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"Noah went into the Celestial Spirit World alone. Will he be alright?"
Lucy watched the Eclipse Gate shudder and flicker, its light stuttering in unsteady pulses. She already knew what Noah had done to the Black Abyss. That didn't stop her from worrying about both him and the Celestial Spirits on the other side.
"Don't worry, Lucy."
Erza's fists were clenched at her sides, but her eyes were steady. "That's Noah. If he says he can handle it, he will."
Mira nodded, a smile on her face that was equal parts proud and exasperated. "Besides, the look on his face when he went through that gate was not the look of someone who feels threatened."
Natsu, predictably, had no interest in offering comfort. He was staring at the Eclipse Gate with barely contained frustration. "Why couldn't I have gone in too? That sounds like an incredible fight."
Lucy glanced at him. Remarkably, she found she had absolutely nothing to say to that. Three months of knowing Natsu had apparently worn down her capacity for surprise.
Zeref paid none of them any attention. His focus was on the energy readings coming through the Eclipse Gate. The starlight that the Eclipse Power had been suppressing was beginning to recover, faint but unmistakable.
Noah worked quickly, it seemed.
Mavis, who had been channeling her Magic Power into the Gate to keep it open, opened her eyes and turned toward the far end of the Dragon Graveyard. "Someone is coming. By the sound of the footsteps, it is almost certainly the Fiore military."
Irene crossed her arms. "It must be that punch. Sending the Celestial Spirit King's head back through the Gate with that much force was never going to go unnoticed. Something that loud would reach the capital."
The group still had Irene's invisibility Enchantment covering them, but the Eclipse Gate was enormous, ancient, and actively operating. Anyone with eyes would be able to tell that something was happening down here.
Natsu's fists sparked against each other and he looked toward the entrance with bright, eager eyes. "So we're fighting our way out?"
Erza grabbed him by the ear before he could get any further with that idea, completely ignoring the fact that Zeref, Natsu's biological brother, was standing two paces away.
"Fighting, fighting," she said flatly. "That is always your answer, isn't it? Either you are causing trouble or you are on your way to cause it." She did not let go of the ear. "We are in the royal capital of Fiore. We broke in without permission. We are not picking a fight with the Fiore army."
Natsu winced and made a convincing show of looking chastened.
Irene watched the scene with mild curiosity and turned to Zeref. "Your brother is being disciplined by my daughter, and you are just standing there watching?"
Zeref did not look away from the Eclipse Gate. Anna answered on his behalf, with the easy candor of someone who had known both brothers for a very long time. "You have to understand, if Natsu had been even slightly better behaved growing up, Igneel would never have had reason to wipe his memory in the first place." She paused. "And even before that, after Zeref brought Natsu back and he started causing trouble everywhere, Zeref spent years dealing with the headaches."
Irene raised an eyebrow. "Even Zeref?"
"Why do you think he handed an amnesiac child to a dragon? Learning Fire Dragon Slayer Magic was part of it, certainly, but a little peace and quiet was not nothing either."
Lucy watched the two of them settle comfortably into the conversation and felt a twitch develop near her eye. The Fiore army was currently working its way through the Dragon Graveyard and would reach the Eclipse Gate at any moment, and the adults in the group were standing around discussing Natsu's childhood.
Sure enough, a unit of fully armed Cherry Blossom Knights came around the corner at a brisk march, their armor catching the faint light from the Gate. The general at the front took one look at the enormous, glowing structure and stopped dead. He recovered quickly.
"Search the entire area! Stay alert for any suspicious individuals!" He turned to the nearest soldier. "Send word to the King and Princess Hisui immediately. The Eclipse Gate has opened under unknown circumstances. Tell them to come at once."
The soldiers spread through the Dragon Graveyard, moving between the dragon bones with weapons drawn and scanning every shadow.
Under Irene's Enchantment, they might as well have been searching an empty room. Several of them walked close enough to brush past the group. One nearly walked directly into Natsu. Not one of them noticed a thing.
"Captain! Nothing to report!"
The general's frown deepened. "Impossible. With that kind of noise..."
He drew his sword and approached the Eclipse Gate slowly, eyes moving in careful sweeps across the space around it.
Irene was quietly considering whether a group Sleep Enchantment would solve the problem cleanly, when a voice came from behind the soldiers.
"Arcadios. Step back from the gate."
The general stopped and turned.
A young girl was making her way through the Dragon Graveyard at a quick, purposeful pace. She wore an exquisite white dress, and long hair the color of deep emerald fell down her back. Several powerful court mages flanked her on all sides. Despite everything about her that suggested youth, the way she moved and spoke carried the unmistakable weight of someone who had been raised to lead.
It was Princess Hisui E. Fiore, the King's only daughter and the future ruler of the Kingdom of Fiore.
Her eyes went to the Eclipse Gate the moment she entered the clearing, then moved from the Gate itself to the twelve golden keys fitted into the Zodiac keyholes along its frame, and there they stayed. Something shifted in her expression.
She raised one hand, stopping her guard mages before they could advance any further. "There is no need to search further." Her voice carried clearly in the underground space. "And there is no need to keep hiding, Lucy Heartfilia."
A brief pause.
"Your concealment is very well done. But the golden keys in the Eclipse Gate are a more honest witness than any invisibility spell."
Princess Hisui stood at what she had clearly calculated to be a safe distance, confident that with this many soldiers present, Lucy would have little choice but to cooperate.
After a quick exchange of glances, the group silently agreed to let Lucy step forward alone. She was the most natural fit for this, and the princess had addressed her by name. More importantly, if the Fiore Kingdom was hiding something, a conversation was more likely to draw it out than a fight.
Lucy let the Enchantment fall away and appeared in front of the Eclipse Gate.
Princess Hisui did not move closer. "Please be at ease. I do not know how you entered the Dragon Graveyard, and I do not know where you found the Magic Power to open the Eclipse Gate. Neither my father nor I intend to hold you accountable for the intrusion." She held Lucy's gaze steadily. "However, we do have one request. We would like to borrow your Celestial Spirit Keys."
The moment Lucy registered what was being asked, every instinct in her body went on alert. She straightened without thinking, placing herself between the princess and the Gate.
Princess Hisui read the reaction immediately and understood what it meant. Persuasion, then. The most reliable way to bring this particular mage around would be to explain the full plan. Once Lucy understood what was actually at stake, her resistance would likely ease on its own.
And so Princess Hisui began to lay it out, slowly and carefully: the plan that the royal family of Fiore had been building in secret. A plan to use the Eclipse Gate to travel back through time, to find the Black Wizard and the Black Dragon before either of them had grown into the catastrophes they became, and to stop them before the world ever had to face what they would one day bring.
Lucy listened in silence.
Behind her, invisible to everyone else in the room, every single member of the group turned and looked at one specific person at exactly the same moment.
Zeref stared at the Gate and said nothing.