Inside a darkened room were four glowing orbs of red, green, yellow, and pink. Inside that room stood three figures that stood by the orbs.

"The time has come…to take a stand."

"For our guild."

"And for ultimate power."

"The spirit orbs….bring all five spirit orbs together to fulfill our guild's sacred dream."

"Yes. Yes!"

"Heh"

…

Natsu

"Hew! Glad that job is all over." Lucy said as she and Natsu walked hand-in-hand through the woods with Happy and it being dark out, but they were close to Magnolia. Ever since the defeat of Alvarez, Natsu and Lucy got real close and actually became a real couple.

"Yeah. You'll be able to make rent this time." Happy said.

"Let's hurry back to the guild. I want to get in a meal before Mira decides to close up." Natsu said, but he came to a stop when he heard something from behind them and picked up on someone's scent.

"Natsu, what's wrong?" Lucy asked.

"There's someone back there. Wait, I know that scent." Natsu said as he went to check it out.

"Natsu, wait." Lucy said as she and Happy went after him.

"Man. How much farther is it to Magnolia?" A person said as he was running through the woods in a hurry. He came to a stop when he saw Natsu, Lucy, and Happy came out in front of him and all three of them were surprised to see him.

"Rogue?!" Lucy said as they stood with Rogue from Sabertooth.

"What are you doing here?" Natsu said.

"Your guild and Magnolia are in danger. You've got to get word." Rogue said.

"In danger?! What do you mean in danger?" Happy said.

"What's going on?" Natsu said. Rogue was about to explain, but he heard something coming up from behind them. All of them looked further back and saw three strange looking men that didn't even look human with black pants and blades on their hands. They also had symbols on the chest that looked like the top of a brain in a circle. "Hey, who are you guys?!"

"Darn it. They followed me after all." Rogue said. One tried swinging his blade arm, but they avoided it. Natsu stepped up and gave a strong right hook that knocked it down.

"Fire Dragon Brilliant Flame!" Natsu tossed the fireball and knocked the other two down.

"Rogue, what's going on?" Lucy asked.

"We'll talk later. First, we've got to get your guild." Rogue said. None of them understood, but they knew this seemed like trouble and they needed to hurry.

"Alright. Magnolia isn't that far." Lucy said.

"Let's go." Natsu said as all four of them got moving back to the guild. "By the way, where's Frosch?"

"There wasn't much time. I had to go on ahead without him, but he's safe with Sting." Rogue said. "Stay focus on getting to Magnolia. I'll explain everything once we get to your guild." All of them hurried and arrived at Magnolia in no time. They just made it through the entrance, but they were cut off by two more of the strange looking men appearing out of nowhere. "We didn't make it in time."

"Watch out! There's more coming from behind us." Happy said as more of them showed up through the gate and had them surrounded.

"Hey you jerks, get out of the way!" Natsu said.

"Who are you creeps?" Lucy asked.

"It's no use trying to talk to them." Rogue said. "They're not even alive. They're nothing, but puppets being controlled by magic."

"Puppets controlled by magic?!" Lucy said as she thought that was unreal.

"Be careful. These things are relentless." Rogue said. "Still, we have no choice, but to fight through."

"No problem. I'm all fired up." Natsu said and went on the attack. He went and knocked one down and he spun around and gave another one a powerful kick. "They're not so tough." He thought this would be easy, but they got back up easily. "Okay. Maybe they're tougher than they look."

"Let's do this!" Lucy said as she got her whip around and she throwing it into another one. "Open! Gate of the Scorpian: Scorpio!"

"Wicked!" Scorpio shouted as he appeared. He shot out a blast of sand. It knocked a few down, but they just got back up as well.

"No way! They're getting up like our attacks are nothing." Lucy said.

"You've got to completely destroy them or else they'll just keep rising." Rogue said as he phased through a blade and slammed his hand through the spine. "They'll also vast in numbers. Don't let your guard down."

"Aye! He's right. They're everywhere!" Happy said as he scouted through the air as a few more showed up.

"So they need to be completely destroy, do they?" Natsu said. "That's what we Fairy Tail wizards excel at." He jumped up into the air. "Fire Dragon Roar!" He unleashed his breath attack and had some of them fry.

"Star Dress: Scorpio Form!" Lucy said as she changed appearances thanks to her Star Dress. "Are you ready, Scorpio?"

"Yeah, Lucy. Let's do this! Sand Buster!" Scorpio shot out a blast of a sandstorm. Lucy used her new powers to ride in the sand and used a great deal of speed to smash the puppets to pieces.

"Shadow Dragon Roar!" Rogue used his own roar attack and slammed some more of them together. However, he looked like he was ready to collapse.

"Rogue, are you okay?" Natsu asked.

"Just a little tired. I'll be fine." Rogue said.

"Guys, look!" Lucy said as a few more of them showed up.

"Darn it. No matter how many I knock down, they just keep coming." Natsu said.

"My guild was attack by these things too." Rogue said.

"Seriously?!" Natsu said as they were all surprised by this news.

"Sabertooth was attacked?!" Lucy said.

"Yeah. They attacked without warning and a few villages were attacked as well." Rogue said. "They took some places down like it was child's play."

"No way!" Natsu said.

"It wasn't just us." Rogue said. "A few other guilds were attacked as well at the hands of Tranquil Mind."

"Tranquil Mind?" Lucy questioned. They looked to the puppets and saw the mouths opened up.

"Yes…and now it's Fairy Tail's turn." All of them were emitting the same voice of a man.

"Waah! I thought you said these things couldn't talk." Natsu said.

"Calm down. They're just transmitting someone's voice." Rogue said.

"We have only one goal. We have come here to take the spirit orb."

"Spirit orb? What's that?" Natsu said.

"Playing dumb, are we?" They didn't have a clue as to what they're talking about. That was just about when Erza jumped down and showed in front of them.

"Erza!" Lucy said as she was glad to see her.

"I'm curious too. What is this spirit orb?" Erza asked. "What could be so important that you threaten Fairy Tail to obtain?"

"Do you take me for a fool?" One of the puppets went to attack, but Erza pulled out a sword and sliced it into pieces in no time. "We are taking that orb even if we have to burn this city to the ground."

"Try if you might, but Fairy Tail will fight until we can't fight anymore to protect it." Erza said. "So tell us what you are after?" They had a standoff and were waiting to see what the enemy would do next.

"I thought the powerful Fairy Tail would be guarding a spirit orb, but if even the great Titania knows nothing about it, I'm just wasting my breath. You be wise to stay out of our way." That was his last words before those puppets just vanished.

"Hey, where are you going?! Come back and fight!" Natsu called out.

"Leave it, Natsu. It's too dangerous." Erza said as she turned to face Rogue. "So you came here to speak with our guild?"

"Yeah. I need to speak with Makarov about this." Rogue said.

"Very well. I'll take you there. You can inform the rest of the guild about this." Erza said.

…

The Guildhall

Erza took Rogue to the guild to speak with Makarov. Everyone gathered around as Rogue told Makarov about what has happened.

"I see. So Sabertooth was attacked by the same enemy." Makarov said.

"Yeah and it was a surprise attack." Rogue said. "We weren't expecting them at all and they tried to overwhelm us with numbers of those puppets we just fought."

"So who is this Tranquil Mind?" Gray asked.

"They were once a legal guild, but just like I heard you guys did, they caused trouble for the Magic Council." Rogue said. "However, they didn't handle it well and started a rebellion many years ago, but it didn't go well. Many members were lost and the guild slowly dissolved. I say that was about when they turned into a dark guild."

"I've heard about that." Mest said. "The Tranquil Mind guild that had a creative use of magic such as making those puppets, but I'm afraid that's just about all I know. They disbanded and seemed to have vanished such a long time ago.

"So we're seeing the survivors act out." Erza said.

"Yeah to collect these five jewels called spirit orbs." Rogue said.

"What are these spirit orbs?" Natsu asked.

"Apparently, there are five spirit orbs scattered across Fiore." Rogue said. "They each hold a ton of magic power and I know they already have four of them. They're searching for the last one. They thought powerful guilds such as Sabertooth or Fairy Tail was guarding it."

"What are they going to do once they get all five?" Wendy asked.

"If what I heard is true, they're going to revive the Master Puppet." Rogue said. "A magic puppet with the power to destroy all of Fiore."

"Whoa! That sounds like it would be an awesome fight!" Natsu said.

"You dummy. It sounds like we don't want that thing to be revived." Gray said.

"If that's true, this is a threat to the entire country." Makarov acknowledge.

"What do we do, Master?" Erza asked.

"We need to gather more information on this guild." Makarov said. "In the meantime, we need to be on the lookout for this last orb."

"Oh yeah. I'm getting all fired up now!" Natsu said.

Next time: Save a Burning Village