Chapter I
Thoma and Erza were born in X765 and spend their days in Rosemary. They were friends with Simon and Kagura. Kagura was the one to give Thoma and Erza to last name Scarlet. They lived happily until the cult attacked Rosemary in X776. Thoma managed to escaped and managed to unlocked his magic, Chain Magic. However Erza, Kagura, and Simon weren't so lucky. The next day Thoma went back to Rosemary and the town was destroyed. Thoma was devastated, he left the village and begun a new life. Thoma spent most of his time in the forest, but he did go to a town from time to time. There he learned that there was job for killing a Giant Tiger. Thoma went to take the job, but was told that he was too young for that job. After that Thoma saw a wizard take the job and he decided to follow the wizard. Once the wizard found the tiger, he begun to fight it and he used Fire Magic. The Giant Tiger put up a good fight then Thoma joined and used his Chain Magic. Thoma managed to throw the Giant Tiger then working together, Thoma and the other wizard managed to kill the Giant Tiger. Afterward the wizard introduced himself as Mercer. Mercer asked Thoma if he would like to become a wizard. Thoma asked if he was a member of a guild. Mercer said he wasn't a guild member wizard, but a Independent Wizard. Thoma decided to join Mercer and become a Independent Wizard, in the hopes he would find Erza, Kagura, and Simon. In X778, Thoma and Mercer were on a quest when Thoma came across an egg that was black and gray in color. Thoma decided to keep it. A couple of days later it hatched and it was a cat. The cat was female and Thoma gave her the name of Annerose. Annerose is an Exceed of average size with black and gray fur color.
In X779 Thoma were on a quest hunting down a Dark Guild and during which Mercer took a mortal blow and Thoma couldn't save Mercer.
"Mercer!" Thoma cried holding Mercer.
"Ha. I let my guard down for a bit." Mercer said coughing up some blood.
"You always liked making jokes at the worst times." Thoma said.
"You know me." Mercer said laughing his last breath.
"Mercer!" Thoma screamed.
"Look at this boys. We got ourselves a cry baby." A Dark Wizard laughed.
"He just lost his daddy. Don't worry, you'll see him soon." Another Dark Wizard laughed.
Thoma let out a loud painful scream and fire cam bursting out from him.
"Thoma. Go a hold of yourself!" A voice said.
Thoma came to seeing Annerose pulling on his leg. He looked around and saw all Dark Wizards dead.
"I did this?" Thoma asked.
"You went berserk and you killed them with your Chain Magic, but you also used Fire Magic. I thought you weren't going to return to your normal self." Annerose said.
Thoma knelt down to Annerose and said,
"I'm sorry I scared you. I trust you to bring me back if I do that again."
"I will do my best." Annerose said with a cheerful tone.
"Let's bury Mercer then turn in the job." Thoma said.
Annerose nodded then she and Thoma buried Mercer. Thoma and Annerose continued being Independent Wizards and in X780 Thoma found himself in Magnolia.
"What are we doing here Thoma?" Annerose asked.
"I heard that their was a young red haired wizard in a guild known as Fairy Tail." Thoma answered.
"You think it could be Erza?" Annerose asked.
"I hope so." Thoma answered.
Just then Thoma and Annerose heard a voice behind them,
"Hey Happy there is another cat like you."
Thoma and Annerose turned around and saw a guy with pink hair and with him was a blue cat and he was flying like Annerose.
"I've never seen another cat like me before." The cat said.
The guy and cat walked up to Thoma and Annerose then the guy asked,
"Where did you find your cat?"
"I found Annerose's egg some time ago." Thoma said.
"Are you like me?" The guy asked.
"First off, can I have your name? And what down you mean by 'like you'?" Thoma asked.
"My name is Natsu and this is Happy. I meant are you a Dragon Slayer?" Natsu asked.
"Hello Natsu. I'm Thoma and this is Annerose. No I'm not a Dragon Slayer. I'm Independent Wizard looking for my sister." Thoma said.
"You said your name is Thoma?" Natsu asked.
"Yeah." Thoma said.
"Is your sister Erza?" Natsu asked.
"How do you know!?" Thoma asked grabbing onto Natsu's shoulders.
"Because she is a member of Fairy Tail, like me." Natsu answered a little scared at Thoma changed in mood.
"Take me there!" Thoma demanded.
"Alright I will." Natsu said.
Thoma let go of Natsu and Natsu led Thoma and Annerose to Fairy Tail. Once there Natsu exclaimed,
"Hey everybody! Look who I met!"
Everyone turned towards Natsu and Thoma then two voices shouted,
"Thoma!"
Thoma saw who those voices belong to. It was Erza and Kagura, and they came running at him. Thoma ran towards Erza and Kagura then the three of them hugged each other.
"I missed you so much." Thoma said very happily.
"I missed you too." Erza and Kagura said at the same time.
Erza, Kagura, Annerose, and Thoma sat down at a table and they continued their talk.
"Where have you been?" Kagura asked.
"After Rosemary I wondered around a bit. I ran into a man named Mercer." Thoma said.
"Whose Mercer?" Erza asked.
"Mercer was a Independent Wizard. I met him when I was going to take a job to kill a Giant Tiger. I was told I was too young to take the job. Mercer took the job, I decided to follow him. I helped him kill it and after Mercer asked if I wanted come with him and be a Independent Wizard like him. I took him up on his offer." Thoma explained.
"Where is he now?" Kagura asked.
Thoma grew quiet and looked down. Annerose put her hand on Thoma's arm then said,
"Mercer passed away last year. It hit Thoma pretty hard."
Erza and Kagura looked at each other then look back at Thoma and said,
"I'm sorry."
"Its fine. Annerose and I have been doing well for ourselves." Thoma said.
"We wouldn't have to be alone anymore." Erza said.
"What do you mean?" Thoma asked.
"Why not join Fairy Tail and be a member of our family." Erza said.
Thoma thought about it for several moments then said,
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm going have decline our offer."
The guild fell silent when Thoma gave his answer.
"Are you sure?" Kagura asked
"Yeah. Being in a guild, doesn't fit my style" Thoma answered.
Kagura looked sad while Erza looked alright then said,
"It is sad, but it is your choice. However you must promise that you'll visit us."
"I will. In fact I have taken a job and now that I found you, I was wondering of you would like to join me on it." Thoma said.
"What is it?" Kagura asked.
"Its a job to kill a monster that is rampaging near a village on border of Fiore and Bosco. You two want to join me?" Thoma asked.
Erza and Kagura thought about it then Erza said,
"I'll join you."
"Me too." Kagura said.
"Good. You two able to leave soon?" Thoma asked.
"We can. I'll let Master Makarov know where we are going." Erza said getting up from the table.
"Alright, do what you need to do to get ready. Annerose and I will meet you at the train station. Come on Annerose." Thoma said getting up from the table and left the guild.
While making their way to the train station Annerose asked,
"Are you sure you don't want to join Fairy Tail? I bet you would have a lot of fun being with Erza and Kagura."
"I am. Mercer always said that when your part of a legal guild, you have to follow the Council's rules. He didn't like that, but he couldn't let evil people do whatever they wanted, so he decided to be an Independent Wizard to be rid of Dark Wizards. I want to do the same." Thoma said.
"I didn't know Mercer that long, but you seem to really looked up to Mercer." Annerose pointed out.
"I do. He was strong and kind person. He didn't have a sense of humor and always made bad jokes and the worst times. He taught me how to effectively use my Chain Magic, also started to teach me how to use Fire Magic." Thoma said looking up at the sky.
"I'm sure Mercer would be proud of you." Annerose said.
"I'm sure he would, but he might not like that I'm bring those two on this job." Thoma laughed a bit.
"What is the job is this anyway." Annerose said.
"I'll explain once we're on the train." Thoma said.
"Aright. Is there anything you need to do before they arrive?" Annerose asked.
"No I don't. Do you need anything?" Thoma asked.
Annerose thought about it for a moment then said,
"Nothing comes to mind."
Then Erza and Kagura came walking up. Kagura was waving happily once she saw Thoma.
"That was fast. Are you sure you have everything you need?" Thoma asked.
"Yes, we have everything we need." Erza said.
"Alright. I have our tickets, so let's get on board." Thoma said.
Erza and Kagura nodded and all four of them got on the train and found some seats then Erza asked,
"What are the details of this job?"
"As I said, this is a job to kill a monster rampaging near a village on the boarder of Fiore and Bosco. The monster is a Giant Cerberus." Thoma said.
"What is a Cerberus?" Kagura asked.
"A Cerberus is a type of dog with three heads." Thoma explained.
"And you said this one is a giant?" Erza asked.
"Yes. It says that this monster is about thirty-five meters tall. Also each head has a breath attack. Fire, lightning, and ice." Thoma said reading the job note.
"This sounds very dangerous." Kagura said.
"Indeed. This job would be classified as an S-Class Quest." Thoma said looking up from the page.
"Are you sure we can do this?" Kagura asked.
"We'll be fine, but we'll have to be careful." Thoma said.
Kagura looked worried, but Erza gave her a reassured look and Kagura calmed down.
"I know that this job sounds hard, but if we work as a team, I know we can kill it." Thoma said.
Erza and Kagura gave Thoma a nodded of agreement then they begun to talk about strategy. After talking for a bit Thoma asked,
"How did you two escape?"
Erza and Kagura looked sad then Erza said,
"We rebelled against our captives and were going to free our friend Jellal, but something was wrong with him. He told us to leave and never to return or the rest of our friends would suffer. Then next thing we knew, we were on the beach, after that we find Fairy Tail and joined."
"I can't imagine how terrible your time in the Tower, but I'm glad to see you two are aright." Thoma said with a smile on his face.
Thoma, Annerose, Erza, and Kagura, made small talk while they waited to reach their destination. Once the train reached the final station, Thoma,Annerose, Erza, and Kagura got off the train and Kagura asked,
"How far to where this monster is?"
Thoma pulled out his map and looked it over then said,
"About a four day journey on foot from her."
Annerose flew up next to Thoma and read the map too.
"If I'm looking at the route that I think your looking at. We will be going through a dangerous route." Annerose said.
"How dangerous is dangerous?" Erza asked.
"The route Thoma is looking at will take us through a river, along a cliff, and a known bandit ambush route." Annerose.
"What this route sounds like fun and we might run into something fun." Thoma said defending himself.
"I would be surprised if you took a 'safe' route." Annerose laughed a bit.
Erza and Kagura looking at each other then turned back to Thoma and said at the same time,
"Led the way."
Thoma got a smile on his face then said,
"Alright follow me ladies."
Thoma led Annerose, Erza, and Kagura. And for a day and a half they traveled until they came to spot where a man was sitting up against a tree holding his side and where he was holding was coated in red.
"Thoma look. He's hurt." Kagura pointed out.
"We should take a look." Erza said.
"We should be careful." Thoma said.
Kagura and Erza walked up to the man, Thoma was a few steps behind them.
"Are you ok? Are you hurt?" Kagura asked kneeling down to the man.
"Damn bandits ambushed me and my family. They took my wife and daughter and went off in that direction. They injured me real bad." The man said pointing off into the woods to his right.
"I have bandages for you. It will stop your bleeding." Erza said walking up to the man.
"I'm good, but please go save my family." The man said.
Erza and Kagura nodded then Erza asked,
"What does your wife and daughter look like?"
"Both have brown hair and have nice dresses." The man said.
Erza and Kagura got up and went to go in the direction the man told them. Thoma stopped and said,
"You both are buying his story?"
"We have to save his family." Erza said.
"He has no family and that injure is fake." Thoma said.
"That's rude to say." Kagura said.
"Normally it would, but in this man's case, no." Thoma said.
Thoma, Erza, and Kagura turned to the man and saw Annerose sneaking up behind him. She then managed to wrap her paw across where it was red.
"What are you doing?!" The man exclaimed.
The man went to grab Annerose, but she flew into the sky and sniffed her paw and said,
"Cherry jam! Its cherry jam!"
"See what I mean." Thoma said.
Thoma then step towards the man, who dropped the act and got on his feet.
"Who are you?" The man demanded.
"Just a Independent Wizard. Now you have two choices, either stop do what your doing or your going to have a real bad time." Thoma threatened.
"You think you can scare me?" The man laughed.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Thoma said.
Thoma then had a white hook in his right hand then threw them at the man. Erza and Kagura saw Thoma using his Chain Magic for the first time. Thoma wrapped his chains around the man and slammed him into a tree then pulled the man towards him. When the man was close, Thoma had left hand engulfed with fire and Thoma punched the man in the face and sent him flying back into a different tree. Thoma then pulled the man in a different direction and slammed him into another tree and finally pulled the man back to him. Thoma then gave the man another punch to the face and asked,
"Are you sure you don't want to stop being a bandit?"
"Yes yes. Please just stop." The man begged.
"Alright, now where are your friends?" Thoma asked.
"Their in a cave not far from here." The man said.
"Alright and is their a bounty on your boss' head?" Thoma asked,
"Yes there is." The man said.
"And how big is it?" Thoma asked.
"Five hundred thousand Jewels." The man said.
"Alright. I'm going to let you go. If I see or hear that you haven't changed your ways. I will not be so kind." Thoma said.
Thoma let the man go and turned to Erza and Kagura and said,
"Alright. Shall we get ourselves a Bandit Boss?"
"What was that?" Kagura asked.
"What its what Mercer and I did all the time when dealing with bandits. We give the little guys a second chance to be good,but if their boss has a bounty, we turn in the boss. I know it looks like I'm doing this for the reward, but I'm also doing it to stop them from attacking others." Thoma said.
"I agree that bandits should be stop." Erza said.
"If we can stop them from hurting others, then let's go after them." Kagura said.
"Alright. Then let's us be off." Thoma said.
"What about the Cerberus?" Kagura asked.
"We'll take of these bandits really quick then deal with the Cerberus." Thoma said.
Thoma went off towards where the man said where the others would be. Annerose flew up to Erza and Kagura and said,
"He may not look or act like it, but he is a good person."
Annerose then flew after Thoma. Erza and Kagura followed shortly behind. The four were taking a little detour to stop some bandits, but soon after they will go after the Cerberus.