Hey Fairy Tail fans! Divinion here! Hope you enjoy my brand new story. This is set at the Eclipse Gate, as if it had all gone to plan without the dragons and all. As you can probably expect, most of the GMG and the build up to the gate opening has stayed as true to the anime/manga as possible, except any obvious differences. Spoilers are throughout this fanfiction, including things beyond the Grand Magical Games arc, but if you're reading fanfiction you should probably expect that. Also, rated for language and disturbing themes.

I've pretty much written this all now, except for the ending, and the more you read it the more you'll understand why it needed to be written before I posted any of it. Time travel is confusing, y'all. Anyway, enjoy! I love reviews or feedback, also feel free to send me your own theories of what a world without Zeref would actually look like, and if there are a few of them I'll post them on the end of chapters!

Prologue

They were promised a world without Zeref. They were promised a glorious reality where thousands of people wouldn't have been mercilessly killed, where the evil of the world didn't have a shrine to worship, where light won over darkness. As they stood at the Eclipse gate, every one of them looked into the bright and shining glow and wondered what a utopia could actually look like. They thought back to every painful mark on their souls and every demon they had fought, every heart break that could have been avoided and every life lost along the way. The Fairy Tail companions looked forwards into what they believed would be a future built from harmony and preservation of human life. They knew even in their hopefulness that it was impossible to have a perfect world in front of them, but there was no way that it could have been worse than the desolation the dark wizard had left in his wake.

Could it?

Lucy shielded her hand from the light, feeling the uncomfortable glow rushing over her skin as the familiar celestial magic coursed through the air. She remembered the words that were spoken just a few moments before the Eclipse gate's completion: She had been warned that she would close this wonderful gift to the world. She was determined to prove fate wrong and stepped forward to her companions. She put her right hand into Natsu's, her left in Erza's, and Erza gripped Gray's as Happy's hand snuggly stayed in Natsu's. Whatever the new world had ahead of them, they would face it together. Pinned tightly between Natsu and Erza there was no way that she could break this spell now unless they all wished it.

The girl suddenly gasped, her eyes shining brightly and flickering. A tear suddenly formed, memories flashing before her eyes. Her heart raced suddenly as if flooded with the emotions, thoughts and feelings of four days that had never happened, that she could never let happen. The light never stopped beaming against her skin but to her it had suddenly struck against her after half a week of a world without Zeref. Only a moment passed on the outside, but in the combined shudder of each of the joined companions, an entire world of painful memories rested heavily on their shoulders.

The celestial wizard dived forwards, clutching her keys in her hands and rushing towards the doorway controls. Lucy could hear screaming and shouting to stop her from the royal army behind her, but to her so much time had passed that she had forgotten their warning that they would try and stop her. She had promised to keep the doorway open, just as they had all been promised a utopia, but she had seen a world that she simply couldn't allow to exist. The Eclipse Gate would not be allowed to succeed. She had no resistance from Erza and Natsu, feeling them both hesitating but neither of them squeezed her hand tightly enough to stop her from slipping free. She jumped out of the way of the army's stunned attacks, her eyes wide and wild as she made one final dive for the controls.

Another gasp shuddered the celestial wizard to a halt as her hand hit a towering ice wall, protecting the controls. She stared in horror, knowing that time was against them and she was the only one that could stop this world from being created. Her breath clouded the ice as she pushed against it with weak fists, knowing it was impossible to get through such a powerful magic shield. "Don't you dare," Gray warned from behind, his ice twisting around his hands, prepared to do everything in his power to make the world she feared so much a reality.