Laxus Dreyar stalked the halls of the palace with a heavy frown, his loyal guards following behind him. He usually did not like to be in this place, preferring to travel to accomplish tasks or spend time in his personal training home, secluded away in the mountains and far from the clutches of the court. He could not refuse a summon from the king, however, not when it had come directly from him. Laxus was loyal to him as King of Fiore firstly and foremostly, and as a father second. Their relationship as family members was strained, but he did his duties as requested. He was going to be king himself one day, so it was better to comply for now.

The halls had been remodeled somewhat from when his father took over, whimsical art of fairies and light long since removed, replaced with dark and imposing portraits of heroes and the royal family. Windows had been covered with lavish and dark velvet drapes, and there was an increased focus on utility rather than beauty. Laxus almost considered it a completely different place, stripped away of a warm energy and feeling of home, replaced with a tense and competitive atmosphere. He attempted to spend as little time there as possible, hating the king's servants and their petty backstabbing.

His grandfather had once ruled with compassion and generosity to all the people of Fiore and other kingdoms, but his father found this to be a weak stance against increasingly aggressive neighbor nations who wanted nothing more but to carve out larger and larger portions of Ishgar for themselves. He persuaded the Citizen's Council that his father had gone senile in his long reign, and that it was time for a new king, one who would not falter in the face of warmongering nations.

After attaining the throne, Ivan made quick work of removing the Council, and cast his father out of the palace, the same way Makarov had cast him out when Laxus was young. The two men had never spoken since, often using Laxus as a go-between. He resented it somewhat, but Ivan encouraged him to have a relationship with his grandfather, often sending him to visit the old man, with the hopes Laxus may gain his trust.

Entering the throne room, Laxus looked to his father, seated at the throne and waiting for him. With crossed arms, he scowled at the person also standing at the foot of the dais, before finally greeting the king. "Yeah, what is it?"

"My, Laxus, is that any way to speak to your king?" Ivan asked, tapping his fingers on the throne. "Aren't you excited for the task I have for you? You're always eager to go off on quests, after all."

"I'm thrilled," Laxus replied in a frustrated tone, looking anything but. "What is it?"

Ivan eyed his other guest, who still stood there, a mage by the name of Gajeel Redfox. Smirking, he waved a dismissive hand towards the Iron Dragon Slayer. "Leave us, Gajeel. I'll send for you later with new instructions."

The other man nodded and turned to take his leave, meeting Laxus' glare as he walked away. The man's irises were blood red, and though Laxus didn't show it, it gave him a sense of unease deep down. Once Ivan was sufficiently satisfied that he was gone, he looked back to his son. "Just as Makarov still hasn't trusted you with information on the Lumen Histoire or its whereabouts, Gajeel has not turned up anything in regards to it either. I've decided on a new tactic," the king explained, frowning.

"Are you sure it even exists?" his son questioned then, tired of his father's seemingly useless laser focus on obtaining Lumen Histoire, the weapon that was supposedly the key to obtaining the conquest Ivan longed for.

"I'm certain. The first queen, Mavis, created it. When Makarov left the castle, he took it with him to his dump of a guild. It's a powerful weapon, and I want it returned to its proper home."

"What do you expect me to do, eh? Tear the damn place apart?" Laxus asked, rolling his eyes. The place got destroyed practically every other week anyway, thanks to his grandfather's dumb guild members. If nothing had turned up in their many remodels, there must be nothing to find.

"No, Laxus, that is extremely uncreative," Ivan said with a scowl. "I need you to take one of his 'children' into custody. He seems to favor them above all, surely one of them must know, in case he croaks. Bring them here, and I'll have them questioned. If you perform well, maybe you can even do it."

"You want me to kidnap a member of Fairy Tail?" That gained an eyeroll from the prince. His guards behind him shifted uncomfortably, all former members. The guild once had a reputation of being a place where the young royalty would spend time to learn magic and serve the common people, as it had been the guild of Mavis, the Uniter Queen. It's reputation had since diminished from the days Laxus spent there in his youth. "Don't you think Gramps would retaliate in some way?"

"Not if he doesn't know it was us. Frame someone if you have to, I do not care. I just expect that you pick a knowledgeable member. You should have an idea after spending so much time there," Ivan argued with a coy smirk, as if testing him somehow.

"If he won't tell me, I don't understand why you think he'd tell someone else," the prince shot back. "Gramps seems trusting on the surface, but he's still a secretive guy."

Ivan glared down at him, clenching his fist. "Your grandfather has no concept of loyalty to one's blood. I realized that young, Laxus, when he preferred other children of the court to his own son, his heir. No matter how much I told him I thought I was ready for the throne, he refused to retire. Look where its gotten him. He spends his days boozing up with peasants, stripped of his title and prestige. It would not surprise me if he'd let it slip to one of those damn drunkards."

"If that were the case, it'd be impossible to figure out which one would know," Laxus grumbled, irritated with the whole conversation. It was exhausting to hear Ivan rail on about the adversity Makarov piled upon him for the umpteenth time. There was a small part of him that didn't want to believe these things either, as he was once close with his grandfather before his father was cast out of the palace. A tiny place of mercy sat in his heart that just wanted to let the old man live the rest of his days in peace.

"There must be someone he trusts," his father growled, becoming more and more on edge, his knuckles tightly grasping the arms of the throne. Ivan was terrible at keeping his composure when it came to this, and sometimes his son wondered if it had driven him mad.

Laxus frowned, thinking long and hard. A person did come to mind, though he was extremely hesitant to share the information with his father, having once held respect for them. "There's this…bartender. She's practically Gramps' right hand, helps him constantly, looks after him. She might know."

"Bring her to me."

Taking this as his cue to finally leave, he exited the throne room quickly with nary a word. Storming down the hallways, he heard his guards on his heels, struggling to keep up.

"You plan to kidnap Mirajane Strauss?" his captain, Freed Justine, asked, once he felt it was safe to speak freely. "Isn't she quite powerful?"

"She was once," Laxus replied, trying to quash a small, yet nagging sensation of guilt in the pit of his stomach. "She hasn't used her magic since her sister fell into a coma. Usually, it's a damn shame, since she's stronger than a lot of the clowns who hang around there, but in this case, it's helpful."

"The girl in the coma, isn't her name like Lisa or something?" Bixlow, one of his guards asked, trying to wrack his brains. It had been years since Laxus' retainers left Fairy Tail, though they did visit whenever Ivan sent Laxus to make nice with Makarov. The wooden dolls behind him all excitedly shouted "Lisa! Lisa! Lisa!"

"It's Lisanna," Evergreen corrected from the back of the group as they ascended the spiral staircase leading to their lord's personal tower. "Her oaf of a brother speaks of her incessantly."

"It doesn't matter," Laxus said, opening the door to his quarters. "Let's get to work. I wanna get this over with as quickly as possible." Another small wave of guilt washed over him, but it wasn't enough to keep him from following orders.

Mirajane Strauss had woken up to the best news. Her younger sister, Lisanna, who had been in a coma for two years now, had finally woken up late last night. Walking with Elfman down the road, she could not help but feel nervous. So many times it had crossed her mind that her sister may never wake up again, and now she felt silly for even considering it. Her little family was going to be whole once again.

Elfman had been certain she would wake up, probably holding onto to any hope that would keep him from being excessively guilty about the whole situation. The siblings had been on a mission, when Elfman had lost control of his Beast Soul Takeover and injured Lisanna. The resulting head injury had caused her to be comatose ever since. The unflinching optimism probably helped to keep him sane.

"I'm scared, Mira," Elfman murmured, clutching her hand in his much larger one. He was trembling. She patted his shoulder understandingly, as he continued. "What if she hates me?"

"I don't think she'll hate you, Elfman. She might not even remember what happened," Mirajane assured, as they approached the hospital. "Besides, I'm sure I'll really confuse her. I'm almost a different person now." After the accident, she couldn't find it in herself to use her magic anymore, and threw herself into work at the guild to cope. It was Makarov that forced her to stop withering away at her sister's bedside when it became apparent Lisanna wouldn't be waking up for a while. Not everyone felt it was the best way to use her skills, but somewhere along the way she changed from a foul tempered teenager into a sweet little barmaid. Elfman once remarked that she was like their mother reborn, but she refused to dwell on it much.

"Even if she doesn't remember, I will! How am I supposed to face her after making her lose two years of her life?" Elfman argued, already starting to tear up. "I'm her big brother, I'm supposed to protect her. To keep her safe, not give her traumatic brain injuries!"

"And I'm the oldest, I'm supposed to protect both of you. Let's just see how she's doing and take it from there, alright?" she replied, walking the long familiar path to Lisanna's second floor room. "Baby steps," she reminded, trying not to reminisce on her own failures as a guardian.

As they approached the room, their paces picked up and they began walking faster and faster. Mira found her heart pounding in her chest in anticipation, as she opened the door and stepped through the threshold. Porlyusica turned around to see them, blocking their view of her as she scowled at their noisy entrance. "She's sleeping," the healer said, revealing their sister's prone form. Mira felt her heart sink.

"I…heard she was awake?" came her weak voice, the feeling of tears pricking at her eyes. Elfman stood, shell-shocked.

"She's no longer in a coma, but she's now sleeping. This is normal for coma patients. Her ability to stay awake will improve gradually throughout the next week," the grumpy guild healer explained, continuing to check on the girl. Relief spread over Mira, and she approached the bed, taking her sister's hand.

"Thank goodness," she whispered, tears now falling down her face. Elfman was still in the doorway, bawling like a baby.

Porlyusica cast a disapproving glance Elfman's way, before addressing the eldest Strauss once again. "I'm going to report to Makarov on her condition now. He asked me to check on her myself."

"Thank you."

Stepping out of Porlyusica's way, Elfman approached the bed as well, crying as he always did. "I was...s-so worried that she f-fell back into a coma again."

"Me too," Mira affirmed, squeezing the girl's hand. "But if Porlyusica says she's ok, then she is ok. Master trusts her, and so do I."

Elfman nodded. "You're right as ever, Mira. You're a real man," he sniffed, starting to calm down somewhat. "I can't wait for her to see everyone at Fairy Tail again. They've all missed her too."

"How could you not miss her?" Mira giggled quietly, gazing at her sister's peaceful face. "Even though she was a brat sometimes. Who wasn't though at that age?"

The two sat at her bedside for a few hours, waiting for her to wake up again, not unlike their usual vigils over her. Every minute passed with agonizing slowness, and the hushed conversations the two had didn't help too much. A nurse would occasionally check in on the situation, explaining how she may be confused or unable to speak well at first. Even though they were excited, Mira knew that they would have to be very gentle speaking to her, so as not to immediately overwhelm her. It was a little frustrating to wait more, after all the waiting they'd already done, but she knew it was worth it today.

Finally, while Mira and Elfman debated whether or not they should leave to get some lunch, her eyelids fluttered slowly, and Lisanna's eyes opened for the first time in their memory in two years. The girl looked at both expectant faces with slight confusion on her own. Their breaths caught in their throats. Time seemed to stop for a moment.

"Lisanna, you're awake," Mira said gently with a smile, eyes tearing up. Elfman began to cry again, as he always did. Lisanna blinked before a small smile crept on her lips.

"Mira. Elf," she said slowly, her voice hoarse from disuse, but sweet as ever.

"Yes, Lisanna. That's right," her sister murmured, now fully crying again and grasping her weak hand. "We've missed you so much."

"I'm so sorry, Lisanna," Elfman sobbed, completely losing his composure. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

"We're…together," the youngest Strauss managed out, squeezing both of her siblings hands weakly. It was clear she was confused about everything, and was tired, but she knew all would be explained in due time.

"We're together," Mirajane repeated, a brilliant smile on her face despite the many tears. "And nothing will ever separate us ever again!"

A/N: Hey guys. I hope you enjoy it, I have high hopes for it. Lemme know what you think!