A black light sped towards her.

"Lucy!" Natsu tried to block the light from the side but missed. Lucy could only stand there as the fatal light came at her when a black-hooded figure jumped in front of the light, last minute.

"No!" Lucy dropped to the ground, tears filling her eyes as she saw her future self die below her.

"You saw yourself die?" Ms. Vermillion repeated.

Lucy nodded. "Well, I saw my future self die. But it was me, both ways." She was currently sitting in detention on Monday, with the others surrounding her. Erza, Juvia, and Levy didn't look too surprised, as Lucy had told them earlier, so Lucy didn't question their indifferent expressions. Jellal didn't look like he was paying attention at all, so Lucy ignored him as well. Gray and Gajeel had eyebrows raised, but Natsu's response intrigued Lucy the most.

"How do you know the one who died was you from the future?" he asked, his expression unclear.

"I don't know how I know the other me was from the future," Lucy answered honestly. "I just do. I don't know anything else, though."

"So there were two of you," Natsu tried to clarify. "The one in the future died, but another one of you still lived. Right?"

Lucy shrugged. "I'd like to think so. Most likely, though."

Natsu let out a breath at this, as if he were holding it in this entire time. "Oh," he said. "Alright, then."

"What?" Lucy asked jokingly. "You were worried that I actually died?"

"No!" 

Natsu's quick reply only made Lucy's lips curl upwards. Before Lucy could verbally respond, however, Natsu beat her to it.

"That was only for one night, though," he said. "What were your other dreams?"

Lucy knew Natsu was asking this on purpose, but she answered the question, nevertheless. "The one I just told you about was the one I had last night," she said as she flipped through her notebook. "On Saturday, I dreamed about . . ." Lucy hesitated as she looked down at her entry. How could she word this so the others wouldn't get the wrong idea?

"'I walked into my living room and was excited that Natsu and Happy were there,'" Erza suddenly read after stealing Lucy's notebook out of her hands. "Who's Happy?" she asked a moment later.

"Happy's my cat," Natsu said to Erza before turning to Lucy, who was trying to snatch her notebook back from Erza. "Happy was in your dream, too?" he asked her. "Could he talk and stand on his back legs?"

Lucy gave up on her failed attempts with Erza and turned to Natsu. "I don't know anything about that, but he could sit upright and hold a fish in his hands -- paws, whatever -- so probably? And is he blue?"

"He is!" Nastsu jumped out of his chair, causing Lucy slight alarm. "Wow, even Happy's involved in this."

"Shall I continue reading?" Erza asked loudly. She paused for half a second before continuing. "Good. 'I walked into my living room and was excited that Natsu and Happy were there. However, they turned out to be mere illusions and I felt greatly saddened and lonely.' Wow, are you writing a novel or something?" Erza looked up to grin at Lucy, who took the opportunity to take her notebook back.

"Lu-chan, why were you sad that they weren't actually there?" Levy asked. "Exactly how close were you and Natsu?"

Lucy frowned, thinking hard. "Um, I think we were really close friends," she began, "and I think I was used to Dragneel always being in my house, for some reason."

"Hm, maybe that's what the voice in my head was talking about when he said it was fun to annoy you," Natsu mused out loud.

"The voice in your head?" Gajeel repeated.

Gray snorted, placing a hand to his friend's forehead. "Your head feels hot," he smirked. "All this strenuous brain activity is making you insane."

"First of all, my head isn't hot; your hand is ice cold," Natsu said as he pushed Gray away from him. This quickly led to the both of them fighting, and although Juvia went to Gray saying she felt hot as well, Erza tried to separate the fighting boys, and everyone -- including Ms. Vermillion -- watched with amusement, Lucy didn't glance in their direction.

Dragneel had also heard a voice in his head? Lucy thought to herself. Could it be possible that it was similar to the conversation she had also had with herself on Saturday? The voice had sounded exactly like hers, yet the voice had brought up ideas Lucy had never thought about, such as her disappearing and her father dying. Suddenly, Lucy gasped loudly as a thought suddenly came into her head. Had she been talking to the Lucy in her dreams?

"What's the matter with you?" Jellal asked roughly.

"Dragneel," Lucy said, ignoring the senior and turning to Natsu, who was being separated from Gray by Erza, "what did the voice in your head tell you?"

Natsu struggled to release himself from Erza's grip as he spoke. "Um, there were two voices. One sounded like mine, and it was about how it would be cool to get to know you . . . not that I will!" he added quickly when he saw everyone staring at him. "Yeah, whatever," Lucy said hastily, unaffected by his words. "What was the second voice?"

"The second voice was -- oof." Natsu cut himself off as Erza finally dropped him to the ground with a loud thud. "Um, the second voice was you," he said, trying to be natural as he said it, despite the silent giggles. "Well, your voice. I think she said something like 'the other me' and how --"

"So I was right!" Lucy slammed her hand on her desk with a triumphant smile on her face. "The voice in my head was the other Lucy Heartfilia!"

"Lu-chan, you've been hearing voices, too?"

"Is that all the other-Lucy told you?" Lucy asked Natsu, ignoring Levy. "Did she mention anything else? Like, why she was talking to you? Or why we've been having these dreams?"

Natsu frowned. "Um, yeah. She told me that the other-you met the other-me at Port something in the year seven-something."

Lucy just blinked at the idiot in front of her at first. Surely he was joking? Surely that wasn't all he remembered?

"Why . . . are you staring at me like that? I've told you all I know."

"That's the only thing you remember?" Lucy stood up from her seat, slamming her hands down on her desk, but with a different mood than previously. "I doubt the other-Lucy told you the other-us met at 'Port something in the year seven-something!'" she yelled.

Natsu also stood up from his seat and slammed his hands against his desk. "What're you getting so worked up for?" he yelled back. "You can't blame someone for accidentally forgetting something."

"This is why you write things down," Lucy snapped back. "Don't you even care?"

Ms. Vermillion stood between the two of them, a small frown on her face. "Guys, let's just calm down --"

"Of course I care," Natsu snapped back, ignoring the short adult in front of him, "you think I danced with joy when I saw your dead body?"

Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but closed it once her brain finally comprehended what Natsu had just said. He also seemed to realize what he had just said, because his face promptly turned the same shade as Erza's hair. 

"You also dreamed that I died?" Her voice was a lot softer this time around, as she looked into Natsu's eyes. "Was it the same dream as mine?"

He grimaced, then shrugged, sighing. "No, I didn't see what you told us before. I think it was after you died. I was alone with the dead you; there was no one else around."

"Was it in a castle hall?" Lucy asked, hoping they were referring to the same scenario, and not two different times where Lucy died. "Was I wearing a long black cloak?"

"Um, I think so."

"Oh, this is great!"

Lucy, Natsu, and everyone else turned to stare at Ms. Vermillion, who seemed excited that they had both dreamed about a moment where Lucy had died. Once she noticed she had everyone's attention, the teacher promptly stopped clapping, lowering her head.

"I mean, the fact that Natsu and Lucy had similar dreams is great, not that you died, Lucy," Ms. Vermillion tried to explain quickly.

"But Juvia wonders why both Lucy and Natsu saw Lucy dying," Juvia said as Ms. Vermillion tried frantically to correct her mistake. "Does this mean Lucy will die soon?"

"Hopefully not," Gray said from his seat. "Then Natsu will be fighting with me all the time."

Lucy rolled her eyes at Gray's comment, but Juvia only seemed to hear the first two words that came out of Gray's mouth.

"My Gray-sama says he would rather have Lucy live," Juvia seethed. "This makes you my love rival. But Gray-sama will be mine! Lucy can have Natsu-san." As she said this, Juvia slid over to where Gray was sitting and pushed the person sitting closest to him out of his seat, who happened to be Gajeel.

"What the hell was that for?" he roared as he got up from the floor.

Juvia calmly walked over to Gajeel's now-empty seat and sat down. "Gajeel-kun can go sit in Juvia's old seat," she said. "Juvia's spot was next to Levy, so Gajeel should have no complaints."

"I don't care if I'm sitting next to Levy or not, you harlot," he said hotly to Juvia.

"Gajeel, that's not why I told you what that meant!" Levy squeaked.

Next to Lucy, Natsu was murmuring to himself, until he suddenly let out a loud laugh. "Aha! I remember now!" He turned to Lucy with excitement. "I think the voice said the year was seven hundred something, and the place where the past us met was at Port Hargeon."

Lucy's eyes widened with delight. "You remembered?" she asked with equal excitement. "I'm so proud of you, Natsu. Good job!"

"Aye, sir!"

Lucy and Natsu high-fived each other with giant smiles on their faces, but they faded as the two realized what they had just done. As they quickly stepped away from each other, Lucy saw flashes of them high-fiving each other, more than once, in the same way Lucy and Natsu had just done so.

"You referred to Natsu by his first name!" Erza exclaimed with giddiness.

"The first thing I hear when I wake up is 'Aye, sir.' What the hell is that?" Jellal said with much less giddiness.

"That . . . was a mistake," Lucy said. "I don't even remember that happening. All I can recall is him saying something about Port Hargeon, and I . . ." Lucy's voice trailed off when she realized she had heard that name from somewhere. 

Where do I know that name from? I know I remember someone mentioning that place more than once. . . .

"Port Hargeon?" Levy repeated. "Lu-chan, isn't that the name of the place Heartfilia Central used to be?"

Lucy's eyes widened with realization. "You're right! Thanks, Levy-chan; I remember now!" Heartfilia Central was named so after Lucy's great-grandfather had bought Port Hargeon, a once-popular trading post, which now served as the mother trading post in the Heartfilia company. Despite the buying happening centuries ago, this was one of the first things Lucy had learned as she grew up, as this was the step that gave the name "Heartfilia" the power it had after Heartfilia Railroads had gone bankrupt. It was a wonder Lucy hadn't remembered as soon as she had heard the name.

"If I remember correctly, Heartfilia Central isn't too far from Magnolia," Lucy said, doing her best to recall the boring family history lessons she had received when she was young. "It's in Hargeon, which is best known for its . . . agriculture, I think, although it may be fishing."

"It's fishing," Erza said as she looked down at her phone. "It's also one of the oldest towns we have in Fiore. . . ."

Ms. Vermillion clapped her hands with excitement. "Oh, I remember Hargeon! That was the first place I went to when I came here."

"Do you know much about that place?" Levy asked. "Something that might not necessarily be figured out online?"

"Uh, let's see. . . ." Ms. Vermillion swung her legs even faster as she thought. "One of the staff members who used to work here opened up a restaurant there after he retired. It's called 8-Ball Island, and the food is quite delicious."

"So, no, basically."

"Gajeel!"

"Come on, Shrimp. What, you want to go to that restaurant or something? It's not going to help us right now."

As Levy and Gajeel bickered, everyone else focused their attention onto Erza and her phone.

"The area was also temporarily taken over by Alvarez Empire," Erza read. "Hey, I remember learning about this three years ago."

"You do?" Gray asked. "It's only been two years for me, and I don't remember anything like that."

Juvia raised her hand into the air. "Juvia remembers!" she said proudly. "A few centuries ago, when there were people on Earthland who could use magic --"

"Pause." Gray cut off Juvia, putting his hand in a stopping gesture. "People could use magic?"

"Oh please," Jellal scoffed. "There's no such thing as magic. Tell them, Erza."

Erza thoughtfully tapped her chin with her phone. "I don't know, Jellal. Remember the Rainbow Sakura trees? They were rumored to have magic in them. If that's true, why can't it be true about this war?"

"Do you seriously believe the trees have to do with magic? It's probably just the leaves reacting to sunlight."

"You're always thinking so negatively about things like this. Have an open mind."

Now, Erza and Jellal argued about whether magic had really existed or not.

Lucy turned to Ms. Vermillion, Natsu, Juvia, and Gray. "Well, I guess it's up to us five to figure out . . ." Her voice trailed off as she saw Gray struggling against Juvia, who was somehow on his lap. "Us three, I mean," Lucy said to Ms. Vermillion and Natsu.

"There was something else I saw," Natsu said. "It wasn't really a dream, though. It was kind of like a flashback."

Lucy readied her pen in her hand, set against her notebook. 

"We were all using magic," he said. "I'm not sure who used what, but I think I used fire, Gray used ice, someone used a key, someone else used iron, someone else wrote words in the air, someone else levitated swords, someone else --"

"Instead of saying 'someone else' over and over again," Lucy interrupted, "just tell us what kinds of magic there were."

Natsu glared at Lucy, but he still did as she told him to. "Uh, fire, ice, keys, iron, words, levitating swords, water, magic circles, healing, cards, lightning, turning into beasts, turning into animals, turning into demons . . . that's all I remember."

"Wow." Lucy let out a breath as she reread the list Natsu had given her. "Did magic really exist?"

"Are all juniors this naive?" Jellal groaned. "Natsu was just dreaming. I bet he'll say his cat talks to him, next."

Natsu jumped in front of Jellal."How'd you know that?" 

"What's wrong with talking cats?" Gajeel asked hotly at the same time.

"Gajeel, you talk to Pantherlily?" Levy gushed from her seat. "That's so sweet."

As Gajeel waved his arms around wildly, trying to deny this, he accidentally punched Jellal's right ear, causing something small and black to fall out onto the floor.

"-- going to be there? You could seriously be using the time to investigate more."

Everyone fell silent and stared down at the black earpiece on the ground. Jellal quickly snatched it off the floor and shoved it in his pocket, but it was too late.

"What was that, Jellal?" Erza's voice might have sounded sweet, but only a fool would fail to notice the dangerous tone it held. "You're keeping a lot of secrets from us, aren't you? Whenever I ask, you always manage to change the topic. Tell me now."

Lucy watched Erza and Jellal stare at each other for a long time before Jellal finally sighed and caved in.

"Alright," he said dejectedly. "I'll tell you guys, but not here. Meet me at the broken bridge at five. Sorry, Mavis, I'm going to be leaving first."

Before any of them could respond, Jellal dashed to the open window and jumped out.

A/N:
Ooh, I wonder who was talking to Jellal through the earpiece. Also, be ready to find out what part Jellal plays in this story. (Hint: I suggest you go back to the Grand Magic Games.)