"Get down!"

Gray flung himself forward, pushing Rogue out of the path of an incoming blast and rolling back to his feet. A dog-like demon took shape from the ruins, then snarled, charging towards Gray. Two ice daggers materialized in his hands and he flung them at the beast, sighing with relief when they found their mark and it crumbled into pieces. Gray reached down and helped Rogue to his feet.

"The portal is getting bigger!" Lyon's voice rang out across the courtyard, and Gray looked up to see that his brother was right. Jellal – or rather, a shapeshifter with Jellal's face – was standing at the pedestal, chanting something to keep the portal open.

"Natsu, take him OUT!" Gray roared. Natsu staggered to his feet, blood trailing down his face from a cut on his temple, and snarled at not-Jellal. Natsu threw his head back and let out a blast of flames in the direction of the pedestal, but the invisible barrier around Jellal ignored the magic like it was nothing.

"I can't…" Natsu's voice trailed off and his eyes widened as he saw a ball of dark energy shoot up in the air and expand. "Shit. Everyone hide! NOW!" The magic started to constrict, and an idea began to form in Gray's mind. Not-Jellal had used this magic before, so maybe they could trick it.

"Bring it back to him!" Gray shouted at Natsu, gesturing at the portal and the pedestal. Natsu frowned for a second, then a grin broke out over his face and he dashed forward towards the barrier. "Rogue, get Sting and get the hell out of here." Rogue was already holding an unconscious and badly battered Sting in his arms, and he gave Gray a worried look before disappearing into the shadows.

"Gray, don't be an idiot!" Lyon, of course. Gray turned and saw Lyon, arm cradled limply across his chest, leaning heavily on a column of rocks.

"Just get down, let us handle this!" Gray yelled. Bits of debris were whipping around him now, fast enough to slice tiny cuts into his exposed skin. Lyon looked like he might argue, but he gave Gray a nod and ducked behind a ruined pillar.

Natsu stood next to the barrier, pushing his hands against it and wincing at the energy that crackled up his arms. Gray pushed his way forward against the thick vortex of magic that was now swirling around them. The barrier felt cold under his hands, but he pressed against it stubbornly.

"You're too late!" not-Jellal shouted, gesturing to the portal behind him. It looked like a window now, and Gray could catch bits and pieces of a ruined landscape through it. "I'm finally going back to take what's mine! Enjoy being purged."

"What the hell is he t-"

Natsu's question was interrupted when their plan finally came to fruition – the dark energy above them exploded and targeted the closest sources of magic – them. Gray quickly pushed a wall of ice around both of them, but the other magic overwhelmed his, blasting through and tearing the invisible barrier between them and not-Jellal to pieces. Gray reached out, trying to grab Natsu's hand while keeping his eyes open in the whirling vortex of rocks and dust and magic and-

-and then he stumbled forward, tripping on a piece of debris and landing on his knees in the middle of an empty alley. The vortex and the wind and the magic were gone, and in their place was silence.

"Natsu!" Gray staggered to his feet, looking around frantically for not-Jellal or his teammates. Natsu had been inches away from him, but now Gray appeared to be alone. And where the hell was he, anyway? The buildings on either side of him stretched so far over his head that they almost met at the top. "Natsu!"

Gray took a step forward, peering around the corner. The unfamiliar town was completely silent, and the air smelled like rust and stagnation. Gray rubbed his arms – it was freezing here, and he never got cold. An empty feeling washed through him, and his eyes widened in shock. His magic was gone. He tried desperately to access it, to find even a shred of it somewhere, but there was nothing to grasp at. What the hell?

"Gray!" Natsu's voice came from somewhere in the distance and Gray sighed in relief. At least he wasn't alone. "G-gray! Can you h-hear me?" Natsu's voice was shaky; it sounded like he was in pain.

"I'm coming!" Gray shouted, making his way toward Natsu's voice. "Keep yelling, I don't know where you are." He jumped over bits of rubble and twisted metal, wincing at a bruise forming on his side. Following the cries that were growing weaker by the second, he finally found himself in what appeared to the be the center of a collapsed building.

"Natsu, shit, are you okay?" Gray gasped. Natsu was pinned to the ground by several pieces of twisted metal that had fallen on him when he landed. Blood poured from the gash on his temple, and his face was white and slick with sweat.

Gray darted forward, grabbing the debris and pulling it away. Natsu groaned in pain, hand immediately going to his stomach, where blood was beginning to soak through his shirt.

"I th-think I'm okay," Natsu mumbled, but the blood pulsing sluggishly over his fingers disagreed. Gray quickly unwound Natsu's scarf from his neck and wrapped it around his torso, pressing on the wound. "F-fuck that hurts," Natsu groaned. "It's c-cold as hell here." Gray saw the moment that Natsu realized he was cut off from his magic, and he shook his head.

"I can't use my magic either," he reassured, lifting Nastu up and half-carrying him back to the street. "Can you walk? We should get out of here, I'm getting a…" Natsu nodded.

"Bad feeling, yeah. W-where the hell are we?" he asked, wincing and trying to look around. "I was… that guy that looked like Jellal was summoning a portal. And then – wait, where's Lyon? And Rogue and Sting?"

"I haven't seen them," Gray admitted. "They were a lot farther away from the portal than we were. The Jellal-guy was in front of us and then he just… disappeared, and then I was here." Gray shivered, and Natsu frowned at him. "Yeah, even I'm cold here."

"Probably doesn't help that you're not wearing a shirt, popsicle." Natsu muttered. They had made it back into a more central area of the town, which was still completely abandoned. Apartment buildings rose a hundred feet into the air, plants growing off the unused balconies. "Let's look around an-"

"They're over here!" A woman's voice rang out over their heads, and Gray looked up. Something large and dark hovered in the air on the other side of the buildings, and Gray tugged Natsu's arm, leading him through the debris toward it. It almost looked like... a ship?

"Did you flash 'em? Are they Cylons?" Gray froze. That was Natsu's voice. Deeper, and a bit rougher, but definitely belonging to the boy whose arm was currently draped around his neck. Gray turned to Natsu to see him frowning in puzzlement as well. The voices were getting closer, and Gray tried to see through the rubble to identify who was speaking. What the hell was going on?

"Didn't look it," the woman's voice replied. The voice was still coming from above them, and Gray stared upward intently, squinting at the tall apartment buildings. A flash of blue caught his eye, and he finally saw a figure, dropping from balcony to balcony until she stood in front of them.

It was a girl, maybe their age, with long blue hair pulled back into a set of intricate braids. She wore dark pants with a set of pistols holstered on each hip, and a black jacket over a well-worn tank top. Strange tendrils of a black material appeared to be embedded under and around her left eye.

"Holy shit, Wendy?" Natsu leaned forward and the woman immediately pulled a pistol from one of the holsters, pointing it at Natsu and scowling. Natsu was right, Gray realized with a start – it was Wendy. She was much older, and her neck and chest were marred by uneven scarring, but she had the same eyes.

"Who the frak are you?" she demanded angrily, glancing backward over her shoulder and then returning her gaze to them, moving to hold her pistol with both hands. Her eyes drifted to Gray and widened. "What kinda tech are you pulling?"

"I don't understand," Natsu said softly, and Gray could feel him shaking. "Aren't you Wendy? You're so much older? Where are we?"

"Wendy! There you are." A muscular man who looked nearly identical to Natsu clambered over a pile of rubble and skidded to a halt next to the girl. He had a deep, ugly scar through a blind left eye and a dark growth of stubble along his chin, and he was dressed in a similar black-on-black outfit. A holster was strapped to his thigh, the gun belonging to it was held cautiously in his hand. "I found a flatline, but it didn't look like a Cy..."

His voice trailed off as he caught sight of Gray and Natsu.

"What the frak?" he breathed, staring at them with a mixture of terror and cautious optimism. His eyes lingered on Gray and his brow furrowed as he stepped towards him. "Gray? You… you're…"

He reached out a tentative hand and touched Gray's face, running his fingers down to the Gray's chin. Gray shivered, breath catching in his throat.

"It's some kinda tech," other-Wendy growled, and the other Natsu snapped out of his daze and stepped back, face hardening. "It's not him."

"Not who?" Gray asked, tightening his grip on Natsu's waist and gesturing around them in confusion with his other hand. "I am Gray. But… I don't think we're from here."

"You're not him," the other Natsu said sadly. "You don't have the scars. And anyway, he's…"

"Dead," other-Wendy said, voice fierce. "So, either you two got total aesthetics of wanted Purges, or you're glamored."

Gray felt like he'd been punched in the chest. He could feel Natsu leaning heavily against him and tried his best to keep him standing. His mind was going a million miles a minute. He was dead here? Where the hell was here? And this other-Natsu looked so familiar, but so different.

"What's a… glamor?" Gray ended up asking, but his question was interrupted by Natsu making a weak sound and slumping against Gray, eyes fluttering shut. "Shit. He's lost a lot of blood. Can you- do you have a healer?" Gray sank down to the ground, holding Natsu carefully against him. He pressed down on the wound harder and felt his chest tighten with fear. "Please?"

"They're not glamored," the other Natsu muttered to Wendy, hand on his hip. "They've got the guild mark. Look at them, we can't just leave them here." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Fine." She holstered her gun and crouched down next to Gray, moving his hand out of the way and lifting Natsu's shirt to check the wound. It was jagged and messy, and blood was still pumping from it sluggishly. "Drek. I can't use magic out here – too dangerous." She reached around to the pack attached to her belt and rummaged through it, pulling out a white patch that looked like gauze and a small cylinder. "This'll do for now, I'll heal him when we get back."

Gray supported Natsu's head while Wendy pressed the cylinder to his neck. It made a hissing sound and the liquid drained from it. She shoved it back into her pack, then tore open the white bandage and pressed it to the wound. The material seemed to create a seal around the skin, preventing any more blood from escaping.

"All right, get them in the ship and we'll bring them back to the guild. But it's on your head if something goes sideways." Wendy put her hands on her hips, glaring at the other Natsu. "I'll go check the flatline, see if it's got anything to lift. I've got my speeder, I'll meet you back at base." Then she turned in the direction that the other Natsu indicated and stalked off.

"Sorry about her," other-Natsu said gently, kneeling down next to them. "She's just trying to keep us safe. We'd better scram, Magehunters'll be here soon. Can you carry him?" Gray nodded, hoisting Natsu into his arms and cringing at the feeling of sticky blood on his chest.

"Where are we..."

"We've got a craft. She isn't big, but we'll fit." Other-Natsu started making his way back across the rubble and Gray followed. "We're heading back to Fairy Tail."

Fairy Tail ended up being a sketchy-looking apartment building squeezed between a noodle stall and a liquor store. They landed the craft on the roof – other-Natsu explained that they used an invisibility lacrima on the ship to get around without being detected – and entered through an emergency access door. The whole building smelled like smoke and cheap beer.

"You're in Edolas."

Gray sat on an uncomfortable chair, a metal cup of something that almost tasted like tea in his hands. He had still been shivering when the tiny aircraft had landed at the guild's headquarters, so other-Natsu had lent him a heavy sweater.

"Edolas," Gray repeated, glancing down at the cot next to him. Natsu lay there, unconscious, forehead and stomach cleaned and healed by Wendy, who apparently had the same powers here than she had in their world. "So, it's a… like a parallel universe?"

"Something like that," Edolas-Natsu replied, dragging a chair over and sitting down across from Gray. He shrugged his jacket off, and Gray started when he saw that Edo-Natsu was missing his right arm from just above the elbow. He had the same guild mark as Gray's Natsu, but the bottom half of it was covered with a messy, raised scar. Edo-Natsu must have noticed Gray staring, because he glanced down and gave Gray a wry smile. "That's a Purge mark. Or part of one, anyway."

"What's…" Gray yelped as some of the hot liquid from his mug spilled over onto his hands. They were still shaking so badly that he could barely hold anything.

"Hey," Edo-Natsu said softly, reaching over and resting his hand on Gray's. "It's okay. It's a lot to take in."

"Fuck," Gray whispered, running a hand over his face. "I just… I can't wrap my head around it. Everything's so different. What happened to the guild? Why do you have guns? What happened to your eye? And your arm?" He felt himself start to hyperventilate. Edo-Natsu didn't reply, just left his hand on Gray's and squeezed gently.

"I dunno what it's like in your world, but magic is hunted here," Edo-Natsu said after a moment. He sat up, stretching, and Gray was struck again by how much older he looked than his Natsu. Jaw more defined, shoulders broader, so many more scars. "Used to be that some people had it – were born with it. We joined guilds, took jobs, helped people. But a while back, Faust's son dusted his mom and sister with his magic, and everything went sideways." Edo-Natsu reached up and ran his fingers over the raised scar on his arm. "Faust tried to take the prince's magic away, but the prince used the Purging Stone as a spellgate and escaped through it, into another world. Magic was banned and Faust started hunting mages, taking us to the Acropolis and Purging us."

"So, you can't use magic at all, anymore?" Gray prodded the empty, sick feeling inside of him where his magic should be, and shuddered to think about that being a life sentence.

"I can, a bit." Edo-Natsu sighed. "I only got partially Purged, so I can do small spells." He held out a palm and summoned a flame in the center. "There's not many who can, though. Wendy's still got her magic, and Gajeel and Levy. Laxus and Freed. A few from the other guilds." He sighed sadly. "There's not many of us left anymore."

"What… where is everyone else?" Gray was almost afraid to ask. He looked over at Natsu again, feeling homesickness tighten his chest.

"Most got taken and Purged," Edo-Natsu said gently. "And some are dead." Gray closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath.

"Like… me?" He wasn't sure he wanted an answer to that question.

"... yeah." Edo-Natsu's voice was uncertain, and he kept his eyes on the floor. "You – he – saved my ass a few years ago." He let out a shaky breath. "We were on a mission to rescue a bunch of mages from the Acropolis. Op went sideways and he… he didn't make it." His voice caught on the last part, and Gray noticed him using his thumb to absently rub a ring on his left hand.

"You were..." Gray gestured to the ring, and regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. It was none of his business.

"Yeah." Edo-Natsu held his hand up a little and Gray got a better look at the ring – plain silver with something engraved across it. "It's hard, you looking so much like him." He sighed and ran his hand over his face.

"Fuck, I'm so sorry," Gray said quietly, wishing he could somehow change his face so he didn't remind Edo-Natsu of what he'd lost. "I- I shouldn't have... we shouldn't..."

"It's okay," Edo-Natsu replied, a small smile returning to his features. "I don't talk about him much anymore. It's not your fault." He sighed. "One day we'll get them back for what they've done."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Gray finally managing to finish his tea. He tucked his hands into the sleeves of the sweater, staring anxiously at Natsu.

"How old are you?" he asked suddenly, taking the conversation in an entirely different direction.

"Just turned twenty-five, why?" Edo-Natsu looked puzzled. Gray did some quick mental math and nodded his head.

"That's why you look older. In our world, we were kinda… frozen? For a bit." He recalled being woken from their time on Tenrou and seeing how the world had changed. "We were in a sort of stasis for seven years, so we didn't age. You did."

"Huh," Edo-Natsu said, looking over at his alter self curiously. "Haven't seen my face without this in a long time." He ran his finger over the deep scar that started above his eyebrow and ended halfway down his cheek.

As if he had heard them talking about him, Natsu began to stir. Gray reached over, grabbing his hand.

"Hey sunshine, how're you feeling?" he asked quietly. Natsu groaned, frowning and blinking a few times. He met Gray's eyes and smiled a bit, then saw his other self and let out a strange laugh.

"Ah, fuck, I thought I was dreaming." He let Gray help him into a sitting position, then pressed his hand over his stomach carefully. "Who healed me?"

"Wendy," Edo-Natsu replied cheerfully, standing up and moving to the small table at the other side of the room. He filled another mug with tea, then grabbed a small satchel from the metal box beside the kettle. "Can you hold this for me?" He came back to them and handed the mug to Natsu, then poured the contents of the satchel into the cup. "She said it'll help with the healing."

Natsu looked suspicious for a moment, gaze moving between the cup and his alter self, then shrugged and took a sip.

"If I'm gonna trust anyone, it might as well be me," he reasoned, and Gray sighed, sitting back in his chair. Edo-Natsu smiled.

"Look, I'm sorry again about Wendy," he said, drumming his fingers against his leg. "Cylon tech is getting more splash, so it's dangerous." He sighed. "We haven't ever seen an Otherworlder, so it was safe to assume you were chancy."

"But you knew about us?" Gray asked, frowning and trying to work through the unfamiliar words. "Knew about our universe, I mean."

"Yes and no," Edo-Natsu said, tilting his head from side to side. "We know dimension travel's possible, that's how Prince Je-"

"Natsu! Get out here, we've got a code yellow and might have to split, all hands." Wendy's voice came through the door, and Edo-Natsu jumped up immediately, hand going to his holster.

"Alright, you two stay put and I mean stay put, don't give me that look 'cause I know myself and I know what you're thinking," he growled. Natsu opened his mouth to protest but withered a bit under his doppelgänger's one-eyed glare. Gray tried not to smirk. "If we end up splitting, you'll wanna get under the bed and hold on, it can get bumpy. I'll come back when it's safe." With no further explanation, he pulled his pistol out of its holster, then turned and stalked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"What the fuck," Natsu whispered as the door shut, setting his empty mug on the ground and pulling his knees to his chest. He looked terrified, and Gray didn't blame him. He gestured to the spot on the bed next to Natsu with his eyebrows raised, and Natsu nodded, shuffling over a bit.

"Apparently, we're somewhere called Edolas," Gray started, then proceeded to explain what Edo-Natsu had told him. Afterward, he waited hesitantly as Natsu sat there, staring at the floor with his arms around his knees. Gray wasn't sure whether to hug him or give him space. Sometimes Natsu wanted physical comfort, other times he pushed Gray's hands away.

"Fuck, I don't even know what to feel," Natsu whispered, solving Gray's dilemma by leaning into him and squirming until he was under Gray's arm. Gray made a soft sound and ran his fingers through Natsu's hair. They sat together for a while, listening for sounds from outside and breathing in tandem. After a while, Natsu asked, "were we married here?"

Gray let out a puff of laughter. Of course Natsu would notice that.

"Yeah." Gray exhaled into Natsu's hair, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. He felt like crying.

"I can't imagine losing you," Natsu said quietly, reaching up and putting his hand over Gray's arm. "I can't..."

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a loud alarm. The entire room started shaking, and Gray tugged Natsu to the floor and rolled until they were both under the bed.

"I didn't realize he meant that the building was literally going to move!" Gray shouted over the rumbling, holding Natsu tightly to his chest. "I thought he meant the ship!"

Natsu yelled a reply but Gray couldn't hear it, could only focus on the tight, tugging feeling in his chest that got smaller and smaller until he almost couldn't breathe. Then, all at once, the feeling expanded, and everything fell apart.

"You survived your first jump!" Gray groaned at Edo-Natsu's cheery voice, releasing Nastu from his arms and rolling out from under the bed. He felt like he'd just spent an hour sparring with Erza. Edo-Natsu's face appeared above him, grinning widely, and he reached down his hand to help Gray to his feet.

"What... the fuck... was that?" Natsu flopped onto his back on the floor, face still white from the experience. "I felt like I was being turned inside out!" Edo-Natsu laughed, pulling Natsu to his feet as well.

"That was us buggin' the hell out of our last hideout," Edo-Natsu replied. "Magehunters." He dug into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out two wrapped bars. "These taste like drek, but you're probably hungry. We made the jump safe, just trying to recon where we landed. Wanna come meet everyone?"

Natsu and Gray didn't argue, taking the food bars from Edo-Natsu and following him down the hallway and a set of stairs. The bars were chewy but tasted bland, and Gray could see Natsu making faces as he bit into his.

The door at the bottom of the stairs opened up into a large room, lit from above with fluorescent bulbs. Along one wall ran a series of screen showing pictures of different people and places. There was a ratty-looking couch and several chairs arranged in a semicircle, and a ramshackle kitchen on the far side of the room. The wall that faced the street was almost transparent, and Gray could see people walking by outside.

"Everyone, meet my younger self and other-Gray." Edo-Natsu walked into the room confidently, waving to everyone like this wasn't the weirdest thing that had ever happened. Natsu backed up enough that he could grasp Gray's hand, and Gray squeezed it reassuringly.

"Frak me, it's you without that ugly-ass gash on your face." A familiar voice came from one of the couches, and a tall man with spiky black hair stepped towards them. Gajeel. He was dressed in a tight-fitting sleeveless shirt and black pants, and Gray could see that this version still had his various piercings. "And he's still got his arm, lucky him."

"Frag off," Edo-Natsu said mildly, flopping down on the couch and waving the stump of his right arm at the taller man. He then turned back to Gray and Natsu. "You two probably also know Levy and Lucy."

Lucy looked surprisingly similar to their own world's version, except for her outfit – a tight leather cropped top and baggy pants with pockets full of various tools. She had a pair of goggles on the top of her head, and she was currently inspecting a wall panel that was sparking and zapping.

"Heya," she said, expression flickering between interest and fear as it passed over them. Gray felt Natsu's hand tighten in his, and he could do nothing but wave weakly.

Levy, on the other hand, looked almost unrecognizable. Her hair was no longer blue, but a rainbow of colors, spiked up in a mohawk that ran down the center of her head. A pair of deep scars, almost identical to Edo-Natsu's, cut across each cheek and ended just below her lips. She had a black device tucked around her left ear that extended into a visor that floated just in front of her eye.

"They're blanks," she remarked, examining the screen in her hand.

"Of course they're blanks," Edo-Natsu grumbled, sitting up and leaning his arm against his leg. "They're not from here. They're also people and I'm sure they'd appreciate it if you all stopped acting like jackasses." Levy looked slightly guilty and flipped the visor up, looking at them properly.

"Hi. Sorry." She stood and put out her hand, which they both shook tentatively. Gajeel followed suit, but Lucy remained in the corner. "It's just weird, you lookin' like Gray and all. Or, being Gray, I guess."

"Sorry," Gray said quietly. He and Natsu both sat down uncomfortably on the couch, thighs pressed tightly together. The bar he just ate roiled in Gray's stomach, and he worried he was going to be sick.

"Laxus and Freed are out on doing recon, but they'll be back in a bit," Edo-Natsu explained. He kicked his feet up on the table, ignoring a glare from Levy.

"I got a positive ID on that flatliner you found." Wendy marched over to the group from where she'd been standing at the wall of screens. "This seems impossible, but he IDs as Prince Jellal." Edo-Natsu's feet immediately dropped back to the ground and he leaned forward, frowning.

"Prince?" Gray found, to his surprise, that his voice was working, and he winced a bit when everyone turned to stare at him. "He's... we have a Jellal in our world. But we thought this guy was just a- a shapeshifter or something."

"That's how we ended up here," Natsu added. "We were fighting him and got too close to his magic, and I guess he sucked us up with him." Everyone was staring at them with perplexed expressions, and it was Wendy who finally broke the silence.

"Looks like you're lucky you didn't end up like him, then." She looked down at the screen in her hand. "Deceleration trauma – not pretty." She glanced over at Natsu and Gray's puzzled expressions and elaborated. "Fell from a really high place." They both winced.

"So, does that mean somethin' important for us?" Gajeel's voice broke into the conversation. "Why'd he come back now? Or try to?" It took Gray a minute to realize that Gajeel was expecting him to answer.

"Oh, uh..." Gray stammered. "He, um, when he opened the portal he said something about... coming back to take what's his?" He looked to Natsu for confirmation and Natsu nodded. "We didn't have much intel on him, other than he looked like someone we knew and he was using weird teleportation magic."

"Jellal is the prince who escaped through the Purging Stone," Edo-Natsu explained quietly. Gray's frown deepened – this twisted version of Jellal was actually a prince from this universe who had been hiding in their world for the last fifteen years?

"So he was comin' back to fight Faust again an' botched it," Gajeel confirmed. "If he's worm food now, it's not our problem, yeah?"

"Unless he brought something else along with him," Wendy said suspiciously. She gave both Gray and Natsu a long, intimidating stare, and Gray felt his temper rising.

"We're not... in league with him, or something, if that's what you're insinuating," he growled, pushing himself to his feet. Wendy took a step back, eyes widening, and Gray immediately dropped his hands and looked around. "What?"

"Just been a long time since we've all heard that tone," Edo-Natsu said softly, tugging on Gray' sleeve until he slumped back on the couch. "And Wendy isn't saying anything like that, is she, Wendy?" Wendy sighed and brought her hands up to rub her temples.

"No. Sorry." She dropped down onto the couch as well and tossed the datapad onto the table, flicking her wrist until it brought up a holographic 3D map. "We're just... stuck. Faust's got the Wall up around Imperium and the mainland, so there's no way to even get close anymore."

The map turned sideways and Gray could see a general outline of the area – a large expanse of land that curved around an island-city labelled Imperium. A dotted line traced what Wendy had called the Wall, and a pulsing blue dot showed the location of Fairy Tail.

"We've been trying to scrounge up enough creds to get more spellcubes," Edo-Natsu explained. "But the dealers have all gone to Undertown, which is inside the Wall. Nobody with magic can get in there, and they ident-scan at each entry point, so we're pretty much hooped on that front."

"What do you need spellcubes for?" Natsu asked quietly, and Wendy turned to him, giving him a contemplative look.

"Because innate magic doesn't work in Imperium, past the Wall," she replied slowly, tapping her fingers on her knee. "But spellcubes do. We've done it before." Gray noticed Edo-Natsu's face tighten.

"Done what before?" Natsu pressed.

"Last time we got in there, we rescued twenty-six prisoners and dusted nearly thirty Magehunters," Wendy replied, and Gray noticed that she was purposefully not looking at Edo-Natsu. "We need to get back to Acropolis somehow and smuggle in as much tech as we can."

"What's in Acropolis?" Gray asked, feeling like the conversation was veering wildly into unfamiliar territory. Everything here was foreign, a puzzle that he didn't know how to put together, an unsettled feeling that left him sharp and frustrated.

"The Purging Stone," Edo-Natsu replied. His voice was hard, and he stared at his hand as he spoke. "Acropolis is where they take mages to Purge them. Where they torture them and imprison them and murder them."

Edo-Natsu stood up, staring intently at the 3D map and running his thumb along the ring on his finger. The pain was clear on his face, and nobody else in the room made a move to speak. Eventually, Edo-Natsu turned to Wendy and gave her a hard, angry smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"We'll figure it out. We'll get the codes, and the spellcubes, and the armor and the weapons. And when we do... we're gonna burn that place to the ground."