𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍 // 𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙭 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

𝙖 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙

// Change P.O.V //

The sound of footsteps and heavy panting filled the air. Yukino lugged Past Rogue along, his boots dragging along the ground as he attempted to run alongside the others. Past Sting and Past [Y/N] respectively had a tight hold on Lector, Frosch and Kuschel. Big, fat tears were pouring down the red Exceed's face as he sobbed, gripping tightly onto Past Sting's shirt and holding on for dear life. His crying and snivelling increased tenfold when there was a loud crack that rang out through the wide, blue-walled cavern. Past [Y/N] squeaked in alarm and chanced a quick glance at the ground, her eyes widening more so when she realised what was responsible for that noise was the very ground cracking beneath her feet.

"Yukino..." she started, panickedly.

A girlish giggling came from behind, and Yukino's eyes widened. The group whipped around to see a familiar set of brown eyes and pink drill tails - Yoko Chain. Her face was more mature and she seemed to have grown an inch or two over the past year, but aside from that, she hadn't changed a bit. Even her clothes looked similar to her previous outfit.

"You really think you can escape me?" she grinned widely, maniacally. Past Sting allowed Yukino to lean Past Rogue onto him, and the silver-haired woman drew one of her keys - Ophiuchus. Before she even had the chance to summon the Serpent Bearer, Yoko swung her double-edged axe over her head and slammed it into the ground. The icy floor split the rest of the way and, with that, they all fell through. Yoko's lunatic laughter rang out, fading further and further away until Yukino felt her back hit something hard and then came floating, sinking - water.

She suddenly burst up through the surface and the first thing that came was Past Sting's desperate gasping as he tried to recover Past Rogue. Yukino had the quick realisation that Past Sting couldn't swim, and then had a second, more horrifying revelation that she couldn't possibly save everyone at once - including herself.

Her head was forced under the water once again by the raging current, her blue flower tied into her hair coming loose, the screams of the kids muffling above the surface. Through bleary eyes, she could see pairs of legs kicking wildly, trying to keep themselves afloat.

'I'm sorry, Sting, Rogue, [Y/N]... I wasn't able to save them, any of them at all... I'm sorry, Angel, for not being a better sister... and for not being around longer,' brown eyes closed as they accepted their fate, 'and Minerva... I'm sorry, for I was never able to tell you that I—'

Her back hit the land all of a sudden and she breathed, again. The hair on her arms stood up as she shuddered, her body acclimatising to the sudden lack of cold around her. There was a shuffled beside her and she slowly turned her head, blinking the brackish water from her eyes.

There was Past Sting, blond hair plastered to his forehead just like the first time she had seen him, hacking up water with his legs pulled up to his chest. Past [Y/N] sat next to him, thudding the ball of her palm onto his back in an attempt to help him cough up the water. Past Rogue was leant with his shoulder against his back, crimson eyes focusing and unfocusing on the air in front him. It seemed that, mentally, he was far away elsewhere.

Yukino breathed a sigh of relief upon realising the three young Dragon Slayers were alright, leaning back on her elbows. The absence of tightness in her hair, implying that her flower clip was gone, bothered her, but that wasn't what concerned her.

"Where..." she managed before sitting up fully, bolt upright. Kuschel, Lector and Frosch were nowhere in sight. Her head whipped around frantically as she deliberated what the three Dragons from her time would do if they found that their Exceeds had been lost, in her care no doubt—

A pair of long legs appeared in front of her, clothed in grey boots that reached the owner's thighs. Yukino followed them up and saw all three Exceeds clutched in a pair of bronzed arms.

"You looked like you needed some help."