"A one way ticket to oblivion!" A.R.C raised his hand and sent everyone including himself to a different location.
Romeo Wendy Meredy Ultear and the Exceeds were all so confused on what just happened.
"Oh no!" Meredy said looking all around her.
"This place looks absolutely awful!" Wendy said.
They had been sent to an apocalyptic looking world world to where everything had been reduced to ashes the sky was gray and buildings were all toppled over.
"What in the world even happened here?" Romeo asked.
Wendys nose picked up something.
"We should go higher up I might be able to smell something familiar" Wendy said leading the way.
Romeo paused momentarily and looked back.
'A.R.C... Who is he?' He wondered before following his friends.
After awhile Wendy finally caught a whiff.
"Can you tell where we are?" Ultear asked.
"As far as I'm aware we're still in Crocus but that doesn't make sense" Wendy said.
"Wait then does that mean?" Samual asked.
"So it's not where we are it's when we are" Ultear said.
"So that means A.R.C or whatever has the ability to time travel" Meredy said.
"Yeah I picked up on that his magic felt similar to my mom's spatail magic" Romeo said.
"Your mom had spatail magic?" Wendy questioned.
"Yeah I learnt the basics from her but never really used it" He stated.
'Dammit this is our future? Nothing but wastelands and ruins? There's gotta be some way to change that!' Ultear thought while clenching her fist.
"No where where not in a different timeline... this is an illusion world created by that shadow" Jellal suddenly said seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
"Jellal!?" Every shouted.
"How are you here?" Meredy asked.
"I was fighting the man in the cloak and he used the same technique to send me here" Jellal stated.
"Well that's a relief to know this isn't our future" Wendy said looking at the lava landscape once more.
Ultear could tell Jellal was lying but understood why. There's no need to scare these kids into thinking this is an unavoidable fate.
"That shadows got some nerve sending us here" Ultear said.
"So how do get back to our own world?" Meredy asked while kicking a stone.
"We need a time space rift but this requires alot of magic energy" Romeo said.
"I see you mean using your spatail magic will" Jellal started.
"Yes but that alone is insufficient" Romeo said pointing at Jallel.
"I see looks like we need to work together" Jellal said.
Romeo nodded and they soon got to work on locating lacrimas with high spatail properties.
They split up into teams of two to locate them, on the way Wendy noticed Romeo was trembling.
"What's wrong?" She asked him.
Romeos face quivered and he fell onto his knees looking at his hand.
"That power, it was so uncontrollable, I felt like I was getting drowned in darkness" Romeos said looking at his hand and remembering what he did to Raven Tail.
Wendy knelt down beside and held his hand.
"Don't worry that wasn't you, I know it" She said softly.
Tears started streaming down Romeos face.
"I'm... scared... I don't ever wanna go through that again!" He said.
Wendy hugged Romeo from behind and comforted him.
"I won't let you drown darkness I swear... I'll be there for you, like I am now" She said.
"I was scared too... I was so scared of losing you when I saw that darkness take hold I didn't know what to think..." Wendy said hugging him tighter.
They were lucky to have each other and grow off one another.
Romeo wiped away his tears and they both stood up.
"C'mon! This is no time to be moping let's go get that lacrima!" Romeo said.
"Yeah!" She said taking Romeos hand.
"I'M ALL FIRED UP NOW!" Romeo yelled as they ran to there destination.
They located a lacrima and a gaint fire manticore near it, it carried a big flaming sword and seems to have adapted to the bad weather here.
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"What is that thing?!" Wendy asked hiding behind Romeo.
"I don't know but its in our way" Romeo said walking forward, Wendy followed behind him and they seemingly walked past him at first but Romeo took Samueals sword and spun it around.
Wendy used sky dragon wing attack and they're combined efforts caused a gust of wind that put out a bunch of the manticores flames.
"Fires bad for the complexion. I burn easily, never tan" Samuel said sarcastically.
"I haven't seen wizards like you in over 2000 years" The manticore spoke.
"It talks!" Wendy said surprised.
"Wanna make it another 2,000?" Romeo asked.
"SILENCE!" The Manticore roared jutting its fire sword forward. Romeo counters it by stabbing it in at the tip in return before jumping back a bit.
"Futile pest, you will suffer the wrath of Berial! I, the conqueror of the Fire Hell!" Burial yelled.
Needless to say a flaming Manticore didn't do much against a fire wizard and a sky dragon who could put out his flames.
"Your flames are nothing compared to big brother Natsu!" Romeo yelled palming Burials face with right hand and slamming it to the ground.
"Your arm... You are not human!" Burial said
"Don't ask. Damn thing drives me crazy though" Romeo said shaking the scales off his arm.
"You are just like he was..."
"And 'he' would be...?" Romeo asked.
"I must restore my powers..."
"Hey!" Romeo yelled.
Berial envelops himself in fire and rushes away.
"Well that was weird" Samuel said.
"What did he mean by your arm?" Wendy asked Romeo holding his right arm.
"Its been acting up ever since the Corvin gale stuff but its nothing" He said. Wendy was still worried about it but they had more important things to deal with.
After the two teams located the lacrima Jellal and Romeo casted a spell that opened a portal.
Everyone hopped through the portal but before Romeo could go he saw A.R.C emerging from the ground behind him and decided to confront him. That shadow was born from his darkness so it was his responsibility to deal with it.
