Banished. No longer a member of Fairy Tail. It didn't seem possible, but here he was, walking across the grassy plain to the west of Magnolia with everything he'd ever known behind him.

Laxus rolled his shoulders and switched the sack carrying all his belongings to his other hand. He hated his whining, it made him sound like a whipped dog instead of the leader of the Thunder Legion and an S-class wizard.

Can you still be an S-class wizard without a guild? He shoved the question away, but another popped up. Who was he without Fairy Tail?

He'd thought he was doing the right thing, culling the weak members from the guild and finding the strong. He'd believed only powerful wizards deserved a place in Fairy Tail

But he'd been wrong, so very wrong. Hadn't that been proved with his defeat and expulsion? The tears that streamed down his grandfather's face as he'd banished Laxus hit him harder than any blow of magic power. Family was what counted and the friends you surrounded yourself with. How could he have been so blind to that?

The road west led through rolling plains. Laxus looked up and saw dark thunder clouds gathering. Before long there would be a storm.

Every step Laxus took made his bandages flex and remind him of the healing he needed. A drop of plopped onto his nose. Laxus cinched his cloak tighter around his shoulders and threw up his hood. In moments the sound of rain hitting his hood filled his ears. The constant pattering was a welcome distraction from his thoughts. His body tensed as the rain increased and he waited for inevitable rumble of thunder, but minutes passed and he heard nothing.

Plodding on the sucking mud through the damp grass Laxus slipped his hand inside his cloak and fingered the parchment Gramps gave him before he'd left. It had the name of a wizard on it and a town where she lived. Why Gramps wanted him to go there he didn't know, but it was the only direction he had. It felt strange to be cut loose like this but also wonderfully freeing.

The pouring rain began to slant as the wind turned from an insistent breeze into a wild tempest that lashed at Laxus's face like a thousand wet whips. He smiled and lowered his hood. Laxus was at home in a storm. He supposed that was why his life seemed to crash and rumble around him. He wasn't one to hesitate. He made decisions and acted on them, his resolve like the brilliant stabs of lightning that would explode into the night sky, forking and landing where they wanted. But maybe that was his problem, maybe that's why he'd ended up on this path, being forced to walk away from everything he'd ever known. Lightning strikes were, at the very least, a two part process. It wasn't a wild strike but a violent transfer of energy from one point to another. Laxus's actions had a receiving end, and until his expulsion he hadn't cared about the consequences that befell the other point.

The name on the note in pocket read "Ilvastas Rash, town of Erwin." Water dripped down his face and onto his lips. He licked and tasted a sweetness that surprised him, as if the rainclouds carried water mixed with lavender.

A hesitant voice spoke from the darkness. "Laxus?"

Laxus halted, chin forward and shoulders back. He recognized the voice instantly. "What are you doing here?"

Evergreen materialized out of the rainy night carrying an umbrella and small pack. "Coming with you," she said.

"No. You aren't." This he had been resolute on. Wherever his journey was taking him, he wanted to do it alone. He had to do it alone.

"The Thunder Legion. We need you," she said, a note of desperate ferocity entering her voice. "You can't leave, you just can't."

"Have you forgotten? I'm not a member of Fairy Tail anymore. You, Freed and Bigslow are, and your loyalty is to Makarov and the guild. Stay with them." Laxus said. He softened his voice. "Ever, I need to do this alone."

"Will you come back?" She said.

"I don't know," he said. It was the truth. His journey had no end destination, only a name and a town, and a promise to himself and to Gramps. Laxus was going to figure out who he was now, to become someone Makarov could be proud of. Someone who maybe even someday would have friends of his own. A shot of the old Laxus tore through him as he frowned. Sentimental crap all of it. But he started to laugh as the animosity quickly vanished. He wasn't the hard shell he used to be.

"What's so funny?" Evergreen said.

"Nothing," he said. "Nothing at all. I'll see you around, Ever." He turned and started walking away, before he got too far, Laxus raised his right hand, index finger pointing up and thumb out.