Mikoto walked up the stairs, feeling apprehensive all the while. Elli, Lucy, Happy, and Natsu accompanied her up, though Nicole decided to stay downstairs in order to further question Acqua on the location of the Gate of Thundaarix.
"It's alright." Nicole had said when Mikoto had asked her why she was staying. "I just feel the sooner we find the Gates of Thundaarix, the better. Tell your mother and father I said hi.."
As Mikoto stood by the closed door to the bedroom, her hand paused in mid knock, she wondered what she would say, how she would tell her mother and father that the probability was that this was the last they would ever see of her.
"AGGGHH!!" Natsu said. "Enough of this waiting! LET'S GO IN!!"
And before everyone else knew what was happening, Natsu kicked open the door rambunctiously.
"NATSU!" said Lucy grabbing Natsu by the ear. "What did I say about knocking first!? EH!? EH!?"
"Owowowow!! Alright, alright! It's really really rude!" said Natsu as Lucy continued to pull on his ear.
Elli, who was seated on Mikoto's head touched a paw to the side of her head. "Mikoto look.."
Mikoto looked into the bedroom to see that her well featured father was sitting at the foot of the bed. Tabigake looked at Mikoto with a grin. "Hey...they said you would come.."
The woman sitting in the bed with covers over her was obviously pregnant. For a mother, she was actually quite youthful looking, those who didn't know better would have thought she was Mikoto's older sister. She had the same colored hair and a smile on her face. "Well what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to come in?"
Mikoto burst into tears, jumped onto the bed and began hugging her mother tightly. Misuzu hugged her daughter back as she ruffled Elli's fur with one hand. "Hello Elli, are you taking good care of my daughter?"
Elli put a paw up in salute. "Yes ma'am! I'm watching her 24/7."
Lucy wiped a tear from her eye as she smiled at Misuzu and Tabigake. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Misaka..erm, it's been a while."
"Lucy!" said Tabigake cheerfully. "You look well, and you too Natsu and Happy!"
Natsu grinned and waved. "Hey, you wouldn't have anymore baby pictures of Mikoto would you?"
Mikoto whirled around, blushing furiously. "Natsu!"
"As a matter of fact, I do!" said Tabigake taking out his wallet. "Here's one of when she was running track when she was younger.."
"DAD!" Mikoto squealed as she went even redder.
Misuzu laughed. "Come on now hon..I think we've embarrassed our daughter enough."
Tabigake nodded as Natsu grinned mischieviously and took the picture from Tabigake's hand, muttering something about Facebook...1
Mikoto looked back at her mother. "Did Thundaarix give you my message..?"
Misuzu nodded. "She was in Japan several weeks ago...I must say, I can't help but think, it sounded a lot like what one would say to their loved ones before walking to their inevitable death.."
Mikoto paused. What should she say?
Misuzu put a hand on Mikoto's head. "I can't always be around to protect you..You do what you need to do..all me and your father can do is support and cheer for you along the way."
"So is it true?" Lucy asked. "I-I mean Mikoto told me...she said it was a girl and that you were naming her.."
Misuzu laughed and touched a hand to her bloated belly. "Yes we decided to name her Lucy, I hope that's alright with you, and us making you godmother and all."
"It's fine." said Lucy. "It's just...me...godmother...wow!"
"Well if it was a boy, you would have named him Happy right?" Happy said puffing up his chest proudly.
"Or Natsu jr.!" said Natsu. "Or Pikachu!!"1
Mikoto slapped a hand to her forehead. "Oh Natsu...only you would think of those names.."
"Umm...can I feel it?" Elli asked apprehensively.
"Why sure." said Misuzu. "Come here Elli.."
Elli moved in and put her little cat ears to Misuzu's belly while feeling her paws over it. "I think I can hear it moving!"
"She's due any day now." said Tabigake. "Lucky for us, that Agnese girl said she knows a bit about child birth."
As Elli, Happy, and Lucy walked over to Mikoto and Misuzu, excited over the unborn baby, Tabigake nodded at Natsu, "Hey, Natsu, could I speak with you somewhere a little more private?"
Natsu nodded. "Yeah, sure."
Natsu and Tabigake moved out of the room and into the hallway.
"Natsu, you seem like a very honest man." said Tabigake. "Mikoto speaks really highly of you in that regard."
"She does?"
Tabigake nodded again. "This is why, I wanted to ask you..Mikoto's last message to us..it was that she loved us and that she was thankful for everything that we've ever done for her...at the end of all of this..is she going to die?"
Natsu looked down for a minute. He almost said. "That's for Mikoto to tell you.." but instead he said. "Most likely. Yeah.."
Tabigake sighed. "I'm glad you told me this..to be honest, me and Misuzu have suspected this ever since the war started. Our daughter is a strong girl..but nobody her age should have had to go what she had to.."
Tabigake gave Natsu a serious look. "I'm glad she joined your guild, she needs people like you to look after her...that's why I need to ask you something."
"Ask away.." said Natsu.
"Would your guild do the same thing for Lucy Misaka as you have done for Mikoto?" said Tabigake. "Even parents can only do so much..and only recently, at both Misuzu and Mikoto's request, Thundaarix blessed little Lucy..meaning she'll be a Dragon Born as well."
Natsu grinned. "You don't even need to ask. If there's one thing I know about Fairy Tail, is that we would all do our best to help care for her even if you didn't say anything. Mikoto's family..that makes you family too."
Tabigake smiled. "Mikoto is truly lucky to have come across your guild.."
Suddenly the entire house shook as an earthquake rocked the area. Natsu and Tabigake stumbled a bit till the earthquake came to a halt.
"What was that!?" Tabigake exclaimed as he wrenched open the bedroom door to check if the others were okay.
Natsu froze as he heard a familiar noise pound against his sensitive dragon hearing. A roar...and not just one roar..hundreds of them. "Dragons!"
"Etherial Wyrms!?" Lucy exclaimed.
"No.." Mikoto shook her head, her dragon hearing had also heard the noises. "Real dragons...they're converging on the city!"
"There's 6 of them.." said Natsu. "No..they can't be.."
"What Argentumias said before." said Lucy. "About Future Rogue..and then Zirconis's appearence from before...are they the dragons from the Eclipse gateway 400 years in the past!?"
"Yeah." said Natsu. "Except I don't hear or smell Atlas Flame...figures, he betrayed them to help us.."
Mikoto looked at her mother and father. "I have to go.."
Misuzu and Tabigake nodded. "Take care of yourself.."
Mikoto dashed down the stairs followed by the others until only Natsu was left in the room. Natsu looked back at Tabigake and Misuzu. "So she's a Dragon Born too huh?"
Misuzu nodded. "Yes."
Natsu grinned. "She'll make an awesome mage..just like her sister.."
And with that Natsu ran down the stairs after his friends..
Acqua was already outside with Kanzaki and Nicole, staring up at the sky as 6 massive winged forms flew low over London, somehow having gotten through the magic shields without much trouble.
"I know some of those dragons from the descriptions I have obtained from the Magic Council." said Kanzaki. "Scizor runner...Levia..Zirconis.. Motherglare.. They're huge.."
"This isn't good." said Acqua. "We only have 3 dragon slayers with us..and now we're going up against a whole hoard of these monsters."
There was a sudden roaring crash and a reddish dragon with a horned fin on it's head landed near the group, flattening tons of houses in the process amid a ton of screams from refugees.
"AHAHAHAHA!!" Scizor Runner laughed with glee. "More appetizers all for me! Delicious!"
"This guy reminds me of Zirconis.." said Mikoto. "What the heck.."
A massive blast of water exploded out of the ground like a tidal wave and clashed with Scizor Runner's body, causing him to stagger back.
"I don't know how long I can hold him!" said Acqua as he began to sweat from the effort he was putting into his magic. "He's tough...very tough!"
Mikoto dashed at Sizor Runner without a moment's hesitation and her wings activated in a powerful spark. She launched herself into the air and took a small coin out of her pocket. "SECRET ART: RAILGUN METEOR OF THE THUNDER DRAGON!!"
There was a shockwave of power, and the coin shot forward like a blazing orange meteor then in a spark of lightning it turned into a massive dragon made of pure lightning that roared and crashed into Scizor Runner in an explosive charge.
As the tremendous dragon fell to his back, Mikoto landed on his scaly armored belly, her body crackling with lightning.
"I-impossible.." said Scizor Runner weakly. "No normal Dragon Slayer could defeat me in one blow.."
"You're going to have to do better then that if you wanna take me down.." growled Mikoto.
"Take you down?" said Scizor Runner. "That's not why I'm here..."
"What!?"
"ROAR OF THE SHADOW DRAGON!!" Suddenly there was a blast of black energy and Mikoto was thrown off of the dragon's belly.
Mikoto got up coughing up rocks from the rubble she had torn up when she fell to the ground. Mikoto looked up to see a man above him with long black and white hair, and red eyes..he looked like..
"Rogue!?" said Mikoto as she remembered the Shadow Dragon Slayer from the Grand Magic Games..the one she hadn't even ever spoken to..
"So you're the Railgun." Rogue said with an evil smile. "In my timeline, Black Whisper was killed before he accidentally sent you to Fiore, and Diablo was the only surviving member of Hydra Head..but here.."
Rogue spread his arms out. "It's a whole new beginning!! Who knows what the future for this world holds!"
Mikoto tried to get up, but then found that there was a pool of shadows around her, slowly swalowing her into the ground, consuming her.
"Oh dear.." said Rogue with a chuckle. "It looks like the darkness is swallowing you...well it tends to do that..it swallowed me when Frosch died.."
"VOLCANO FLASH OF THE FIRE DRAGON!!!" Suddenly there was a blast of fire as Natsu swung his flaming gauntlett blade straight at Rogue who disspated into shadows and reformed behind Natsu.
"Natsu Dragneel!" said Rogue. "It's been quite a while..and low and behold, you're actually a Dragon Born yourself!, well you always were full of surprises.."
Natsu took Mikoto by the hand and pulled her out of the shadows. "So you're still hanging around just like Argentumias said eh? Well tough luck, I'm the guy ya have to fight now.."
"HAHAHAHA!!" Rogue laughed. "You don't get it do you Natsu?! You're not the only one whose discovered more about himself over the years.."
Rogue raised his right arm. Immediately the entire right arm became engulfed in shadows until it turned into a massive dragon's head made out of pure shadows with a crown of shadowy spikes around it's head and glowing red eyes.
The Shadow Jaws let out an ethereal roar as Rogue laughed hysterically. "That's right Natsu Dragneel, I'm a Dragon Born too!"
Rogue pointed the Shadow Jaws at Natsu and Mikoto. "ROAR OF THE CONSUMED DRAGON BORN!!"
The jaws opened wide, and a powerful blast of of darkness exploded from the Shadow Jaws. Mikoto felt her lungs nearly collapse as the darkness continuously pressed down on her. The next thing she knew, a swirling watery geyser was propelling her and Natsu away from the darkness and settling her down near an unwrecked part of the street.
For a heartstopping moment, Mikoto thought it was Aqualas, the dead ace of Hydra Head..then she remembered that as a God Slayer, Aqualas's water had been pitch black.
Acqua thrust a hand out, and a massive hammer of water brought itself down at Rogue as Kanzaki drew her sword and let several quick slashes.
Rogue laughed again and sank into the ground as he sank into a shadow and his dark shadowy form darted all over the ground.
"Kanzaki! Take Fairy Tail and go to the first location!" said Acqua. "I'll deal with him."
Kanzaki grabbed Mikoto by the wrist and shouted. "Come!!" as the rest of Fairy Tail followed. Meanwhile, Acqua turned to face Rogue who had just risen out of the ground.
"You don't seem intent on pursuing them." said Acqua. "Otherwise you would have attempted to use your shadow form to bypass me."
"Oh please." said Rogue, as his Shadow Jaws chomped and widened sinisterly. "Your type of magic user always have something up their sleeve. Like those tarot cards that little saint level magician set around the house to prevent nearby enemies from leaving without fufilling certain conditions.."
"You're good.." said Acqua. "But then why not just wait till your dragons destroyed the tarot spell before attacking?"
"Isn't it obvious?!" said Rogue. "I'm not Hydra Head's invading force..I'm an advance team sent to get rid of another potential threat! Another daughter of Thundaarix that could result in a threat to our cause!"
"You were after the unborn child all this time!" said Acqua.
"Bingo!" said Rogue. Suddenly half his face turned a dark gray and his right eye turned red and pupiless. A holy white light joined his dark twisting shadows, and his Shadow Jaws grew fangs made of light and it's eyes turned a bright glowing gleam as white glowing horns grew from it's head. White Shadow Dragon Mode..
"And now.." said Future Rogue. "I shall eliminate the future of the Misaka family..just as I shall eventually mold the Rogue of this timeline!"
R.I.F.T. Trivia
1. The Atlas Flame which Natsu met during the Sun arch of Fairy Tail, was a different Atlas Flame then that of the one who attacked during the Grand Magic Games. As it turns out, the Atlas Flame of this timeline was also taken through time by an alternate Eclipse from another alternate future where he met that timeline's Natsu. This is why Atlas remembered Natsu during the Sun Village Arch.
2. Asgawrath..Dravis's creator, after his initial reawakening in the 6th book, is currently watching all these events unfold with interest. Little does he know that Aleister Crowley is also watching him..and also watching a certain orange haired Substitute Soul Reaper.