Songs

Nova vs. Steel: Ultimate Secrets (Naruto OST)

Talking with Steel: Malediction (Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia OST)

Training Begins: Kaen Ranbu (Fairy Tail OST)

Anti-Mira Arrives: Nine Demon Gates Arawaru (Fairy Tail OST)

Vs. Erza & Jellal: The Sacrifice and the Saint (Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia OST)

Nova and Fushigi Play: Cinema Paradiso Love Theme (Ennio & Andrea Morricone) [Performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Ennio Morricone, & Roma Sinfonietta]

"Now then...I suppose I should start getting serious."

"Oh really. Then so should I. Take Over: Lightning Soul." Nova powered up her lightning to red, and then went even further, changing its color to light blue.

"Oh? It changed color." He grinned.

"Yes...my lightning soul is affected by my emotions. It's built on the love I have for my family. My first stage, yellow, is just utilizing basic lightning magic. The second stage, purple, is for the love I have for my father. The third stage, red, is for the love I have for Grandpa Yury. And the fourth stage, blue, is for the love I have for Layla." She rushed towards him again, but he caught her by her foot and tossed her back to the ground. Getting up again, she slammed her palm into the ground, sending a current of blue lightning at Steel, who created another earth shield, blocking it.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" She blasted blue lightning out of her mouth towards him, and it broke through his shield and hit him in the chest, sending him flying back. She then took the opportunity to dash towards the front door, Steel reaching out to grab her foot, but Silver stepped on his hand to allow her to win. Touching the front door, she cheered, looking back at him confidently.

"Alright. I'll concede. Good job. You have quite the up and coming mage here, Silver."

"Yes. She is actually...well, I suppose we should tell you inside."

X

"So, they are all from the future. I see. This Anti-Mira character took over the guild?"

"Yes. She is in possession of their souls. Their bodies are shells until we wipe her magic and influence from their bodies." Nova explained to him.

"And you want me to train you?" Steel looked over at Layla and Silver questioningly.

"Yes. Rather than focus on our magic, we'd rather raise our physical strength." She looked at him.

"Come on, it will be just like the old days." Silver laughed.

"Hmm…" He rubbed his chin. "It's tempting to kick your asses around here again, but let's get one thing straight. I won't be joining your group for this fight after the training is finished. I'm too old to fight someone like you guys with my full strength. Even what I showed you outside took its toll on me. It's not easy living the life of a mage for me nowadays."

"I didn't expect you to, Old Man." Silver sighed.

"Was there anyone in particular you wanted me to focus on? I imagine that the two of you already have your physical strength pretty high up there."

"I suppose…"

"Me. Please help me." Nova interrupted, prompting the others to look at her.

"Are you sure you want to be fighting that much after what just happened?" Mira asked, worried.

"I need to be the one to kill her." She looked at her mother, determined, making Mira close her eyes in understanding.

"Very well. We'll begin tomorrow. You may all stay for the night."

X

It was only sunrise, yet Nova found herself awake already, walking over to the window and peeking through the blinds. Yawning and rubbing her eyes, she went into the bathroom, changing into black yoga pants and a blue tank top. Making sure to be quiet, she put her shoes on and stepped outside, stretching.

"Going somewhere?"

Nova yelped and looked to her left where Layla was, wearing a similar outfit but with a purple top.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sneak up on you? I was just standing here."

"You know what I mean. I'm going for a run. Are you joining me?"

"Yeah, why not?" The two began to take a lap around the village, eventually reaching the bench and the waterfall at the edge of town.

"You took me here when I was little to tell me about Isabella and how you and Silver became friends." Nova explained, the two sitting down together.

"Did you have any nightmares?" Layla asked after a few minutes.

"...Yes. But not the usual one."

"Hm? A new one?"

"Yes. And I only had it once. I woke up and went back to sleep without any other disturbances after."

"What was it about?"

"It was short...I was a little girl… and my mom kissed me on the nose like she always used to do...then she started to walk away from me. I ran after her, but no matter how much I call her she doesn't respond, and no matter how fast I am, I can't catch up to her. Eventually, she stops. Without turning around, she tells me that everything will be okay and that I must trust her. She doesn't do anything else unless I answer, and if I say something unrelated, she'll ask again. Finally, I say that I trust her, and she turns around, corrupted by Antimatter magic, and repeats her statement. Then it ended, and I woke up."

"Hm...it appears that your dreams are now focusing on your own mother rather than Anti-Mira. That's a good start. And at least you're sleeping again."

"Yes. Layla...what if we aren't strong enough to defeat her…?"

"Well, isn't that why we're going to start training here?"

"Yes, but...Antimatter magic is...so different from everything else we know…"

"Nova. I want you to look at me. We'll get through this. We survived my mother, we can survive anything. You said your mother used to do this?" Layla leaned in and kissed her nose lightly, making Nova blush, embarrassed.

"You're very cute when you're flustered." Layla giggled, standing up. "We should be getting back. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes."

When the two returned, the others were waking up, Lucy and Mira watching them.

"Good morning, you two." Mira smiled.

"Morning." Nova smiled slightly. "I'm going to shower, I'm sweaty." She ran upstairs, Layla watching with her hand on her hip.

"You went jogging?" Lucy asked.

"Yes. It's good for me. I'm getting old." she laughed.

"Oh, shush." her daughter tapped her shoulder.

X

"Alright Nova, let's see what you've got. Go punch that tree without any magic." Steel said, the others watching, Fushigi, Storm, Gale, Nashi, and Reiki waiting on the sidelines.

She went up to it and got into a fighting stance, reeling her arm back and punching the bark as strong as she could without magic. The tree shook a bit, and she made a bit of a dent, but then seethed and pulled her fist back, holding it.

"Ah, shit!"

"Language, young lady!" Mira scolded from afar, the others laughing. "Must get that from Laxus." She shook her head.

"Crap." She stepped back, looking at Steel nervously.

"Right. The rest of you. Do the same on the other trees." They followed suit, doing as well or worse than her.

"Not bad. Silver. Show them how it's done." He walked up to one of the trees and punched straight through it, making it fall towards the ground. Ice spread out in front of him from his boots, forming a spike that touched the tree before it fell to the ground, freezing it instantly. Stomping his foot, all of the ice shattered, including the tree, before walking back to the side, leaving the others' jaws on the ground.

"When I'm through with you, that's what you'll be able to do. Now let's get started."

Most of the training was sparring with Steel, having them spar with heavy weights on their wrists, which made them significantly slower and weaker, but as a basic training principle, made them significantly stronger and faster once they were removed. After a whole day of training, Mira restored their stamina with her healing spell, and they tried again, this time with each of them being successful.

"I did it...Mom, I did it!" Nova cheered, running over to Mira without thinking.

"I saw! Well done." She smiled at her.

"Yes, well done indeed." They froze when another Mira voice, this one much more malicious, spoke out, standing on the roof of the house, along with two others, their appearances hazed out by her magic.

Nova prepared to jump up, but Mira grabbed her and held her.

"Don't! You're not ready yet." she pleaded.

"Listen to mommy, Nova." Anti-Mira mocked. "I'm not here to fight this time anyways. They are. I have other things to do." She motioned to her two companions.

"Night Goddess' Bow." Layla summoned her spirit weapon and aimed an arrow at Anti-Mira, firing it quickly, and piercing through her chest, but she simply took it out and healed herself, unfazed.

"I'm afraid that won't work. Nothing will. Nice try." She held out her hand and blasted a beam of energy towards Layla, who snapped her fingers and entered her night dimension, countering the beam with one of her own to disperse it. But Anti-Mira had already moved out of the way.

'...She can move in my dimension…..' Layla cancelled her spell and went back to the regular world, not finding her anywhere.

"I suppose she left. We'll have to deal with her later. For now, we have those two."

The two jump down from the house and the magic reveals their faces, adult versions of Erza and Jellal.

"Mom! Dad!" Reiki gasped.

"Meteor." Jellal said emotionlessly, dashing around and attacking all of them, kicking them to the ground.

"She's controlling them more than she did Gray." Silver noted.

"It appears so...Take Over: Lightning Soul!" Nova activated her signature power.

Future Erza requipped into her Rabbit Armor.

"Requip: Ataraxia!" Reiki stepped forward and used her spell, creating a red set of armor with a red coat and black blades rotating around them.

"Mom. Want to join me?" He smirked back at the younger Erza, who smiled, proud of her son.

"Of course." She stepped forward.

"Pleiades!" Jellal cast another spell, creating six swords of light that shot into the sky before falling back down towards them.

"You guys should move away. We'll handle this, and we don't want anyone to get in the way either." Erza ordered. The others complied, moving back inside the house.

"Jiu Leixing!" Jellal created nine swords of lightning this time that he sent towards the others, creating a large explosion upon impact.

When the smoke cleared, Erza had blocked it with her Adamantine Armor, separating the two shields and going into her Rabbit Armor, the same as her future counterpart.

Reiki locked eyes with his father before moving his arms, sending his blades after the mage, who used Meteor to avoid all of them.

Jellal jumped backwards so that he was a fair distance away from everyone, then performed the pose for Sema.

"True Heavenly Body Magic: Sema!" A swirling vortex of clouds began to cover the sky as a giant meteor began to fall towards them.

"Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist!" Nova created a giant fist made out of lightning that was able to break through it.

Jellal used Meteor again to dash away from the house, Nova speeding after him.

"Wait!" Reiki called out.

"Reiki, leave them! She'll win. You and I need to focus on me." Erza reassured him, turning around to her future self, who had requipped to her Nakagami Armor. Young Erza did the same, and the two used Nakagami Starlight against each other, but the older one came out on top, her strength having evolved in the future years. However, her armor broke apart afterwards, leaving her drained of magic.

"Mom! Requip: Celestial Armor!" Reiki donned a golden armor, and created hand seals.

"True Heavenly Body Magic: Grand Chariot!" 21 magic circles appeared in the sky, and rained down light beams upon Future Erza, defeating her.

Nova, meanwhile, activated her Lightning Soul, going up to her red stage, matching Jellal's Meteor and matching blows with him.

"True Heavenly Body Magic: Altairis!" Future Jellal used his most powerful spell, creating an enhanced black hole and sending it spinning towards her.

'I can't stop that one!' Nova backed away.

"Mom!" she called out, Mira hearing her and heading over to her.

"What is it?!"

"Black Hole! I don't have any magic strong enough to break it!"

"Got it!" Mira fired a blast of daylight god energy into the attack, blasting it apart and startling Jellal.

"Daylight Goddess' Purification!" Mira accelerated time and rushed over to Jellal, placing her hand on his chest and blasting purifying energy through him, dispersing the Anti-Matter Magic.

He fell over, and Mira and Nova smiled at each other.

"Let's bring him back to the others."

X

"They're both laid up in the guest bedroom. They'll probably be awake by tomorrow." Steel came downstairs and talked to the others, who were all sitting in the living room.

"I see. Thank you." Fushigi nodded at him.

"So, that's what you meant by stealing their souls, Layla?" Steel sat down in his large armchair.

"Yes. They attack without hesitation and do not recognize their families or comrades."

"How interesting. I wonder what this Antimatter Magic's origin is? Is it possible to ask the gods?"

"I suppose I could...but it would take some time. For now, it would be best for me to remain here, with the other members attacking at random." Layla looked over at Nova and nodded.

"Steel, is that Cello yours?" Fushigi asked suddenly, pointing to the next room, where a cello case was sitting against the wall.

"It was my wife's. Why do you ask?"

"Do you mind if I play it? I didn't get to bring my own back with me."

"You play, do you? Yes, go ahead. You will probably have to tune it."

"That's fine." She went and opened the case, taking it out carefully along with the bow and began to tune it.

"It's in pristine condition. You've been taking care of it, haven't you?"

"Yes, ever since she passed."

"I didn't know you played an instrument." Mira looked at her, her eyes lighting up.

"Yes, of course. Layla made sure that we all learned something. I sing and play cello, Nova sings and plays guitar and piano, Storm plays drums, Gale plays bass and sings, and Nashi plays guitar and sings. Nova, would you like to play piano with me?"

"Sure." She was already sitting on the bench and turned around, opening the piano up.

"What shall we play?"

Nova paused, thinking, before turning to Mira.

"This is a lullaby you used to sing to me every night of your own creation." She turned around and prepared to play. Fushigi took the melody while Nova accompanied her. The two played beautifully. Mira felt her heart flutter, knowing that she would eventually sing this to her daughter to help her sleep. It made her think about everything that Nova had been through, and gave her some sense of relief knowing that this would help her to move past that.

Nova continued to play, watching her fingers move from key to key, avoiding eye contact with Mira. Her mind moved to her memories of her mother humming this for her and then kissing her on the nose like she used to do. But she also couldn't help but move to her new dream as well. Her heart ached to see her real mother again, as much as she loved this younger one.

Finishing, everyone clapped, loving it. Nova looked over at Mira, blushing, avoiding direct eye contact.

"How lovely, Nova. But...now that I know what it sounds like, have you changed the past, or something like that?" Mira asked.

"We changed the past by showing up here in the first place. But we had no other choice. We had to come back. I should be getting to bed now. Sorry." She stood up and went upstairs, looking down on her way there, Mira taking notice.

X

Nova had the dream again, and awoke early that morning, turning over and staring at the ceiling. To the right of her was her mother, still asleep. She sighed, and moved closer to her, snuggling into her. Mira stirred slightly and wrapped her arm around her daughter, comforting her.

"Are you okay?" she mumbled.

"I miss her." Nova whispered.

"I know." Mira kissed Nova's nose, surprising her.

"I know I'm not quite the same, but I'll always love you too, and be here for you, you know."

"Thanks, mom." Nova smiled at her.

End.