That was five years ago, in the years after that they had tried figuring out what exactly was going on in Mercurius but never got too far besides figuring out that the siphoned magic would soon be put to use. Chaos had continually told Katherine that he could have broken into the palace if he really wanted to know but never did so she wasn't apt to believe him; that or he didn't care enough to try which was just as plausible. Eventually on her seventeenth birthday Chaos greeted her with a present and then promptly told her that he taught her everything he had known and it was time for him to get going. Crazy as he was she didn't like the idea of being alone again and begged him to stay, but he firmly told her that he was going to leave and investigate what was going on in Ishval after a bit of exploring. The gift was a bunch of throwing knives and a pistol with a note asking her to stay in Fiore so that whenever the Kingdom decided to show what it was doing she would be there to "do the right thing"; she took her new pistol and shot the note three times before throwing it away. However she couldn't stop herself from going to the Games not with the return of the core members of Fairy Tail or the fact that Jura Neekis would finally be competing in the Games.

"Damn my desire to see strong people fight" Kat sighed before shooting down another one of the strange hatchlings spawned from Motherglare

In the end her master had been right that something was going on in Fiore, the magic that was being siphoned was used to power Eclipse a gate that was being used to now bring a bunch of dragons into the future albeit not what the king had intended. Dragons who were apparently under the control of a strange looking man who wanted to challenge the Dragon King for whatever reason, either way he was going to destroy the city and she had to fight to keep that from happening as much as it annoyed her that she was doing exactly what her former master wanted her to do.

"Man how many of these things are there" she muttered as she finished off the few spawn close to her "I should probably go help those other mages out, they look like they're having a hell of a time trying to fight those spawn. Can't blame them, they just fought their hearts out against each other in the Games and now they're expected to do this? I can't wait to hear the King of Fiore explain this" she said running off to find a group of mages to help

She soon came upon a wounded dragon slayer who she soon realized was Laxus Dreyar and the Thunder God Tribe fighting off a dragon that curiously was covered in flames instead of having actual scales, it looked like a skeleton on fire rather than an actual dragon which creeped her out just a little bit. Only Laxus' lightning attacks were having any noticeable effect on the dragon but even then it only seemed to make the dragon angrier. The other members of the squad were doing their best to try and distract the dragon, but she knew it wouldn't work. Dragons were smart and since only Laxus' attacks were working it only made sense to deal with him first before moving onto the other guys, and sure enough that was exactly what the dragon was attempting to do although Laxus was still be able to get out of the way of most of the attacks.

"Roar of the Lightning Dragon" Laxus shouted before sending a powerful burst of electricity at Atlas Flame who was sent a few steps back initially but managed to fight through the lightning "Damn it, what the hell is it going to take to beat this stupid thing" he muttered

"Keep trying Laxus there has to be a way to get through the dragon's fire! We'll try and draw his attacks away from you" Bickslow shouted "Come on babies let's show this dragon how strong we are!"

"You know it's kind of insulting how stupid you humans think I am" Atlas called out while getting hit by lasers "Do you think I can't hear you guys or something? Just because I'm covered in fire doesn't mean I don't have ears, but yeah you guys kind of just shouted out your battle strategy to me something I wouldn't recommend doing in the future… well I'll be killing you guys but you get my point" he continued before aiming a roar of flames at Laxus who at the last moment was carried out of the way by Freed who was in his Darkness form

"Laxus are you alright" Freed asked him

"Yeah I'm fine" Laxus answered

"Thank god! I was so worried about you Laxus, n-not that I think you can't handle yourself in a fight it's just that I thought your life was at risk" Freed said through tears

"Please stop crying, your tears look really weird when you're in this form and I'd rather not be scarred at the moment" Laxus sighed "Still this dragon sure can take a punch or two, you'd think I haven't landed a hit on him the way he's moving around"

"We'll find a way we have to" Freed said as he found a place to land and put Laxus down

"That's for sure, no way I'm going to let this dragon get away with hurting my friends or my old man" Laxus said cracking his knuckles eagerly before running off to engage Atlas who had managed to hit Bickslow and his babies through a wall and was now trying to swat down Evergreen to no avail

"Sit still would you?" Atlas called out angrily "I know you humans are pests but this is taking it to a whole new level, I swear I'm going to eat you and only you"

"Ha, that's if you can catch me first, Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun" she called back sending a flurry of needles towards Atlas who shrugged it off like they were nothing

"That tickles" he said sending mass of flames at Evergreen who barely got out of the way and continued her attacks

"Well here goes nothing" Kat muttered after seeing enough to know they needed help spinning her revolver's cylinder which eventually stopped causing the little sprite to appear once more

"It's the fifth chamber Katherine, Ghost Bullets once more!" it said happily before leaving

"That's great… but where the heck am I supposed to shoot it? It just looks like a giant skeleton, come on Kat think of something" she muttered "Damn it, what did Chaos say to do in this situation"

"If you can shoot them in the eye, then there's nothing you can't kill"

"But what about dragons? I thought only dragon slayer magic could get through them?"

"That's is a big lie spread by dragon slayers a long time ago so that they could corner the dragon killing market! They just happen to have an easier time of doing it, any magic can get through a dragon's scales if it's strong enough… even if it's true does a dragon have scales over its eyes?"

"Um no?"

"Exactly, so shoot it in the eye and it'll die!"

"Well here goes nothing" Kat said aiming her gun at the flaming dragon

Unfortunately for her though Atlas Flame saw her and made its way towards her ignoring Evergreen's attempts to keep it distracted. It brought its claw down at Kat who managed to dive out of the way before it could crush her, but she knew lining up a shot would be difficult if it could see her. She tried getting behind a building which Atlas Flame promptly burnt to the ground with a single roar. She fired two shots from her revolver both of which hit Atlas in the face causing him some pain, but she cursed that she missed getting its eye. Although she still wasn't exactly sure whether a shot to the eye would kill it at least she was keeping it distracted and not paying attention to Laxus who had used the time to prepare a massive attack on Atlas Flame.

"Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist" he said charging up lightning on his right fist

He reared back and punched at Atlas, a magic circle appeared sending out an even larger lightning fist that flew towards the dragon and struck it in the chest; the lightning charged through Atlas momentarily stunning it as he tried overcoming the lightning. This gave Kat the time she needed to aim her revolver right at Atlas' eye; she fired every shot she had left in her revolver to make sure she could deal as much damage as possible. Laxus had also taken the time to charge up his next attack; he put both of his hands in the air facing each other and lightning began forming between his hands.

"Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!" he shouted hurling the large lightning spear at Atlas

Both the ghost bullets and halberd struck Atlas at the same time; the ghost bullets went straight through Atlas' right eye while the halberd pierced through the dragon's midsection.

"Got him!" they both shouted in unison

"Impossible! You're just humans, you can't defeat me" Atlas cried out

The flames surrounding his body began disappearing and soon nothing was left of him except ashes. Kat took a deep breath before raising her fist up in the air in victory and then lying down on the ground, but she knew that there were still six other dragons to deal with. However the victory gained from killing Atlas was a major morale booster for the rest of the mages who now knew these dragons could be killed albeit with a lot of effort. It also had the added effect of freeing up Laxus and the rest of the Thunder God Tribe to help out in the fight against the dragons.

"What a shot Laxus! I knew you could defeat that dragon!" Freed exclaimed happily

"Like I said before please stop crying in that weird Darkness form of yours, it's really creepy. Besides I'm not sure if that was all me, you guys noticed how it seemed to be targeting somebody else in the middle of the fight instead of going after Ever" Laxus said

"I think I saw her for a moment, she seemed to be firing something that made Atlas want to attack her for some reason" Evergreen said "Also does anyone know if Bickslow made it out alright, he did get hit pretty hard?"

"Don't worry you guys I'm fine if a little dizzy at the moment" Bickslow said weakly being transported by his babies towards the rest of the tribe

"Dizzy is an understatement, you can't even stand on your own!" Freed said worriedly

"I can still fight"

"Like hell you can"

"Bickslow you're in no condition right now and I'm not going to let you sacrifice yourself needlessly we can handle things okay" Laxus told him

"But Laxus I can sti-"Bickslow started

"Trust us Bickslow, we've got this" Laxus said giving him a pat on the back

"Alright then" he said weakly before lying down on his babies again

"Ever, do you mind keeping an eye on him at the moment?" Laxus asked

"Sure thing I'll protect him until I can find a safe place for him to recover, then I'll join up with you guys" she said confidently, Laxus and Freed nodded before running off to find the nearest dragon to fight

Although Cobra was able to land a powerful first blow on his adversary, the dragon soon was able to put up a solid defense and prevent Cobra from landing any other meaningful strike against him.

"Hmph so Bios taught you Dragon Slayer Magic huh kid?" the dragon asked

"Actually I'm an artificial dragon slayer, I had the Poison Dragon Slayer lacrima put into my body and it gave me this ability" Cobra responded

"The fuck, since when can you learn this powerful magic artificially? What else do they do now, cloning?" it asked incredulously

"Since humans began dominating the world?" Cobra responded unsure of what else to say

"Whatever" the dragon responded bringing its claw down on Cobra who was able to get away and then avoid the dragon's bite

"You know I can hear you? I'm not going to sit still so you can do that stuff to me" Cobra called out

"What?" the dragon yelled out in surprise

"Ugh, please don't yell like that it's annoying. But I can hear all your thoughts and any plans you come up with" Cobra replied

"Well then I guess I'll just have to blindly swing around and hope for the best" the dragon shrugged swinging again at Cobra

"I'm impressed, he's actually not thinking of anything except killing me granted I don't really know how me knowing that he wants to do that is going to help out in any way" Cobra thought ducking another swing and aiming his Poison Dragon's Roar at the dragon who brought its claws in front of it to ward it off

"I'm made of rock you dumbass, your poison has no effect on me" it told him

"Is that so?" Cobra said quickly moving forward "Poison Dragon's Scales!" he tried sending a wave of poison scales at the dragon in various places

All of the scales were able to land on the dragon, but it had very little effect on the dragon who tried attacking him once more with another swing from its claw. Cobra ducked the swing and moved back; he was at disadvantage since normally the effects of his poison would begin affecting his opponent soon and making the fight easier for him. However this dragon was unaffected or at least had extra immunity which meant that Cobra would need to land direct hits on the dragon and the poison element wasn't exactly the most overpowering of the elements, even worse was that since the dragon was made out of rock it had a large amount of tough scales for him to deal with. He could hear the dragon's new plan which was fairly simple: don't let the human land any powerful moves on me and wait for a chance to kill him. And it was exactly how the fight was going at the moment, try as he might Cobra couldn't get to close to the dragon otherwise it would swipe its claw at him. Finally the dragon seemed to be getting bored with the fight and began preparing for an attack that would finish Cobra off. It planted all four of its feet down on the ground to hold it in position; it then took a deep breath, and finally released his roar at Cobra. A giant torrent of rocks flew out of its mouth towards Cobra who managed to dive out of the way, but the dragon turned its head to follow Cobra.

"Poison Dragon's Guard" he said quickly summoning a large shield of poison in front of him to block the dragon's roar "Poison Dragon's Twin Fang!" he yelled out gathering poison in two large waves and sending them through his Guard that was barely holding back the dragon's roar

The waves struck the dragon head on stopping his roar and forced it back a few steps, but the dragon gave a loud roar before advancing on Cobra once again. Cobra cursed a bit as he had expected the attack to do more than just force the dragon a few steps back, he was running out of magic while the dragon seemed like it could easily hold on for a long time. He needed some poison to charge up but the chances of him finding a source of that was next to none, it was times like this that he missed his dear friend Cubellios…granted she was a human now so he doubted she could spit out poison for him to eat. But he wouldn't quit since he knew his friend was out there nearby and he couldn't face her again if he ran away from this battle, better to die trying and save innocent people rather than turn tail and hide wondering what you could have done.

"Ha, look at me acting all noble. Who knew that I'd go from a guy who wanted to see the world in total chaos to a man who's trying to protect everyone?" he chuckled to himself "Oy you big bastard, just because I haven't gotten to you yet don't think this battle's over!" he called out

"Some humans can be so interesting at times" the dragon thought charging towards Cobra

"Oh you know it" Cobra muttered with a smile getting ready for the incoming assault "What the hell was that?" he asked after hearing a gunshot that hit the dragon in the head who evidently wasn't happy

"Who the hell is shooting dragons for no reason!" it shouted angrily looking around to find the culprit which was Kat smiling and waving at it before she fired another shot that again hit its face making him quite angry

"What are you doing? You realize you're only pissing him off" Cobra said

"You never know, I get a lucky shot in the eye and blind him then you can just finish him off" she thought

"Wait what are yo-?" Cobra asked

"I know you can hear thoughts, I was kind of watching the fight from a safe place so it's just better if I tell you what I'm planning in my head so it can't hear us" she explained

"That makes sense" Cobra admitted "So what do you have in mind?"

"This" Kat said smiling taking out her revolver and unloaded all six shots at Cobra who rolled out of the way and they hit the wall behind him

"What the hell are you doing?!" he exclaimed

"Look behind you" she told him

"What do you mean, oh…" he said turning around to see a large plume of poison floating from where the bullets had hit the wall

"You're welcome, I think it's time I got out of here though that dragon really looks pissed at me" she thought leaving just before the dragon aimed another roar at her

"Well thanks for the meal I guess!" Cobra said as he opened his mouth and inhaled to eat all of the poison

He could feel the poison surging through his body and giving him the power he needed to finish off this battle. He released his new found energy casing scales to grow over his arms and his canines to become full fledged fangs, all of this caused his adversary to show a strange reluctance to attack Cobra who had now entered Dragon Force. Cobra smirked and sprinted towards the dragon who prepared itself for another roar; it planted its feet in the ground and unleashed a torrent of earth at Cobra who jumped it easily.

"Poison Dragon's Roar!" he said unleashing his own roar straight at the dragon's face

The massive wave of poison struck the dragon in the middle of the face the force of the blow actually breaking off a chunk of rock from the dragon's face causing it to roar in pain. Cobra could hear the dragon's anger and all of the horrible things he wanted to do to Cobra, but he could also hear the dragon's fear and realization that this human might end its life. Cobra landed on the ground softly before he moved to finish off the now desperate dragon who was trying everything to kill Cobra, but try as he might none of his swipes and weakened roars could reach the rejuvenated Cobra who easily dodged all of them. He knew that finally his virus was having an effect on the dragon whose movements were beginning to become sluggish and finally was able to close the distance between them.

"Alright you big bastard time to end this" Cobra said

"I will not be remembered as a dragon that fell to a puny human!" it roared out

"Again, could you please stop with the yelling?" Cobra muttered as he dodged another swipe from the dragon "Poison Dragon's Iron Fist!" he shouted landing the uppercut that ripped off another chunk of the dragon's chin away "We're not done yet, Poison Dragon's Spiral Jaw" he said gathering his poison magic on his legs and landing a hard kick on the dragon smashing its face into the ground

The dragon tried getting up but its injuries were far too severe and it fell back to the ground weakly and could only watch as Cobra walked towards it with his poison gathered around his hands. He brought his hands down in a single motion slashing across his adversary's face ending its life instantly. He gave a nod of respect to his fallen opponent before turning to see if that girl who had helped him was still there however she had long left the area. He sighed before he could sense the presence of Ichiya and the some of the other Blue Pegasus' mages behind him.

"Men… that was a magnificent parfum I could smell from you" Ichiya complemented

"Thanks… I think" Cobra replied

"It's much different from what it used to be seven years ago" Ichiya told him

"A lot of things have changed since then, I've changed since then" Cobra replied

"Still how did you get out of prison?" Hibiki asked curiously"

"I was released from prison in order to help out against these dragons"

"Wow, the Council never acted this quickly back when I was still a part of them" Eve said

"Well, it wasn't the Council more so two guys who thought I could help"

"Eh!?" they all replied in shock

"Yeah I wasn't so sure about it either but they seemed determined to do whatever it took to fight these dragons so they released me" Cobra shrugged "We can work this out later, we've still got a city to defend" he continued rushing off to engage the nearest dragon

"He's right the city comes first" Ichiya declared to Hibiki and Eve who both nodded

While Natsu had originally hoped that he would get to use his plan he was a bit disappointed though happy that things had turned out this way. Now that Laxus and Cobra were free to help out with the other dragons things had swung in their favor, but he still needed another way to beat Rouge and Motherglare. He had thought of eating Atlas Flame but now that it was dead he needed another plan that would give him the strength he needed to fight them. Right now the only idea he could come up with was getting eaten by Motherglare well swallowed was the correct term, anyway after that he'd try and crush her from the inside and then have a one on one duel with future Rouge. Granted most of that sounded difficult to pull off but as of the moment he couldn't think of another plan that didn't involve finding a source of fire for him to eat.

"Natsu what are we going to do now?" Happy asked him dropping him for a moment on the roof to rest up

"I don't know Happy; this would be easier if I had some fire to eat so I could stand a better chance against Rouge. Even then there's the fact that I also have to fight a dragon while I'm at it" Natsu answered

"I'm sorry Natsu, I wish I could fight with you bu-" Happy started

"What are you talking about Happy? You're the reason I've been able to survive so many fights in the past, if you weren't there to fly me around I don't know what would happen sometimes" Natsu said

"Thanks, I'm sure we'll think of something!" Happy said encouragingly

"You know it partner!" Natsu replied

"Excuse me good sir, but I was wondering if I could be of assistance"

"Who's there?" Natsu asked looking around

"Down here!"

"Wait, who are you?" Natsu asked confused after he saw where the voice was coming from

"My name's Kat and like I was saying earlier I was wondering if you might need my help" Kat explained with a cheerful smile

"Unless you've got some fire you can give me I don't think you can give me much help" Natsu told her

"Hmm I could try, granted it is kind of unlikely I'm surprised I managed to help that poison dude a while ago" she said pulling out her revolver

"What are you doing?" they both asked in unison

"Want to test out your luck?" she said with a smile while spinning her revolver's cylinder