Zeref and the dragons arrived a few days later and Anna met up with them before heading to the Heartfilia courtyard where the preparation for the eclipse gate was completed. I didn"t go and greet them and just stood at the rooftop of the main house overlooking everything. No one noticed my presence, not even Zeref."Where is that man? I thought he would be here to witness this. And if anything did go wrong, his s.p.a.ce magic and time magic could come in handy." Zeref suddenly asked to Anna who was looking for any mistakes in the gate and flinched a bit at the question.
"He said he would be here. Wait, how do you know about…" Anna calmed herself before answering but realized the meaning behind Zeref"s second part of his words. Zeref and the dragons weren"t supposed to know about my time control ability so it came as a surprise to Anna. But for me, it was obvious they already knew. The fact that I knew about the future itself reveals that I had some type of connection with time. So I decided to cut off Anna from her inquiry and also make sure that Zeref doesn"t have any plans of going against me personally.
"It"s fine Anna, I already knew that they realized that. You may begin as soon as possible. I"ll make sure nothing goes wrong." My voice was the only thing heard across the courtyard and the people and the dragons in the courtyard were surprised to realize that they could not find my location. This goes especially for Zeref and the dragons. They were at the top of the pyramid when it came to strength wise in the world and yet they could not find me.
Everyone in the courtyard soon began to concentrate on the gate instead of me and I watched as the plan finally taking place. The dragon slayers were brought in and they were unconscious. During the past year, I have had interactions with them on a daily basis as I was also teaching them alongside Anna. But it was still weird to see the grown up characters that I was used to be in their chibi forms.
My relationship with them was interesting to say the least. Natsu, Gajeel and Sting were the trouble makers, as expected. They would often get a scolding by Anna and so I started to get them out of an earful. This made them like me more and respect me for my strength which they once happened to see when I was training.
Rogue mostly kept everything to himself and just read books by himself. He was the most enthusiastic when it came to studying and he would often come to ask questions on "math". It seems he took a liking to it and he enjoyed it much more than the others. Wendy was still the shy little girl that was portrayed in the canon. She clings to me or Anna whenever Grandeeney was absent.
All five of them were currently on the ground and unconscious. And soon the weakened soul of the dragons was transplanted into the dragon slayers. Once that was finished, Anna used the celestial keys to open the gates and sent the dragon slayers to the future. Zeref and Anna waited to see if there was anything wrong and looked around, possibly for me.
"It worked. The five dragon slayers and their parents have been sent to the year X777. You will meet them in due time Zeref. Including your brother." Zeref stayed silent at my words for a while before nodding and leaving followed by the rest of the Heartfilia clan members.
That left only Anna and me in the courtyard and I teleported in front of her while finally showing my presence. We stood staring at each other for a while. The silence was almost killing me, but I didn"t let it show. I stood waiting for an answer. And Anna finally started to talk amidst the silence.
"Honestly, the time I have spent with you has been the happiest I have been. Before I met you, I was satisfied with my life. I had a large family and I was able to teach a lot of children and see them grow up to be great adults. There wasn"t anything that I really wanted." She began like that. That is mostly used to start a careful rejection. Is she going to reject? d.a.m.n, I should have waited for a while more.
"But, since I met you, I started wanting more. What I wanted, I didn"t know. But I did know that I could only have more if it was with you that I lived. So, I accept. I wish to go with you to the future. I wish to build my own little family. I don"t want to stay here with just your memories and I don"t wish to remain here and be unable to see you. So, let"s go to the future, Ray." She gave that famous angelic smile and completely floored me. I stood still, unable to believe what I just heard. What the h.e.l.l. Don"t go saying things that could sound like a rejection and accept the next second like that. It"s not good for my heart.
"Haah, you really have a way with your words don"t you Anna? Well, it doesn"t matter as long as you"re with me. So shall we go tell your clan?" I gave a sigh before finally accepting the fact that she quite possibly knowingly played with my heart.
"Oh, I already told them long ago. I told them that I would be leaving when we came back from our date that day." I knew it. She did it on purpose. Well, I guess that part of her is cute too. It just adds to her charm.
"Why am I not surprised. Then should we head out right now or do you want to do something else? I don"t mind you staying with the people you know for a couple of more days you know." I said to her while rolling my eyes and yet thought that life with her will definitely not be boring.
"No. if I stayed with them more, I might get reluctant to leave them. But there is something that I want to try though." Hm, I don"t like that mischievous smile she is giving. And why do I feel like I might be encountering something big soon.
"And what is that?" I asked cautiously while backing off slowly. But Anna seems to have locked onto her target and walked towards me. She soon grabbed my arm and dropped the biggest bombsh.e.l.l I have ever heard.
"I want to practice making babies." That"s what she said.