"I've never seen you cry before." 

Alexis' body stiffened uncomfortably as a particular raven haired girl entered her line of vision. It was Ultear. Ultear sat down in front of Alexis; her face stern yet almost sorrow filled. The sight made Alexis sick to her stomach. She didn't like to be pitied. 

Ultear looked down to her lap fiddling with her fingers. "Well, actually that's a lie. I made you cry not long ago." A weak chuckle escaped her lips.

Drying the tears from her eyes, Alexis practically scoffed. "Like I'd ever let that happen, Puddle." She hissed.

"You'd be surprised of what the future holds in store for you." Ultear responded dryly. She looked back up at Alexis who had now tensed up by the sound of her future being mentioned. The blonde haired girl hugged her legs tighter to her chest now. 

Silence fell between the two. Ultear wasn't really sure what to say. After all it was the first time, she had seen the vulnerable side of Alexis. Growing up, she was only exposed to the cruel side so - in result - she never really pondered on there actually being another more softer side to her blonde haired tormentor. 

"Raiden nearly charged into her battle trying to save you..." Ultear started hesitantly. 

Alexis' eyes widened. "He did?" She said so softly that an image of the Nice-Alexis popped into Ultear's mind. 

Ultear nodded. "He loves you a lot, you know, so does your parents and a lot of the people in the guild. Even though you don't deserve it at all." She said, the anger growing inside her. Letting that anger get the best of her, she leapt forward grabbing Alexis by the collar. "They love you! They're your family! So I don't understand why you'd hurt them like you have!" 

"I tried. Mavis knows, I tried as hard as I could to prevent it all... but Lucifer's too strong." Alexis cried, tears rolling down her cheeks. Ultear's grip on Alexis loosened and the girl fell back to the ground trying desperately to wipe away the tears. "He's always there watching me and if I don't do what he says... the voices come." Ultear watched as Alexis clamped her hands over her ears. "And all they ever do is scream. The screaming never ends and I just want it to stop. I just want it all to stop!" Alexis yelled, the tears now furiously streaming down her cheeks. 

Ultear didn't know what to say so she stayed there frozen and silent just watching as Alexis unravelled in front of her. 

"He wanted to destroy Magnolia but I- I couldn't let that happen so then I changed the spell to make sure you and Hunter could stop me." Alexis continued, her voice shaky and unstable. "I thought I'd made you hate me enough so that you would've killed me and I'd finally be free... but then... but then you didn't." Alexis panted heavily tried to catch her breath and calm her instability. "Jace hates me... Raiden's most likely traumatised by this whole thing... my mom blames herself for something she had no control over... And to top it all off, for the first time in my life, I saw my dad cry..." She whimpered holding her face in her hands. "And it's all my fault."

Ultear hesitantly reached for the blonde hair girl. "Alexis..."

"I'm tired, Ultear." Alexis croaked as if she was pleading for it to all end. "I'm tired of fighting..." 

Ultear's hand dropped to her side and she looked to the ground trying to deliberate what her next move should be. She closed her eyes taking a deep breath. 

"What if you started over? Like you were a completely blank slate." Ultear blurted out. 

Alexis raised her head looking curiously at the water mage. "What do you mean?"

"What if you completely forgot about everything and everyone?" 

___________

Meanwhile...

Nashi was supposed to be getting food for everyone. Somehow she had convinced Hunter to let her get some food from town (if she could). Getting the food was her intention but her feet lead her straight to her home. 

The Dragneel residence - thankfully - had taken minimal damage and stood tall amidst the rubble that surrounded it. 

Nashi couldn't help but want to see her dad and judging by the scent, he was in there. When Demon's Torment had ended, the look on his face sent shivers down her spine. He was scared... and she had never seen him like that before. The fact that her father was practically shaking with fear in front of her terrified the hell out Nashi. 

Trying her best not to draw attention to herself, she subtly snuck into the backyard and then climbed up the side of the house to her bed room window. Nashi peered into the window and to her luck, her younger self was no where in sight. Sliding the window up, she easily slipped into her room. 

Once she was in, she crept towards her door - particularly cautious to be as quiet as a mouse. She pressed her ear against her door and focused on listening to the muffled voices of her parents talking in the room right across from hers. 

"What are you saying, Natsu?" came the voice of mother as Nashi recognised. 

"I'm saying we should tell her. Tell her about Zeref. Tell her about END. Everything." It was her father now.

Nashi frowned. She had heard stories about Zeref. He was an all powerful dark wizard who caused Fairy Tail a lot of problems. However this END... she hadn't ever heard anything about that. What the hell is END? Nashi thought to herself pressing her ear even harder to the door. 

"I don't know." Her mother said, the doubt heavy in her soft voice.

"I know we both agreed we wouldn't tell Nashi anything for her own protection but... what if that was the wrong decis-"

"What is it, Natsu?"

"Is Nashi in her room?"

She had been detected. 

Nashi cursed her father's uncanny senses with a low growl. Ignoring all subtly, she ran across the room and practically leapt out of her window and went crashing down into the ground. 

"Ow..." Nashi groaned. When she opened her eyes, she noticed two shoes in front of her. She blinked trying to clear up her hazy vision. Slowly, she raised her line of sight, only to be met by two onyx eyes. It was Luke. "Oh it's only you." She hopped onto her feet and dusted herself off. "Just uh forget you saw me, okay? I'm not supposed to be here."

Before she could walk away, she felt two arms wrap around her torso. Stunned by the action of her little brother, she stood there dumb founded. 

"You won't leave me like Alexis left Raiden, right?" Luke mumbled into her shirt. 

Nashi's expression fell solemn at his question. She raised her hand and patted Luke's head softly as a sign of reassurance. "I'll never leave you. Don't worry." She whispered.

"Promise?"

"Yeah, I promise."

Luke pulled away from Nashi and immediately wiped his eyes to avoid her from seeing his tears. "Okay, good." He said before walking past her and making his way into the house casually as if nothing had happened. 

Emotional moments for the Dragneel siblings seemed to always be fleeting.

Nashi sighed. "That kid..." She stood there in silence for a moment before her eyes suddenly shot open wide. "THE FOOD!"

___________

"Sorry, that took a while." Nashi apologised as she dropped a single bag of potato chips in front of the three boys who stared at her unimpressed. 

"What sort of shit is this?" Storm said, pegging the bag at her head. Thanks to her pretty amazing reflexes, Nashi dodged it. "I'm starving and that's the best you could do in two hours?!"

Nashi glared at the raven haired boy. "In case you didn't notice, Stripper, the whole town is in literal rubble! There isn't that much choices for your stupid stomach so deal with it!" She yelled at him clenching her fists. 

"She makes a valid argument, dude." Gale said picking up the bag with an defeated sigh. He opened it up and began stuffing some chips into his mouth. 

"Ugh whatever!" Storm shouted before setting himself back on the ground with his arms crossed and his face scrunched into a scowl. 

"Don't pay Storm much mind, Nashi." Hunter said shaking his head. "Ultear still isn't back and I guess he's just on edge." 

Nashi's eyes widened. "She still isn't back?" Ultear had left a long time before Nashi had ventured out to get food. 

Hunter nodded. "I'm sure, she's fine wherever she is." He added with a shrug. Nashi could sense the slightest bit of doubt in his voice. He was worried as well. 

"Okay, am I going fucking insane or are my hands like getting really bright?" Gale questioned dropping the bag of chips onto the ground. The light emanating from his hands was so bright, he squeezed his eyes shut fearing he would go blind if he looked at it anymore. 

Before he knew it, he was lost in the light and as was everyone else.

___________

They woke up back in the mansion - the place where this whole debacle had started. The crappy old and run down mansion where an old creepy guy had sent them two years in the past. 

Just like the first time they had travelled through time, Gale's head hurt like literal hell. He groaned clutched dearly onto his painful cranium. "Shit." He cursed under his breath. 

He heard a series of groans around him, all belonging to his friends who - like him - were also slowly awakening. 

"Why do you always end up on top of me?" Hunter growled from under Nashi. Like he had done previously, he shoved the pink haired girl off of his back. 

Nashi let out another groan. "That hurt." She whimpered with a pout. 

Ultear seemed to be the first on her feet. With vigorous effort, she pulled Storm up so that he was standing as well. "You okay?" She asked squeezing at his cheeks as if he was toddler. Storm growled and pushed her hands away from his face. 

"Just fine." He grumbled. He dusted himself off before scanning his surroundings. 

"So you actually did it? You forgave Alexis?" Gale asked with his brow raised at the raven haired girl. 

Ultear looked to the ground as she bit her lip. "It wasn't exactly forgiveness...I just developed more of an understanding." She admitted.

"I'm proud of you, Ul." Hunter said with a smirk spread across his lips. 

Ultear frowned at him as heat rose to her cheeks. When covering her face didn't suffice, she yanked Storm in front of her much to the boy's dismay. 

"Can we go home? I really don't care about this mission anymore and as much as I want to beat up the guy who put us through all that shit again... I just really want to go home." Nashi said which everyone out rightly agreed upon. 

"Yeah, let's go home." Gale

So that's what the Fairy Tail kids did. They made their way back to Magnolia. A very intact Magnolia which didn't lie in complete rubble. 

"Now, this is home." Nashi exclaimed with a stupid grin on her face. She basked in the liveliness of the city and also the cheeriness of the citizens she passed. 

"It really is." Ultear agreed with a smile. She stole a glance at Hunter who was also enjoying the sight of a non-destroyed Magnolia. Calling it a glance was probably not the right word, it was a lot longer than that. 

"If you start making out with him, I'm going to vomit." Storm whispered in her ear. 

Ultear gasped, her face now as red as a tomato. "Shut up!" She then proceeded to punch Storm in the stomach with a tremendous amount of force. (A lot more than she should've) 

"AHAHAHAHA STRIPPER!" Nashi laughed uncontrollably clutching onto her stomach as she pointed at the point wheezing for air on the ground. Gale was next to her trying hard to stifle his laughter for the sake of his friend.

"What was that all about?" Hunter asked curiously with a frown.

Ultear smiled at him innocently. "He just said something very stupid. You know, normal Storm stuff."

Unknown to the group of teens was that the commotion had caused quite a scene attracting the gazes from many people around them. From their little audience was one girl walked up to the Storm who was huddled in a ball on the ground, clutching desperately onto her stomach. 

Nashi's laughing ceased as she recognised the girl.

"Oh shit..." Gale breathed out. 

The girl crouched down next to Storm with an amused smile on her face.

Storm groaned, the pain in his stomach still pretty painful. Ultear really packed a punch fr her small frame. It felt like he couldn't breath. 

"You know you look like a loser on the ground like this." He heard a voice laugh. From the sound of it, it certainly wasn't Ultear's or Flame Brain's but it was most definitely a girl.

He opened his eyes and the blood immediately drained from his face. It was the number one person he didn't want to see at all and yet the faintness of smiles appeared on his lips as he said her name.

"Quinn."

__________

I'm SO SO SO SO sorry this took so long. I've had some pretty packed weeks and I just feel sleep deprived all the time

thank my Hamilton playlist for getting me through writing this chapter and keeping me awake LOL

Don't mind me as I fangirl over Storm and Quinn already GAHHHH!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!

comment what ya'll thought as always

#unedited

now for some mama dragneel appreciation ^_^