Several days later
"Well, well, well. It's been a while since we've been here, right?" Meliodas commented. He and Erza stood in front of a massive building that towered over the other buildings. The entire front part of the building was covered in glass with a multitude of costumes and outfits on display inside. Above the entryway was a sign that said "Heart Kruz."
"Oh I missed this place! I haven't had much time for shopping because of the games and this place has always been at the back of my mind!" Erza exclaimed joyously. "If I recall, Lily was with us too."
"Yeah where is Lily anyway?" Meliodas looked around. Behind him were Natsu, Happy, Gray, Wendy, Carla, and two Lucys, the two of them wearing similar casual attire only differentiated by the future Lucy missing her right arm.
"I think he's training with Gajeel right now." Wendy remarked as she walked up to Meliodas' side.
"Well then I think it's about time we head inside!" Erza shouted excitedly, unable to contain her enthusiasm as she walked toward the entrance. "After all, we do need to get outfits for the party tonight!"
"Yeah, that's definitely the only reason why you chose this place." Lucy commented as she and everyone else followed.
Natsu and Happy immediately ran ahead of the group.
"Alright, Happy! Let's get something cool looking!"
"Aye sir!" Happy responded.
Meliodas looked around at the interior of the mall. It had generally the same layout from seven years ago, albeit some minor decorative changes. The biggest change was the replacement of the middle portion of stairs leading to the second floor being replaced by moving stairs. Meliodas looked curiously at the steps, with one set going upward and the other going downward.
"Huh…they added a magic powered escalator to this place. You don't see those very often." Gray commented.
"So that's what they're called." Meliodas remarked.
"Yeah let's go up!" Natsu shouted as he and Happy ran towards the moving stairs. Gray shook his head.
"That idiot…"
As soon as Natsu took his first step on the moving stairs, his cheeks puffed up and his skin turned pale. The dragon slayer fell backwards onto the ground.
"What is that hellish torture machine!" Natsu shouted angrily.
"Natsu you should know better by now!" Lucy sighed. Future Lucy looked at Natsu and smiled at him as he got up from the ground.
As the group blocked the front of the escalator, Gray and Meliodas separated from them and took the stairs to the second floor.
"I haven't been to this place before. You know where the fancy suits are?" Gray asked.
"Yeah I think I vaguely remember." Meliodas replied. The two reached the second floor and walked into one of the stores. The store had dozens of mannequins lined up and dressed in fancy attire.
Meliodas and Gray split up and Meliodas looked at one of the suits on display that caught his eye. He grabbed the suit and went into the changing room to try it on.
Meliodas emerged a few moments later, wearing a white collared shirt with a black tie underneath a crimson red vest. Over the vest was a black jacket that was fastened by one golden button in the middle and parted outwards from his torso. He also had white gloves, black pants, and black shoes. Meliodas turned around in front of a mirror and saw the signature Heart Kruz cross on his back.
"Lookin good Meliodas." Gray said as he emerged from the changing room next to him. "What do you think of mine?"
Meliodas tilted his head a bit confused one moment but immediately understood what had happened and laughed.
"I'm pretty sure you have to keep the clothes on after you change into them."
Gray looked down at himself and immediately realized he had already taken all of his clothes off despite having just changed in the dressing room. Gray immediately jumped back into the dressing room, closing the curtain behind him.
"Hey Meliodas!" Natsu's voice called out from the front of the store. Meliodas glanced over and walked towards Natsu and Happy.
"Check out our new outfits! We found this cool place that sold ninja stuff and some other cool outfits!"
Meliodas looked at the clothes of both Natsu and Happy. Natsu was wearing an orange and black jacket, orange pants, and black sandals. On his head was a forehead protector with the Heart Kruz insignia on it. Meliodas looked at Happy and saw him wearing an orange fox suit with nine tails sprouting from behind him.
"Uh…I don't think ninjas wore bright orange like that." Meliodas commented.
"What do you mean?! This is top ninja fashion!" Natsu put his scarf over his face and raised his hands up, forming the tiger sign, with Happy doing the same.
"Nin Nin!"
"You're not seriously going to wear that to the party are you flame brain?" Gray said as he walked up to them.
"No. We already got our clothes! This is just extra! Also, you gonna show up to the party naked you freak?!" Natsu retorted. Gray looked down at himself with a look of utter shock.
"What the hell?! I was wearing clothes walking over here!"
—
Later that night
The palace was alive with bright lights and dozens of mages in the main hall. Meliodas looked around at the various mages he recognized from the different guilds participating in the Grand Magic Games, each of them wearing fancy garbs.
Meliodas's attention is immediately diverted towards one of the tables stacked with drinks. His eyes lit up and he walked towards the table, quickly grabbing one of the filled wine glasses and taking a sip.
"Hmmm...I've never had wine like this before. I'll have to find out what special brand this is." Meliodas remarked.
"Meliodas!" A cheerful voice called out his name. Meliodas turned around and immediately felt the sensation of two soft pillows on his face as he was pressed against someone's chest. Meliodas looked up and recognized the young woman with green hair who had suddenly hugged him.
"Hisui?" Meliodas asked with an indifferent expression as his face was still in her bosom.
"I'm glad I finally got to catch up with you!" Hisui said with a warm smile. Meliodas patted her on the head.
"Well you've grown a lot since I last saw you." Meliodas remarked.
"And you…uhh…" Hisui looked down at Meliodas. When she had originally met Meliodas, Meliodas was slightly taller than her, but now she is looking down at him.
"I just age a bit slower than most, don't worry about it. But I'm curious what this wine is." Meliodas said, changing the subject.
"Oh! That's the Royal Family's specialty wine made here in our palace garden!" Hisui said.
Watching Meliodas and Hisui from afar were Lucy and Future Lucy, conversing about their interactions.
"You think Hisui likes Meliodas?" Future Lucy asked. "Meliodas wasn't in my time, so I don't know a lot about him and how he knows the Princess."
"Oh, it's quite the story." Lucy said. "I don't know the details but seven years ago, Meliodas was in the capitol and Hisui had run away from the palace and ran into Meliodas. And whatever happened between them caused Meliodas to bring her back to the guild without knowing who she actually was. All I know is that she really looked up to our guild back then, which is probably why Meliodas thought it was a good idea to bring her back. Except that caused a country wide incident and Meliodas was arrested and put in the council jail for a week."
"Wow…that's quite the story…" Future Lucy said in awe as she looked at Meliodas. "But…I still don't understand why he isn't in my timeline."
"You should ask him yourself about that one." Lucy said. Future Lucy was surprised by Lucy's statement and she looked back towards Hisui and Meliodas. Hisui noticed their glances and waved at them, gesturing to come over.
"Lucy! And…Lucy!" Hisui greeted the two Lucys. Meliodas extended a small wave to the two of them before taking another sip of wine.
"Meliodas. There's something I wanted to ask you." Future Lucy said. Meliodas put down his glass and looked at her, waiting for the question.
"Do you know why you aren't in the timeline I'm from?"
"Oh…that timeline stuff. I think Future Rogue said something about that too, not knowing who I was.": Meliodas said. "It might be because I'm not from this world to begin with."
"Are you from Edolas then?" Future Lucy asked. Meliodas shook his head.
"No, nothing like that." Meliodas said. He spent the next few minutes explaining to Future Lucy about his home Britannia and his fight against the being of Chaos known as Cath Palug and how he's been stuck in Earthland now for about eight years.
"So you ended up saving the guild from the Jupiter Cannon with that full counter attack?!" Future Lucy questioned. Meliodas nodded his head.
"Yeah…completely naked…" Lucy added.
"Hey I just woke up from being sent from the portal. I didn't have time to find clothes okay?" Meliodas responded.
Meliodas continued telling Future Lucy his stories of his time in Fairy Tail as the group walked around the banquet hall, with Future Lucy intently listening and in awe of how different things turned out with Meliodas there.
"So the guild didn't suffer those seven years then because you kept it funded by yourself…" Future Lucy remarked. Meliodas noticed a tear go down the side of Future Lucy's face but she quickly wiped it.
"Meliodas! Lucy! And Princess Hisui!" Wendy called out as the group walked towards one of the tables with various fancy looking cakes. Standing next to Wendy was Sherria.
"Meliodas! I noticed you and Princess Hisui seem really close! Would you consider that love?" Sherria asked. Hisui's face immediately turned a bright red color.
"N-n-n-n-noonono…It's nothing like that at all! H-hey is Arcadios calling me! I should go over there! Bye everyone!" Hisui scurried away and Meliodas scratched the back of his head.
"Anyway, there's nothing between us. I already have someone I love back in Britannia." Meliodas said.
"O-oh! Can you tell me about the love between you two?" Sherria asked.
"Well, well, well…where do I begin…" Meliodas looked up and put a hand on his chin as he tried to think of a way to describe it. Sherria's eyes widened with anticipation as she might finally get a true description of love that she's been looking for.
Suddenly Carla flinched as she felt a sharp pain in her head. She saw a vision. A vision of the future. Not the distant future, but the future about five seconds from that point.
"Lucy! Cover Sherria's ears now!" Carla shouted. Lucy thought for a moment why Carla would yell that but it clicked in her head a moment later to the perverse things Meliodas was about to mention.
Carla immediately hopped on Wendy's shoulders and covered her ears with her paws as Lucy covered Sherria's ears. Future Lucy looked confused as to what they were doing. Sherria looked at Meliodas, unable to hear a single word coming out of his mouth as he spoke and performed strange gestures in the air, one of which seemed to be a groping motion and another one where he hip thrusted the air in front of him.
Wendy's face turned a bright red color and Carla realized the fatal mistake she had overlooked. Wendy's enhanced dragon slayer hearing let her hear everything Meliodas said, even if her ears were covered.
"Meliodas stop talking!" Carla shouted, but Meliodas ignored the cat as he was already enthusiastically talking about Elizabeth.
Meliodas stopped as he felt someone grab him from the back of his collar and begin dragging him away. He looked behind him and saw it was Mirajane, with an annoyed look on her face. Future Lucy looked at Mirajane and could feel the cold aura coming from her.
"I forgot how scary Mira can get…"
"Meliodas, you don't talk about those kinds of things in public." Mira said with a smile whose hidden meaning behind it meant "if you keep talking, I'll silence you myself."
"Fine, fine…" Meliodas shrugged his shoulders. Sherria looked at Meliodas being dragged away with a blank expression on her face, having not heard anything of what he said.
"I didn't think Meliodas had that kind of side to him…" Future Lucy remarked.
"He's really only a pervert when he talks about Elizabeth so it's not too bad I guess…it's actually kind of endearing how much he loves her, even if he describes it like that…he's not all bad…except for his cooking." Lucy added. "You know he almost killed Erza, Master, and Yajima."
"He what?!" Future Lucy exclaimed.
"There was a cooking contest. Meliodas made an apple pie. The pie looked absolutely perfect, like nothing was wrong with it. But both Master and Yajima tried it and it tasted so bad they almost died. Then Erza and Mira tried to teach Meliodas how to cook properly and Erza volunteered to taste test the food. She also almost died."
"How can food even be that bad?!" Future Lucy asked.
"Attention all! Stand before the king!" Arcadios' voice suddenly rang out, silencing the entire banquet hall.
"To all you valiant wizards who took part in the Grand Magic Games and demonstrated the true depths of your bravery when a crisis befell our nation. His Majesty is prepared to give his salutations. Listen, and listen well!!"
All of the mages focused their attention to a balcony overlooking the entire hall. A figure appeared between the curtains, wearing a crown.
"Be at ease, my subjects!" A familiar voice shouted to the crowd below.
"Is that…" Future Lucy looked up at the Balcony.
"Natsu!" Lucy exclaimed.
Natsu began to laugh loudly as he looked down at everyone.
"I am the king now! All hail king Natsu!"
—
Early the next morning
Meliodas, Hisui, Arcadios, Future Lucy, and the rest of Fairy Tail stood around the Eclipse Gate. A few members yawned as it was so early, the sun hadn't risen yet and they had been partying all night.
"Meliodas, you're really not tired. You drank so much and then Natsu waged the crown to fight you, Meliodas." Jet commented.
"I'm completely fine." Meliodas said with a cheeky smile. "Oh yeah, where is Natsu? He should be here by now right? I won that crown."
"He went to get Atlas Flame." Ultear said. The rest of the Fairy Tail members looked surprised as the members of Crime Sorciere showed up.
"Jellal?!" Erza questioned. Jellal nodded his head.
"We came here to say bye to Future Lucy as well." Meredy said.
"And to confirm the destruction of the gate." Jellal added.
"Is it really alright for you guys to be here though cause…" Gray gestured towards Hisui and Arcadios.
"Crime Sorciere was necessary in preventing the destruction of Crocus, so I will allow it." Hisui said.
"Thank you, your majesty." Jellal bowed his head. Above them, a flaming figure grew closer and closer, landing on the ground next to them with great force.
"Aww man! I'm gonna miss you uncle!" Natsu said with a mouth full of Atlas Flames' fire.
"Are you really gonna miss me or miss eating my fire?!" Atlas Flame questioned. "You've been munching on my fire every day now for the past three days."
"And it was really good!" Natsu said with a grin.
"Hold on…Salamander's been eating that dragon for three days?!" Gajeel exclaimed with a nervous look. 'The gap…just keeps getting wider…'
"No wonder Natsu seems a lot stronger now than he was initially when the dragons invaded." Meliodas remarked. 'He might have been able to fight one by himself at his current level.'
"I suppose it's time to return to the past then. It was great meeting you, son of Igneel." Atlas Flame said.
"And now Lucy can go back to her future where there should be no more dragons right?" Natsu said as he approached future Lucy.
"That's not how time travel works, Natsu." Ultear responded. "If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future and your former present becomes the past, which can't now be changed by your new future.
Natsu looked at Ultear in a daze, confused by what she just said.
"Uh..huh…okay umm…Ultimate Milksandwich…"
"Ultear Milkovich!" Ultear corrected, somewhat irritated that Natsu still hasn't got her name right.
"Wait, Ultear…you're saying Lucy coming back to the past was pointless then?" Gray questioned.
"No, it wasn't pointless. She gave us the answer we would have needed to defeat the dragons which is destroying the gate. However, there was a branch in the timeline because of Meliodas which is why the result is different than how it should have been and is why we didn't need to destroy the gate in order to defeat the dragons." Ultear said.
"And I'm just glad I got to spend this time with you all again." Lucy said as she wiped the tears rolling down her face. "Even if my future is the same, I'm just glad that I get closure knowing that there is another future that won't end in ruin.
Ultear looked towards Meliodas.
"The longer future Lucy stays, the more it will hurt when she leaves."
"Yeah…" Meliodas said as his demon mark formed on the middle of his forehead. "I know that feeling all too well."
Meliodas raised his left hand and hundreds of tiny balls of darkness appeared behind Meliodas. Meliodas paused for a moment as he noticed Erza requip into her Farewell Fairy Tail Armor.
"Erza…you're…" Future Lucy looked towards Erza.
"Even if Fairy Tail is no longer around in your future, that doesn't mean we can't give you a proper farewell!" Erza declared.
"First!" Makarov took a step forward. "You must never reveal sensitive information about Fairy Tail to others as long as you live!"
"Second! You must Never use former contacts met through your being in the guild for personal gain!"
"And third! Though our paths may have diverged, you must continue to live out your life with all your might, you must never consider your own life to be something insignificant, and you must never forget about your friends for as long as you live." Makarov finished.
"Y-you guys…" Future Lucy fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she looked at all of her guild members standing there. "I really enjoyed the last few days I got to spend with you guys again…thank you…"
"Meliodas." Ultear said. Meliodas nodded and swung his hand forward. Thousands of tiny balls of darkness pierced straight through the gate and both Future Lucy and Atlas Flame's bodies began to break down and disappear.
Meliodas looked at the bits and pieces of the gate that had crashed onto the ground. He turned around and looked towards his friends behind him who were all teary eyed and silent. Meliodas's demonic features began to recede and Meredy noticed the look of sadness in his eyes.
'This is how it will be when I one day have to leave too.'