The Journey

AN: To clarify the time line this story starts around the same time as cannon as you will see in this chapter. Again thank you to those of you who read this story and even more so to those people who take the time to leave a review, they mean a lot to me.


They were currently on a boat. After being banished from entering any city by the magic council they figured the best place to go would be an island that is conveniently haunted and that most people shunned. At least it would act as a nice vacation spot while they figured out where to go from there. Unfortunately, they had accidentally killed someone else while on there way to the island, some demon or another so no one would probably care anyways. Stark just hoped they could rest here for a while, and have a nice relaxing time. With that thought he closed his eyes and went to sleep knowing they would reach the island eventually.

Stark woke up with a fist in his throat. "Wake up, Stark!" he heard Lilynette shout, as he quickly sat up coughing throwing her off of him. Breathing heavily, he looked at her. "Lilynette."

"Jesse, Stark you need to sleep less, we even got to the island without you noticing." Stark looked around and realized it was true, it was midnight and they were at the island but, "I don't like the feel of it." Lilynette said and Stark had to agree with her. There was a lot of demonic energy on this island, no wonder people said that it was cursed. There seemed to be two sources, the first a group of small presences gathered up in what he presumed was a village, but that was not what worried him. The second source though singular was much bigger and seemingly restrained. As they waited though that restraint seemed to become weaker and weaker and soon whatever was inside was going to be free. Not their problem though.

"Scarred of a few monsters?" Stark teased Lilynette, and she immediately kicked him.

"Hey, I'm not afraid of anything but, if you want to insult yourself go right ahead." Lilynette told him still grumpy.

"Yhea, yhea." Stark mumbled. He then spotted a ruin in the direction from which the second energy source was coming from. He pointed to it, "Let's go there."

Lilynette squinted, "Why?"

"It looks interesting." Seeing as they were two beings, (technically one) with only the other for company, who formerly lived in an endless desert with nothing to see, that was more than enough motivation to get them walking towards the temple.

After a while they both had become annoyed. It seemed that no matter how they tried to reach the temple they could never get there. They always just ended up back in the forest from where they came. "What's up with this stupid temple!?" Lilynette shouted.

Stark thought for a moment and said, "Seeing as this island is inhabited with demons and that is probably a temple, it may be there's a special ward guarding against them here."

Lilynette seemed to get more annoyed. "Are you calling us demons!" She shouted at the temple and looked ready to attack it.

"Come on." Stark told her. "Let's head to that village instead, maybe they know more about it."

As it turned out getting to the village was much easier, but again there was the problem of how to talk to the villagers without killing them all. He looked at Lilynette "Can you go see if they know anything?" He asked her, "I'll be waiting right here."

She hesitated for a moment, neither wanted to leave the other, even for a short amount of time. Even so after a while she nodded her head and walked towards the village.

"Who goes there?" Yelled a man atop the gate.

"Why should I tell you people that?" She screamed back at them.

"We do not allow strangers into our village, not with this curse about." The Guard told her.

"What curse."

"That is not for the likes of you to know."

"Does it prevent you from going to the temple on this island?" Lilynette asked them.

The guards were seemingly shocked about what they heard and began talking amongst themselves before addressing her; "How do you know of this?"

"Me and a friend tried going there but couldn't seem to reach it, we figured maybe you would now why." She told them.

They conversed amongst themselves for a bit more before acknowledging her again, "Come on in." They told her.

When she entered the village, she was met by a man wearing a cloak, as were the rest of the villagers now that she looked at them. How strange.

"Hello" said the man who stood in the center of the village "Sorry for the rude welcoming we gave you, though it's not everyday we meet someone with a similar curse to ours."

"Curse?" Lilynette was confused.

"Yes, a terrible curse." And with that the man threw off his cloak, as did the rest of the village to reveal their 'deformities.' Demon like limbs decorated their bodies giving them a strange appearance, this seemed to be the curse they were talking about.

"How does this stop you from going to the temple?" Though it looked strange by their standards, for Lilynette it looked normal, certainly nothing that would prevent them from going anywhere. Also, she sensed their energy and they were just demons, though they seemed not to know about it, so clearly something was going on.

"Well truly we're not sure, we have tried to go many times but always end up back at the village. We assume it's this curse that is preventing us from going there. Where are you from though? I never heard of another cursed place before."

"Hey! I'm not cursed old man, I was born this way!" Lilynette yelled at them annoyed.

They all seemed to be very surprised at her claim, "You were born with a hole in your stomach?" The leader asked her.

"Of course I was, are you deaf or something?!"

"Sorry, sorry we just don't often see people like you. Never actually so forgive us if we offended you." The leader said sheepishly.

"Humph, whatever." And with that Lilynette turned around and started walking out of the village.

"Wait! Where are you going miss?" They called after her.

"To my friend," she told them, "he's waiting for me and I don't want to keep him."

"We can welcome the both of you. We'd love to hear more about what you are as well."

"No thanks old man." She told them and left the village knowing that if they stayed there it would only be a repeat of what happened before.

She found Stark right where she left him and told him all that she had learned, with a few extra insults and curses added in along the way.

"Well seems like we won't be able to go there after all then." He told her.

"So, what are we going to do then?" She asked.

"Just stay here a while I guess before leaving again. Nothing else we can do." He told her sadly. She nodded her head in consent, it was always this way for them never changing.

They had been on this island for a few weeks but nothing had happened to them. The only interesting thing that had happen on this island was when some of the villagers had tried to leave it, probably to send a request to help with their 'curse.' They had gotten to edge of the island before they were suddenly attacked by someone from the temple preventing them from leaving, or asking for help.

The second demonic source was also progressively becoming less, and less restrained, soon it would be free. Stark really didn't feel like dealing with it so that night, he and Lilynette decided to leave by walking across the air towards the closest life source they sensed, which happened to be some port city or another. It was currently being reconstructed with the repairs almost complete, Stark wondered what happened there.

"We should stay here for a while." Lilynette told him.

"We can't, not allowed to be in cities, remember?" Stark reminded her.

"Then outside the city, I'm just worried." She admitted.

"About what?"

"That other demon we sensed, what if it attacks here?"

"That's not really are problem, is it?"

Lilynette looked at him, "We need to do something though! After we killed one village we can't just abandon another! Let's just wait here a few days and if nothing happens we'll leave."

"And if something does happen?" This sounded too much like something that would require him to do something. He didn't like that.

"We can help them!" Lilynette shouted at him, "You don't want to leave some child alone because you were to lazy to help, do you?!"

Her words stung Stark. They were all too true for him, he knew she was right. As for the village on the island, they were all demons as well so they should be safe from the creature. "Fine," he sighed, "let's find a place to rest."


Jellal was stressing. His plans were soon coming to fruition and he was thinking of all the ways they could be ruined. His biggest fear was being exposed by those damnable Oracion Seis, he had trained with Brian so he knew his secrets. There was also another dark guild he kept hearing about, that Patiens Miseriae. Apparently, it was a really strong dark guild that worked deep in the shadows, that the council had only just got wind off. They believed that they may be working with other dark guilds for some unknown purpose. Whatever the case it was an unknown and he should keep an eye on them, if he could find them.

"Councillor Siegrain!" Jellal was cut out of his musings by a toad man running towards him, "The council is demanding your presence immediately!"

"What's going on?" Jellal was curious to know.

"There's some big trouble, I don't know what it is but, you are needed immediately." The man told him.

Jellal merely nodded and walk towards the council chambers. He entered and took his seat waiting for the others to arrive. When finally, everyone showed up Org cleared his throat and stood up.

"Sorry for calling you on such short notice but we have two important matters to discuss." Org told them, "The first is that it seems like the two guilds; Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord, have begun fighting each other and this must be stopped."

"Just send the Rune Knights and be done with it." One of the councils said and Jellal agreed with him, no need to waste their time for this.

"We are doing that but, punishments must be dealt out so I am telling you to prepare for a lot of work this next week."

None of them were happy about that though, "Why could you not have told us this in a regular meeting?" Jellal asked, seeing no point in this meeting.

"It was better to tell you this first before moving on to the other matter so you can prepare in advance for all the coming chaos." Org answered him.

"And what is this other matter?" Asked another annoyed councillor.

"We have just picked up a strong magical signal, one we have not felt in years. It belongs to one of Zeref's demons, seemingly just reawakened as it cannot control its power judging by the fact we have been able to get a read on it. As you know we can only sense magic from a great distance if it is running wild." Org informed them.

The council was shocked at learning this information, "Impossible." One of them said, "It was reported that the beast had been killed."

"That's true but, now it has come back and we must deal with it." Org told them.

"And how should we do this?" Jellal asked, "The last time the demon was around none of us saw what it could do, we lack information."

"That's why I believe the best course of action is to send you to get some."

Jellal was shocked. "Why send me?"

Another councillor spoke, "I believe Org is right, you have what it takes to assess the situation and act accordingly, and if something does happen you would be able to fight back."

"The same reason you were sent to deal with that dark guild that took control of that village." Another one put in.

Org slowly nodded, "You will be able to act in any way you please, you will have the full support of the council. Just find a way to deal with the demon."

Jellal wanted to argue more but decided against it. He needed the council for his plans to succeed so it served to be on their good side. Slowly standing up he asked, "Where must I go?"

Org smiled at him, "An island, just off the coast of Harujion."

Jellal had gotten on a train shortly after and began his journey to Harujion. When he got to the port city it was sunset. Figuring there was nothing he could do until morning he got a hotel and decided to spend the night before looking for a ship to take him to the island. The least he could hope for was a good night's rest before going and finding a way to defeat the Demon of Zeref.


Stark was sleeping peacefully when a load roar whipped through the sky. Grudgingly he sat up and looked across the bay and saw a demon. It was extremely tall and naked, with two great horns on its head, with pointed ears and sharp teeth. It had flowing white hair and spike like objects running down the length of his body. Truly demonic. "How annoying" Stark said.

After reaching a certain distance the creature stopped suddenly and reared back its head, gathering power for some sort of attack. Stark assumed it was going to be something like a Cero that he used. When the demon released the attack, Stark was proven right and he knew it would be bad if it hit the town, so with a final sigh he used sonido and appeared standing in the air, in front of the blast. Drawing his katana quickly he diverted the blast so it went into the water instead of hitting the town.

"Now, now why do you have to go and attack this place, can't you just leave us alone?" Stark asked politely.

The demon roared and prepared to punch him.

Stark sighed, "I guess not." He said sadly. Just before the beast hit him Stark moved out of the way of the swing and cut the beast's arm off. It screamed in pain and took a step back. The beast was angry now and focussing all its efforts on killing him. Throwing back its head it fired another blast towards him. Stark sighed again, "Cero" firing his own blast it ripped through the demons and left a hole in its chest. With that the creature fell forward into the water and did not rise again.

"Pitiful beast" Stark observed before turning away and walking back to where Lilynette was standing. Only she was not alone when he reached her.

"Why is it the two of you again?" Asked the blue haired councillor that had found them in the village.

"Well you see mister councillor here we were, doing nothing when this creature showed up. We figured it would be bad to let it attack the town so we decided to stop it."

Siegrain sighed "Of course you did, now what are planning on doing?"

Stark and Lilynette shared a glance before Stark said, "Go somewhere and do something there." With that they nodded in farewell and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Siegrain called after them and they stopped and turned around. "If you're not planning on doing anything, why don't you help me with something?"

They were surprised by this offer, this was the first time in their long existence that someone was asking help from them. Aizen gave them orders but never asked for help so this whole experience was new for them.

"You want us to help you with something?" Lilynette asked.

"Well seeing as I will be busy dealing with this mess I figured you could do something for me." Siegrain told them.

Stark thought for a moment before agreeing, "What do you want us to do?"

Siegrain smiled "There is a dark guild slowly creeping out of the shadows, said to be very powerful. It's called Patiens Miseriae, and I want you to find out more about it. We don't know where it is located or who is a part of it but, we suspect they are dealing with other dark guilds. This being the case I recommend scoping out the guild Oracion Seis, another powerful dark guild and a member of the Balam Alliance, if they have come into contact with anyone it's them. Right now, there are rumors that the guild is in Nirvit land."

Stark slowly nodded, "And how will we be able to contact you once were done?"

Siegrain handed them some sort of orb. "This is a communications Lacrima." He told them, "Just focus your thoughts into it and you'll be able to contact me from anywhere, though depending on what I'm doing it may take me a while to respond."

"Ok we'll be off then, see you around." And again, the two off them set off, with a purpose this time and a task they would see completed.