A New Start

Summary: The story takes place after the Grand Magic Games arc. Fairy Tail has reclaimed their #1 guild title and is enjoying their victory. But dark things are beginning to move and new plots are beginning to come to light. The Rogue from the future said that Acnologia would come in a year. How will the gang prepare to face this new menace?

Disclaimer: Anything that is Fairy Tail belongs to Mashima Hiro only.

Chapter 1: Relaxation

Lucy

Lucy leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head. She was sitting at her desk, trying to work past her writer's block. The latest page of her novel lay in front of her, half-finished, as it had been for the last two hours.

Exasperated, she pushed the page away, and then let her head fall on the desk with a heavy thump! The inspiration just wouldn't come. Everyone in the guild was busy with the job requests that were flooding in. Erza was gone every day it seemed, and Gray, Natsu, and Happy only had time to stop by to say hi. Though it was more like her dropping in on them, as they were usually at her house before her.

Natsu had insisted that she come with him on his jobs, but she told him that after all the fuss with the dragons during the Grand Magic Games she just wanted to sit at home and relax.

"What? Why? Come on, there's this monster that can kill you with poison breath and has teeth like two feet long and even longer horns and we're supposed to go beat it! It'll be fun!" He grinned at Lucy like a kid asking for Christmas present.

"NO WAY!" Lucy threw her dictionary at him. "I told you, I want to be somewhere peaceful right now! And that's definitely not gonna happen if I'm chasing monsters with you! Now for god's sake, STOP BREAKING INTO MY ROOM!"

After a little more arguing, and after having a couple more books thrown at him, Natsu and Happy fled out the window.

And now that she was finally alone and everything was quiet, Lucy found that maybe she was ready for a little more noise and adventure than she thought.

Ah, well. There was nothing she could do about it now.

Gray

Gray stood at the station, waiting for his train to arrive. He had just come off a job where he had to find the thieves who had stolen a precious heirloom from some rich family and return the heirloom in one piece along with bringing the thieves into custody.

It had turned out to be a very boring job. He found out that it was some niece of some cousin of the rich family and that the young 5-year-old had no clue as to what 3 million J really meant.

A chill ran up his spine. Not an actual chill. Gray never really got cold anymore. It was the kind of chill that meant someone was watching you.

Actually, it felt like a lot of people were watching him. He turned around to see at least six or seven people gawking at him, their eyes wide. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he looked down at himself.

"Crap!" There was his shoulder bag and his light blue boxers, but that was all there was. He started frantically looking for his clothes, which they always seemed to disappear as soon as he stripped.

Right then, the train came. With a dozen more "Crap!" phrases, he just gave up and decided to get on the train.

As quickly as he could, he tried to find a private boxcar. Looking around, he thought he saw one. He grabbed the door, ripped it open, and shut it behind him. He turned around -

- And there was a woman stretched out on one side of the seats.

Immediately, Gray started sputtering, "W-wait, this isn't what it looks like - I just - I -" Gray tried to find some excuse as for why he burst into this woman's boxcar in nothing but his underwear. The last thing he needed was to get arrested because some lady thought he was trying to violate her.

"H-hold on - I can explain this -"

"Sit down and shut up, boy"

The order came so suddenly that Gray immediately did what she said.

She turned to look at him. Her hair was black, with a few grey roots showing. She was wearing jeans with black knee-high boots and a white button-up shirt. Her face had a few lines in it. Gray guessed her age to be around 40.

"What's your story?" she asked.

Gray answered in the most straightforward way he knew. "I lost my clothes."

She snorted. "What, did some bastard cheat you out of your stuff in strip poker or what?"

"Not quite…"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter kid." Then she looked at him straight in the eye and said, "But if I were you, I'd start hanging on to your clothes and whatever else you can grab, cause things are about to get a little bumpy."

"What do you mean?"

Then, right before his eyes, the woman's eyes changed from green to a burning gold and her pupils turned into slits.

Just like Natsu's and any other Dragon Slayer's eyes did…