Chapter 1 – Atop The Blazing Sky

Balance was necessary. It was necessary for both good and evil. It was necessary for there to BE good and evil, but most of all, balance was especially necessary for the infamous Salamander who was currently dancing and pirouetting around a dozen steel swords that were all flying straight towards him. His sense of balance was the only thing keeping him on the burning rooftop of the Fairy Tail guild hall.

'Burn them to ash.' Those were the orders that he'd been given, that was what his contract had stated. When he'd agreed to it, it had been as clear as black and white, but now? Now that he was balancing his steady feet on unsteady wooden beams, facing off against the Fairy Queen, he wasn't so sure.

In his defence, his employers were clearly expecting this to happen, after all, he WAS the Salamander, the most unstable solo mage that ever accepted jobs from Dark Guilds and people of a similar renown.

Somebody wanted Fairy Tail dead, that kind of job paid well, and he needed the money so it was right up his alley when a messenger had found him and offered him the meeting. Two weeks down the line, after hunting down various members of Fairy Tail, whether it was to show them glimpses of himself in the shadows, or to simply beat them up with his face hidden, all to give their guild some paranoia, he'd taken his time with it. There was no killing though, and that was something that had struck him as strange, the fact that he'd had dozens of opportunities but he hadn't taken a single one of them.

You see, Salamander wasn't strictly a dark mage, he was a mage that had no problems with going to the effort of killing an enemy but only on the grounds that they were entirely deserving to face the flames of Hell. It was a gift that he'd had for nearly all of his life, a gift that was given to him the moment that he had one day opened his eyes not as a Human, but as a Demon.

Not a single member of Fairy Tail was corrupted in their hearts, therefore, even though he had been specified to obliterate every trace of the Guild, he simply could not personally end their lives.

That was the first time that he had failed a contract on such a grand degree, but today was a day full of firsts for him. Today was also the first time that he had been so engaged in a single fight that he'd forgotten about the world all around him.

As Salamander ducked and dodged around the silver flashes of steel, a fire burned within his eyes that told his opponent that there was no forefront of his previous mission on his mind, nothing else existed in this world except for the Fairy Queen that had cut and torn at his tough skin, Titania who had brought his down through dirt, concrete and entire buildings, Erza Scarlet who had finally been an opponent strong enough to let the Demon within him finally run free and exhaust himself.

She didn't know the extent of his business with Fairy Tail, hell, she hardly even cared any more. During the lengths of their fight, she had witnessed him actively go out of his way to prevent the deaths of her Guild mates, and yet, here he was, standing atop the burning remains of the Fairy Tail Guild hall, fighting back against her with tooth and claw, providing her with the toughest fight of her life, and grinning the entire time.

She didn't know whether or not she had been a fool to accept Salamander's confusing terms when he'd first arrived, bringing chaos with him in every step that he took, but she did know that no matter what, she wasn't about to lose to him, not here, not now, not ever. She'd finally found a rival for herself, if she could even call her would be assassin that.

"Tell me, Salamander... What did you really come here for?" Erza's strong voice called out, being heard only by her opponent over the sound of the roaring flames that was quickly devouring the last remains of their crumbling footing. It would be only a matter of time before the entire building caved in on itself, taking both herself and Salamander with it. She might be able to survive that if she could requip from her heaven's wheel armour into her adamantine armour quick enough, but that was an after-thought buried deep in her mind because of her current focus on the engaging Onyx eyes that were locking with her own.

A short plume of black smoke shot out of his nose before he grinned once again, the answer was something within his mind, but for the life of him, he had no idea what it was. Meeting her brown eyes was the only thing that mattered in that moment, "Does it matter, Fairy Queen? The only reason I'm here is because you alone have the power to set me free from the chains that hold me..." Salamander's feral grin had turned into something else, a slight smile of remembrance, possibly from a time long passed?

Erza eyed him quietly, letting her heaven's wheel armour gently take her feet aloft so that she wouldn't fall with the burning building. "To the victor go the spoils of war. To the Angel that can kill a Demon, she will be granted his soul... So, let's see just how much power you're hiding from me." With that, Salamander set the skies aflame in an orange blaze. The monstrosity roaming around in Human form had belted into the skies only to have his fist met with steel. Onyx eyes never turning away from the determined brown gaze of Erza Scarlet. She no longer knew why she was fighting him, all that she knew was that he was easily as strong as her in nearly all aspects, except for the fact that he was fighting for the thrill of the fight, she however...

Was about to punish him for reducing her Guild hall to ash.

Earlier That Day

A tall hooded man walked down a dirt path that led to the harbour town of Magnolia. The sun was bearing down on him but neither that nor the thickness of the fabric covering his body made him feel even remotely uncomfortable. Heat naturally flowed around his body anyway so an extra layer and a few degree of hotter weather were the least of his concerns. What he was irritated by was the fact that looking down upon the town of Magnolia, he could already tell that he was going to have a terrible time achieving success on his mission.

In the far distance of the town there was a building that stood out among the rest, not because it had three stories, not because it had a vast banner sporting the Fairy Tail mark across it, but rather because of the fact that without even needing to see the building, he could FEEL the masses of magical power all gathered there.

If all that power only belonged to a small group of people then he was going to be in for a long fight, but on the other hand, there could be well over a hundred mages inside. Only time would tell. The mage known so widely as Salamander let out a loud groan. He was hungry, he was tired, he was massively irritated because of those two things put together. All he really wanted to do was find a place to get some breakfast. He'd overslept underneath an especially serene canopy in the woods and ended up waking to dawn rising, which was about five hours too late for his initial plan to level the Guild hall when there was no one there.

His groan was aimed at the person who didn't seem to realize that the tree they were leaning against was simply not wide enough to hide a body that vastly populated by masses of muscle. The smooth tanned skin belonging to the hulking giant seemed to glisten in the few strands of sunlight that had filtered down through the leaves above.

"If I don't like what you have to say, I will end your life right now, Ajax." Salamander muttered quietly, knowing full well that this man was entirely capable of hearing him, even as nothing more than irritable mumblings.

"Relax Salamance-"

"Salamander." The rapidly angering mage corrected the larger man without a second thought.

"Whatever." The giant bald man waved casually, clearly not caring for the wrath that Salamander was capable of, "I'm not here on behalf of the boss, I'm just here to watch. There are a lot of variables that you need to consider, namely the Guild Master." He continued, watching the hooded man out of the corner of striking blue eyes.

"The old man? Oh yeah, he's a strong Wizard Saint or something, right?" Salamander responded, either completely unphased by that or just an expert at hiding his true reactions. Ajax couldn't tell, but it didn't matter, not really. Once Salamander either succeeded or failed in his mission, he would be gone without a trace. He truly was only here to watch and neither himself nor his employers would be tied to the infamous mage.

"Yes, he is. He's mastered more than one area of magic and has fingers in many more magical pies." Ajax resisted the urge to laugh at his words.

Salamander stopped walking and regarded Ajax wearily. "You phrased that really weird... But I know exactly what you're talking about. One of the Ten Wizard Saints and you guys still want me to kill him? A Wizard Saint makes my original triple, now leave, I'm going to have to blow up this entire town if I can find a good loophole." Salamander muttered, mostly to himself more than anything else.

"None of what you just said made any sense." Ajax sighed. The dark mage had been present when they had first made contact with Salamander and the whole thing just just been a headache waiting to happen, but after the boss had gotten impatient and tried his hand a testing the younger mage, it became terrifyingly clear that there was no mistaking it, this man really was the Salamander, that much was evidenced by the side of their Guild Hall that was still smouldering from a simple flick of his wrist.

"It wouldn't make sense to you because I wasn't talking to you past the point that I said 'now leave'. Which, by the way, you should do. Be gone, Ajax." The pink haired mage shooed his hands towards Ajax who merely smiled at that. Fine, he would take his cue, he'd been planning on watching from the shadows anyway.

"Yes sir, great mighty Demon Lord king Salamance sir!" Salamander caught Ajax's mock salute before he had been swallowed by the shadows of the tree he was stood against. A dark power for an especially dark mage. Salamander would be happy to receive a job request that would pit him against Ajax and his guild, now THAT would be an easy job but a fun job none the less.

"It's Sala- and he's gone..." Salamander mused quietly to himself before returning his sights on the target. The Fairy Tail Guild hall. A plan of attack might have been good but he was never that good at planning these things, ever, so instead he just decided that he'd do what he always did. He was going to march right up to their front doors before kicking them in and demanding that the strongest person there had to fight him. It was usually quite a good tactic, he just hoped that he'd be able to get a good warm-up fight before facing the Wizard Saint. Now THAT seemed like a good enough plan to him. With that decided, he marched on, straight towards Fairy Tail.

A/N: So, whaddya think?