Disclaimers: I do not own Fairy Tail

A/N: The exceed village will be next chapter. I'm putting this out because I don't want people to think this story is just about Romeo. He's a main character but he's not the only main character. Max and Laki are in this story too as well as Gajeel, Levy, Mira, and Pantherlily. Also this chapter may change the rating. Enjoy.

Chapter 4

Trouble on the Horizon

Off the coast of Fiore's Southern Shore

The night echo silence as only a few clouds dotted the dark skies. The new moon cycle begun tonight and would continue for five more nights before switching to the next cycle. The waves crash against the sandy beach as a while two sentries of the Royal Fiore Army walk down the beach while going about their patrol.

"Gods, this is boring!", one of the soldiers gripes, "How did we get stuck with late night beach patrol four times in a row?"

"That's what happen when you're late for roll call four times in a row", the other soldier said, "I would like to know how I got dragged down with you."

"Misery loves company", the first soldier chuckled only to receive a slap to the back of the head, "Hey!"

"That's what you get", the offending soldier said before suddenly stopping and looking around.

"What is it?" the first soldier asks, but was ignored as the other soldier continues to look all around even upward, but a few moments later he gave a shrug.

"Thought I heard something", he said.

"Perhaps you ought to go see the garrison doctor when we get back", the first soldier said, "Nothing ever happens on beach patrols. I don't even know why we have them, the navy base nearby monitors the coastline."

"You're probably right. Come on, we still got three hours until we're relief."

The duo walked down the beach, starting up some small chat while doing so.

In the exact location where they stop, more than three hundred feet up on the beach, the air rippled as gave way as the night sky gave way to the illusion of four hundred long flying man-of-war. From the tip of the mast to the bottom of the hull, the ship was all painted black, even the sails were painted to match the night's sky.

On the main deck of the vessel, two figures stood cloak in black while aiming what seem to look like a rifle of some sort.

"We could take them out from here, ma'am", the cloak figure on the right said with an iron voice while still aiming his rifle at the soldiers on the beach.

"And what about the bodies, First Sergeant Gidur?", a feminine voice that carry the weight of authority with it asked, while she stood aim her gun.

"The tide would wash them away, ma'am", Sgt. Gidur answered.

"Right into the sight of the naval patrols", she countered, "May I remind you that this is a top secret mission?"

"No, Major Tyeri,", the sergeant almost snap to attention before remembering he still has his rifle pointed, "You don't have to remind me that our units was selected by Sir August of the Spriggan 12 himself to complete this mission or that the Emperor himself approve it."

"Good, now holster your rifle", Major Tyeri ordered, "These things are experimental as is the cloaking device on the ship and they were only provide to us for this mission. Let's not go wasting them on rank and file soldiers."

"Yes ma'am", as Gidur shouldered his rifle and then looked at his watch, "Ma'am, it is almost time for the briefing."

"I'm well aware of that, First Sergeant Gidur", as she turned on her heels, her cloak swishing in the wind, and proceed to walk toward the cabin as the ship drifted inland. Along the way she stopped by the helm and address the sailor currently driving the ship onto its destination.

"Take us higher up and into one of these cloud and send word to me when we're ready to dock for the day", she commanded to which the sailor salute in response.

As the bow of the ship began to slightly lean upward as the ship begun it ascension into the clouds, both Major Tyeri and First Sergeant Gidur entered a small cabin where five other cloaked figures stood at attention around a table with a map of Fiore on it.

"At ease", Major Tyeri says as she strolls to the front of the table and turn to address the group. Sergeant Gidur remains at the door, watching and listening for wandering eyes.

"All you are all well aware of, we are on an important mission for his Imperial Majesty", Major Tyeri begun, "One that will make our invasion of this country easier when the time comes. We of the 7th Elite Shadow Guard have been task with securing vital assets that the higher echelon believe could give us the edge in future warfare."

There was a murmuring amongst the five figure, but Major Tyeri raised a hand to silence them.

"Now I am also aware that no one beside myself and First Sergeant Gidur know the full details of the mission", Major Tyeri said to which the five figures nod their heads.

"That was for security purposes, I assure you. As you are all aware of, First Sergeant Gidur has served with me for almost twenty years, ever since I was a third lieutenant in the Imperial Army; when Sir August asks me to bring along someone I could trust when he brief me, he was the first name to come to mind", Major Tyeri explained, "But that is all in the past, now that we're getting closer to our objective, I will disclose the full details of our mission."

She reaches into her cloak and pulls out a circular hologram disc and places it in the center of the map. A blue light shines and the image of an exceed is projected upward.

"This, my captains, is a exceed. There is a estimate five thousand of them residing within Fiore. They looks like ordinary cats that walks upright, they can talk, they can socialize with humans, and they even have a hierarchy with a queen at the top of it", Major Tyeri started, "They can also sprout wings and carry a full grown man quite a reasonable distance, our scientists estimate up to a hundred miles, before they have to rest."

The cloaked figures study the image for a moment before the Major continued, "In X784 these creatures appeared in Fiore from an unknown land and have established diplomatic ties with Fiore's Royal Family. They have since been declare citizens of Fiore and they even employ an ambassador in the Royal Palace."

"So what do they have to do with us, ma'am?", the tallest cloak figure asked.

"Certain generals believe that they could be use as a highly mobile transport unit. The fact that they can carry such a heavy load despite their small bodies has caught the attention of even the emperor himself."

"But ma'am, we already have flying vessels that are considered the fastest in the world", another cloaked captain said, "Why waste the time and resources attaining this...things?"

"While our ships are indeed swift, they still present a large target to ground fire and any air defenses the opposition may have. The exceeds have been documented as being highly agile in the air, even while carrying someone. Imagine them launching from our ships, far out of reach of the enemies defense. From landing forces on the enemies' castle walls to positioning our own troops behind enemy's lines, these creatures provide with a new style of warfare that the upper chain of command want to utilize for the invasion of Fiore."

"What are our objectives, ma'am?", the tall cloaked captain asked.

"We are to secure at least five hundred of these creatures to bring back to Alvarez for experimenting and testing. Surely with the five hundred men we brought with us, I see no reason why we can't secure more if not all of them."

"When does the mission begin, ma'am?" the middle cloaked captain asked.

"Tomorrow", she answered, "We will reach their village some time in the morning and we'll proceed from there. Now as a secondary objective, we're to secure their queen if possible. If we capture her first, we would instantly break the morale of their soldiers and their will to resist; thus making the capturing process as well as the experimenting process later on all the smoother."

She looks around the table at each one of the cloaked figures, "You have your orders. Tell the men to get well rested for tomorrow this operation must go off without any complications and it must go off quickly. Intel suggests that there is a two-hour window before the local army garrison can respond to an attack on the exceed village. We must be in and out before they arrive, do you understand?"

All five figures snap to attention and present a salute, "Ma'am, we understand, ma'am!"

Major Tyeri could help but smiled under her hood, "Good, remember we're the 7th Elite Shadow group of the Alvarez Empire. We hide our identifies even from each other; only revealing our faces once we find an opponent worthy enough to know them. We have never failed a mission, we have never known defeat! We will succeed in our mission and there is not a single person in this whole backwater country that can stop us! That even may more true by the fact that our secret weapon is confide within this very ship!"

"ALL HAIL THE EMPEROR!", everyone in the room pop to attention and screamed, including First Sergeant Gidur.

"All hail the emperor", Major Tyeri repeated.

Fairy Tail Guild Hall

It would take an hour for Jet to travel to the Potion mage's house and back and it would only take that long because Jet had to convince her to come while trying to dodge a deadly swinging broom. During that time Master Makarov, Mira, and Gildarts carefully move Romeo to one of the bed upstairs. Mira attended to his wounds as best she could but he still refused to wake up. Meanwhile, Gildarts and Master Makarov talk off in the corner.

"Old man, so explained to me why does Macao's son has Acnologia's dragon-slayer magic?," he asked to which Makarov simply shook his head.

"This is what happen when you decide to run off on another journey instead of sticking around like everyone else wants you to," Makarov chastised him, "You would have been here the same time everyone else discovered it."

"You have a point there," Gildarts agreed, "But I had to go find out anything I could about Acnologia."

"And what exactly did you find out?", Makarov asked.

"He has been searching for something. For the past seven years he has been scourging the entire continent of Ishgar and sometimes beyond for something of extreme value," Gildarts explained, "I heard a few times that he had a kid traveling with him, but I never expected it be someone like Romeo".

"Hmm, Romeo did mention that he spend the last seven years traveling from place to place with Acnologia, getting trained along the way. He said that they rarely stay in one place for more than two days before moving on," Makarov recalled.

"Maybe we can ask him when he wakes up," Gildarts suggested.

"If he wakes up!", Mira snapped from across the room, "Honestly, what were you thinking fighting him to that extend?!"

"He attacked me!", Gildarts argued.

"Romeo only attacks someone if they surprise him or they attack him first!" Mira argued back, "Surely you much have saw from the beginning of your fight that his attacks didn't faze you; so why would you actually hit him back?"

"Was that a trick question?", Gildarts ask causing Mira's eyes to widen in anger as she stood up and stomp over to the Crash Mage.

"Romeo isn't like Natsu!", she roared as she embedded her finger into his chest, "He can't shrug off near fatal attacks like they never happen! You should know better!"

Gildarts didn't speak for a moment for he was genuine surprise by Mira's outburst. He hasn't seen this side of her since the old days when she and Erza used to fight on a daily basis. But that only lasted for a moment before he composed himself.

"All I know is that I came to guild hall to see how everyone was doing", he began.

"At one in the morning!", Mira pointed out.

"And he attacked me!", Gildarts finished.

"So giving a fourteen year old boy blunt trauma to the head was your solution? How exactly are you going to explain this to everyone should the worse come to past, huh?", Mira asked.

"Enough!", Makarov's voice boomed, "I will not have two of the guild's strongest arguing it out like children! We'll wait for Porlyusica to arrive and go from there!"

Mira stare hard at Gildarts for a few seconds before turning on her heels and going back to attending to Romeo.

"All I wanted to do was get a moment's peace while Natsu and the others were out", Makarov grumbled, "Was that too much to ask?"

Downtown Magnolia

It was located in the lower income part of Magnolia, a moderate apartment complex with a few broken windows and graffiti walls. The resident of this building all work deadbeat jobs and the only reason any of them got to have a roof over their heads was because of the low rent the tenant charge for the place; but like the saying goes, you get what you pay for; constant leaks from under maintenance pipes, thin paper walls, loud neighbors, and who could forget the rodent problem?

It was here in a mediocre, one bed room apartment that the residential Sandstorm mage, Max Alors, called home. Due to the lack of jobs Fairy Tail received after its fall from fame, they that chose to stay with the guild were force to make dramatic budget cuts in order to make ends meet. This especially became a problem for Alzack and Bisca when they got married and Bisca found out that she was pregnant. Luckily thanks to some help from Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale who were kind enough to divert some high paying jobs of their own Fairy Tail way, they were able to come out ahead.

But while the Connells were doing just fine; the rest of the remaining members barely scrapped by.

And that is the situation Max found himself in once again as he was going through his finances.

"Damn", he cussed, "If I don't get a big job soon, I might not be able to go to Desierto this year."Now most people would assume that he wanted to travel to Desierto for recreational purposes and even he couldn't blame them if they did, but his reasoning had more to do with his magic then anything else, for you see Max's Sandstorm magic came with a secondary ability…Absorption Anchor magic. This magic is found commonly in almost all types of Sand magic as well as Water Magic and even Ash magic. Both Juvia and Wakaba's wife and daughter use Absorption Anchor in their magic.

The mechanics behind Absorption Anchor magic are actually quite simple. Because sand, water, and ash magic usually require the user to product large quantities of said element in order to pull off spells; in retrospect one can easily assume that this requires large amount of magic to do so, which it does. In order to counter this a mage can place a magic circle in a location where large amounts of their magic element can be found and this allowed you to draw upon the element through the magic circle to fuel your spells whenever you cast them, thus avoiding the necessary magic drain that other magic users such as fire and air have to do.

Due to a medical condition he had called MRD (Magic Reserve Deficiency, basically his magic energies stores are smaller than the average mage and won't get any bigger) Max lacked the insanely large amounts of magic that guys like Natsu, Laxus, and Erza had. Hell, his natural magic reserves were more than likely the lowest in the guild and he was pretty sure that Asuka would have more natural magic than him once she reached her teen years. Take in the fact that his Sandstorm magic required a sufficient amount of magic compare to other types of Sand magic to perform and it's reasonable to believe that he really didn't have much of a choice when it came to choosing the anchoring method.

Speaking of the anchoring method, Max remembers Wakaba telling him some time ago that both his wife and daughter place their anchors on a volcanic island off the coast of Fiore. The volcano there is mostly dormant but it produces moderate quantities of ash year round.

Juvia on the other hand, well when Max first ask Juvia where she put her seven years ago, (he deduced with how often she flooded the guild hall with her tears she must have had one) she replied at first it was at the bottom of a fresh water lake that connected to the ocean not far from Phantom Lord's former guild hall, but she had since moved it to the lake behind the First Fairy Tail guild hall. But then he was shocked when she told him that she easily had the magic needed to not rely on it, it is mostly used as a back-up should she ever need it. That made sense in hindsight, better safe than sorry.

Juvia's location also made sense because most water mages place their "anchors" usually in deep underwater locations, nine times out of ten the ocean, but of course the drawback is that means that the water they produce isn't consumable. This showed that Juvia actually put some thought into deciding where to put her anchor for her magic.

For water mages it was easy, for sand mages not so much. Fiore and the surrounding nations didn't have any deserts and the only place Max could place his anchor in all of Ishgar was in the country of Desierto, because despite what most people believe there was no distance restraints on Absorption Anchor magic. One could literally place their anchor on the other side of the world and still be able to call upon the surrounding elements to power their spells. Of course every magic has it drawbacks and Absorption Anchor had three…

First, should the area your anchor is located in ever lose it element, such as your body of water being drained or whatnot, you're out of luck. If you have nothing to absorb, you'll have to draw upon your own magic pool for your spells and beside the exception of Juvia, most Sand, Water, and Ash mages usually choose this method because they had low magic reserves.

Second, if anyone was to find your anchor and dispel it, (the magic circle stays visible to the human eye even if the caster isn't using magic), you were screw because if a anchors is disrupt by anyone other than the person who cast it, it sent a nasty backlash back toward the original caster (sometime it can be near fatal) and in the process that person can't cast another anchor for quite some time, up to a year at most. Now this meant that most users of this type of magic went to great lengths to hide their magic circles and keep it hidden for prowling eyes, Max himself had to hide his underneath a sand dune in the middle of Desierto. The fact that both Juvia and Wakaba's told him the almost exact locations of either their own or their significant others anchors showed the great amount of trust they had in him.

Last but not least, the anchoring magic circle only last for a year before it fades away. No matter how powerful or talented you were, no matter how much magic you put into it, it will disappear a year from the day you place it. Wakaba's wife and daughter make yearly trips to the island to rejuvenate their circles while Max had to make an annual trip to the middle of Desierto to do the same to his. The consequences of allowing your anchor to fade are almost the same as if someone else dispelled it; you don't get the nasty backlash but you can't cast another anchor for a year.

Now the problem that Max was having is that he was five month away from his circle fading and he wasn't sure if he would have enough money to go this year. This was a problem for him because while the Tenrou group was "dead" Max became Fairy Tail's strongest mage; follow close behind by Alzack, then Laki, and then Bisca. While he knew without a doubt that he has lost that title to Ezra, Mira, and the other upon their return, he still wanted to be considered a member in the upper levels of the guild power rankings. Before Tenrou happen, he was considered to be in the upper middle class of the rankings, just below Lisanna, Elfman, and Levy. This meant that while he wasn't weak he sure as hell wasn't strong.

"Which is why I hope that this team thing pays out",Max thought, "With guys like Gajeel and Mira, we should be able to pull off some high paying jobs."

Max sits there for a moment contemplating what he just said.

"Team, huh?" Max said aloud, "I only join this team in hopes of earning more money. Shit, I never really done anything outside solo jobs beside a couple with Alzack here and there."

Max brings up a hand and summons a small tornado of sand in his palm, "Can't go to sleep, might as well practice", he said as he began to focus his mind in hopes of becoming one with the sand and finally attaining the power of intangible. The numbers of water mages who have reach this pinnacle of element magic you could count on two hands, the number of sand mages you could count on one and still have fingers left over. Knowing that Juvia reached that stage at such a young age fill Max with hope that he too could become a sand mage of legend and achieve something that was considered beyond reach for many aspiring sand mages.

But unfortunately, the fact remain that Max has been trying for seven years now and he feels that he hasn't made any headway. He had heard rumors of a mage across the ocean, Max thinks his name was Ajeel, who achieved the power to become one with the sand, but the odds of Fairy Tail's Sand mage ever meeting him were highly unlikely.

Suddenly out of the corner of his eye, Max sees a bluish white beam of light shoot out from the forest was near the guild hall.

"What the hell?"

Fairy Hills

She was bored.

Laki Olietta, The Wood-Make mage of Fairy Tail, was beyond bored.

It has been two months since her last boyfriend ran screaming out of Fairy Hills, (back then it was only Kinana and her staying there, so the "No Boys" allowed rule was bent a little), saying how she was a sadistic demon spawn from the deepest, darkest, pit of the abyss while wearing nothing more than his boxer shorts with multiple lashes mark around his body.

Laki sighs lovely as got up from her bed that just so happen to also be a torture rack; at least he complimented her as he fled.

Now she needed a new toy to take out her special urges on. The last one lasted longer than anyone else; even go as far as trying to lie to her that he was a masochist. Laki knew from the get-go that he wasn't telling the truth but she decided to humor him. For a while he was fun to play with, at least until she brought out the heavy stuff and that when they crack.

Oh well, it wasn't like she was into the dating scheme for love anyway. To her, love was for people who were afraid to be alone, not someone like her who was in it for fun. She kept her heart close off from those types of relationships. Hell, her main spells went by the names such as: Wood-Make: The Distance between the Two is Foreverand Wood-Make: Heart's Sense of Distance.If that didn't tell you what her opinion was about dating relationships, nothing did.

Anyway another issue had been brought to her attention in-between her two-month downtime from dating...she was strap (no pun intended) for cash.

The cost it took to prevent termites from eating her art on top of paying rent and attaining her...special purchases was mounting up and the jobs coming in were low in reward. That's why when Levy approached her this morning about joining a team she was actually intrigued to the idea. Guild teams usually take on higher paying jobs and actually gain a sort of fame while doing so, if Erza and her team was anything to go off of. She remembers how much attention both the Requip mage and Lucy got from the male populace as their fame grew.

So first of all she was going to use this "team" to help Fairy Tail rise back up to the top. The guild always been good to her and she is willing to do whatever it takes to get it back on its feet, and hopefully become famous in the process.

And maybe, just maybe, that fame could be use to attract more potential boy toys for her to play with. For now she'll go along with this team until it gets her what she wants, money and new toys to have fun with.

Just as he started to laugh in a evil professor manner before she noticed a bluish white light shot up into the sky from the forest.

"Was that from the guild hall?"

Levy's Room

"Is that Laki's laughing I hear?", Levy asks to no one in particular as she strain her ear to hear better. After a moment the laughter stopped and Levy simply went back to her book. For some reason she couldn't sleep tonight; to be honest she hasn't been getting a lot of sleep for past few nights and she couldn't figure out the reason why. At least that's what she told herself; her subconscious on the other hand knew exactly why, if the dreams she been having about Tenrou Island were anything to go off of. Her eyes flickered over to the blue leather book that lay across the table from her.

"No", she told herself.

Her eyes glance over at the title on the spine.

"You don't need to read that book because you don't have an issue", she says aloud.

She sees the handmade bookmark that was sticking out from the middle of the novel.

"It was just a pasting curiosity, nothing more", as she lets out a nervous laugh.

She finds herself standing up and walking to the other end of the table.

"Maybe I ought of loan it to Lucy, surely she would get more used out of it than me", as she picks it up and stares at it for a moment before letting out a frustrating scream before stopping a puffing out her cheeks.

"Fine", she finally submitted, "Maybe a chapter or two tonight."

Suddenly the door to her room is swung open, catching Levy by surprise and forcing her to slam the book on the table with a reverberating thump. She turns around in a fright only to see a panting Laki standing in her doorway.

"There's something going on at the guild hall! I just saw a strange light shoot up into the sky from there!", Laki explained as she leaned on the doorknob for support.

Levy stands there in silence for a moment while processing the information, "Doesn't Master Makarov and Romeo stay at the guild hall?"

Laki nods.

"We should go check it out then!", Levy says as she runs for the door.

"Should we use a net to gather everyone else up?", Laki asks to which Levy shakes her head.

"Almost everyone else is out on a overnight job right now or they're on the other side of town", Levy explained.

"Does Gajeel lived nearby?", Laki ask.

Levy feels her face heat up at the question, "W-why are you asking me?"

Laki simply shrugged, "No reason, I just assume you knew."

"His place is on the way to the guild", Levy admitted.

"Then we better stop by and get him along the way", and with that Laki takes off leaving a still blushing Levy in her wake. The Solid Script looks down at the book she slammed on the table and let out a tired sigh, "Guess I'm not getting any reading tonight."

She takes a deep breath and sprint after Laki, leaving the thousand-page book, "How To Get A Oblivious Idiot To Notice You", laying on the table.

Gajeel's and Pantherlily's house.

"That's your sixth drink tonight", Pantherlily pointed out, "And you just started drinking two hours ago."

"Yeah, what of it?", Gajeel complained as he down the bottle.

"I thought you be happy today. You were easily able to put together your team and tomorrow we head for the village", the exceed warrior said, "So why do you look so miserable?"

"Not miserable, just got a weird feeling that I'm about to walk into storm here soon", he answered as his door is kicked off the hinges and both Levy and Laki entered the room.

"You're paying for that door", Gajeel simply says as he raises a eyebrow at the fact that it was Levy who kicked it open.

A/N: So I change a few thing; Laki is still a sadistic but she's not targeting Max.

AlsoAbsorptionAnchor is basically placing a magic circle that vacuum the nearby water, sand, or ash through the magic circle and into the caster's spell. Also those are the actual names for some of Laki's spells. Next Chapter, things get intense at the Exceed's village