Aaaaannnnddd it's done! I thought that this would take a bit longer... But thankfully I already had an idea what this chapter would look like :)

Thank you so much for the feedback! Even if it is just for following the story it helps me write :D

Anyway, now's the time to look at what Mavis has planned for our favorite mages... On with the story!

Warnings: a little bit of fluff (very little, but I like the pairings very much) and a bit of cussing.

Chapter 2: The Missions

Lucy Heartfillia's apartment, Magnolia

Lucy sighed happily into her bed in the early morning. Nothing like a good rest after a long magical competition in order to get back the guild's reputation.

From her point of view, things were back to normal, well, as normal as they could be considered to be before the seven-year time skip. Fairy Tail was once again the number one guild in Fiore, and with it they got back their building and the number of requests that people usually offered them.

Of course, the nice warm bath and rest she had after the party really made her day. She missed her nice, warm bed. After sleeping in hospital and hotel beds, the one in her bedroom seemed really comfortable! It was as if the pillow was made out of soft fur and her sheets had a nice warm temperature and …

Wait a minute.

Lucy's eyes snapped open only to be greeted by the faces of both of her teammates drooling and snoring away beside her.

Despite the fact that they formed an adorable picture, she did what any girl who suddenly finds a fire mage in the same bed would do: she kicked him out.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Natsu flied all the way to the other end of the room, while the noise he caused and Lucy's scream woke Happy up.

"… The fuck was that for?" he groaned. It was never pleasant to wake up to a screaming Lucy, and here he thought that she was starting to get used to this.

"Just five more minutes and I can catch the big fish…" Happy mumbled, already falling half asleep in her pillow again. Lucy sighed at this; suddenly her desires to wake the cat up got reduced.

At least until Happy started to claw at her pillow in order to "catch" the fish of his dreams.

"NOT MY PILLOW, CAT!"

Natsu managed to catch Happy this time.

"Woah, someone's not a morning person."

"Well, someone is meant to sleep in his own bedroom!"

"But your bed is much more comfortable!" Natsu whined, "Besides we get to spend more time with you this way, Lucy!"

"Aye!"

Lucy tried to fight down the blush that was coming upon her cheeks. She still couldn't get how her teammate's actions managed to turn her red, at least more than usual after Tenrou Island. Either way, pondering about it may lead her to suspect one or two things that would make their whole relationship much more complicated.

"A-A-Anyway… What do you want? Please do not tell me you just came here because you didn't have food in your-"

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODD!"

"Luucyyyyyy, breakfast!"

Crisis averted at least, Lucy thought as the two went running toward her kitchen. She then hurried after them before they managed to break something.

She forced them to sit down and wait as she started to cook, but that didn't stop their chanting.

"Actually," Natsu interrupted himself, as if he remembered something, "Mira told us to get you to come to the guild early morning in order to speak to that ghost."

"Master Mavis is not a ghost, she's a projection, one that she made with her own magic," Lucy chided.

"Whatever."

"But now that you mentioned it," Lucy stopped what she was doing, "Don't you think it's weird that they asked us to go? Why would they do that?"

"Dunno," Natsu shrugged.

"Maybe Lucy ate too much at the party yesterday and they want to punish all of us!" Happy interjected seriously.

"That would only happen to you, CAT!"

"Maybe it's an extra special mission!" Natsu's eyes gleamed dangerously as he grinned. "Can't you smell the danger?"

"How on Earthland can one possibly "smell the danger"?!" Lucy retorted, "And isn't it too early? We just got here!"

"So what?" Natsu replied carelessly, "One or two more months away won't hurt a bit, AND it can give us more money."

"Aye!"

Lucy groaned but didn't protest any longer. She knew by now that, if anyone can convince her to do something crazy, it would be those two. However, she still couldn't help but worry as the Dragon Slayer and the Exceed started eating. She had a hunch that this had something to do with the Grand Magic Games, only this time the thought of it left her with a sense of foreboding.

Fairy Tail Guild, Magnolia

At least they weren't the only ones to be woken up early morning, Lucy thought as she entered the guild.

There weren't many customers at that time of day, and she knew from experience that the guild members wouldn't be fully awake until the next couple of hours. Still, she was glad to see many familiar faces sitting at Mirajane's booth.

Despite the horrible humor that Gajeel seemed to carry as an aura in the early morning, he still was awake enough to bicker with Natsu when the Fire Dragon Slayer arrived. Lucy thought it was rather cute that the Iron Dragon Slayer didn't seem to mind that Levy was dozing off beside him with Lily in her lap.

Wendy wasn't doing any better than her and, although Erza seemed to be up and alert already, she did glare at the two Dragon Slayers with such force that they stopped their fight in an instant.

Gray was sleeping at the bar beside her, but he woke up a bit to greet Lucy. She, on the other hand, was not surprised to feel someone staring daggers at her back when they both started talking, but she guessed that Juvia was still half asleep somewhere since she didn't start fighting with her.

It wasn't long before the Master appeared before them.

"Well, now that we're all here," he began, "The First would like to say something to you, so shut up and listen."

However, when he turned around Mavis was not there. In fact, she was nowhere near him.

"Not this again! Not another Gildarts incident! First!"

"I'm coming!" To say that Makarov looked relieved was a small way to put it, "I just had to find something to eat! I got hungry!"

She appeared before them with a spoon in her mouth. "Oh good! You're already here!"

We've been here for some time now, Lucy thought, and how does a projection feed herself exactly?

"Well then, I'll be quick in telling you," she began with a smile, "The reason why I asked you to come here is because I'm assigning you all a special mission."

"A mission?" repeated Gray.

"I KNEW IT!" Natsu punched the air triumphantly, "Lucy, you owe me dinner."

"Since when did we bet on anything?!"

"It's only fair! Oh, and by the way, my dinner is 500 fish." Happy remarked.

"Shut it, cat!"

"Anyway," the Master interrupted, "We will be separating you into teams. Mavis has already designed a strategy for this mission to be accomplished."

"What would be the purpose of this mission? Wouldn't it be too complicated to just leave the guild? I mean, with our recent return and popularity, requests will come in," Erza was quick to point out.

"That's why you're just asking us, isn't it? To leave other members like the Strauss siblings or the Raijinshuu for requests," Levy deduced.

Mavis nodded, "That's right!"

"Then, what's it about?" Lucy pressed.

"It must be because of a giant fish near Akane Beach!" said Happy.

"No, no Happy. It must be because of a really big treasure near Mt. Hakobe!" Natsu's eyes gleamed as he mentioned this, seeming more interested in keeping the treasure than the mission itself.

"There's no way it's just that, idiot." Gray interjected, miraculously losing his shirt in the process. Lucy swore she heard squealing when he did that and wondered when will Juvia finally appear before them.

"What did you just call me, ice prick?"

"You heard me, you hot-headed bastard."

Both mages glared at each other and started raising their fists.

"If you both shut your fucking mouths for more than five minutes, we might actually get to know what this damn mission is about," Gajeel interrupted, already annoyed that the briefing was taking longer than he thought.

Natsu turned his glare to him now. "At least I'm trying to guess here, metal brain. Or is your head so full of iron in the morning that it gets harder for you to think?"

"I'll show you just how fucking well I can think in the morning you-"

An evil aura managed to shut Gajeel up. The three glanced back at the red headed woman in the group.

"Be quiet, it's already taking long enough. No more interruptions, are we clear?"

"Aye!" Gray and Natsu answered immediately.

Gajeel just grumbled back to his seat as Levy patted his arm while holding her laughter.

Mavis smiled as if no destruction was about to take place inside the guild. "Anyway, each mission will serve a different purpose, but it all leads to a bigger picture."

She paused, and the others were a bit surprised by the seriousness in her eyes when she started talking again.

"400 years ago, the Dragon Civil War occurred, as I'm sure you are all aware. You must also know of the incident regarding Acnologia and the way that he started slaughtering dragons in his human form."

The three Dragon Slayers visibly cringed at this.

"After 17 years, the war was nearly ending by X409, but the dragons knew that they needed to stop these slayers if they wanted any peace with humans. So, in order to stop them, they decided to teach one human Crystal Dragon Slayer magic."

"Crystal?" Natsu wondered.

"Is there even such an element?" Wendy asked.

"Well we already know about a Jade dragon, why would a crystal be any different?" Lily remarked.

"I think the question would be: why would the crystal element be so special?" Charle asked.

"Well," Mavis answered, "Besides it's attack power like any Dragon Slayer, the Crystal Dragon Slayer could also learn a bit of sealing magic."

"In short," Makarov said, "This Dragon Slayer would be capable of sealing Acnologia and enable peace at the end of the war."

"However," Mavis continued, "because of Zeref's intervention in enabling the transformation of human Acnologia to a dragon, things got a bit complicated, and the Dragon Slayer was forced to seal herself off as well."

"Herself?" Lucy asked.

Mavis nodded at her. "This Dragon Slayer went by the name of Emily Crysdea."

Levy gasped, "I know that name. She went by the nickname Blood Diamond and was said to be one of the strongest Dragon Slayers, but also one of the most violent. I read about it in a history book… She stopped the war?"

"You know what they say, there are two sides to a story," Mavis winked, "and now, it will be your job to find her!"

There was a slight pause after that.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but… Humans don't have the tendency of living nearly 400 years do they?" said Lucy, "How exactly are we supposed to find her?"

"Now correct me if I'm wrong but you did end up meeting a supposedly dead dark mage in an island as well as a projection of a master who is over a hundred years all still alive and kicking." Mavis smiled at her.

"Well that is true… But wasn't she sealed off?"

"And besides the fact that we need to somehow find her, why would we actually need to do so?" Erza also asked

Mavis sighed, "You must have noticed in the last battle that none of the Dragon Slayers managed to defeat a dragon."

Gajeel gritted his teeth just by remembering it, it was annoying that they couldn't live up to their names. Natsu didn't say a word, but his stillness in itself was a response.

"In order to answer both your questions," Mavis said to the girls, "you must remember that Acnologia did manage to come back. The reason for this is that Zeref released his seal about 250 years ago. And by releasing Acnologia he would also have released Emily."

She turned to look at the three Dragon Slayers. "What we need her for is this: you three need to learn how to really slay a dragon, and she could possibly be the only person in Earthland that can teach you."

"How do we know she's still alive?" Wendy asked.

"Trust me," Mavis answered, "I know."

She let the information sink in. Natsu was the one to break the silence.

"I really didn't get most of it," he began, causing various people to face palm, "But we just got to find this Emil girl and make her teach us advanced Dragon Slayer stuff, no?"

"It's Emily, Natsu," Lucy sighed, but smiled afterwards, "But I guess it really is just that simple."

"Interesting. I'm betting she'll be a good person to spar with," Natsu grinned, "I'm getting fired up."

The rest smiled at the fire mage, and Lucy was once again glad to have him as a teammate. He always managed to lift the spirits of people somehow.

"Alright then, now for your missions," Mavis continued happily, "I'm sure you can guess by now that, since Emily is considered to be dead that she has laid low somehow. Which is another reason why you all would be going on separate missions. That way you can be "focused" on the mission and at the same time you will be keeping a lookout for her."

"The First has already selected the missions that she thought will have the highest probabilities of you finding her," said Makarov.

"OK, first team is… Levy, Lily and Gajeel," Lucy thought that Mavis's eyes gleamed mischievously, "You will be heading back to Crocus to investigate Zeref's involvement in the games. Not to mention that you will be able to take a look at the library for more information."

"The library? Do you mean the ROYAL library?" Gajeel could practically see stars in Levy's eyes as she said this.

"Hm, it would be wise to gain some intel on the enemy while we are already inside there," Lily nodded.

Gajeel didn't look as pleased, though.

"Tch, why do we have to go? It seems more like a stupid research mission to me."

"Make no mistake, Gajeel," the Dragon Slayer cringed a bit as Mavis approached his face, "Crocus is dangerous. The higher the position, the more manipulative people are." Gajeel thought that manipulation skills were not only limited to Crocus.

"It would be correct to protect Levy, Gajeel. After all, you do not want her to come to harm," Lily smirked as he said this.

Levy blushed a bit, while Gajeel gritted out a "whatever" at the statement.

Mavis giggled, "Next team is… Gray and Juvia," she started looking around for the water mage.

"Juvia is coming too?!" Suddenly she appeared beside Gray, as if she was standing there the whole time.

"How long have you been here?!" Gray exclaimed, surprised to see her appear.

Lucy thought it was rather obvious she was here in the first place.

"Anyway," Gray continued, "Why us two? We don't use any Dragon Slayer magic."

Juvia looked happy that he didn't seem to mind them being paired up.

"Well, Emily would get spooked if we started sending only Dragon Slayers to missions." Mavis chided, "Besides, I get the feeling that this will interest you… You will be meeting with Crime Sorciere."

Erza perked up at the mention of that.

"Them?" Gray asked.

"Wouldn't Erza-san be more suited for this?" Juvia asked.

"She does liiiikeee a certain mem-"Happy began.

Mavis ignored the sudden blush and almost pummeling that Erza unleashed on the cat. "Actually, they have a village that is missing water near Akane Beach. They want us to investigate the cause."

"Crime Sorciere…" Gray's eyes turned a bit solemn.

Juvia looked at him nervously and began talking to him, "Well, Gray-sama, we'll-"

"Can't I go alone?" Gray interrupted a bit harshly. Juvia looked a bit sad at his comment, but didn't remark as usual. Mavis, meanwhile, turned to look at him.

"My strategic magic tells me that it would be best if-"

"Juvia would go anyway."

Gray turned to look at her and was surprised to see that her sad look was replaced by a determined one.

"It did say water anyway. Juvia's powers could be needed." She continued.

They stared at each other for a while, before Gray ran a hand through his hair and muttered a "fine" which caused Juvia to snap back to her usual self and started fantasizing about the trip and the possible motel incidents that could occur in it.

Mavis smiled, "Now that it's settled… The third team will be Erza, Charle and Wendy. You will go to the National Council near Crocus in order to visit the prisoner Cobra."

"Cobra? You mean the Oracion 6 member?" Erza asked.

"He mentioned some unsettling information about Hades's doors opening to Dorambolt," said Makarov, "Wendy would be your key inside the prison, the teleporter does have a soft spot for her and Cobra can relate to you best of all."

Erza nodded, remembering the Tower of Heaven briefly. "Alright."

"Count on us," Wendy added.

"And finally the remaining team will be: Lucy, Happy and Natsu."

Lucy and Natsu high fived each other as Happy flew around them.

"You will be in charge of investigating recent attacks to a village near the Waas Forest, it's nearby where Cait Shelter used to be," Makarov told them, "They say that it's just some animal roaming about, but the Council has found Dark Magic around the incident."

"Dark… magic…"Lucy stuttered nervously.

"Don't worry, Luce," Natsu smiled at her, "We'll all be together won't we? We can kick their asses AND find Emil for sure!"

Lucy smiled warmly at him. "EMILY, Natsu, and yes we will!"

"Just as a sidenote," Makarov began, "This mission is the one with the highest probability of finding the Dragon Slayer."

"Meh, no sweat. We just beat her and drag her back here! Let's go, Lucy!" He grabbed her hand and bolted to the door, Happy following them, "The sooner we start running over there, the sooner we can go to an adventure!"

"Running? Wait, what? Natsuuuuuu!"

After everyone left to prepare for their own missions, Makarov sent an amused look at Mavis.

"You've been speaking to Mira-chan, haven't you?"

"Why do you say that?" Mavis asked innocently.

"It's unlikely for most of the teams to be set likethat."

"It is what will bring out the best results," she smiled sweetly at him, "It's not my problem they have some issues to resolve at the same time."

"… … I really need to stop leaving you alone with Mira-chan."

And now, the ball is rolling. :D I'll be writing some more action in the chapters to come... This one was necessary to explain the situation to all.

On the other hand, if there are any spelling mistakes, I am sorry. Typing for some time without a shift key can cause that.

I guess you can see what the shippings will be like, of course, I'll be placing what goes on in each mission in the chapters to come, but there will be more focus on Team Natsu ;)

If any of you are wondering about the locations, I did look up the maps of Earthland and Fiore in order to get them... if any of you are interested I can send you a link to the pictures in order to get a better idea of where the teams are going.

As for Emily's name I used the latin word for crystal "crys" and part of the word for goddess "dea". I bet you can guess who she is by now.

I'll probably update in a week. I just need to finish the chapter and reviewing it before uploading. Thankfully, I'm still on vacations so I do have a bit of spare time on my hands.

Anyway, any comments please review! Thank you for reading :D

Next chapter

The Village