next chapter, thanks to reviews for helping me with Charle's name. I'm going to keep working on this story because ideas are coming thick and fast. so as always ideas for tips and imrpovement are appreciated. there are quite big spoilers in this story from the end of the edolas arc so if you don't want to know then don't read


Luke and Marcus stood at the centre of the guild all eyes on them, Makarov looked at them both with a curious expression on his face, Jura had told him he was sending two of his most promising students, he could sense strong magical power from both of them

"welcome children i'm glad you made it, your master sent word you were coming, i take it his investigations have turned up results"

Luke nodded silently

"Master Jura enlisted the help of Hibiki from blue pegasus, his archive magic along with the information from our contact allowed us to narrow down it's location"

Makarov was impressed with the progress Jura had made since his appointment as guild master of the newly formed Black Rampart guild

"very well let us continue this discussion in private, Natsu, Erza, Gray, Lucy, Wendy, Happy, Charle please come with us"

Mira nodded and team Natsu followed the Master into a private room in the guild, once the door was closed they all sat down and Luke started to speak

"a loose collection of dark guilds outside the reach of the balam alliance are after a place we call the vault of the last breath, they haven't found the exact location yet but are gaining ground, the council wants us to find the location first and prevent the dark guilds from accessing it"

they all considered him quietly, Natsu leaped to his feet fist in the air

"well alright then i'm all fired up, let's go"

he received a glare from Luke

"i know i've said this before to Master Jura and i'll say it again, he shouldn't be on this mission, we need subtlety, intelligence, not whatever he is"

Natsu looked ready to jump over the table and fight with Luke but Erza silenced him with a raised hand

"you should not underestimate his intelligence or his instincts, these are both good reasons for him to be on this mission"

Luke ignored Natsu and turned to Erza

"there's only one reason he was even considered for this mission and it isn't his intelligence, and as for the little girl"

his eyes turned to Wendy who fixed him with her best determined look

"i may not be a powerful fighter like Natsu but don't underestimate me"

nobody noticed the smile tugging at the corner of Marcus's mouth

"yeah Wendy's magic has saved us all on missions together"

Lucy had risen out of her chair to shout at Luke, she really didn't like him. before the arguement could continue further Marcus stood up slowly and raised his hands in a sign of surrender

"OK we were all selected for this mission, and we each bring something to the table that will be useful on the mission, it would be best to try and lay problems like these aside until the mission is done"

he caught the eyes of each mage in the room before his eyes stopped on Luke who couldn't hold his friends gaze

"well said, now Marcus and Luke will lead the way to the location of the vault, once there you have your orders, meanwhile the coucil will coordinate efforts to track down the guilds of this new dark alliance and stop them, but it is imperative that you protect that vault, understood"

he recieved nods from everyone in the room and smiled an old sad smile, once again his children were headed into danger, as always the idea worried him, but he knew they had been trained well

"come on Happy let's go"

"aye sir"

the two of them stormed out of the guild, Happy sailing through the air. Marcus looked on, a very bemused expression on his face

"do they even know where they're going"

Gray stood up as well and shook his head

"no but they'll figure it out after a couple of miles, come on we should get moving, the next train is in about an hour, it will give us time to prepare"

everyone nodded and split up. elsewhere Natsu had finally realised he didn't know where to go. before he could turn back he noticed the graceful form of Lisanna gliding through the sky towards him. she landed in a flash of magic, and there stood the girl he knew so well

"hey Lisanna, it's good to see you"

she smiled at him hands behind her back

"it's good to see you too, i heard about your mission"

her tone had changed to one of worry

"don't worry about me Lisanna, i'll come back"

Natsu flashed a smile at Lisanna before turning back towards the guild. his hand raised above his head in the call sign of Fairy Tail

"you'll always be thinking about me won't you Natsu"

smiling Lisanna took to the skies again. after an hour of preparation the newly formed alliance was ready at the station

"right we can travel to temarin village by train but after that we need to go on foot"

Natsu had paled at the idea of travelling that far on the train

"honestly Happy, your dragon slayer still can't handle transportation, embarassing"

Wendy cast an apologetic look at Happy and Natsu before following Charle onto the train. there wasn't room for everyone in one comapartment so Luke went to sit in another one, and much to everyone's surprise so did Wendy and Charle

"don't worry i'll be fine"

Lucy looked uneasy with the idea but knew that Wendy could take care of herself, once alone Charle turned on Luke

"you child have a serious problem with Dragon-Slayers, i don't know why but it is my job to protect Wendy and i need to no if you are going to be a threat to her"

Luke looked at Charle, a cold calculating expression on his face

"do you really need to protect a creature that has taken the destructive power of a dragon as her own"

Charle faltered for a second but Wendy wasn't going to be quiet

"Grandine's power is not destructive, she taught me to heal and give strength to others, and i am not a creature"

he smiled but the expression didn't reach his eyes

"yes and next you are going to tell me you healed nirvanna to destruction, you can insist you aren't a destructive creature but i wouldn't call you completely human either"

Wendy looked close to tears, she couldn't understand why he was saying these things. before Charle could continue her arguement he raised a hand to cut her off

"you aren't going to change my mind with a couple of well chosen words, so just drop it"

with that he left the carriage leaving a stunned Wendy in his wake. Marcus noticed his friend but decided against following him for the moment

"so yeah that's pretty much all of my spirits, the 9 golden keys are my most powerful and best to use in combat"

Marcus nodded making a mental note of each spirit and it's powers, he had been trying to get a good idea of what each member of the team could do

"what about you, what kind of magic can you use"

Gray had seen him catch Natsu and was curious about this mage and what he could do

"well i call it merging magic, you might have seen me use it when i caught your friend, i merged with the ground and took on the physical properties it possessed, in this case being immovable and strong, i can do it with other solid materials as well, i can make my skin like metal if i merge with my bracelets, good for close combat as well as defense, and with trees and other wooden objects, although i haven't found a good use for wooden skin yet, oh yeah and recently i realised i could merge with the crystal in this"

he held up a small pendant with a diamond set into the centre

"oh that's pretty"

it was quite a beautiful charm, it was circular with the diamond set into the centre

"thanks, it belonged to my mother, she gave it to me to keep me safe"

having skin like diamond had certainly kept him safe before

"what about your friend Luke, what magic does he possess"

Natsu wanted to know if the guy would be a good fight if he kept insulting Dragon-Slayers

"don't fight him natsu, he's already looking for an excuse and his aura magic could kill you if you're not careful"

everyone turned to look at Erza none of them had heard of aura magic

"aura magic allows the user to manifest their aura into a physical form that is shaped by their emotional state, although it was believed to be a lost magic since..."

her eyes widened in surprise as she recalled the details of Gildarts ten year mission, looking at Marcus he nodded, everyone else just looked confused

"exactly, now if you'll excuse me i need to talk to Luke"

he left the compartment and followed his friend up the length of the train. back in the compartment everyone looked at Erza confused

"Erza what do you know that we don't?"

Lucy could see the deep look of concentration on her face

"i know that it would be unwise for Natsu or Wendy to confront him about his opinion of Dragons however unfair, because it is not without reason, beyond that i believe it is not my place to say"

most of them accepted this wordlessly, but Natsu still couldn't understand why this guy hated dragons so much. at the far end of the train Marcus had finally caught up to Luke

"you need to take it easy on Natsu and Wendy, i know why you're so angry but it's unfair on both of them"

Luke fixed him with a sad look

"how can I, they're as bad as the dragons that raised them, Why should i be nice to creatures like them"

Marcus shook his head, this arguement always ended the same way

"OK but promise me no fighting with Natsu"

Luke looked at him seriously

"I promise"


i'm going to keep fleshing out backstory for Luke little by little, i know there hasn't been much action yet but there will be in either the next chapter of the one after, as always reviews are appreciated