Chapter 4

The train whistle blew a the train slowed to a stop, waking Lucy from her nap. She yawned and looked at everyone else, who were also stiring from thier naps.

"Wow, that went faster than I thought it would." Gray said while stretching his arms out. He sighed when he spotted Natsu, still unconcious. "I guess I'll cary him out, before we forget again."

"Aaayye." Happy yawned. "Natsu wouldn't want a second trip on the train."

Definitely not. Lucy silently agreed. The group made their way of the passanger car to collect their items when Erza saw something odd. A lone figure, draped in black robes, stood next to the exit, leaning casualy on the wall. Now at first glance, the person probably would have gone unnoticed, but as soon as Erza happened to look over, the both instantly locked gazes. She felt as if something was probing through her very soul as she stared back at ruby red eyes. Wait... red? Thats definately not ordinary. But as soon as she thought this, the person disappeared the moment a person walked by, as if they were never there in the first place. In confusion and suspision, she looked around the busy trainstation. Who was that person?

"Erza, c'mon!" Erza was pulled out of her thoughts as Gray called to her. She hadn't realized that everyone had already gotten their belongings and was patiently waiting for her.

"R-right!" The mage called as she quickly went to go get her things.

The kikwis cheered as Link and a small robot delivered the large, much needed, basin of water to their temporary home. They finaly didn't have to constantly endanger themselves just to stay hydrated, and with howmmuch was in it it would probably last a couple of weeks.

"I thank you, young man, for this generous amount of water. If it wasn't for you, I'm not sure that all of us would still be here, so we are in your debt." Bucha said solemnly.

"E-HEM! What about me?! I'm the one who did most of the work! Where's the apprieciation?" Scrapper demanded hotly, as he dropped the container on the ground harshly, the action startling a few kikwis. Link simply rolled his eyes. Its not like I sat there and watched you. I actually filled the thing up since somebody short circuits when dealing with water. Link wasn't weak, but he wasn't exactly the beefiest guy around. He was more lean than muscular, so he was bound to run into a problem sooner or later dealing with large, heavy objects. Though it sadly had to be resolved with a crude, flirtatious robot that seemed to see him as a possible love rival, in which Link could not for the life of him understand, and that was truly unfortunate.

Link was forced to call upon Scrapper to help him retrieve the basin since Link was trapped in Faron Woods. So giving him the directions, Link sent him over to Eldin Province, back at the Fire Sanctuary where he had carelessly discarded it, to retrieve and return with. The surprising part of the retrivel, however, was Fi's composure. The usual stoic sword spirit almost showed some type of emotion when the mechanical hot head started hitting on her. AGAIN. It seemed to be some sort of annoyance, in which Link could understand, and, the most baffling, sadness. Link saw this as she spoke to the robot to 'further persuade' the robot to try his best to find the item that they needed. Ofcorse the moment she came out he was already persuaded, but she insisted on giving him specific instructions. If she was the talkitive type, Link probably would of asked her if something was wrong, but knowing his ever faithful 'servant', he would most definitely get the silent treatment. So Link laid off, but he still couldn't help but wonder what that flash of humanity was.

"Thats right! I finaly get some appreciation. Well I'm off, Master Shortpants. Call me if you need me to carry something, but could it be lighter next time?" Link only offered a shrug. "Whatever, I'm outta here." And with that the robot took off to the skies, quickly dissappearing into the clouds. Link released a heavy sigh of relief. He could almost guarantee a headache the momment the robots name was mentioned, let alone in his presence. How does the scrap shop owner deal with him?

"I guess I'll be off too, then." Link said to the elder. "For now, I will watch the monster activity and make sure they don't come too close."

"It sounds like you aren't leaving for awhile, that sounds very unlike you. Why is it that you're staying here?" Butcha questioned. The teen, from what he observed, wasn't one to stick around for too long. Always searching for someone or something.

"Truthfully, I'm trapped down here with no way of getting back to my home or to other areas. I am beyond frustrated right now and I guess I can't really do anything more than help you and your family out right now." Link sighed once again, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Hmmm..." the large kikwi hummed as he stroked his beard(or was it a long mustache?). "Seems to be quite the predicament."

"Ill say." Link agreed.

"I'm sorry to say, but I don't have the slightest clue or any advice to give you besides to be careful and good luck."

"Thats alright. I guess I'll just keep looking. See you later." He made his way to the exit and quickly strode off. Bucha sighed. He didn't even take a moment to rest

"So where's this place again?" Natsu asked.

"At some old church." Gray answered.

"Yeah, but where?" He turned to Erza for an answer.

"Well, it didn't really say..."

"WHAT!" The entire group yelled. "So how are we supposed to find it if we don't know where it is?" Gray questioned. Really, what type of job was this?

"Its not like we won't have any clue where to find it. All we have to do is ask some people and I'm sure we'll find it." The group seemed to visibly relax at Erza's reassurance, but they couldn't help but wonder why the job was so vague. So the group continued on, asking just about anyone who would listen on the whereabouts of this church. To everyones suprise and dismay, however, most of them gave them odd looks or would ask just what they were talking about. This did not look good. This went on for a good half hour until the decided to take a break at a deserted square that sported a large, decrotive fountain. They sat there in silent frustration, each mage in there own way of displaying it. Lucy had drapped herself over the wall of the fountain, absentmindedly splashing her hand in the clear water. Happy sat beside Lucy, eating a fish. Erza sat on the wall with legs and arms crossed, eyes closed in thought. Gray sat on the ground, back resting aginst the fountain's wall, giving off a sigh of irritation. Natsu was pacing infront of them, Gray watching lazily, trying to find out the reason for their problem. It took a good fifteen minutes untill he finaly snapped.

"GRAAAAAH! I've had enough of this! Why doesn't anyone we talk to know about the meeting spot?! He yelled in frustration. If the square was populted, Lucy guaranteed he would have gotten odd looks, not that he would cared.

"Shut up, stupid." Gray grumbled from his spot on the ground. "Throwing a tantrum wont solve anything."

"I don't see you coming up with anything, ya ice striper." Natsu shot back. The two glared at eachother for a momment, weighing whether to start a fight or not, when a certain red head decided for them.

"Gray, Natsu..." she groweld, eyes dark with an unspoken warning. Up till now, Erza had shown no signs of irritation, but as soon as she spoke, frustration rolled off her in waves. Lucy slid away from her in fright, Happy trailing after her, as the boys cowered in fear. "We do not need you two to be wasting time fighting when we have such a problem on our hands. If we don't show up to the job soon, then that will leave a bad impresion on Fairy Tail."

"So it is you." Everyone stiffened at the sound of a new voice. Erza quickly stood and turned to the top of the fountain, where a tall figure dressed in black stood. The person from the station! Erza quickly realized.

"Who are you? What do you want?!" Gray asked as he cautiously slipped into a battle stance.

"I cannot answer your first question at the momment," the figure said in a strong yet obviously feminine voice. "But as for your second: it is you that I want. You are on a search and recover mission, yes?" She questioned. Everyones eyes widened in suprise, save for Erza's, who's eyes narrowed dangerously. When no one answered immediately, she continued. "I will lead you to the rendezvous spot. I suggest you hurry, for we are on a time limit." The mages looked at each other, uncertainty shining in their eyes, unsure whether to trust this mysterious women or not. All eyes turned to Erza, for they knew that she could make the smartest choices on a momments notice. She glared at the women.

"How do we know we can trust you?" She asked criticaly.

"My words may not give you much comfort, but I asure you that I have no feelings of malice toward any of you, so there is no reason for suspicion. Although, it is your choice to believe me or not." The figure said nonchalantly. Erza smirked at this.

"Very well, lead on." The woman 'hmphed' in response as she lept of the statue effortlessly and turned towards a small backstreet, seemingly not caring if they followed or not. Before she disappeared, the group quickly caught up to her, but kept a cautious distance. Gray looked to Erza, giving her a questioning look. It was obvious what he was silently asking.

'You sure about this?'

Erza reasured her teammate by giving him a confident smile.

'I'm certain about this'

Gray gave a silent sigh in acceptance and turned his gaze back to the woman they were following.

From what he could see, she had a dark skin complexion with short blond hair save fot the long strand that swayed to and fro as she walked. Her attire was mostly black, consisting of a long poncho with a collar that covered the bottom half of her face. It went down past her hip on one side, covering all of her right arm, leaving the other bare. The poncho itself was black with a gold line pattern. He could see a red waist band wrapped aroumd her midsection, several tassels dangling from it. Her pants were also black, but had a grayish tint to them that them brighter than the poncho. A gold line running down the middle of the front and back. The pants stoped just before the ankle, leaving her shins exposed. Gray wouldn't exactly say she wore shoes, but cloth covered all her foot except for her toes. All in all, she looked really close to a ninja and Natsu was sure to be drowning her with ninja questions later.

They suddenly came to a stop infront a dead end, their guide turning to face them.

"If this is a trap-" A raised hand cut the dragon slayer's snarl short.

"As I said before, I do not have any ill feelings for you all." The woman said earnestly.

"Then why did you lead us to dead end?" Lucy asked suspiciously, a hand to her gate keys. To answer her, the woman put a hand to the wall that was directly in front of them. Blue magic radiated from the appendage, causing a drawing to appear in the center of the wall with hum of power. To the Fairy Tail mages, the drawing resembled a weeping eye, but before they could inspect it any further, the wall suddenly dissapeared revealing a huge room, sealed away for many years.

"Once you step inside you are beyond the point of return, meaning you either turn away now or go in, for the job you have choosen is not like any other, that I can guarantee. If you choose to continue forward, then all your questions will be answered, but if you choose to leave, then everything you have seen hear will be wiped from your memory. So what say you? Which option do you choose, leave or stay?" The group was bewildered. This job was that important? To actually give the acceptees a choice to go home or stay was definitely new to them and the wernt to sure how to digest that, especially with the red eyed lady staring them down.

"I'm in." All heads turned to the pink-haired mage as he raised a clenched fist. "If any thing this is going to be very interesting job, and thats what I was hoping for." He said, lighting his fist on fire. "I'm all fired up."

"Me too, me too!" Happy shouted as he flew to lay on top of the fire mage's head, said mage smiling up at his partner.

"Well, if the idiots going, I guess I am too." Gray said with a smirk.

"I-I'm comming too!" Lucy said as she realized she was one of the only ones who hadn't said anything yet. All eyes turned to Erza as they waited for her choice. After a couple momments of silence, Erza finaly decided.

"I will becoming as well since you all can't actually take this job without me, but know this," she addressed the other women witn feirce eyes. "If you do anything to betray us, I wont hold back." The woman smiled.

"You have my word." She raised an arm out in a silent invitation to go inside, the mages obliged.

As they walked in the large room the confirmed that this was indeed an abandoned church, the city just built up around it for whatever reason and eventually forgot about its existence.

"So why did they build up around the church instead of taking it down?" Lucy asked alloud. The woman chuckled.

"Oh, they tried. For years they had tried everything to tear this building down, failing every time."

"What kept it up so stubbernly?" Gray asked. She didn't answer immediately, instead walking to the frontcof the church, where a podium was supposed to be, but only broken peices of wood signaled something of the like was ever present.

"This." She finaly said as she held out both hands, blue energy glowing before them. At first they were confused at to what she was doing, some tensing in suspicion, when a golden light, about the size of her palm, made itself visible in the middle of the room. At first it pulsed, going from a dull glow to very bright light, before suddenly expanding, becoming blindingly bright, making everyone look away. When the light died down there was large, pearl colored gear, decorated with symbols foriegn to them, looming before them. Two smaller gears suddenly jutted out from the corners of the room, half of said gears not fully out of the demension they had come from. Slowly, the giant gears began to turn. The sound was rhythmic, not at all like clanking metal, but like soft, other worldly bells.

"WOAH!" Natsu shouted in amazement.

"What is that?!" Gray shouted. The woman walked from behind the huge object nonchalantly.

"The Gate of Time."

Yo, long time no see. First, i must apologize, writers block sucks. I absolutly hate how this chapter took twice as long as it should have and I am glad to say that its finally finished. Hope you like. Oh, and do me a favor and review your thoughts on this and possibly the last chapter for me? Its pure torcher when I have no idea how i did on a chapter. It dosen't have to be nice either so by all means, DO NOT hold back. Enjoy the story.

P.S. posting a chapter on a tablet makes everything 10x more dificult. It makes meh angray ajd when im angray mah grmar sucks