Time After Time

Goodbye for now

{NASHI'S POV}
After Dad says that, the whole fight lasts about 15 seconds. Mom and Aunt Erza don't even have to put down Luke or Reiki.

Uncle Gray skewers it with a giant ice spear, Aunt Erza uses her circle sword to fill it with holes, and Dad torches it.

They send it flying straight up so high, it takes five minutes to fall back down.

Aunt Wendy uses her sky dragon's roar to blow it sideways so it doesn't crush the guild hall. We stare at the lifeless monster, glow gone from it's eyes, with our jaws on the ground.

The monster that took all of our hits like it was swatting a fly, down in a flash. Our parents really are amazing.

Just when I'm wondering what we're going to do with the massive corpse of the Way Back, it begins to glow with blue light similar to what brought us here, and disappears.

"Going back to it's real time." Aunt Erza explains. "Master is going to flip out when that thing appears out of nowhere."

"What about us?" I ask. "How to we go back?"

"My future magic will take us back to the future." Sarai responds. "But I'll need your help again." She says to the adults.

They all nod, linking hands. Sarai begins to chant, and our parents grab onto us. We too begin to glow with blue light, but it's very faint and flickers after a few seconds.

"I need more energy!" Sarai calls.

"Think of something really important in our time that you want to go back too." Mom says.

The twins squeeze their eyes shut. "Dad." Gale and Rose repeat after them. The blue light gets a little bit stronger and more steady.

"Family." Storm, Mizu, and Kori say in unison, hugging each other.

"Friends!" Luke and Reiki laugh, high-fiving over their mother's shoulders.

That leaves me. I look around, at my parents and friends, and know exactly what to say. "Home."

The blue light glows impossibly bright. I expect it to be like how we were brought here, and brace myself for the major bout of motion sickness that's coming my way, but instead find the guild hall filled with glowing blue apparitions.

It's everybody from the guild from our time. The people from this time stare on in amazement as older versions of themselves walk around and sit on stools and talk to each other.

It's not jut them either. A lot of people from other guilds, like Uncle Sting and Aunt Yukino, are there too. They seem anxious.

"The Way Back's dead right? Where are they?" Yuna Eucliffe asks worriedly. I realize that everyone is waiting for us.

Then Uncle Laxus and Uncle Jellal spot us. There are shouts of happiness, and everyone converges, laughing and welcoming us home.

{NATSU FROM THE PAST'S POV}
And here I thought I'd only see a Lucy from the future once. After all those blue images of everyone appeared, the me, Lucy, kids, and everyone from the future slowly faded into those same blue images and disappeared, returning to their own time I guess. Nobody's moved since.

I still can't believe Nashi and the others were in Fairy Tail. And that whole business about me and Lucy having kids... I don't really get it, but I think Lucy might've gotten sick thinking about it or something because she's beet red and can't look me in the eye.

In fact, things seem awkward between Gray and Juvia, Jellal and Erza, and Gajeel and Levy too. The only one who's really happy about this is Mira.

She was shocked when her supposed kids ran up and hugged Laxus (strange that they hugged him and not their father), but seems to have recovered, and has a huge smile on her face.

She's whispering something about ships sailing, although why she'd want to go on a boat, I don't know. Just thinking about it makes me seasick.

The silence is broken by the doors swinging open to reveal Happy, back from a fishing trip that started before the kids even showed up.

"Hey Natsu," he flies over to me. "Why's the town destroyed? What'd ya do this time? And who's this?" He gestures to Carla, flying in behind him carrying a giant mass. It's Sarai, broken and bloody, but I can hear her heart beating faintly.

I explain briefly who she is, what happened, and ask about Future Graham.

"There was another man. But he disappeared in a puff of blue smoke as we were flying here." Carla informs us, as Wendy begins healing Sarai.

"That means he made it back too. That's good." I say. Future Graham made some messed up choices, but he did it to protect the one he cares about. That, even I understand. I look at Lucy again.

Our eyes meet, and she quickly looks away, turning an even darker shade of red. Wow, her fever must be getting worse.

Suddenly a blue portal of light forms in the center of the guild hall and out stumbles Nashi. Wait, what? I'm not the only one who's completely lost.

She's carrying a leather pouch, and looks a little green. "Urg. Definitely transportation." She takes a second to recover, then grins and waves. "I'm ba~ack! Miss me?"

"What's wrong?" Lucy asks worriedly.

"Two things." Nashi holds up a finger. "One. We never thanked you for taking care of us, even though you didn't know us yet." She holds up another finger and raises the pouch. "Two. This is dream powder. It'll make all of this seem like a dream, so that everything will happen like it's supposed to."

"But I don't want to forget you!" Lucy protests. This makes Nashi very happy.

"It's not goodbye." She looks at me then back at Lucy, and winks. "It's goodbye for now."

She turns and walks back into the blue portal, tossing the pouch over her shoulder as the portal closes. It hits the ground and silver glitter explodes all over the guild hall and all of Magnolia, removing all traces of the future.

The glitter enters my nose and I can't remember Nashi or Luke's scents anymore. It enters my ears and I can't remember the sound of their voices. It makes my eyes feel heavy, tempting me to sleep.

I want to yell at the glitter to stop, that I don't want it to be a dream. I want to remember. Something clasping my hand stops me. It's Lucy.

I squeeze her hand, and feel her squeeze back. That's right. It's not goodbye. We'll see them again. With that in mind, I allow sleep to overcome me.

All that's left is to ask Happy how kids are made.
.....................................................................
Sorry I've been out. It's summer so my dad decided to take me on a huge camping trip. We've been to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, as well as Mount Rushmore and Devil's Tower and a bunch of other places. All this is really amazing and gorgeous scenery, but unfortunately means no service and no time to write. I'm literally writing this at midnight and driving 16 hours tomorrow. So what did you guys think about the ending of Time After Time?

Here's a bonus (because I feel like it):
Natsu: *thinking back* Wow. Was I really that dense?
Lucy and Nashi: Yes, yes you were.
Everyone else in guild: *nodding heads in agreement*
Natsu: *sweat drops*