spotted and I nearly jump out of my skin when I hear a voice yell. 

"Who was supposed to bring this food to Mr. Heartfilia?" They yell, urgency in their voice.

"Uuh, Max was supposed to. Why?" Another voice questions, farther away.

"It's still here!"

A gasp

"What!? Okay, it hasn't been there that long! You can still take it! But be fast!" 

"On it!" The cart jolts and I brace myself on its legs. We go fast and they take sharp turns. We jolt to a stop and If I hadn't been holding onto the legs, I'm sure I would've gone flying. 

I hear them huff, and some rustling (probably fixing other clothes) before they knock on the door. 

"Come in." Jude's muffled voice came and I raise my eyebrows. His voice was deeper than I thought. 

The door creaks open and I feel the cart move forward before coming to a complete stop. 

"I've brought you your lunch sir."

"Hm? Oh, I had ordered that for my wife and daughter, you'll find them in Lucy's room." He brushed them off, they were silent for a second before the cart starts to move backward. Once we're out of the room, the door squeaks closed and instead of running, they speed walk toward Lucy's room. 

It doesn't take too long to get there, the room was practically around the corner from Jude's office. They knock on the door and enter with Layla's permission. They ask where to put the food and round the cart to stand beside it. 

"You can leave it there. I'll call for someone when we're finished, thank you." Layla says followed by some babbling and I grin. Layla sounded exactly like lucy, the only difference being that Layla's was slightly deeper. I hear their clothes shift before they walk out of the room followed by the click of a door and receding footsteps. 

It's quiet for a moment as I think over what to do next. I lift the cloth and poke my head out, Instantly making eye contact with Layla before my eyes snap down at the baby in her arms. Lucy giggles at me and makes grabby hands and my breath hitches in my throat. I duck back under the cloth to hide my forming tears and manage to dry my tears and compose my feelings before sticking my head back out from under the cloth. 

Layla smiles at me and beckons me forward with a wave of her hand. Wearily, I approach her. I thought her reaction to a child sneaking into her mansion would be different. Then again, Lucy had talked about how kind her mother was. As I get closer, she pats the floor next to her and I sit there. She leans Lucy toward me and I get a good look at her face. Lucy blinks at me curiously before reaching her hand out. I let her grab onto my finger and I smile. Lucy smiles back showing her two front teeth growing in. 

"This is Lucy. She's one year old. She's still learning how to walk." I glance up at Layla and she smiles before setting Lucy on the ground. 

Lucy wobbles before gaining her balance and waddling away. 

"The Celestial Spirit King told me that you'd be coming here soon."

Of course he did.

I've honestly got no problem with her knowing, it makes things much easier for me. 

"So you know why I'm here?" Layla shakes her head. 

"No, he only told me that you were coming."

"Oh. Well, Layla, I'm sorry to tell you this but Zoldeo, the one you gave the Capricorn key to, committed a magical taboo and ended up fusing with Capricorn. I came to you in hopes that you knew how to find him."

Layla frowns before nodding her head. 

"I do. I'll arrange up a meeting for you under the guise that it is me he is going to meet." She writes on a piece of paper and she uses a lacrima to send it off. 

"Thank you so much. Finding him on my own was a lot harder than I had anticipated, then again, there's only so much information I can get as a child." Layla laughs softly and we watch Lucy for a moment. 

"When Lucy is only enough, I need you to teach her magic. When I get Capricorn back, he'll be able to help you teach Lucy Celestial Magic and even some hand-to-hand combat. She's got some scary things coming her way and I want her to be prepared for it. There's nothing to worry about though, Lucy had an amazing family to help support her and fight by her side." Layla smiles at me. 

"I'm glad Lucy has friends like you in the future. And I'll definitely do my best to teach Lucy magic." We watch Lucy waddle around the room, looking at things curiously. 

"While I'm out, I'll also be collecting the other keys to give to Lucy. Also, I'd recommend that you get your other keys back. Who you gave them to are trustworthy so don't worry about that but Lucy will need them to get stronger." Layla nods her head.

A lacrima pops into the room and spits out a rolled-up paper. Layla picks it up and scans its contents before she rolls it back up. 

"He agreed to meet with me. It'll be just outside the Konzern in an open field northeast from here at 3 pm tomorrow." I nod my head and pull out my card before sending my magic through it and placing it on the ground. 

Layla looks at it curiously but I ignore it knowing that the questions will answer themselves in just a moment. A hologram of CSK pops up and I hear Lucy screech in surprise. I turn to check on her but she seems more amazed than scared. 

"I have a meeting with Zoldeo tomorrow at 3 pm. I'm calling to ask if you know how I'm supposed to separate the two."

CSK hums and folds his arms before nodding his head. 

"Yes. I've created a sword specifically for this. It won't hurt him, it will just pass through so that it can cut the magic that is keeping them bound together. Of course, it can become tangible when need be. When you're done, feel free to keep the sword." Virgo suddenly pops into the room and I blink at her. 

"Virgo? What are you doing here?"

"There are usually strict rules about celestial spirits just popping up wherever, however, because of our... special circumstances, the king has allowed us to bend a few rules." She bows before reaching for her hip and grabbing the sword and sheath. She hands it over to me with a smile and I look down at it. 

"Thank you, Virgo."

"Anything for you, mistress." My lips press together in a line.

"You don't have to call me that."

"Master?"

"No."

"Queen?"

"Absolutely not."

"Baroness?"

"You know what- If you have to put call me one of those names, call me Princess, like Lucy." Virgo nods her head once and bows. "That one feels much better than all those other titles," I mutter and I hear Layla giggle. 

"I'll see you later, Princess." And then she's gone. 

"Right... Well, Layla, It was nice to meet you but I'll get going now. Get out of your hair." I look at the sheath to see that a belt was attached to it to go around my waist. I fastened it around my waist, adjusting the tightness so that it wouldn't slip off before looking up at Layla. 

"If you have nowhere to go, you could stay in one of the guest rooms."

"That's very kind of you Layla but I wouldn't want to impose. Not to mention, Jude has no idea that I'm here." 

"You're not imposing if I'm inviting you. I'll tell Jude that you're here, you won't need to worry about it." I look Layla in the eyes and she smiles. 

I sigh and let my body sag. "Alright, I'll stay." Layla cheers softly and Lucy copied her, throwing her arms in the air. I grin at her and rush at Lucy, picking her up and swinging her around. Lucy bursts into giggles and is still giggling by the time I put her down. She comes up to me and raises her hands, softly whining. I spin her around again and this continues until my arms feel like dead weight. 

I twist and turn in my bed restlessly. Flashes of red and the smell of smoke clouded my vision and drowned my senses. I smell copper and ash. My skin burns. But only for a second. It only hurts for a second. My skin crawls and I shiver despite feeling so hot. My lungs constrict and I begin to cough uncontrollably. My eyes are clouded by smoke and all I can see is red. red. red. 

My hands feel wet and looking down, I see more red. Shiny and dark. My hands were covered in it. I hear screams and I whip my head around but I don't see anybody. 

The screams get louder and louder, they're not mine. Never mine. Intangible screams that yell out in pain. Calls for help. Calls to action. I grip my head, ignoring the red on my hands now dripping down my arms and smeared onto my face. I clench my eyes shut but no matter what I do, I still see red, I still hear screams, and I still smell copper and ash.

I gasp and bolt up. I blink and look around the room. I snap my gaze down to my hands and clench them into fists before unclenching them. I continuously press my nails into the palms of my hand, enough to feel the pressure, not enough to bleed. My breathing and my racing heart slow down and I fall back into the bed. 

I bring my hands up to my cheeks when I realize that they feel cold and I feel the wetness. I was crying. I roughly wipe at my cheeks and I get off of my bed. I peek out into the hallway and seeing that nobody was there, I step out. I wander the halls for a minute, trying to collect my thoughts. 

The bomb has dropped. 

Wandering into the kitchen I hesitate when a see an old woman and a baby with short green hair. I approach and silently grab myself a glass of water before finally turning to the two. I look at Brandish, who was missing her little horn things before looking at Grammi. 

"Please make sure that she and Lucy become great friends." Grammi raises her brow at me before furrowing them. She takes in my appearance and I force a smile.

"I'm here as a guest to Layla. She's told me a lot about you. If she and Lucy became friends, I'm 100% certain that they'd be an unstoppable force."

Grammi smiled at me when I tell her that I was Layla's guest. 

"You should ask Layla about having them train together. Having somebody to learn with can encourage one to become stronger." I walk out of the room and head back into my own. 

It's safe to say that I didn't get any sleep last night. Anytime I had tried, all I got were nightmares so I quickly stopped and just opted to rest my eyes, distracting myself with memories of the past and plans for the future. Soon enough, my eyes pop open when I hear a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I call out and the door opens with a creak. 

"Hello, I'll be assisting you for the day. Lady Layla requested that you come down for breakfast." I blink at the server and have to hold back a grin. Of course Layla was the type of person that was able to poke a little bit of fun in everyday life. My server was the server that had unknowingly karted me around the mansion. 

I watch them dig into a closet and pull out a dress. I blink. I don't know why I didn't think they'd expect me to dress nicely. The dress wasn't poofy or anything, it was actually pretty nice. It was a soft pink dress that ended at my knees with white lace at the hems and the skirt was pleated. Overall it was nice. It wasn't particularly my style but if Layla wanted me to wear this dress, then I will wear this dress. 

I tried to shoo away the servant but all she would do was turn away from me so that she could still be in the room in case I needed any help. The only thing I really needed help with was the zipper in the back which they had gladly assisted me with. Once the dress was on, they slipped some flats onto my feet and I had to wonder how they knew my size. 

When I was done, the servant escorted me to the dining room where everything was laid out nicely. The table was long and dramatic and at the head of the table sat Jude. I could already feel that this conversation was going to be an awkward one. And if we didn't have a conversation, the silence would definitely be awkward. 

Layla patted the spot next to her and the second I sat down, Jude pinned me with a scrutinizing stare. I froze for a moment before realizing that I had faced things that were far scarier than Jude Heartfilia. I breathed and forced my shoulders to relax. Eventually, he stopped staring and we started to eat. After we were done, Jude linked his hands together and went back to staring at me. 

Because I'm not a wuss, I stared right back at him. Without blinking. 

It was actually pretty easy. Just space out for a little while and you get your desired effect. The second I saw him blink, I cheered. Layla giggled and Lucy also cheered. 

"Layla tells me that you come from a newly budding family and had come here to visit in hopes to have relations with my Lucy."

Close enough. 

I nod my head eagerly. "Yep! I hope me, Lucy and Brandish can become the best of friends!" I pout and lower my head. 

"But mommy says that I'll only be able to visit sometimes since we're going to be really busy these next few years." Jude hums and I think of a certain King who also seems to speak the same language. 

"Brandish? That- Argh! Um, I mean yes, that sounds lovely. I hope that the three of you get along well." Jude discretely lowers his hand to soothe the spot where Layla had kicked him and despite wanting to laugh, I have to feign confusion. 

"Mommy will be coming to get me at 3 pm today." I nod my head matter-of-factly and Jude calls for a servant to clear the table. 

"Thank you!" I yell at them as they walk out of the room. 

I turn to Jude with a large smile. "She was nice." 

3 pm could not have come any faster. Jude, fearing the wrath of his wife, had one of the servants and a Guard escort take me into a nearby town and spoil me rotten. They bought all of the clothes I so much as glanced at and despite my immense discomfort, Layla had insisted. They even bought me clothes for when I would grow up. At 12 we returned home and also at Layla's Insistence, we had a mini fashion show. 

It was actually really fun. 

At 2:30 pm on the dot, there was knocking on the front door. I toss on my regular clothes and rush to the door, followed by Jude and Layla, Lucy in her arms. Jude opens the door and I blink when I see Virgo. 

She really is such a good friend. I didn't even tell her to come. I was just gonna make some excuse about having a meeting spot with my mom and going off with the first nicely dressed lady I had seen. 

Clearly, this was a better Idea. Virgo was dressed to the nines and I even noticed a lack of chains around her wrists. I didn't even know she could take that off. 

"Mommy!" I ran at Virgo and barreled into her before digging my face into her dress. She pressed her hand on the back of my head. 

"Good evening. Thank you for taking care of my princess for the day...... We'll be on our way now." Virgo turned away and began to walk away with me standing on her feet. Oh yeah. How could I forget that Virgo has absolutely no tact at all?

"Wait- well hold on now!" Virgo sets me aside so that I can watch this wreck with my own eyes before half turning towards Jude. 

"Yes?" 

"When do you think she will be able to visit?"

"She will visit again on Christmas. She'll be busy with her studies until then." Jude nods and I thought we got away scot-free but then Layla speaks. 

"Wow. You and your daughter look nothing alike! It's honestly pretty astounding that you guys are mother and daughter." I whip my head towards Layla and see that she's trying to stop herself from laughing. Layla, I thought you were on our side!

"She gets all her looks from her father."

"Is he present?" I begin to drag Virgo away before she could say anything damning.

"Come on Mommy! You promised me Ice Cream remember?" I grit out the last word and Virgo nods her head wordlessly. Once out of sight, I burst out in laughter and Virgo cracks a smile. 

"Thanks for showing up."

"Anytime, Princess." I wave my hands at her

"Get out of here already. You've caused enough trouble." I grin at her and Virgo disappears in fading stars and gold. 

I place my hands on my sheathed sword before making my way towards where Layla said he'd show up. When I got there, I noticed the distinct lack of civilization which was a good thing considering I was about to smite the man. 

I look around the area, mindful of each step I took. The second it hit 3 pm I hear something whizzing through the air. I unsheath my sword and hold it firmly in front of myself.

I come face to face with Caprico and he snarls at me. 

"Where is Layla? What did you do to her?" He questions harshly before jumping away to put some distance between us. 

"She was never going to come. It was a setup." I adjust the sword in my grip and I watch him seeth. 

"No, Layla would never do that to me! You must've done something to her!" I shake my head and lower my stance. 

"She's the one that sent the letter." He growls at me and charges at me at a fast pace. 

I breathe and watch him carefully. His hand-to-hand combat was top-tier. I was hoping it wouldn't be as good because they were still newly fused together but I guess it was just a natural by-product. 

As soon as he's close enough, I swing my sword. I may not be as good as Erza but I was okay and that one swipe was all I needed. I sheath my sword and turn to see Caprico hunched over, clutching his abdomen. 

He curls into himself before dropping completely to the floor. Caprico glares at me with gritted teeth. I simply watch as he passes out. The second he's out, there's a large poof of smoke. When the smoke dissipates, I see both Zoldeo and Capricorn in their respective bodies. Capricorn disappears and in his place is his key. I snatch it up and look over to Zoldeo. 

I should probably turn him in...

I knock on Layla's front door and not too long after, She opens the door. I place Capricorn's key in her hand and she clutches it to her chest. 

"I know you can't perform magic anymore but since Lucy will be, have her summon Capricorn when she can so that he can teach her and Brandish. As she gets stronger, I'll give her the other keys." Layla bows to me and I'm instantly embarrassed. 

"Thank you so much."

"Ah.." I rub the back of my neck "It's really no big deal, Layla."

"But it is, knowing that Lucy has somebody like you to look out for her and her future means the world to me." She stands back up and we stand in silence for a moment. 

"Is that Zoldeo?" She says after a moment and I turn to look at him tied up and on the floor. He glares at me and begins to struggle against his bindings. I smile down at him. I ended up gagging Zoldeo so that I didn't have to hear his screaming and tying him up like a worm so that he couldn't move.

"Oh yeah. No need to worry about him though, he'll be just fine." I turn back to Layla and smile. 

She stares at him squirming on the ground and I bow, bringing her attention back towards me. 

"I'll be off now!" I walk away with a wave of my hand and Zoldeo dragging across the floor behind me. 

Chapter Text

The First thing I did was turn Zoldeo over to the Magic council. They'd originally questioned how and why I had him but using my childish looks to my advantage, I simply told them that I found him in the forest with a long list of all the things he did. I even had the mind to create said list. 

It wasn't technically a lie. I just didn't find him like that. 

They were quick to drop it once they realized who he was and gladly took him off my hands. One of them even offered to walk me home. I simply thanked them and declined, saying that my house was practically right around the corner. They complimented me on how brave I was for such a little girl which made me a little more than upset but I wasn't about to expose myself so I simply walked away. 

After that, I took my happy self to the train station and rode my way to Magnolia. 

When I got to Magnolia, instead of heading straight for Fairy Tail, I headed toward the lake that I followed Laxus to. When I see that he's there, I mentally prepare myself for dealing with Laxus' family problems before approaching. 

Much like before, it was quiet for a while. And unlike before, Laxus started the conversation. 

"I told my grandpa what my dad did to me." I hummed and an image of CSK appeared in my mind but I brushed it away. 

"What did he do about it?" I lean back on my arms and turn my head toward him. All of a sudden, Laxus whipped his head around and glared at me with the intensity of a thousand suns. I blink and raise my hands in surrender. 

"He kicked my dad out of the guild!" He screamed at me and I pressed my lips together, looking around awkwardly. 

I lower my hands "Wasn't your dad hitting you? Plus he put that magic thing inside of you, isn't it a good thing that he was kicked out?"

"Well yeah, he was hitting me, but I didn't want him to get kicked out! This is all your fault!"

"Woah. Woah." I hold out my hand in the universal sign to stop. "I didn't do anything. Your dad got kicked out because he was a shitty person. If he was okay with hitting his kid, who knows who else he'd be willing to hit. Bet he'd even be willing to punch that grandpa of yours."

"He'd never!"

"Look, kid-"

"You're younger than me."

"Whatever. If your dear old dad was willing to hit his kid, y'know, the person he literally helped put in this freaking world, he is definitely, 100%, willing to hit his dad. In fact, I bet he's willing to hit some stranger's kid!" I throw my arms up in the air before letting them fall to my side. 

I wonder how many times we'll have to have conversations like this. 

Laxus seems to have finally put on his thinking hat at my words.

"You really think so?" He hunches his shoulders up to his ears and grimaces. 

Wow. I had no idea Laxus liked his dad this much.

I nod my head all knowingly and fold my arms. 

"I'm just going off of the little amount you told me about the guy, but he can hit anybody if he can hit you. No offense, but I don't think he actually cared for you Laxus. He probably wanted to raise you to be his perfect little weapon that he can manipulate however he wants."

That's exactly what he was doing. 

Laxus' shoulders drooped and I frowned. Poor kid. I rub his back and Laxus just sits there, accepting my comfort while he thinks. After a while, He shrugged me off before standing and grabbing my hand. 

I look down at our hands before looking back up at him. 

"I want you to join my guild." 

I already beat you to it. 

Laxus began to drag me away toward Fairy Tail but I dug my heels into the ground, forcing him to stop. He turned to me looking confused and slightly hurt. 

"Laxus, I'd love to join your guild but I can't." I pull my hand away and he faces me fully. 

"Why not?" He frowns.

I shuffle my feet around and bunch up my shirt in my hands, acting nervous. "It's just that, I'm gonna be really busy the next few years. I won't be there for a long time and I-"

"I don't care about any of that!" I look at him and once again, he was glaring at me but this time, it was for a completely different reason.

"If you join my guild, it doesn't matter how long you're gone or how many times you disappear. As long as you're a part of it, I know you'll always come back." I stare at Laxus and take note of the blush on his cheeks. After a while, I smile at him and he turns his head away from me. 

"Okay. I'll join." Laxus was quick to drag me off to the guild. 

When I get there, Laxus takes me up to Makarov's office and tries to enter with me but I keep him out on the pretense that I want my guild mark placement and color to be a surprise and that he can't watch me get it. He pouts but obliges.

When I walk in, Makarov seems surprised to see me. He was in the middle of stacking a few papers together. 

"You must be Laxus' new mysterious friend."

"You must be his grandpa." I retort jokingly. 

"It's good to see you. I was just thinking about how you were doing." He puts the papers down in front of him and smiles at me warmly. 

"I know there's no point in saying this cuz I know you'll just ignore me, but you really don't gotta worry about me." I rub the back of my neck and he pins me with a serious glare. 

"You're one of my children, of course I'm going to worry." He eases up his glare and I smile at him.

"Laxus dragged me here to join the guild. Obviously, he doesn't know that I'm already a member so this is just me covering for myself. It was good to see you." I approach the door with a small wave.

As I open the door, I send him a large excited smile. 

"Thanks so much, old man!" I shut the door and bound up to Laxus, lifting my shirt to show him my guild mark. 

He blushes but I ignore him and point to my mark excitably. 

"I'm officially a part of your guild Laxus!" He smiles at me and Makarov exits his office. 

"Everyone!" The guild turns quiet and turns their attention to him. "Welcome the newest addition to Fairy Tail!" He pushes me forward and loud cheers and whoops spring from every mouth in the guild. 

"You know what that means! Let's party!" The guild erupted in even louder cheers. Some were even whistling. I grinned. I could always count on Fairy Tail to be the same, no matter what time period it was in. 

For the rest of that day, I was involved in many a brawl. I wasn't about to go easy on these suckers so I didn't hesitate to toss everyone around like a bunch of rags. My combat skills definitely came in handy. Eventually, it turned into one-on-one fights outside of the guild (Makarov yelled at us after breaking the same wall. twice). 

I bounced in place, shaking out my hands to pump myself up. Not too far from me stood some guy named Wan. Roughly, he was around 8, maybe 9 years old. His hair was buzzed and he seemed very nervous. 

Makarov stands in between the two of us. "Alright! I want a good, clean fight!"

I stare Wan down from over Master's shoulder and see him start to sweat. I grin at him. 

"Nothing below the belt and don't pull any dirty tricks or you'll be disqualified!" He chops his arm downward. "Go!" Makarov practically dives out of the way and it's a good thing too because the second he moves, an Iron Dog was in his place.

He wanted to try and end this as fast as possible, huh? Yeah, I can do that.

I jump up as it approaches and when I land on top of it, I run along its base. As I get closer to its end, I realize that the Iron Dog was actually Wan's arm. Wan dispels his magic causing the iron dog to disappear. I land on the ground with a crouch which I then use to spring up and toward him. His eyes go wide and I send my fist into his abdomen. When he doubles over, I hit the pressure point on his neck and he hits the ground. 

I lower my fighting stance and Makarov approaches us. As soon as he makes sure that Wan is indeed alive, just unconscious, he raises my arm into the air. 

"We have a winner!" There are cheers and someone carries Wan off to the infirmary. I'm tossed into the air and I'm pretty sure I poked out someone's eye and kicked somebody else in the face but even so, I felt at home. 

"Do you have to go?" Laxus complained. 

He's whining but he doesn't like it when I call his whining, whining so I indulge him. 

Who knew kid Laxus was such a clinger?

I sigh for the millionth time and fold my arms before pinning Laxus with a stare. 

"Laxus. I already told you the day I joined the guild that I was going to be super busy! You really should've seen this coming!"

Laxus pushes out his bottom lip. He doesn't like it when I call it pouting either. 

I smile at him and roughly put my hand on his head. 

"I'll be back home, I promise." I pull away and lift my shirt to show him my guild mark. "Besides, I got this so that means I'll be home no matter where I am." I pull Laxus into a hug that he's currently pretending to hate before pulling away and walking out the doors. 

While I was at Layla's, I had started to think about a few plans for the future and while I was doing so, I realized that there were certain magics that I could use to my advantage. That means learning them first. 

The first one I decided to learn was Telepathy Magic. 

This would come in handy whenever I would need to talk to somebody without speaking out loud. It would be good for relaying information. And so, that's exactly what I was doing right now. With a book in one hand and the other pressed to my temple, I began to try and use telepathy on the unsuspecting citizens of Magnolia. 

Imagining a string between myself and my victim, I tug on it lightly and I watch the man to see if he had any reaction. I tug on it harder and in my head, the link between the two of our minds feels stronger. 

'If you can hear this, your fly is down.' 

I watch the man from my spot perched on the building and I squint my eyes when I see him instantly check his zipper. That could've been a coincidence so I'll try again. 

'This is Hex and if you don't do as I say, I'll take control of your mind.'

The man stiffens and begins to look around. 

'Careful~ wouldn't wanna make it obvious, right?' He stops searching his surroundings and I giggle. 

'Good. See that fruit stand to your left over there?' The man turns to the stand and nods his head.

'Take an apple and throw it down to the ground as hard as you can.'

He does exactly as I instruct and I grin.

It works. 

The fruit stand owner gapes at the man before starting to yell at him. 

'Slap him.' The man looks horrified but he complies and sends the fruit stand owner to the ground. 

'Good.' I release the connection with a giggle before making my escape before anybody realizes what I've done. 

That was great. Now I know that I can do it. However, I'll need a way to get it to work without having to press my hand to my temple. I flip through the book and finally land on a page. 

While pressing your hand to your temple helps, it's not necessary. Pressing your hand to your temple is a way to help concentrate your magic in that area so that you can create a connection between yourself and another much easier. As you get used to using telepathy, you'll no longer need to do this. However, using telepathy to connect to a person that is a long distance away, pressing your hand to your temple will help in this regard as well as reduce the mental strain it may cause. 

Huh. So that's why Warren always chose to put his hand there. It wasn't just to look cool. 

I think I may owe him an apology... 

While I was practicing how to not put my hand to my temple, I realized something. When I use my magic, I don’t move my magic around consciously. It was muscle memory. It’s kind of like how I don’t do breathing, It just happens naturally. 

After a while of failing to move my magic to my temple, I decided that it was time to switch gears. I press my hand to my temple and once the magic gathers where I want it to, I move my hand away and try to keep my magic in place. 

I hold it for 5, 10, 15 minutes before grinning triumphantly. Now to create the link. I breathe and set my sights on a woman that was eating her lunch at one of the outside tables. I create a mental link between the two of us and once I connect it, I tug on the string. Almost instantly, the string comes undone and I have to refrain from cursing out loud. 

I’d have to choose a different target. Definitely somebody closer. And so, as I continued to practice this, I went from the guy standing next to me to standing on the other side of town and pretending to be Laxus’ consciousness. 

With that, I continued to expand the range at which I could telepathically communicate with someone and I even began to connect to more than one person at a time. 

At one point, I even connected to around 200 people. Give or take.

Yeeeaah that one ended up on every single newspaper around Fiore. 

It was July X769 when I finally decided that I was good enough at telepathy that I could finally move on to the next magic that would help me in my endeavors. 

Teleportation Magic. 

Well, it was closer to warping because instead of just appearing there, it would fold the space between the two points. An easier way to explain it would be to draw two points on opposite sides of the paper, connecting the dots with a line and then folding the paper until the two points were overlapping. Or at least that was how the book was describing it. 

This magic was great because it would take me wherever I wanted to go as long as I had the coordinates or had somebody to warp to. I’d have to have met the person first though. Also, learning this specific type of teleportation magic was great because it also allowed me to create portals. I could make them as small or as large as I wanted. Sending my fist through a portal to punch somebody in the face, escapes, retreats. The possibilities are endless.

I set the book down and cracked my knuckles, stretching my arms above my head. 

In the book, it had said that creating the portal was easier than teleporting yourself so that’s what we were going to do first. 

Casting the spell, I instantly feel the change. The wind pushed at my hair and I could feel the air become denser in a way. 

“To Makarov’s office.” 

In the book, it said that eventually, I wouldn’t need to say the words to where I want to go, only visualize but we take things slow here. 

A magic circle formed in front of me, albeit a bit small. It was just large enough to stick my arm through it. I walk up to it and peek through to see that it was indeed Makarov’s office on the other side of the portal. I look around myself before grabbing a rock and placing it on his desk before closing the portal. 

Ooh, when I master teleportation magic, nobody is going to be safe.

For the rest of that year, I practiced making portals for anything and everything. Picking up groceries, leaving rocks on Makarov’s desk, grabbing food, going to the market. It was a huge time saver.

It was the beginning of the new year when I caught wind of where a possible celestial key may be. And even though it might be a rumor, I had to check it out just in case. 

Apparently, There was a dig site not too far from here, and supposedly, people have been noticing a strange magical presence. They’re saying it might be some sort of magical item like a celestial key or something of the sort. Heading to Fairy Tail, I scan the job board to see if somebody listed it as a job and I grin when I spot it. I snatch the thing off the board and get the Master to approve it before heading on my merry way. 

On my way out, I hear him distantly complain about the rocks suddenly appearing in his office. I walk a little bit faster when I hear that. 

Once out of sight, I open a portal and look through it before walking through it and letting it close behind me. 

Looking around, I notice a large number of holes and not a single person there. I wander around a bit, looking for anybody that would have listed the job but even after a few minutes of wandering around, I see nobody. 

A pulse goes through me and I whip around to yet again see nobody there. 

That must’ve been the magical presence everyone’s been feeling. 

I feel the pulse again and I follow it until the pulse affects me a lot more. When I get to its strongest point, I start to dig into the ground where I was standing and I scream when the ground cracks and gives out underneath me. 

I land with an oof and when I look up, I’m faced with a cave. I look at the palms of my hands to see them scraped up but I simply brush them off on my clothes before standing up. I walk further into the cave and the tunnel gets more narrow as I go, but for my small body, this is no problem. 

After a few minutes of walking, I spot a light at the end of the tunnel, and as I approach, I see that it leads into a rounded-out room. 

I squeeze through and I spot treasures that would make a wealthy woman jealous. Gold coins, jewelry, gems, statues, relics, fancy plates, and cups. The whole nine yards. As I’m eyeing all of this stuff, I suddenly wish that I had learned requip first. 

I dig through my things and whip out a book on requip magic in hopes to get a crash course so that I can at least take most of this stuff. 

I skim through the pages until eventually, I feel that I’ve retained enough information to put what I've learned into practice. 

I snatch a gold coin off of the ground. 

“Requip!” A magic circle appears around my hand and the gold coin disappears. I throw my arms up in the air and whoop before grabbing at things haphazardly and shoving as much as I could into my new requip space. 

Turns out, my requip space was small as fuck. But I wasn’t about to worry about that. It’ll expand as I keep shoving things into it, I’m sure. 

And so, I did just that. Filling my requip space was like the equivalent of eating too much. I was tired, I felt like taking a long nap, and I felt full in a way that I’d never felt before. 

I sigh, looking around myself. I was gathering all of the small things first. Coins, rings, earrings, pendants. Once I finished those, I started on the chunkier jewelry. 

I shudder at the feeling of getting too full again so I take a break and decide to go through everything and sort them by size while my requip space adjusted and grew bigger. This break was also to replenish my magic. 

As I sorted through everything, jewelry being the smallest and the statues being the largest, I spotted a treasure chest that was hidden amongst the previous mess of treasure. 

I unlatched it and instead of it being filled with more treasure like I had expected, I saw that it was actually just velvety padding. On top of the padding were several silver keys and one single gold key. Snatching up the gold key, I instantly recognize that it’s Virgo’s, and I grin. The key pulses in my hand and I send a small pulse of my magic through it. 

When I do, I can feel the denseness in the air dissipate. 

Guess she was tired of waiting.

Chapter Text

I turn the key over in the palm of my hand to look at its intricate design before requipping it into my already too full space. 

As I waited for my space to get larger, I continued to go through everything and ended up making a pile specifically of all of the stuff that I liked. When I no longer felt full, I started shoving things into my requip space. This went on for a while. I didn’t leave until the room was empty. 

I make my way out of the hole and when I do, Someone grabs at my arms to help me out. 

I brush off my clothes before looking up to see a very large, very muscular man. 

“You okay there little lady?” I nod my head harshly followed by an ‘mhmm!’

“I came here to take this job,” I rummage around my bag and pull out a now crumbled-up job listing and thrust it at him. He un-crumpled the paper and scanned its contents.  “And when I was looking for somebody to talk to, the ground under me started cracking and I fell into this huge cave!” I spread out my arms to emphasize how big the cave was. 

The man nodded his head and it looked like he was going to say something but I cut him off.

“I went down this tunnel and it got smaller and smaller but then I saw this light so I walked towards it and when I came out, I saw this even bigger room with a chest inside. I opened the chest and this key,” I requip the key to show it to him. He tried to take it but I snatched it out of his reach. “Was in there. This is what was causing that weird magical presence!”

He nods his head and pockets the job listing. 

“I was the one who sent out this job. Usually, I’d be mad that you didn’t check in with me first, but I'll let it slide this time as you fell in there by accident. Show me your guild mark?” 

I lift my shirt to show him my mark and I put it back down when he nods his head. He turns and beckons me to follow. 

“Here’s your reward: 5,000 Jewel. Oh and you can keep the key, I don’t need it.” Well good because I wasn’t going to give it to you anyways. 

 He hands me the money and I hold it above my head triumphantly. 

“Thanks, mister!” I skip away from the man and the second I'm out of his sight, I droop my shoulders with a sigh. 

I shrug on a jacket to protect myself from the cold January weather, open a portal straight into Makarov’s office and walk through. Makarov eyes me up and down and I close the portal before finally turning my attention to him. 

“How was the job?”

“It was pretty good actually. Showing up, falling into a cave, walking into a room attached to said cave covered head to toe in riches beyond your wildest dreams. Y’know. The usual.” I shrug my shoulders and Makarov’s eyes practically bulge out of his skull. 

“If that’s the usual, I want to know what's out of the ordinary.”

I chuckle and requip a small portion of the treasures onto his desk. 

He eyes the pile and briefly looks through it before looking at me incredulously. 

“This could pay for damages 3 times over!”

“And there was way more than that too.” 

Oh. He passed out. I awkwardly look around the room before opening a portal and leaving. 

I’m sure he’ll be fine. 

I think…

It’s been two years since then. It was now X772 and I was now 9 years old. 

During all of that time, my requip space increased to the size of a small house, I could now teleport myself without using portals (though I did still use portals), and I found a few other celestial keys. I found Taurus' key on some plains with a bunch of cows, I dropped by Galuna Island for Sagittarius' key, and surprisingly, I found Gemini’s key at a magic shop.

It was stupidly expensive. 

That brings me to now. I was wandering around, not doing anything in particular when some idiots decided to try and rob me. A presumed 9-year-old. 

“Give us all your money!”

“I’m nine. I don’t have any money.”

They shuffle around and look at each other. 

“You better listen to what we say girlie! We’re from the Fairy Tail Guild and we won’t hesitate to use our magic on you!” The one in the middle speaks, waving around I tense and my eyes sharpen into a glare. 

“The Fairy Tail Guild you say?” 

“Yeah! And we’re gonna beat you to a pulp if you don’t do as we say!” The one to the left says, pointing a finger at me. 

“Yeah! Do as we say!” The one on the right parrots. 

I glower at them. 

“How dare you.” The one in the middle takes a step back as I step forward. 

“How dare you desecrate Fairy Tail’s name to garner fear into others to get what you want!” I open a portal and send my fist through, my fist making contact with the middle one’s cheek. 

I send the man to the ground before setting my sights on the other two. 

“I’m going to make you regret the day you were born!” I roar and send the other two to the ground by spinning on my leg, kicking one and grabbing the other by the shirt, and slamming them into the ground. 

They blubber and beg for forgiveness on the ground but I ignore them and let my magic seep out to create a dense atmosphere. 

“Using the Fairy Tail name in such a way is punishable by death.” I say coldly. 

They hug each other and at my words, they pass out. I blink down at them before reeling in my magic power and searching them. I pull out many stolen goods and finally I pull out a key. I blink down at Libra’s key and send my magic through it to try and feel her presence. 

I feel Libra reach out to me gratefully and I smile before requipping the key and all other stolen Items before turning it all over to the authorities. 

I stroll through the front of the door of the guild and I instantly search the crowd for a head of brown hair. I hum when I don’t see it so I go up the stairs and into Makarov’s office. 

I walk into him talking to Cana and I close the door behind myself softly. Makarov looks at me briefly before returning to his conversation. 

“Gildarts won’t be back for at least a few more months. I’m sorry child.”

Cana lowers her head and I see her grip her dress in her hands. 

“Oh. Okay. Thank you.” Cana turns and jumps when she sees me. I smile at her kindly. 

“If you’d like, you can tell me all about it.” I offer patiently. Cana seems to think it over for a few minutes before nodding her head. I smile and hold out my hand for her to grab. 

“I’ll talk to you later.” I say over my shoulder before leading Cana out of the room and into the bathroom. I check all of the stalls are empty before setting Cana on the counters before hopping up myself. 

I swing my legs as I wait for Cana to gain the courage she needs to start this conversation. 

“Gildarts is my dad.” I nod my head and I give no reaction knowing that it would make Cana more hesitant to talk to me. 

“My… Um. My mom died a few days ago and I came here to be with him.” Cana twists her hands together nervously and I hum, leaning back on my arms and looking at the roof. 

“Gildarts isn’t here very often if you want the truth. He goes out on these super long jobs, stays for a few days then he leaves again.” Cana droops but I elbow her lightly to get her attention. 

“Gildarts is a very caring man. I’m sure he’ll stay if you tell him the next time he comes.” I encourage softly and Cana looks at me before nodding her head. 

“When he comes, I’ll be there to back you up, okay?” Cana smiles at me and I hop off with a grunt. 

“Until then, we should practice some magic.” Cana stares at me with wide eyes. 

“But, I don’t know any!”

“I know. That’s why I’m going to teach you.” I smile at her and place my hands on my hips. “Gildarts is going to be so proud of you when he comes back.”

At that, Cana seems more sure of herself and nods her head, determined. 

I requip a book about card magic and hand it to her. 

“This kind of magic will even help you predict when your dad is going to come home so work hard, ok?” Cana stares at the book with stars in her eyes and I giggle. I requip a deck of cards and hand them to her. 

“You can start with these.” I help Cana off of the counter and she runs out of the room to presumably study the book front to back. 

I watch Cana situate herself at one of the tables in the corner before opening the book. 

I watched her for a moment before heading up to Makarov’s office. The second I close the door, I activate the silencing runes and Makarov straightens, sensing that this was going to be a serious conversation. 

I pull up a chair and settle myself on it before looking at Makarov. 

“Things will be changing soon, and fast. In 2 years, I’ll be in Isvan. I’ve already kickstarted many of our future members' magical and physical training. How are things going on your end?” I produce a cup of tea and offer one to Makarov who takes it gratefully. 

“It’s actually much easier to convince everyone to get stronger.” A sip. “As for the tournament you mentioned, I’m still getting all of that paperwork done. I’ve been dropping hints here and there to the public to get them excited so that we can make some money off of it.” He takes another sip and rubs his brow with a sigh. 

“This tea is really good.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ve already mentioned this tournament to the guild members so a whole bunch have gone off to train in preparation for it.” I nod my head and take a sip of my tea. 

“Sounds like everything has been going smoothly so far. I’ll be overseeing Cana’s training until Gildarts comes back. When he does, I’ll go and visit Lucy and Brandish to see how they’re doing. After that, I’ll need help hiring somebody with location magic, preferably somebody that can use an object?” I furrow my brow and bring my hand up to my mouth, gently biting on the nail of my thumb. 

“You’ve got a busy couple of years ahead of you, it seems.” Makarov sets down his cup of tea. 

I sigh “Yeah. I really do have to turn everything around if I want everyone to have a fighting chance. I’m just worried that when it comes to it, we won’t be strong enough.” I run my hand through my hair. 

“Child, just know that you’re not alone in any of this. I’m here to help. The Celestial Spirit King is here too.” I blink. 

I hadn’t contacted CSK for a long time. I’m not gonna lie, I was so busy with everything else that I just forgot to talk to him. I smiled at Makarov gratefully. 

“Thank you.”

For the next few months, as it got warmer, Cana's magic got better and better. I helped when I could but ultimately, I knew nothing about Cana’s card magic so I let her figure out most of it while letting her bounce her ideas off of me and testing them out. 

In June, Gildarts finally came back to the guild. Cana was instantly nervous but she managed to gain her courage and approached him. He twisted her hands together and clenched her dress in her fists nervously. Gildarts stops in front of Cana and smiles down at her. 

“Got a new member, huh?” Cana lowers her head and I can practically smell the self-doubt. I reach out and grab her hand, giving it a small squeeze. Cana smiles at me, squeezes my hand back, and takes a deep breath before looking up at Gildarts. 

“My mom died a few months ago.” 

Gildarts tenses and looks like he doesn’t know what to do. He looks at me and I motion for him to wait. 

“In her will, I saw that my dad was still alive so… So I came to Fairy Tail to find him.” She tightens her hand in my hold and I rub the back of her hand with my thumb. 

“You’re my dad.” She rips the bandaid off and Gildarts freezes. He stays there for a while, rebooting his system, and the longer he stays there with no response, the tighter she holds on to my hand. 

It was starting to hurt a little but I didn’t dare let go. Cana sighs and droops her shoulders. Gildarts finally snaps out of it. 

“It’s okay. I’m sorry for bothering you.” Looking at Cana, I see the beginnings of tears spring to her eyes and my heart squeezes in my chest. I whip my head around and stare Gildarts down, urging him to do something. Anything. He starts to wave his arms around like an idiot and I press my lips together. 

“No, no, no, no, no! I just- Please don’t cry! I-" Gildarts sighs heavily and clenches his eye before crouching down and placing his hand on Cana's head. I let go of Cana's hand and took a step back. 

"Cornelia, Right?" Cana looked up at him through teary eyes and wet lashes. 

"She was the love of my life. I promised to visit her soon but I guess soon wasn't soon enough." Gildarts frowned and pulled Cana into a hug, encompassing her small body with his large arms. 

"I'm sorry I wasn't there but I promise, I will be from now on." I smile at the pair and Cana cries a little harder, gripping onto Gildarts' clothes as hard as she could.

I'm glad I was able to give Cana the childhood she deserves. 

Chapter Text

I scan my surroundings, eyeing the many holes in the cliff sides and the people carrying around all kinds of goodies from the holes. I approached a woman who seemed to be directing the whole lot, pointing her finger and yelling instructions. She was tall and lean but I could tell that she was strong. Her hair was braided and tossed over her shoulder to keep it out of the way. As I get closer, she finally notices my presence and places a hand on her hip. 

“You here for the job?” I nod my head and flash my guild mark. She nods her head and adjusts the hard hat on her head. 

She beckons me with her hand and starts walking. 

“There’s this mine over here, we’ve been going through it for a few months give or take but recently, my men have been running out screaming that they’ve just seen a ghost.” She scoffs and stops in front of a mine entrance that was more secluded than the others. 

I peer inside but all I see is the neverending darkness of the mine. 

“Buncha cowards if ya ask me but ever since they’ve been refusing to go in here and I can’t have that. I want you to go in there and find out what it is.” I nod my head as she talks and when she’s done, she straps something onto my head. 

“That there is a headlamp. It’ll help you see what you’re doing.” I adjust the straps to be less tight and feel around for the buttons.

As I go to enter the mine, the woman stops me by putting a hand on my shoulder. She rubs the back of her neck, thinking over her words before sighing and looking at me. 

“Look girly, I’m sure you can take care of yourself just fine but It’ll weigh on my conscience if I don’t at least send you in there with a "be careful". I have 2 daughters of my own and seeing someone their age do something potentially dangerous makes me worry so you better come back safe, ok?”

I smile at her and place my hand over hers. 

“Thank you, I will.” And I’m off.

As I go in deeper, I almost instantly have to turn on my headlamp. When I do, I spot some explosives in crates that have been pushed off to the side. 

I eye the crate and glance around before requipping an entire crate. 

I’m sure they won’t mind. 

Probably. 

As I traverse deeper into the mine, my soul jumps out of my body when I hear a low and log yowl. 

I lean on the wall and place a hand to my heart, huffing out a breath. 

When I calm down, I continue walking. It isn’t long when I hear that same low and long yowl. Only this time, it sounded like something was in pain. Coming to this conclusion I start running, pausing occasionally to listen. 

Rounding a corner, I freeze when I see a cat. But not just any kind of cat. 

An exceed. And an adult one at that.

What? Why is there an exceed here? They weren't sent down to earth for another couple of years and the Anima also wasn’t used for another few years. Or at least I thought it was. I crouch next to the exceed and gently turn it over. They yowl and I wince. There was a large slash going over its right eye. They were gripping their eye with their paws, trying to cover the wound but it was large and bloody. By the looks of it, I was lucky to have arrived when I did. Any later and they would have died. 

Requipping medical supplies, I lay them out as best as I could and approach them slowly. They yell at me, swiping a paw, and I quickly back away. I watch as they wince and at that moment, I decide that I have no time for this. 

“You need to let me help you. If you don’t, you’ll die!” I raise my voice and that causes the exceed to pause in their movements. Finally, they relent and carefully pull their hands away. I’m on them in a moment, cleaning away the blood as best as I could. 

I wince when I see that this wound was definitely not superficial. Their eye was definitely not salvageable. Ok. 

Ok, ok, ok. 

I have a plan but it’ll definitely take a lot out of me. I wrapped them up as best I could to prevent more blood loss before tossing everything back into my requip space. I scoop up the exceed and make a run for the entrance of the cave. 

As soon as I ran out, the woman, who had been previously leaning against the stone, stood up straight at the sight of me. She was about to say something but one glance down at my arms and she stopped herself. 

I hand her the exceed and open a portal right outside Polyusica’s tree. I take the exceed from the woman and jump through the portal, not bothering to close it before slamming open the old woman’s door. 

“Porlyusica!” The woman is quick to get angry, a broom practically teleporting into her hand so that she could hit me with it. 

As soon as she turns and sees my distressed look, she makes quick work and gently but quickly grabs the exceed from my arms and lays it down. 

“What happened?” She demands.

“I was on a job to look for a ghost in a mine. It wasn’t a ghost, it was this cat. I found them like this and I’m not skilled enough to give them what they need so I brought them to you.” 

Porlyisica nodded her head as I spoke and unbandaged what I had done. 

Seeing the exceed tense, I brush my fingers through their fur and scratch just behind their ears. 

“She’s here to help.” I assure them and they calm down. 

Porlyusica clears the blood and examines them with a critical eye. As soon as she realizes what she needs to do, she kicks me out declaring that she will need her space to do her job properly. 

When I exit, I see the woman from my job curiously peeking through my portal. 

She steps through and looks around, amazed. 

“You’re strong, kid.” She compliments and I smile weakly. 

I wipe sweat from my brow as I start to feel the effects of opening a portal and maintaining it for so long. 

“Thanks but I’ve got a long way to go before I can call myself strong.” The woman stares at me, shocked, before shaking her head and reaching into her back pocket. She hands me five thousand Jewel and I gape at her. 

This was more than what had been listed. 

“Don’t mention it. Maybe it’ll help that cat in some way.” She hesitates for a moment before placing her hand on my head and walking back through the portal. 

I close it behind her and stumble slightly. I brace myself on a nearby tree before sitting at the base of it and leaning against it. 

I might’ve overdone it a little.

The door slams open and I jolt out of my half sleep. Porlyusica says nothing, only waves her hand and I scramble to stand and follow her. 

Inside she leads me over to the exceed and I smile down at them. 

They were currently asleep, likely drug-induced. 

“I had to remove his eye, it was far too damaged to try and save it. In a few months, I’ll have something ready for him if he wants to have it.” 

I think back to when Erza had her eye replaced with a fake one and nod my head in understanding. 

She hands me a pouch and some instructions. 

“His medicine and bandages, to keep his wound clean and prevent it from getting infected, everything you need to know is on that piece of paper. I’ll call for you when his prosthetic is ready. Now get out of here, you’re stinking up the place!”

I scoop up the exceed and walk out before she decides to grab her broom. 

When I return home, I lay the exceed on my bed and take the chance to observe him. 

He was navy blue in color, one ear, his left one, was pierced with a slight sliver cut out of their ear just above it. His tail and paws faded into a lighter blue, creating a nice ombre effect. 

I brush my hand through their fur, smoothing it out when his eyes open abruptly. I pull my hand away from him quickly and simply watch as he observes his surroundings. His eyes finally land on me and he tenses. 

I stay still, not wanting to provoke him in some way while he tries to remember what happened. 

I know the second he finally remembers because he relaxes. 

“What’s your name?” I ask. 

An innocent enough question. One that he’ll hopefully answer. 

“Ruka.” He answers plainly. 

I nod my head and refrain from saying anything more. It didn’t seem like he wanted to talk. 

I grab the paper Porlyusica had provided and read it over. 

I need to change his bandages every day and apply the medicine while changing them. 

Easy enough. 

“Are you hungry? What do you like?”

“Noodles, any kind. Thank you.” 

“It’s really no problem.”

We ate together in silence. 

It was nice.

Chapter Text

A few months after I saved him, we went back to Porlyisica’s place and she offered him what she would offer Erza, a new eye.

He accepted instantaneously and a few days later, he was suited with a new eye. It was like he had never even lost it in the first place. 

To say that Ruko got overprotective of me was an understatement. 

He went wherever I went despite me not wanting him to. He was silent most of the time, but he was a grounding presence that I appreciated. He was strong too. 

He trained when I trained, expanding his magic reserves, and eventually, he managed to turn into a human. 

A human with cat ears and a tail but still, Human. 

He was tall, muscular, and intimidating to anyone except myself. His eyes were sharp and he hardly ever smiled. He looked mean but he was the nicest person. 

Makarov was actually grateful that I had someone that would come with me on my ‘mysterious adventures’. He told me (read: us) himself. 

Because of Ruko’s constant presence by my side, I had to come clean about who I was and what exactly I was trying to do. 

This only solidified his resolve to stay by my side. 

Two years had gone by, the year now being X774, and in that time, Laxus had his growth spurt and no longer begged me to stay longer, only wished me luck and that he’d kill me if I died. We had found Pisces key in a chest deep within the ocean and more recently, Aries key. 

I felt terrible but she was determined so I gave her key to Loke and tried not to think about what they would go through. 

During those years I’ve also accumulated things that I would be needing in the future. 

Food and water were the basics. I also got my hands on lockpicks and even found someone to teach me how to pick a lock. I managed to get a large amount of rope and I even found a laser. 

Testing it out inside the guild was a mistake. 

Let’s just say that the guild has a skylight now. 

Currently, I was on my way to gain some magic suppressing cuffs. I rolled my eyes as the council, specifically, this one guy that I couldn't bother to remember the name of, droned on and on about everything I had done. 

This was a mere formality, a showcase of their power. They’d done the same to others, even Erza. 

I’d always thought it was stupid. 

When they finally finished talking, I wiggled around and slowly but surely managed to squeeze my hand out of the cuff. The other hand followed and once I was completely free of the cuffs, I requipped them. I keep my hands behind my back to hide the fact that I was free. 

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

I shrugged my shoulders, unbothered, and traced the railing surrounding me with my eyes.

“Sorry?” 

I hear one of them scoff and Yajima sighs. 

I look up at him and he shakes his head slightly. 

I groan loudly, letting my head roll back. I keep my groan going long enough to irritate them before lifting my head. 

I take my hands out from behind my back and lean onto the railing in front of me, resting my head in the palm of my hand. 

I hear a cacophony of gasps and a choked-back laugh. I grin. 

“Can I go? We all know that this is just a formality and honestly? A waste of time for everybody in this room.” I lift my free hand to my face and check my nails, picking out nonexistent gunk from underneath them with my thumb before looking up at them with the most bored look I can muster. 

One of them, the man that had been non-stop talking, fumes in his seat and stands, pointing his finger at me. 

“Someone needs to teach you some manners, little girl!” He yells angrily.

“And someone needs to teach you when to shut your trap, old man.” I retorted. 

“Why you-” The man looks ready to jump off of his large pedestal to get to me when Yajima interrupts him. 

“Go.” I nod my head and waltz right out the door. 

When the door closes, I can hear the man practically explode and I grin. 

When I exit the building, Ruko’s in front of me in an instant, grabbing my head and twisting and turning it in all directions to check for possible injuries. 

This was a normal occurrence. Especially when we’d be separated for more than 5 minutes. 

It was annoying at first but I’ve learned to just go along with it. 

When he was done, he finally pulled away from me and crossed his arms. 

“How’d it go?” He says gruffly. 

I roll my eyes and start walking. 

“Old man wouldn’t stop talking. He was accusing me of a bunch of extra stuff that didn’t even happen, I started to ignore him after a few minutes, he told me someone needed to teach me some manners, I told him to shut his trap, and he exploded, Yajima let me go.” I shrug and Ruko huffs a laugh. 

“Y'know, one of these days your luck is gonna run out.” He releases his human form and flies by my head. 

“I know, and I have a plan for when that happens, but until then, I’m going to use it to my advantage.”

When I returned to the guild, Makarov called me up to the office. 

“Someone accepted your job request.” 

I perk up in my seat. 

“Really?” He nods and I grin. 

“They’ll be here tomorrow at noon so be sure to be here. That’s all.” 

I sit there a moment while Makarov gets back to his mountain of paperwork. 

“.... You’re not gonna ask?”

“Yajima will tell me later.” I nod my head and leave the office. 

The next day, I hung around the guild all day, waiting for my person to arrive impatiently. I tap my fingernails on the table rhythmically, lifting my head every time I hear the door open only to sigh dejectedly at the face of a guildmate. 

Hearing the doors open, I lift my head for the millionth time and groan loudly at the sight of Gildarts.

I drop my head on the table, letting my hair curtain my face. 

“What did I do?” I hear him say faintly.

Feeling a hand rest on my head, I peek up and look into Ruko’s stone gray eyes. 

“You need to be a little more patient, it’s not even noon yet. They’ll come.” He reassures me and I smile. 

“You’re right, I’m going to slowly kill myself if I just sit around waiting for this person to arrive. I'll go hang out with-”

The doors open, I whip my head around and spot an unfamiliar face. I cheer and go up to him. I hear a sigh from behind me. 

He was skinny and scrawny, definitely not the fighter type but I wasn’t looking for a fighter, I was looking for a tracker. 

“You’re early.” The guy looks down at me, blinks, and looks behind me. 

“Are you the one who sent out this job listing?” He pulls the paper from his pocket and I snatch it from his hands, barely looking at it before confirming that it was mine. 

“Yes, follow me.” 

I led him to a table in the corner, more secluded than the others since everybody preferred to just sit together. We sit across from each other and Ruko stands behind me, arms crossed. 

I see the wizard gulp nervously but I ignore it. 

I pull a piece of paper from my pocket and lean over the table to slide it across until it’s in front of him. I tap it once before returning to my seat.

“I need trackers for each of these people listed. They’re dear friends of mine but they’ve been missing for a while and I’m going to be the one that finds them.” 

The wizard says nothing as he looks over the names and nods his head. 

“Alright, I can do that for you. For these three names, I estimate that I’ll have your trackers ready in about... 20 minutes tops.” 

I nod, impressed. That’s a good time. Everyone else that tried to take on this job could only get the trackers ready after a few days and I didn’t have that kind of time. 

“That’s perfect! I’ll be back in 20 minutes, when you’re done, feel free to get some sushi at the sushi bar, just tell Mikuni that I sent you and add it onto my tab, I’ll pay for it later.” I send him a smile and a thumbs up before leaving and letting him do what he does best. 

For the next 20 minutes, I wait around impatiently. I ignore the pointed looks Roku sends my way and by 25 minutes, I start to get worried. 

I bounce my leg under the table and glance over at the wizard. His eyes were closed, his brows furrowed in concentration, He glowed a faint green and as I went to look away, he stopped glowing and beckons me over with the wave of his hand. 

Too eager to walk, I teleport in front of him and he jumps. 

“What happened? Why did you take so long?” I sit down and Ruko settles himself next to me. 

“One of the people you wanted me to look for, their location took a little longer to find because it was being blocked. Thankfully it was just a lower-level location blocker spell so I was able to bypass it easily but it still took a bit of time because they’d used more than one. Wherever your friend is, they’re not safe.” He explains before handing me three compasses. “I’ve labeled each compass with the names and they’ll lead you right to that person. They’ll keep working even after you find them, so destroy them or keep them somewhere safe when you’re done.”

I requip two of the compasses before gazing down at the one in my hand. 

“Thank you so much, you did better than I had hoped.” I requip a wad of cash and hand it over without looking at how much I was giving him exactly. 

He looks at it bewildered before ginning at me and announcing his leave. 

I turn to Roku and smile, requipping the compass. 

It was the middle of April when I finally had to put those compasses to use.

I was walking around town with Roku, doing weekly grocery shopping when I heard it. 

“Did you hear? Apparently, there’s some giant demon ravaging towns. They’re saying that it’s going to hit Isvan next.” I freeze. 

“Really? Oh gosh, I have family over there! I need to call them.”

I turn to Roku. “We have to go.” I open a portal directly into my fridge and drop our groceries inside before closing it and opening another portal. 

On the other side of the portal was the burning city of Isvan. 

The heat reaches me through the portal and I feel chills travel down my spine. 

Listening to the screams of the people, the cries for help, I get thrown into the memories of a very possible future. 

My heartbeat echoes throughout me, getting louder and louder but never louder than the screams. 

My fingers twitch.

A heavy hand lands on my shoulder and I turn my head to see gray. Ruko looks down at me, concerned. 

I smiled at him. He always knows exactly what to do. 

“I’m okay, I promise.” He doesn’t look all that convinced but when I walk through the portal, he follows. 

Requipping the compass, I run in the direction it points to and I stop when it leads me to a house. 

Putting away the compass, I grab hold of Roku’s hand before teleporting with him inside the house. 

The moment we got inside, the roof collapsed on top of us and I strained to hold it up. 

Roku grunted, also having to hold up the roof and I smiled warmly down at the boy in front of me. 

“Are you okay?”

Chapter Text

I look down at the boy in front of me. Same pale skin, same blue hair and eyes. 

“I won’t run.” 

I blink.

Dark blue eyes stare unblinkingly at my waist, looking down, I see that my shirt was lifted due to my arms being over my head and my guild mark was on full display. 

“Gray.” That seemed to have snapped him out of whatever trance he was in. 

“How do you-”

“I need to know where your parents are to help keep them safe.” I interrupt, dodging his question. 

My arms shake and I mentally note I should do more physical training. 

“They- Um- They’re in their room, just across the hall from mine.” I nod my head and remove an arm from the roof. 

Touching Ruko with my foot and grabbing at any part of Gray that I could reach, which was just me slapping my hand onto his face with my hand, we teleported out of the house and the roof fell. 

Gray screams and tries to run but Ruko is quick to scoop him off the floor and subdue the now-struggling Gray. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll save them.”

Teleporting back into the house, or rather, on top of the house, I walk over to where Gray said his parent’s room should be. 

I remain as quiet as possible, making sure to watch where I step to try and pinpoint where Silver might be. Hearing something move around under the rubble, I snap my head in that direction and make my way over. 

Carefully moving the rubble so that I wouldn't crush Gray’s parents more, I finally catch a glimpse of somebody underneath. 

Once I remove enough rubble to create a hole big enough for somebody to climb though, I peek my head through. 

“Are you guys alright?” Silver seems perfectly fine, just scrapes and bruises but his wife was unconscious. 

“Yeah," He huffs, attempting to move but freezes when the rubble shifts. "I’m just pinned and can’t move my arm. Please, Get my wife out of here.” Silver begs and my heart clenches slightly. 

“Don’t you worry sir, you’re both getting out of here. Your son is safe and waiting for you to come back.” I crawled through the hole that I had created and approached Silver who had a relieved smile on his face. 

I crouch down to see the damage to his arm and cringe when I see a large pool of blood and bone poking out through his skin. 

“How bad is it?”

“Can you wiggle your fingers?” 

I sigh in relief when I see his fingers wiggling as if there were nothing wrong with his arm and I turn to look at him from my crouched position. 

“A little blood loss and your bone may or may not be poking through your skin but there doesn’t seem to be any damage to your nerves, I’ll need to get a closer look to be completely sure though.” Silver nods his head and I go over to his wife.

“What’s her name?”

“Mika.”

Pressing my fingers to Mika’s throat gently, I feel around for a pulse. 

I furrow my brows and bring my ear to her nose. After waiting a moment, I stick my finger in my mouth, coating it with saliva before bringing it to her nose. 

Feeling the spot of saliva going cold before going warm then getting cold again I sigh in relief. 

“Your wife is breathing but it’s very faint, she will need professional medical attention. I'll be right back.” Putting a hand on Mika’s arm, I teleport into the hospital closest to Fairy Tail. Mika appears on the bed next to me and I flag down a nurse. 

“There’s been an attack at Isvan. More are likely to come so spread the word to nearby hospitals. I'm going to be bringing them here so make sure that everyone is prepared. The Patient's name is Mika. Her breathing and heartbeat are very faint. From this point on, this woman is a friend of Fairy Tail, I want the best working on this woman.” The nurse nods and a bunch of other nurses rush into the room to begin working on Mika. 

Teleporting back to Silver’s side, I begin to apply a tourniquet two inches above his wound. 

“This is going to hurt, bear with me.” I give the tourniquet one final twist and Silver yells out in pain. 

Ignoring him, I place my hand on his shoulder and teleport him to the same Hospital I teleported Mika to. 

“Can you stand?” I ask Silver and he nods. 

“Good, you can check yourself in. I’m going to save as many people as I can.” 

Teleporting back to Isvan, I stumble but I quickly right myself and head back to where I last left Ruko and Gray. 

Gray was full-on sobbing into Ruko’s pants who looked mildly uncomfortable in the presence of a crying child. When Ruko spots me, he silently begs for help and I smile at him before going up to Gray and putting my hand on his head. 

Gray looks up at me and launches himself at me, his arms wrapping around me. I stumble slightly, shocked. I wrap my arms around him and rub his back.

“We have to break through.” 

“Your parents are safe. Let's help everyone else be safe too.” Gray nods and I smile at him, Pulling away from him but keeping a hold of his hand. 

Activating my telepathy magic, I connect to everybody in the vicinity. 

“Everyone! I’m a wizard from the Fairy Tail Guild and I am here to help! I’ve dotted portals across the entire city, please make your way to the closest one and Leave! They’ll lead you to hospitals in Magnolia… Stay safe.” I look at Gray. 

He wasn’t much younger than me, only by three years, me being twelve and him at nine. It was kind of cute to see him like this compared to his future, stripping self. 

Gray looked at me completely amazed.

“Now, all we gotta do is stay safe while everyone goes through the portals.” 

Ruko scoops the both of us into his arms and large wings come forth from his back. He flies up and that’s when I get a good look at the destruction. 

Nearly the entire city was on fire, and at the edge, Deliora was stomping its way through. Despite all of the smoke, I could see my portals dotted throughout the place, people running or jumping through. 

Ruko flies to the opposite end of where Deliora is before getting back on the ground and setting us down. 

Once down, Ruko calls my attention by saying my name. Looking up at him, my head feels fuzzy and I breathe in a deep breath. 

“Why are you making the portals take everyone to Magnolia? Why not somewhere closer?” He puts his hand on my back. 

“We can’t beat Deliora right now. If we sent them to the nearest place, Deliora would be there not too long after and all of our efforts here would be wasted. If it’s Magnolia, they’ll be safe.” I explain, letting him support my weight for a bit. Ruko nodded his head and adjusted his arm so that it would cross my back to support my weight better, not saying anything else. 

We stayed there for a moment, waiting for everyone to cross. Other than the sound of the fire eating its way through the town, it was quiet. And despite everything, I couldn’t help but feel calm. 

I frowned at the thought. 

How could I feel calm while people were dying in front of me? Feeling a tug on my clothes, I look down at Gray. 

“I’ll do what I need to until the end.” His eyes are hard and cold as he stares directly into my eyes. He stares for a moment before turning and I watch him leave the cave, the light outside enveloping his silhouette. I feel a weight settle on my chest and I go to follow him but stop when I feel a hand settle on my shoulder. I don’t have to turn to know who it is. 

“How do you know when everyone is safe?” I shut my eyes and smile at him, the brief memory receding to the back of my mind. I bring my hand up to my forehead. 

“Remember when I was talking to everyone with my brain?” Gray nods his head. 

“Think of it like this, when I talk to someone with my brain, it’s like a string connecting my brain to their brain so that we can talk. I never cut that string with everyone so I can sort of sense where they are. When I feel that the string between us suddenly gets longer, I know that they made it to the portal and that they are safe.” I explain and Gray nods his head in understanding. 

Just then, I feel the last connection extend before I cut it off and fall to my knees, my body feeling heavy and my head feeling like it was suddenly drowning in fog. I close all of the portals and sigh, feeling like I just took in a breath of fresh air. I groan, bringing a hand to my head, and try to blink away my sudden blindness. 

I wipe the sweat from my forehead, feeling it start to drip down. I look up at Ruko when I feel his hand land on my back. 

I push his hand off and force myself to stand. 

“I’ll be okay. The last person just passed through the portal so now there's only one thing left to do.” I turn to Gray. 

“Do you want to learn magic?” Gray stares at me for a moment, and I can practically hear his brain process what I said before he nods his head. 

“Good. I have the perfect teacher lined up for you.” I say and Gray raises his brow.

“You’re not going to be the one to teach me magic?” He questions, folding his arms over his chest and I shake my head. 

“There’s a specific magic type that I want you to learn and I can’t teach that to you. It’ll help you become your strongest self.” Gray looks skeptical but he doesn’t say anything, simply shrugs his shoulders and unfolds his arms. 

Requipping a compass, I look down at the spinning needle before it settles in a direction and stops spinning. 

I show the compass to Gray. 

“This will lead us to your teacher. When we get there, I’ll have to leave you there for a while. I’ve got other things to do but don’t worry, I will come back.” 

I grab hold of Roku and Gray’s hands, and teleport to where I thought Ur was. We land in a frozen wasteland and Roku is quick to scoop both Gray and me into his arms, Summoning his wings to wrap them around us. 

I don't bother complaining and just hand the man my compass. 

Taking the well-deserved break, I let Ruko lead the way. He trudges through the snow and I even suggest teleporting us a bit further so that we don’t spend so much time out here in the snow but he outright refuses. 

Eventually, we come across a house in the distance and Ruko gains a second wind, walking a bit faster toward the house. 

He would never admit it but I knew that he was starting to get to get tired. And with the way he was holding me close, I could feel him shaking. He knocks on the door as best as he can and it doesn't take long for Ur to answer. 

The woman gasped and ushered us inside. I'm carried onto a soft bed and when a thick blanket is placed over me, I’m out like a light.