"You're the Rogue from the future, aren't you? I have a lot of questions for you," Calvin asked coldly.
"Smart as ever. You figured it out quickly. Ask away, I'll answer everything truthfully," Future Rogue replied with a faint smile, speaking calmly.
His willingness to cooperate caught Calvin off guard. While Calvin had plenty of questions, he didn't know where to begin. So, he asked about what mattered most to him.
"Do you know where Lucy is? She's from the future, just like you."
"Lucy? The person you're talking about," Future Rogue began, his expression suddenly twisting into a sinister smile, "is this!"
As he sneered, smoke began to billow from Rogue's body, enveloping him completely. When the smoke cleared, Rogue was gone, and standing in his place was Lucy—exactly as Calvin had seen her before.
"This... it's actually you!" Calvin was shocked to his core. The person standing before him felt precisely like the Lucy he had met earlier, both in magical aura and appearance.
"What a terrifying disguise. I couldn't even tell!" Calvin said, his face turning grim. By now, he realized that the "Lucy" he had encountered earlier was Rogue in disguise.
"Impressive, right? It took me a long time to perfect this transformation magic," Future Rogue said, returning to his original form with a tone of slight pride.
"What truly surprised me wasn't the magic but the performance you gave in front of me. You even shed such genuine-looking tears." Calvin recalled the moment when he thought he had found Lucy, how her tearful, vulnerable expression had made him trust her completely.
Back then, Rogue's act as Lucy had deeply moved him, but now, knowing those tears had come from a man, Calvin felt an indescribable discomfort throughout his body.
"Although it was acting, the emotions I showed were real. My friends and companions were all killed by the dragons. That's the only reason I could convey such sadness so convincingly," Rogue explained calmly, with no discernible emotion in his voice.
Shaking his head, Calvin decided not to dwell on the fact that he had been deceived. He quickly composed himself. "You went to the trouble of impersonating Lucy to deceive me. That transformation magic clearly wasn't something you could master overnight. Why did you do it? Earlier, you mentioned your friends and companions were killed by the dragons, so the future you spoke of must be accurate. Why then, are you siding with the princess? Was I wrong about the dragons coming from the Eclipse Gate?"
Calvin fired off his questions rapidly, with barely a pause between each.
"You certainly have a lot of questions. But to show that I bear no ill will, I'll explain everything to you," Future Rogue said.
"Listen closely."
Calvin gestured for him to continue, but he remained on guard, his fingers gripping a summoning card. Though the design was unclear, it was undoubtedly one of his seven most powerful cards.
Rogue noticed Calvin's subtle movements but didn't care. Shrugging, he began to speak.
"I apologize for deceiving you before, but it's true that the dragons will appear in the future. Crocus was almost completely destroyed in an instant."
"But one person saved everything. She returned from the future to prevent the apocalypse."
"That person was Lucy!"
Hearing this, Calvin's face darkened, but he remained silent, listening intently. Seeing Calvin's lack of visible reaction, Rogue smiled slightly and continued.
"At that time, you immediately found Lucy and, like you suspected, believed the dragons would emerge from the Eclipse Gate. So, you protected Lucy closely, ensuring that Princess Hisui and Arcadios never had a chance to obtain the keys."
"Later, they tried to force the gate open using Yukino's two keys in a desperate attempt to travel back to 400 years ago. But they failed. Just as the gate was about to go haywire, you and two Lucys managed to stop everything."
"After that, since the past had been altered, the tragic future Lucy had experienced ceased to exist. Time corrected itself, and Lucy disappeared from this world. You then explained everything—this was the past I experienced, which should have been your future."
As Rogue explained, Calvin suddenly understood and exclaimed, "So you come from the future that Lucy altered. But if that's the case, why did you come back?"
"Because even after that, the world wasn't safe from disaster. As I mentioned earlier, my friends and companions were killed by the dragons," Rogue said, bowing his head. His expression was unclear, but his tone was heavy.
"By Acnologia?" Calvin asked, his face equally grim.
"Exactly. Can you believe it? A single dragon ruling the world. Neither you, Jura, nor the Dragon Slayers stood a chance against him. You were no more than ants before him. No one could stop him, not even for a second."
"The world became desolate. The continents were left in ruins. That dragon was nothing but a mad creature with a mind focused solely on destruction. I came to this era to defeat him!" Future Rogue said, his voice filled with rage.
Hearing this, Calvin couldn't help but sigh. He believed Rogue's words, as deep down, he had always feared a future much like the one Rogue described.
He never believed Acnologia was the type to stay dormant, and learning about Rogue's experiences confirmed that it wouldn't be long before disaster struck.
"When will it happen?" Calvin asked.
"In about a year. You were the first to die," Rogue responded.
"Great. You really didn't need to mention that. I'll take your word for it for now. So, explain how you plan to gain the power to defeat Acnologia in this era. Is it through the Eclipse Gate?" Calvin asked, his tone skeptical, though he still didn't fully trust Rogue.
"As expected, he won't trust me so easily," Rogue thought to himself. However, he continued speaking.
"You're right. The first step to defeating Acnologia lies with the Eclipse Gate."
"Go on. What does the Eclipse Gate do?" Calvin asked directly.
"The Eclipse Gate can store an enormous amount of magic power. Not only can it facilitate time travel, but it can also unleash all that power in one devastating blast. That is the Eclipse Cannon!"
"It's a weapon on par with the Etherion, and not even Acnologia could survive its might!" Rogue declared passionately.
Calvin, however, remained calm, watching Rogue with an unreadable expression and giving no immediate response.
In his mind, Calvin was turning over a single question.
He was thinking about the honest Lucy from the future.
Rogue's past involved a future Lucy who came back to change the past, and by altering the past, the future was also changed, causing Lucy to disappear.
That meant there was still the possibility that the dragons would come through the Eclipse Gate in the future. In that case, the future Lucy should still exist.
If she did arrive in this timeline, where was she now? Why hadn't she appeared yet?
Moreover, Calvin remembered what Jellal had said. When he found the future, Lucy, he sensed a magic similar to Zeref's.
The reason for sensing magic similar to Zeref's must have been because she had passed through the Eclipse Gate.
Until recently, Calvin hadn't made sense of that magic. When he met Rogue, he thought it was him. But now that he knew the Lucy he had met was Rogue in disguise, the magic Jellal had sensed must have belonged to the actual future Lucy.
So, where was the real future, Lucy?