Wet drops were hitting Halay's nose as she was pressed to the floor. Rain. It was raining. Her eyes couldn't help but flutter close as she inhaled the sweet smell of the forest air. It smelt like home, she was home. But that's when she felt an elbow in her rib causing her to look down to see Rose being squished to death by all her friends that had landed on top of her.
"Get off me." Rose growled in annoyance as she gripped the mud underneath her, preventing her from punching anyone.
Natsu was the first to jump up, everyone falling off him as he started to dance in the rain. "We're back everybody! Everything's back to normal!" He cried out in happiness.
"There's Magnolia!" Lucy pointed out as she stood up, everyone else following suit.
"We did it!" Happy jumped up and down in glee as a weight felt lifted off their chests.
"Wait, lets not get ahead of ourselves." Erza commanded as they all stopped to look at the almost nude red head. "We shouldn't celebrate until we know everyone's okay."
"They're just fine." A familiar voice echoed throughout the clearing. The group all looked upwards to see a swarm of Exceeds flying above them. The Fairy Tail wizard's faces dropped in shock.
"Tiger?" Halay questioned at the sight of the orange exceed.
Tiger smiled brightly as she lowered herself down to the group. "We got here a while ago so we checked on them for you. We decided to fly through town real quick. All your friends and everyone in town are doing great."
"When we talked to them, they didn't even know they had been turned into a lacrima." Another female exceed added as she flew round in circles, surrounding the guild members.
"Earthland is totally awesome you guys." A male exceed exclaimed as they all landed on the ground, all smiling and joyful at their new home. "They have tones of magic power."
"What are they doing here?" Carla questioned in anger as her eyes danced over her fellow winged cats. "It's not right. The Exceeds don't belong in Earthland. We cannot allow them to stay here. They're far too dangerous. They should return to Edolas."
"They're flying cats. What's so dangerous about them?" Halay asked the white cat as she offered her jacket to Erza who gratefully took it and covered herself up. The brunette crossed her arms over her chest to hide the large scar up her arm.
"Be nice." Happy tried to tell her.
"There home is gone so they have no where to go. I think that we should forgive them." The sky dragon slayer reasoned with a tense smile.
"No,"
"We apologise for throwing rocks at you lady. We're really sorry." An exceed spoke up, rubbing his foot in circles.
"This has nothing to do with you kids. It's her." Carla screamed as she pointed at the queen. "I'm angry because Extalia's Queen and her lackeys sent me on a mission to Earthland to kill the dragon slayers."
"I can assure you that she had a most honourable reason to." One of the four main exceeds that were surrounding the queen said, trying to win over the white cat.
Another of the four nodded. "I remember the moment vividly, it was six years ago."
"As I mentioned before," the first exceed jumped back in to explain. "Queen Shagotte has the ability to glimpse into the future. It is both a gift and a curse. One day, she saw Extalia fall. We now realise that Extalia was bound to fall through natural means by exhaustion of magic power. However, at the time we believed our homeland would be destroyed by the humans."
"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."
"Halay." Rose stated breathlessly, trying to reach out for the brunette's hand but it was too far away. The ring master turned to see the red head stumbling and suddenly she dropped.
"Rose!" She screamed out in panic, just grabbing the girl's head before she hit the floor. "Are you okay?"
Rose started to violently cough up enormous amounts of blood. "Do I look okay?" She growled in annoyance. Keeri bent down next to her friends and hovered her hands over the dying red head.
"This may feel weird." The purple haired girl warned as a purple magic circle appeared under the tips of her fingers. A gentle breeze pushed under the pair, their hairs standing up as the floor started to glow purple. A magic circle was placed below them. Halay watched as the blood around Rose slowly disappeared and her breathing became normal again.
"Thanks." Rose states as she tried to push herself out of the brunette's hands.
Halay moves her hands from the dragon slayer's neck to her shoulders as she helped her up. "Careful."
"I'll be fine." Rose brushed off the concern.
Keeri raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"
"Yeah."
"All righty. What do you say we head back to the guild?" Natsu declared loudly as his arm bouncing had spread to his friends.
"Sounds good but what are we going to tell everyone?" Lucy questioned in concern.
"Nothing." Gray answered simply. "Since they got no clue that anything happened, why would we bother telling them?"
"Good point but I think we should tell them about mystogan, don't you?" Erza reasoned as she tried to come up with some form of strategy.
"Hey what's with ... your arms?" Wendy asked the four as she stood with Keeri, Rose and Halay, watching them and questioning why they were friends.
"We got a problem." Gajeel announced as he searched the bushes around them urgently.
"We ain't got a problem." Natsu exclaimed in offence. "It's actually a lot of fun, you should try it."
"I'm not talking about your fist bumping you morons." The iron dragon shouted loudly in anger. "Where in the heck is my cat? Don't tell me those flying felines took Lily with them."
"I didn't even know he had a cat." Halay muttered to herself as she watched the frantic Gajeel search desperately for the exceed he had 'adopted'.
Keeri sighed at her old friend's childish tantrum. "It's a recent development."
"Are you blind?" The authoritative voice of Pantherlily called out. "I'm right here." Out of the bushes stepped a small, black exceed. He was a fraction of the size he was in Edolas, he looked adorable.
"So tiny!" Everyone exclaimed in shook.
Happy tried to cover up his laugh. "You look really cute that size though." He complimented wholeheartedly.
"It appears that my previous form wasn't well suited for Earthland." Lily looked down at his small form.
"Obviously." Carla rolled her eyes at the black cat. "That doesn't bother you?"
"Normally it would, yes, but right now I want to join the guild that saved my prince. You promised me, you said you'd get me in Gajeel. Can you?" Gajeel looked to Erza who simply nodded in reply.
"Consider it didn't buddy! Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Gajeel exclaimed, hugging Pantherlily tightly, tears streaming out of his eyes.
"Woah! He's crying!" Keeri exclaimed in disbelief, almost amused by the situation.
Pantherlily squirmed out of the iron grip and cleared his throat. "Now on a unrelated note, I happened to come across a suspicious person."
"What an overachiever!" The iron dragon slayer stated, clearly pleased. "You're definitely my cat alright!"
"Come here." Lily tugged on the rope that he was holding violently.
A mysterious person was pulled out of the bushes and dropped to the wet floor. Her hands were bound, she looked like she should have been in Edolas. "Ow that hurt."
"Why does she look like Mirajane?" Halay questioned immediately, noticing the white hair and blue eyes that were the same as the kind mage.
Keeri nodded in agreement. "I was going to ask the same thing."
"I'm not suspicious, I'm a member of Fairy Tail too." The white haired girl exclaimed, almost demanding.
"It's Lisanna." Rose breathed out in disbelief, her whole body frozen in its spot as rain dropped down her face, she was staring at the face of her dead best friend.
"Don't be so rough with me cat." Lisanna scolded three black exceed before she finally realised what Lily was. "Wait, are you an Exceed?"
"The name is Pantherlily." He introduced himself, still not letting go of the rope.
"You got a problem with my cat, you'll have to take it up with me Lady." Gajeel growled in anger.
Gray was in a similar situation to Rose. "Woah, she looks just like ..."
"... Lisanna." Erza finished for him in bewilderment.
"No way." Happy breathed out in shock. No one dared to move incase she disappeared again.
Lucy blinked in confusion. "How in the world did she end up here?"
"Am I missing something?" Halay questioned in group as she didn't understand what was going on.
"Earthland Lisanna died years ago." Rose replied, her voice cold and emotionless yet it cracked when she said the name. They must have been close, Halay thought.
"Natsu!" Lisanna jumped onto the fire dragon in happiness, making him fall over. "Natsu, it's you. I thought I'd never see you again. Aww Happy, you're here too! I missed you so much. It's been so long since I've seen everyone. This makes me so happy." She turned around to see the four girls who were staring at her in confusion. "You must be the three four new members of the guild I haven't met yet. The little one looks like Wendy, the blonde must be Lucy, the brunette is Halay and the dark one must be Keeri." They made no effort to greet her, they had no idea what was going on.
"Wait a sec, you ... you're our Lisanna?" Gray asked the girl, his finger wobbling as he pointed at her. He didn't want to believe it.
"She came back to life!" Natsu screamed loudly in joy only to be grabbed her Erza to simmer him down.
"Hold it right there. You can't be our Lisanna. She died two years ago and she couldn't have possibly been resuscitated." Erza retold the information, her voice cracking at the thought.
"Truth is, I didn't actually die that day." Lisanna revealed as she looked at her clothed hands. "Two years ago, at that moment, I must have been suddenly pulled away by an Anima. I'm not sure but I assume there were little ones all over Earthland back in those day's."
"Why Lisanna?" Rose spat out in disgust as she looked at the white haired girl, tears streaming down her face. "You knew it was us but didn't bother to say anything. Do you have any idea how that felt?"
"It wasn't the right time." Lisanna excused herself, not noticing the shaking hands of Rose.
"Wasn't the right time my ass." The red head stormed towards the white haired girl and grabbed her roughly. "I lost you Lisanna, you promised that we'd be together forever and I lost you. I hated myself for the longest time." She whispered as she broke down crying.
"It's okay." Lisanna shushed the girl, bringing her into a hug. "I'm here now."
After a few moments of them reuniting, Reed told everyone that Mirajane and Elfman needed to know. Lisanna was almost ecstatic at the idea of seeing her brother and sister again, they had to make sure she didn't run off and leave them there. It was strange, Lisanna acted like she had never left but the brand of her death was still very much there - anyone could see it.
As The Strauss siblings reunited, Halay couldn't help but think that she could have a family out there. A mother, a father, siblings even. She hadn't bothered to look for them and she didn't even know the first place to start, she didn't even have a name. However, once the ring master was set on a task, nothing could stop her. What she didn't know was that her family would come to her in due time.
My heart broke for Rose! I wonder what's in the cards for her. Any theories? I'd love to hear them! Do you guys like Tiger? I'm wondering if I should make her a bigger character in Keeri's book.
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