The Ring Master | Jellal Fernandes [1] ON HOLD

21 | Reunion In The Rain

"That's a way different story to the one we were told." Happy muttered as he watched his brethren closely. "You're not lying to us are you?"

"No young man. To prevent panic amongst the Extaliants, we carried out our plan without their knowledge. The Queen then issued a false proclamation, it was merely a cover up for our plan. We felt horrible about making the Queen lie to you like that but we had no choice. Despite what you've heard, we can assure you that we have no ill will towards the dragon slayers whatsoever."

"Don't worry. We know." Wendy smiled kindly as she looked to the flying cats. "You just needed something to go along with the story you told them."

"You knew everyone would panic if the truth got out so you had to make up something else to tell them." Lucy nodded as she understood the reasoning.

"We get it." Gray told them.

Halay smiled weakly. "A lot more then you think."

"We made use of the human's Anima to carry out our operation. However, something complete unexpected happened with one of the eggs. We had no idea that you Carla, possess an incredible power." Shagotte revealed which made Carla gasps in shock. "Yes, as it turns out you possess the same prophetic power that I do. Unfortunately, you'd have conscious control over it. As a result, it clouded and confused your memory. Of the 100 Exceeds that we sent away, only you had this gift. I suspect that you began to see scattered fragments of Edolas' future. You gift made you mistake this information as your mission."

"I was wrong." Carla whispered to herself in disbelief as she looked to her paws, trying to comprehend everything being told to her.

Happy looked to his white friend. "Does that mean ..."

"You were never given a mission. It was just your way to make sense of all the strange thoughts inside your head. You were sent here because we wanted to protect the next generation. Nothing more." Shagotte confirmed as her gaze watched the white exceed carefully.

"So those were all prophecies?" Carla muttered, still in a state of shock.

"For whatever reasons, we thought it would be best to keep your prophetic powers from you.  Therefore we had to make it seem as if we were controlling you. We beg your forgiveness." Nadi begged, his hand still bouncing up and down in a rhythm.

Out of the corner of her teal eye, she noticed a familiar sparkle that confused her. Her eyes widened when she saw the Ichiya cat look alike. "Woah he looks like Ichiya." She exclaimed in awe and shock at the sight.

"Ichiya? Where?" Erza whipped her head around and tensed at the name.

"Woah." Keeri exclaimed from behind the pair as she watched the sparkling cat too.

"They're optimistic aren't they?" Natsu laughed as the large group of exceeds started to cheer out of no where.

Shagotte almost started to cry. "Thank you everyone."

"Well in that case, I forgive you." Carla reluctantly sighed as she looked to the rest of the exceeds who smiled in response. "But tell me, how did I end up with the same prophetic power that you do?"

Shagotte coughed awkwardly, no one looking her in the eye. "Well... I don't really know what to say." Halay couldn't help but laugh silently at the obliviousness of the exceeds in front of her. They bid farewell and the exceeds disappeared from view, Tiger sending one last wave to her new friends before flying away.

"It all worked out," Natsu grinned happily, bouncing his arm up and down like Nadi did. "I'm glad everything ended up okay."

Gray laughed at his frenemy. "That's funny, you totally caught his weird arm waving."