"Gajeel...you have to save the twins. I want them to live a happy life and become wonderful mages. I know that with you raising them, they'll be okay. "

"What am I supposed to do? I don't know how to save the twins. I want you with me. We can raise the twins together and be a family like we planned. Please don't leave me!"

Tears swelled from Gajeels eyes as he watched his wife slowly die in his arms. He held her hand and brought it to his lips. He could hear his wifes pained breathing and wished there was something he could do to ease her pain. Swarmed by sadness and pain, Gajeel didn't feel his wife place a folded piece of paper in his hands. It was only when Kiara placed a hand on his cheek did he notice the paper.

"What is this?"

By then, Kiara's breathing was coming in short gasps. Gajeel knew he was going to lose her soon and it only made him want to save her more. He turned to her as she spoke, wincing as he heard the pain and hard effort it took her to speak.

"It's… a transfer spell. It will… allow you to… transfer the babies… from my body… to your body. It's… the only way… to save them. Please Gajeel."

Gajeel was unsure. He heard that in some cases where the transfer spell is used to transfer unborn children from one body to another, the spell doesn't work completely and the children are lost. Gajeel didn't want to lose his daughters, but he knew that the spell was the only way.

Placing both hands over his wife's swell, he began to chant the words on the paper. A yellow light began to glow beneath Gajeel's hands and he started to feel a slight warming sensation in his waist. He continued to chant the words until the yellow glow disappeared. Gajeel looked down and saw that the 5-month bump was gone. The warm sensation had turned to a tingling sensation which told Gajeel that the spell had worked. All he had to do was wait as the spell completed the "rearranging" that was needed for Gajeel to carry the twins.

Gajeel looked down at his wife and saw that she was smiling. She was pale from major blood loss, but to Gajeel, she was still as beautiful as she was the day he met her.

"Thank you, Gajeel. I know you'll raise our girls right."

"Kiara…"

With that last word, Kiara died in Gajeel's arms. Gajeel felt his heart shatter into a thousand pieces.

"Kiara!"

"Daddy look! I drew us!"

Gajeel was brought out of his memory as his daughter came up to him proudly, showing a child's picture of their family. In the picture, Gajeel was smiling and holding the hands of his two twin daughters, Nora and Shilo.

"Isn't it pretty daddy?" She asked him.

"Gihihi! It's beautiful." Gajeel proudly said while holding his five year old in his arms. "Lets put it up on the fridge."

Gajeel took his daughters picture and hung it on the fridge where it was displayed with all the other pictures his daughters drew him. Nora was so young and already an amazing script mage like her mother. He assumed thats why her drawings were always so advanced for one so young.

Gajeel's heart sank when he thought of their mother. Kiara...I miss you. Gajeel noticed something else on the drawing. There was a light haired brunette with wavy hair in the corner. She had wings, a halo, and she bore the proudest smile a five year old could draw.

"Nora, who is this?"

"It's mommy. I drew what I thought she'd looked like. You said she looked like me." Nora had never known her mother, so how could she draw her so accurately?

"Right." Gajeel said, entranced by the angel on the picture. "Go get your sister." Gajeel told Nora, setting her down. "It's time we head out for the market."

"Can we get strawberries at the market?" Nora asked excitedly.

"Course we can. Now hurry up and grab Shilo." Nora gave a cheer and went to find her sister. Gajeel got their coats and waited by the door. Within a few minutes both girls came bounding around the corner. Shilo's straight black hair was starting to frizz up like Gajeel's does. Gajeel laughed and smoothed down her hair before fitting her winter jacket around her. Nora had put on her own jacket and was waiting patiently. Gajeel opened the door and together, the small family headed to the market.

In the market Gajeel gave the girls a few coins to spend while he found food for the week. He looked at the few coins in his hands and frowned. Times were getting tough and this small town could not provide him stable jobs. Even though Gajeel wasn't aligned in a guild he tried his best to find mage missions to take. Most of them didn't pay well. He sighed. Perhaps he could get a discount from the cute market girl even though he doubted it. Gajeel never really made a good first impression on people and doubted he'd made a good one on her. Gajeel checked over his shoulder a few times to make sure his girls were in sight and they always were.

After getting kicked out of another shop for not having money Gajeel turned to look for his girls, dissatisfied with the food he'd managed to scrape together. As Gajeel searched the small market place he didn't see his daughters. Gajeel looked everywhere. When that failed he sniffed the air. If he concentrated Gajeel could smell his daughters scents. He'd found them, across the marketplace and in the street. What? He wondered what they were doing there as he followed the scent. The scent led him to the street but there was no one in sight. Occasionally a magic mobile passed but still, Gajeel did not find his daughters. His breath quickened but he had to think straight to find them. He tried the scent again. This time he raced after the fleeting scent. They seemed to be travelling in a magic mobile because no matter how fast he ran he couldn't catch up to them. Gajeel pushed on and ran faster. He had to find his girls.

Eventually, Gajeel caught up to the scent. The magic mobile had parked in a ramshackle storage shed. Gajeel sniffed the air again. The scent was still there. His girls were here. He decided to hide a little ways off. In case of danger, he didn't want to put his girls at risk. Gajeel watched a man step out of the car. He opened a door and two five years old mages stepped out. They were Nora and Shilo. Gajeel grit his teeth as he saw that his girls looked scared and confused. What had that man done to get them to get them to go with him? What does he want with them? He's a fool to kidnap my kids! Gajeel turned his arm into a iron bar and prepared to fight. He wanted to get to the girls before they were taken inside.

Gajeel quickly jumped out of his hiding spot. Without losing a step, he ran full force and slammed the bar into the man's stomach. "Papa!" Nora screamed.

"Get out of here! Run home!" Gajeels screamed at the girls as he blocked a magic attack from the kidnapper. He had barely begun to fight when he heard two tiny muffled screams. Gajeel turned around. His girls were being manhandled by more kidnappers. They were struggling to use their magic but neither of them had enough strength to fight.

"Bastards! Let go of my kids!"

Gajeel ushered a war cry and almost rammed into the kidnappers when they held up his girls like a shield.

"Cowards!" He screamed, fury filling every fiber of his being.

"This doesn't have to get any worse." The man behind Gajeel spoke up. He faced him. "Just leave and no harm will come to anyone. Not you or your children." The man, who was about 5'6'' with slimy green hair, promised while wiping some blood from his face.

"Leave? Are you kidding me? You take a man's only daughters and you expect me to just leave?!" Gajeel shouted to the skies, letting his anger show. He hadn't realized how he too was scaring his daughters.

A fight ensued. The green haired kidnapper struck first, pinning Gajeel to the ground with paper magic.

"Purple paper, paralyze your target."

As he whispered purple scraps of paper flew towards Gajeel. He didn't have time to react as the paper struck him and he couldn't move.

"What...What is this?" He choked out.

"No one can withstand the hold my paper magic has. It's useless. I'm taking your daughters and that's that."

Gajeel wanted to swear at him, to curse him to hell, swing his fists and pound him into the ground, but he couldn't move. All he managed was a lifted hand that was soon stomped on by the heel of a boot.

Suddenly a foot landed in his stomach and the wind was knocked out of Gajeel. More kicks to the stomach rendered him incapable of breathing for more minutes than he liked. More of the kidnappers joined in until, even without the paper magic, Gajeel would not be able to stand.

With the dirty work done, the kidnappers stopped kicking him and left him there. They started dragging his girls who were screaming and kicking with all their might.

"NO! PAPA!" Shilo's screams pierced his heart and he felt a tear run down his cheek but still, he could not move.

"Let us go!" Nora screamed while trying to use her script magic, but all that did was paint the kidnappers face pink with yellow happy faces.

"Please...no." Gajeel begged in a whisper. He watched the kidnappers walk into the ramshackle shed with his daughters. There were windows and he could see the kidnappers conversing with someone inside while his daughters were still fighting to escape.

Gajeel watched through the window as a hand came down on the two squirming shadows. Gajeel didn't know what they did but they didn't move anymore. A lead rock sunk in his gut. He was brimming with anger and desperation. Luckily the creeps magic was starting to wear off. Gajeel was able to raise an arm. An arm was all he needed. Using his dragon slayer magic he sent an iron bar flying towards the kidnapper faces. The bar slammed through the window and into the kidnappers face, but it didn't stop soon enough. His iron bar must have hit a keg loaded with gunpowder and ignited it because the next second the shed was up in flames. Gajeels arm burned and he retracted it quickly out of instinct. Then fearing the demise of his daughters, he tried again to move but no attempts worked. Gajeel could hear screaming and yelling of commands. Some people were still alive, but all that soon faded out as his world turned black.

Gajeel gripped the arm that held the scars he received that day from the fire. Every day that arm reminded him of what he'd lost. It reminded him of the darkness there was in this world. No matter what anyone did they cannot escape the darkness. Gajeel saw the world as two sides of a war, light and dark. Right now, dark was winning. Thats why he joined Phantom Lord. If one side was going to win he wanted to be on the victors side. Every day he was in Phantom Lord, he kept to himself. He cared nothing for his comrades. He didn't even consider them comrades. Just co-workers.

When Phantom Lord fell to Fairy Tail, Gajeel was again left with nothing. He was thrown into poverty again. Jobs were even harder to find and food was extremely scarce. He began to think about the reason he joined Phantom Lord. He wanted to join the winning side, but that side had eventually fallen. Did he choose wrong? Or was this just more bad luck. He didn't think it could get any worse. Then again it could; he could be dead.

Shortly after Phantom Lord's fall, Gajeel joined Fairy Tail. The fairies annoyed him at first but slowly, he started to see the good in them; the good they gave to the world. For the first time in a long time, Gajeel was seeing the world in brighter colors. Brighter colors indeed. He thought as he stared at Levy while she was working on another translation job. He marvelled at how her wardrobe complimented itself, and her, perfectly.

"Staring at your love interest again?" Mirajane asked him suddenly. He spit out the nails he was chewing on and turned around to face her behind the bar.

"What?"

"Come on Gajeel, everyone can see that you two like each other. All it takes is one of you to take the first step." Mirajane winked. Gajeel frowned but his blushing face gave him away.

"You're crazy lady. I'm going for a walk."

He left before he was objectified more. Magnolia was a nice city. Busy people crisscrossed the streets getting their daily chores done.

As he walked he let his mind wander. Once again his mind wandered to the bright smile on Shilo's face when she made small snowflakes with her magic. Flashes of Nora's face as she proudly showed her father the picture of them together melted his cold heart. Gajeel tried to shake the memories away but his eyes wandered to the scars on his arm. Once again he was reminded of them...It was his fault. Gajeel was the one who had set off the fire. Maybe if he'd just given up his girls would still be alive. Away from him but alive. Gajeel scolded himself for thinking that way. Who knows what that madman could have done to them...Before his thoughts could go further he bumped into something.

"Hey! Watch it ass hat!" That something yelled at him. What he bumped into were two girls: one with short wavy light brown hair; the other with long black hair with purple streaks. A small fox exceed stood by the black haired girls feet, crossing his arms. He wore a red spiked collar and was trying to look tough despite his size.

"Tch, you're the one who was in my way." Gajeel scorned and tried to walk away but the light haired girl held him back.

She had light blue skinny jeans on with stylish yet practical boots and a dark red tank top. Unlike her friend, almost everything about the black haired girl was black: her nails, her eyeliner, her clothes…she even wore black fingerless gloves. She also had piercings on her ears and nose, almost like the ones Gajeel had yet they were silver not iron.

The light haired girl scowled at him. "You should watch your tongue around two skilled mages."

"Gihihihi!" Gajeel laughed, "You should watch yours when you're speaking to a member of Fairy Tail."

"Wanna fight punk!?" She replied.

"Been waiting for this all day!" Gajeel laughed again and got ready to fight.

The black dressed girl sighed, "Honestly Nor, lets just go. No reason bothering with him." She looked bored and stared into the distance as if to prove his thought.

"It's been too long since I had a good fight. Lets see what you got, Piercings."

Gajeel frowned. Did she just call him piercings? It didn't matter. Gajeel took this chance to get the first strike in. The girl blocked his iron arm with a scripted shield. Within seconds she had scripted a magic sword to fight with.

"Fancy script magic. Never seen it used quite like that." He commented before striking again.

The girl blocked again and threw a swing in with her sword.

"You've got some fancy magic too, Piercy." She smiled.

"Stop calling me that!" Gajeel aimed another blow. This one hit the girl right in the gut. She was on a knee when Gajeel heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Gajeel! What's going on?"

Salamander came up to him, obviously just back from a job. Lucy and Gray were in the background, sighing. They figured the dragonslayers were going to fight the girls. Apparently they weren't worried because they shouted something about meeting them back at the guild and left.

"Some weaklings giving you trouble?"

"Nothing I can't handle, but nothing that would be fun without someone to back me up." Gajeel smiled at him.

Natsu slammed his fist into his other one and flames began to course around him.

"Alright! I'm all fired up!"

"WEAKLINGS!" The light haired one shouted, angry they'd been interrupted. "Back me up Shi." As she said it the black dressed girl shrugged and took a stance much like the one Gray uses during his fights.

Salamander and Gajeel were ready. Both sides came at each other with great force. The brown haired girl attacked Gajeel with her script sword while the black haired girl made an ice tiger and attacked Natsu with an ice katana from one side while her tiger attacked from the other. Unfortunately, the two girls had picked the wrong fight. Soon they were on the ground panting, one seemed unconscious. The fight was over sooner than Gajeel would have liked it. As he and Salamander turned around they met their exceeds. Happy and Natsu high fived.

"You're so awesome Gajeel!" Lily offered as encouragement. Gajeel gave him a smile and a thumbs up.

The dragon slayers were going to head back to Fairy Tail when he overheard the girls talking to each other.

"Dammit, Nora. Why do you have to pick a fight with everyone we meet?"

"I'm sorry, Shilo. I didn't mean for us to get hurt. Guess we're not as strong as we'd hoped."

Nora, Shilo...Why did those names sound familiar? Gajeel mentally slapped himself for how long it took him to realize. Nora, Shilo...Gajeel looked back at the girls sitting on the ground. The script mage was using healing scripts to heal them with. Nora was a script mage and Shilo used ice make magic, just like that other girl...Gajeel thought. But it couldn't be. He was there to see the shed burn to the ground not a soul in sight. Suddenly Gajeel saw the light brown hair of his former wife and his dark spiky hair in the two girls. Gajeels eyes opened wide.

"Eh? Gajeel, why'd you stop?" Salamander came up to him asking.

"You go on ahead, I'll be back in a little bit." He said instinctively. Salamander shrugged it off and went off with Happy exclaiming about food.

"Gajeel? What's wrong?" Pantherlily asked him. He always knew if something was on his mind.

"Probably nothing. But I want to make sure." Gajeel replied and left a befuddled Pantherlily to catch up to him as he walked toward the young mages. He scanned them for similarities. Right age, same features, same magic use…could this really be them? Gajeel had to know for sure.

When he came up to the girls they were less than happy to see him back.

"What now? Come to deal finishing blows? I didn't take you for the killing type." The light haired one her friend had called Nora said.

"Look, I'm sorry I beat you up so bad." The girls scoffed at him. He continued as if he hadn't heard them. "Do want a place to clean up? I can bring you to my guild Fairy Tail. There's a few wizards in there who can fix you up good." Gajeel looked away sheepishly.

The girls stared at him in surprise. Nora had completely lost concentration on her healing script and it faded into nothing. Suddenly the exceed came between the girls and Gajeel. "I'll have you know we already have a place to stay and would never accept charity from ruffians like you!" The fox sauntered crossing his arms and pursing his lips as if the decision was final.

"Now, Koda. You don't have to go being rude." Shilo laid a hand on the exceeds shoulder.

"But, Shilo-kun they hurt you!" Koda pleaded but was silenced with one look from Shilo. "Fine." He protested by crossing his arms again but seemed to agree anyway.

"What makes you think we want to stay with you anyway?" Nora stood up and faced Gajeel. If he didn't know better he'd think she was looking for another fight.

"Fine if you don't want to." Gajeel gave in. He wasn't going to force them. Still, it pained him to give up his only hope of a chance at finding his daughters after he thought them dead twelve years ago.

"Hold on!" Shilo called him back. Gajeel had to hide a smile as he turned back to them.

"Shi!" Nora protested but Shilo silenced her.

"We don't have a place to stay and having a bed for once might be a good thing. Besides I want to meet the wizards of Fairy Tail! I hear their guild is number one!" Shilo added with a cheerful smile.

"Ghihihi." Gajeel snickered at her comment.

Nora hesitated but agreed. Gajeel introduced himself and so did the girls, though it wasn't necessary, as he walked them back to Fairy Tail.