Time After Time

Stand off

{MIZU'S POV}
If I pretend that everything's alright, this would almost be like any other walk through Magnolia with my family.

Mom is clinging happily to Dad. Kori is clinging happily to Storm. I'm picking up discarded clothing items from the ground whenever Dad and Storm decide subconsciously to strip. Yup. A completely normal walk.

But it's not normal. Storm, Kori, and I, as well as all our friends, have been sent into the past, back to before we exist. Our parents don't know us. They're not even married yet.

Furthermore, there's a dangerous monster known as the Way Back marching straight for us, and the only way we can stop it is the one in a million odds that we can find a future magic user.

Actually, the niggling thought at the back of my head says, it's a future magic user or people from the future. We're from the future, so it stands to reason that we could fight it.

No, no no! I shake my head. That thing is way too dangerous! I don't realize I've fallen behind until Storm falls back and elbows me lightly. "What'cha thinking about, sis?"

"Kori wishes to know too!" Kori whispers. I'm about to respond when a panicked, out of breath person races by.

"Hey mister, what's wrong?" I ask. Call it intuition.

"Two guys are in a stand off back there." He pants. "Some old hunch-backed dude and a punk kid."

Gale.

"The kid has two Fairy Tail wizards with him. I've heard stories about how overboard Fairy Tail wizards go. I'm not sticking around to see firsthand!" He keeps running.

"Are Storm, Mizu, and Kori alright? Juvia was worried when you stopped." Mom calls. Without warning, I dash in the direction the guy came from.

Gale, please be alright!

Lexi would totally misunderstand if she heard that. It's not that I'm worried about Gale in particular. But what if that man sends him further into the past? We might never see each other again!

Finally, I reach the stand off. The man stands in front of a violet-haired lady defensively. Could she be the future magic user? He glares at Gale, who's flanked by a confused Aunt Levy and Uncle Gajeel.

"Gale!" I cry, running towards him.

His eyes never leave Old Hunch Back. "Mizu."

"Is that him?"

"Yeah. The one who did this to us." Gale growls, narrowing his red eyes. He looks quite scary, it's hard to believe he's actually a softie.

"What?!" Aunt Levy gasps. "You're the one who injured Gale and the others, and made their guild mates forget them?"

"How dare you?" Uncle Gajeel's glare turns to steel.

"Mizu, go to the guild. Lexi's there, she has her lightning rain to impede movement." Gale orders. I was just thinking that.

I look at the guild hall. Clouds are converging around it, and I see flashes of lightning. "Okay. But it seems like she's already using it."

I run as fast as I can to the guild hall and shove open the door, sides heaving. Everyone turns to look at me.

"What's wrong?" Nova commands, concern etched across her face.

After a moment, I'm able to respond. "Gale found a future magic user. And the man that sent us here is guarding her!"

Okay, so the part about that violet-haired woman being a future magic user is only my educated guess, but the effect is the same.

Lexi plops Luke in Aunt Mira's arms, and Rose does the same to Uncle Jellal with Reiki, who looks tired. He must have lost control.

"Take us there." Nova commands.

Rose cracks her knuckles. Lexi smiles sweetly, like when she's about to high five me and shock me with her static electricity magic. Sweetly evil.

"I'm coming too." Aunt Erza says. Uncle Jellal looks like he doesn't know what on Earth to do with the now peacefully sleeping Reiki.

The five of us exit the guild hall, me in the lead. I take them to where Gale is, and see that Storm and Kori gathered up the rest.

{NASHI'S POV}
Storm finds me and drags me away before I can complain. However, once seeing who he brings me to, I'm glad he did.

I pound my fists together. I'll turn the bastard into charcoal for messing with me and my friends.

Mizu arrives just now with Nova, Lexi, Rose, and even Aunt Erza, who immediately takes control of the situation.

"Everybody calm down!"

"But Erza, that guy—" Uncle Gajeel tries to protest only to be stopped by a dark aura.

"We will deal with that in due time. The most important thing right now is to protect Magnolia. Mizu! Which one is the future magic user?"

A violet haired lady raises her hand. "Um, I think you're referring to me."

"We are in need of your assistance." Aunt Erza approaches her. "A dangerous monster—"

"Stay away from her!" The hunch-backed man shouts and tries to push Aunt Erza away. She swats him away like a fly.

He tumbles to the ground, his hood flying off. The violet haired lady gasps. "Dad?!"

"Huh?" My mouth falls open.

"No..." Her eyes search through the bystanders until the land on a tall, dark-haired man shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. "You're my father. But..." She turns back to the man of the ground. "I can tell. It's the exact same presence. You're my father from roughly twenty years in the future."

Everyone looks stunned, except us kids. We know she's telling the truth.

"What's going on here?" Aunt Erza wasn't expecting this turn of events. "Two fathers? One is from the future?"

"I don't know." The violet-haired woman said. "My name is Sarai. You mentioned a monster? How about—" her gaze flits to her fathers "—we talk somewhere else?"

We make our way back to the guild. All the while, Sarai's fathers keep trying to convince her to not listen to us, saying that the monster is none of her business. Sarai is determined to help, which seems to upset the future father.

Once inside, future father explains his side of the story. Sarai tried to fight the monster in the past, but it overpowered her because she was alone.

His goal is to save his daughter's life, which would be quite noble if he didn't drag us into it. For some reason, future father, who's name is Graham, doesn't mention us also being from the future.

"Eh, you kids," he says when asked, "I didn't mean to drag you into this. You were in the alley when I appeared. Must have been the side affect."

"Side affect?" Nova asks.

"That spell has like a twenty percent chance of making you forget a very important fact. Your guild must have forgotten you when you happened to be wrapped up in the future. It probably will wear off."

"Probably?" I arch an eyebrow. Dad lights his fists on fire.

"Guys, huddle." Storm says. The adults look at us like we're crazy, but we link arms and stick our heads in the center.

"Any forgetfulness?" I feel like we should get that out of the way.

"Nashi, even if we did, we wouldn't know." Rose rolls her eyes. Storm snickers.

"What're you laughing at, Popsicle?"

"You, Sparky."

"What'd you say, Brain Freeze?"

"You heard me, Flambeau."

"Guys. Enough." Nova snaps. "The point is, we didn't forget anything, but he sure did. He doesn't remember we're from the future!"