(A/N: Starting from this chapter, I will be updating the chapters with new ones that have less grammatical errors. If you see a sudden change of writing style and/or quality midway, that is the reason)
"You sure you don't want to come with me?" Mest asked, shocked at the girl's response.
"I think Carla is right. It might be best I stay here," the girl replied. The white Exceed next to her nodded and crossed her arms.
Mest scratched the back of his head. 'Who will I ask now?'
"I'm really, really sorry, Mest-san." Wendy told him, regret filling her face as she looked at the ground. "I wouldn't have been able to help you anyways. I'm not a good fighter."
Mest, or Doranbolt to the Council, turned his head slightly at the girl's sadness. "Why are you so upset over this? I don't mind if you don't want to go. It's understandable." he assured, bending his knees and placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. "And don't doubt yourself like that! You're pretty strong, especially since you managed to help stop Oración Seis!"
Wendy smiled and hugged the man in front of her. He blushed at her kindness toward him. "I wish you the best in the tournament!"
"Thank you, Wendy."
"You're doing it again," a stern voice called out. Wendy blinked a few times before turning to face her companion.
"Oh, sorry, Carla." she quickly said.
"It's been 2 years, Wendy. I know you're thinking about them." Carla sighed, crossing her arms. Wendy looked around the room. Macao, the new master, was forced to relocate the guild to a smaller building. The now 14 year-old girl became sad over the thought of her closest comrades being gone in a matter of days. Fairy Tail was never the same after that. It was getting boring, compared to its old days.
"Your eyes are red," the cat brought up, "Have you been crying?"
"What?" Wendy sat up, looking at her reflection in the glass that held her water. She examined the redness in her eyes before responding, "Oh...I must've gotten something in them. It's okay."
"You can cry, Wendy. It's okay-"
"I said I'm fine," Wendy cut the girl off, "Really."
Carla shrugged before turning back to where she was facing earlier. Seeing a man approach them, Carla called out to them. "Is that for us, Wakaba?"
"Doranbolt-san sent this to you," Wakaba's voice called out, placing a letter package on the table. "I'm assuming it's another apology letter."
"That's the fifth one in the past year," Carla commented, "I don't really think we need these constant reminders about what happened."
Regardless, Wendy thanked the man and opened the package. In it was a letter and Wendy opened to read it.
Wendy,
I'm deeply sorry I could not do anything for your friends 2 years ago. I realize that I have said the same thing to you every time but I hope you understand that the Council is doing all that it can to track down what happened on the island. I'm sorry for lying to you and infiltrating the guild, but it was my job after all. My deepest regret is leaving Laki and the others behind, but I really did have no choice. Either way, I'm glad that you're okay.
And don't look down on yourself and your abilities. I heard you managed to take down a dark guild all by yourself recently.
I know this isn't much, but I wanted to inform you of something. There is a guild named Sabertooth that just acquired 2 Dragon Slayers. I advise you to talk to them. Perhaps they also had dragons that disappeared 9 years ago.
I wish you well,
Doranbolt
Wendy closed the letter and turned to Carla, who had also been reading it. "2 Dragon Slayers, just like me! What do you think, Carla? Should we visit them?"
"Up to you, Wendy. I think you should. You haven't traveled in weeks! When's the last time we took on a job?"
"When's the last time we got a request?" Wendy muttered under her breath, looking up at the empty job board.
"Anyways," Carla awkwardly began, hoping no one else had overheard Wendy's comment, "Pack your things then. We'll head to Sabertooth later."
Wendy nodded and got up. She walked over to Kinana, the new barmaid. "Kinana-chan, Carla and I will be traveling for a little. Tell the others if they ask."
Kinana nodded and wished the two luck on their journey.
The train to Sabertooth was, to say the least, horrible. Wendy managed to gain motion sickness recently, just like Natsu had. Carla could only roll her eyes at the girl.
"How did this even happen to you?" Carla asked. However, she already knew Wendy was too sick to reply.
It started around a year ago, after Wendy and Fairy Tail were trying to defend their building from an attack by a dark guild, Midnight Feather. The other Fairy Tail members were beat pretty quickly, so Wendy was forced to lead the attack. By doing so, she discovered a new spell to use on enemies. She called it 'Shattering Light: Hell's Winds'. Afterward, Porlyusica gave the girl two new spells: Shattering Light: Sky Drill and Milky Way. Porlyusica also revealed herself as Edolas Grandeeney, in which Wendy had many questions for the woman, but Porlyusica just blocked her out. After months of trying to talk to her, Wendy realized it was no use, and ultimately left her alone.
The sound of a train's horn sounded loudly as train began to slow down, eventually coming to a halt.
"Thank goodness; We're here Wendy. The train stopped." Carla told her.
"Finally…" Wendy trailed off, feeling much better than she was for the last 10 minutes.
Sabertooth was a fairly small guild at the moment, but was becoming more popular after word got out on the two Dragon Slayers joining. The mages all in there seemed delighted at the new intake of job requests being sent over to them. Wendy stared in awe at all the papers the members were holding and attaching to their job request board.
"What do you think they are like, Carla?" Wendy asked, becoming more excited to meet them.
"Hopefully not like Natsu and Gajeel," Carla said without thinking. When she turned her head, Wendy stopped in her tracks, her face suddenly darkened.
"Sorry Wendy. It slipped out."
Wendy only picked up Carla and hugged her tightly. "It's ok, Carla. We have each other, no?"
Upon arriving at the guild, Wendy was greeted by a lot of Sabertooth's members.
"I remember you! You're that Fairy girl! The one who singlehandedly took on Midnight Feather!" a boy claimed. He wore a crimson and gold mask around his eyes and fairly long, blonde hair. "I'm Rufus, by the way." he held out her hand. Wendy shook it and Rufus looked at Carla.
"That's an Exceed, no?" he pointed at Carla.
"Yes, I am." Carla replied, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.
"Sting-sama and Rogue-sama also have Exceeds! Must be a Dragon Slayer thing." Rufus suggested. Wendy nodded, smiling at his rather accurate guess.
Carla looked in the guild building. It was rather calm, especially compared to Fairy Tail. The people seemed pretty kind and were very quiet.
"Who is this?" a dark, deep voice called out across the room. Wendy and Carla turned around and saw a tall, elderly man speaking. For his age, he was very muscular. He had long hair and his eyes were so white it was like he had no pupils. On his forehead was a purple Sabertooth mark that made it look like he had a third eye.
"Master!" Rufus greeted by bowing to him. "This is Wendy Marvell and her Exceed from Fairy Tail."
Jiemma took a few steps toward the girls, observing them. "You're a Dragon Slayer, no?" he asked, his voice booming from its naturally loud volume. Wendy nodded. "And that cat is your companion?"
"An Exceed-" Carla started, her tone rather rude.
"Yes. That is Carla." Wendy interrupted, hoping to make a good impression on the guy. "She is an Exceed and uses Transformation magic to turn into a human and fight."
Carla learned Transformation magic over the past year to fight alongside Wendy, never wanting her to take on enemies by herself ever again, like she was forced to do against Midnight Feather.
"Interesting. May I ask why you are here?"
"I was wondering if I could meet the two Dragon Slayers that just joined your guild. I just want to ask them a few questions." Wendy said, trying her best not to show her fear of the man.
"Sorry, they aren't doing interviews." Jiemma coldly said, turning around to resume what he was doing before the girls arrived, shrugging them off as if they were reporters.
"Wait!" Wendy nervously called out, stopping the man from leaving. "I-I also was hoping to ask if you are taking in new members."
Carla gasped at Wendy's claim. She knew Wendy wasn't happy in Fairy Tail, but leaving it? That's something Wendy would never do, or really something the Wendy she knew would never do.
'What's been going on with you, child?'
Wendy sparked Jiemma's interest. He turned around, now smiling.
"This guild has room for all the Dragon Slayers in the world," he told her, "Sabertooth is growing stronger and is setting up connections around the entire continent."
"Inviting," Carla rolled her eyes and muttered to herself. Jiemma caught this, and glared right the girl for a few moments before turning back to Wendy.
"So, Wendy, if you join us, I'll make sure you get even stronger than you are." Jiemma offered. Wendy's eyes began to light up, thinking of all of the possibilities of reaching a new level of magic. A level that only Grandeeney once believed she would achieve.
"I'll think about it. But first, may I speak with Sting-sama and Rogue-sama?" Wendy asked the old man.
"Just Sting and Rogue is fine," a voice said from behind Wendy. Wendy and Carla turned around and saw two boys that were her age. One of them, the one who just spoke to her, was a blonde boy with blue eyes. Next to him was a boy with black hair and red eyes. Next to them were two Exceeds, one that was a reddish brown and another that was green and wearing a frog suit.
"I'm Sting," the blonde boy said, reaching out a hand. Wendy shook and and heard Rogue also introduce himself.
"You're a Sky Dragon Slayer, right?" Rogue asked. Wendy nodded.
"I'm a White Dragon Slayer and Rogue is a Shadow Dragon Slayer," Sting explained, his smile never fading. Wendy smiled back at the boy as Carla introduced herself to the two Exceeds.
"Lector and Frosch." Carla repeated their names to make sure she pronounced them correctly.
"You really are beautiful, Carla!" Lector claimed.
"Fro thinks so too!" Frosch agreed.
Carla shrugged off the compliment before beginning a conversation with the two. Wendy had noticed how much easier it seemed for Carla to talk to Exceeds like her. After all, the last time she saw an Exceed was when Pantherlily decided to fly to Tenrou to cheer on Gajeel.
Wendy and Carla ended up staying all night in the guild building, getting to know everyone. Regardless of the symbol on her arm, everyone already viewed Wendy as a member of Sabertooth. The Exceeds, too, viewed Carla as a comrade. They all clicked together immediately. The once quiet guild suddenly became lively the second Wendy began to talk to them.
And by the time the sun was beginning to rise, everyone was asleep except Wendy and Sting.
"What was your dragon like?" Sting asked, still very much awake.
"Kind and gentle. Grandeeney believed in me when the world thought I was too weak for it." Wendy reminisced, a smile on her face as she recalled her precious memories with the dragon. "Yours?"
"Weisslogia pushed me to be the best. He even sacrificed his life for me." Sting told her. Wendy gave a confused look at the boy in response to his comment.
"Your dragon died? How?"
"He told me that in order to become truly stronger, I must slay a dragon," Wendy gasped in shock upon hearing this. "He forced me to kill him. It was horrible, and Rogue's dragon, Skiadrum, asked him to do the same. Yours did not die?"
Wendy escaped from her shocked state and answered, "No. Just disappeared 9 years ago on July 7."
"Huh. That's the day Rogue and I slayed our dragons. And the day Gajeel-san and Natsu-san's dragons disappeared."
The sound of their names made Wendy clench her fists. Sting noticed this and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It was a horrible thing to happen. I'm truly sorry about your losses." he told her, "Rogue and I...we viewed them as our idols. Wanted to meet them and learn from them. I can't even think how you feel...losing comrades..."
Wendy began to cry as she thought more and more about everyone. She then wiped away the tears, turning away from the boy.
"I'm sorry..." Wendy choked out, "I cry too much..."
But Sting gently grabbed her and hugged her, letting her cry in his shoulder.
"Let it out," he whispered, "Crying isn't something to be ashamed over."
His embrace tightened as she continued to cry. Sting remained silent, keeping a straight face as he felt the girl slowly let down her walls, crying harder into his shoulder.
'She cries like she's been holding it back all these years...' he thought to himself, 'Had she been staying strong for everyone else...?'
'He's warm…' Wendy thought, calming down as she closed her eyes.
Perhaps this could be a new beginning for her.
A/N: Thanks for reading! The fact that Sting and Rogue are technically the same age as Wendy (with just 7 years removed) really inspired me to write this. I just kept thinking of what would happen if Wendy did not go with Mest to Tenroujima for the S-Class Promotion Trial. I intend to write about Team Tenrou's return and the effect it has on Wendy.
The story has Wendy as the main character, but will go in depth about other characters as well, mainly Sabertooth. I hope you guys will enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fairy Tail or its characters.