What was supposed to be a peaceful job turned out to be more chaotic than even Rave could have imagined. Originally, Erza was going to accompany me on my job request, but due to some.. odd reasons, Natsu added himself into the mix. And with Natsu going, Gray decided to join in as well, saying that it would be boring if it were just him alone in the guild.

I've heard of a rumor that Gray had a girlfriend, but so far I couldn't see anyone that was even the slightest bit infatuated with the stripper dude.

And of course, Natsu had to drag Lucy along. Even though Mirajane gave her the go ahead for her job pick.

"Come on, Lucy! It'll be fun! And we'll get to see the new guy in action too!" Natsu put an arm over Lucy's shoulder, while Lucy just kept groaning and groaning about her monthly rent going down the drain. "Right, Happy?"

The blue cat which I noticed from earlier, jumped up on the table they were chatting on earlier and yelled, "Aye, sir!"

Strangely enough, Wendy and her cat didn't mind it one bit. Well, at least Wendy didn't mind. The girl cat kept her usual 'I don't care' facial expression.

You know we're not splitting the loot, right? Its not some free for all, we picked out this thing. More importantly, I wanna live in a mansion full of hot girls in bunny outfits and-

Seriously, can he get anymore annoying?

"Erza-san, you sure about this?" I asked, still trying to tune out Rave's outrageous demands, "I mean.. I'm perfectly fine on my own. With this many people.. Wouldn't it be troublesome?"

"No need for honorifics, Fate. Just call me Erza like everyone else does." She wasn't any different from yesterday, still wearing the same old armor, standing at the same old position, and doing the same old pose, standing stiffly with her arms crossed. "And usually I would agree with you, though sometimes.. the more the merrier, right?"

"Right.."

You should let me knock them all out before we leave, that way, it'll be just us!

Tempting offer, but no. I'm still trying to earn the trust of this guild, and I'm pretty sure knocking everyone out before leaving on a job request would uhh.. be.. just a teensy bit untrustworthy.

Come on, let me out! It'll just be a light punch! Maybe some kicks, nothing serious!

"Rave, go screw yourself." I mumbled, keeping sure to lower my tone so that only Rave heard me, and no one else.

Pffft fine.. buzzkill. You're gonna need me soon enough anyways.

"Umm, Erza? I'm just going to head off first. Meet me at the train station later whenever you guys are ready." I slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked towards the entrance before anyone could call out to me. Being around so many people at one time, it made me feel a little uncomfortable. I'm still not used to being around crowds, and I'm still not feeling like I deserve the hospitality everyone's giving me.

"I'm a freaking murderer.. I don't deserve their kindness." From beneath my shirt, I let my hand wrap around the tiny little locket I had. To an ordinary person, it wouldn't mean anything, since it was bought at a shop with a cheap price. "I wish you were here.. you'd know what to do.."

She's not coming back. You have to let go of her, Fate.

In a sense, he was probably right. But its still hard to let go of the memories I had with her. We were small at the time, around 5 or 6, before my powers started showing itself. Even though she knew, she hasn't once shown any signs of fear, and still kept coming to see me even though her parents told her to stay away from me.

I figured they wouldn't be as fast as I hoped for, so I wandered around town for a little bit. It was calming, seeing those kids play around, chasing each other. The merchants were tending to their shops, shouting out the specials for the day, and the cheap prices they had to offer. It was still early afternoon, but the orange sky made it seem like it was already evening.

Where's the sexy bunny girls? Bring on the bunny girls!

Once again, I had to ignore his ramblings with the best of my abilities.

I walked along the side of a small river, looking on as people sailed by with their boats. Even some of them were kind enough to tell me to be more careful, unless I wanted to end up soaking wet in the middle of town.

In my backpack, I had nothing more than an extra set of clothes and a change of bandages. Since it was just a normal job, I figured I wouldn't be gone that long. If I'm lucky, I'd even be done in less than a day and would be able to return.

I strolled along the middle of the town, looking at various shops, but when I checked the time on one of the clocks in the shops, I was surprised that an hour had passed since I came here. I rushed to the train station that was on the other side of the town. It didn't take me much, since I could run pretty damn fast if I wanted to.

I looked around the large station for any sign of them, but I almost jumped out of my pants when someone touched my shoulder from behind.

"Where were you? We've been waiting for over 15 minutes, we thought you left without us." Erza said, pulling along her two tonne carriage.

Wendy was empty handed, except for her cat. Happy was trotting behind Natsu and Gray, and even they didn't pack anything. Lucy on the other hand, just had her pack of gold and silver keys hanging from her belt like she always does. Though I've never seen her in action, I suspect that her magic is related to those keys.

Miss I-wear-armor-everyday-and-makes-100-swords-appear-behind-you has a two tonne carriage while the others have nothing. Shocking.

While Erza argued with the train keeper with her luggage situation, the others and I went into the train and sat down.

Pre-train Natsu was energetic and sometimes annoying. Picking fights with whomever he thought was strong, or just cause he liked to fight.

When the train started moving, however, Natsu's face turned blue and he seemed like he had a major case of food poisoning. Luckily I wasn't the one sitting next to him, since I didn't want to get puked on.

"Sorry, Natsu.." Wendy said apolegetically, "I can't keep casting Troia on you, or the effect would be useless in the future."

"No worries, Wendy." Erza walked over and held Natsu up, right before punching him on the gut, renderring him unconscious, "This usually works best anyway."

While they started chatting about things that have been happening in the guild, and their old quests, I sat there, staring out through the window. The view was pretty amazing, to be honest. Birds were flying just above the rocky terrain. Clover Town, as I heard, was a place for the Masters of the Guilds to have their regular meetings. It was my first time traveling since the day I arrived at Fairy Tail and was accepted as a member almost immediately.

Oh stop it with the sappy soap opera memories, you're killing me.

I kept my eyes glued to the view outside the windows, but something weird caught my eye. At first I thought I was just hallucinating, but there was someone, in a cloaked hood, standing right in the middle of the train tracks.

Without any warning, the mysterious person jumped 10 feet up in the air and blasted a ray of freakishly bright light toward the train tracks, destroying a part of it.

"Guys.. huge problem." I motioned for the others to look out the window, but the strangest thing was, they didn't notice anything wrong.

"Clearly there was a freaking hole right in the middle of the train tracks, and we're heading straight towards it!" I rushed pass the others and pulled the ladder down, opening the hatch to climb up to the top of the train. By now, the hooded person had mysteriously vanished, but the hole was still there. I had to do something, and quick.

Its now or never. Call me.

Before I could think, Gray tapped my shoulder from behind, "I don't know if what you see is real, but we can't see it. So tell me where the hole is before we crash."

Right when I was about to speak, a bright light slammed against him and he went falling backwards into the train.

The mysterious hooded person appeared once more, standing a few meters behind me. When the guy took his hood off, he wore a mask, covering the front of his face, except for his mouth. But then, long, golden brown hair swooped out against the wind.

He's a chick? Meh..

I quickly unwrapped the bandage on my arms and threw them away. I squeezed both of my palms and curled them into fists, and before long, they started bleeding. Slowly. Gradually.

When blood is shed, a rain of crimson shall fall.

"Its good to be back again.."