Lucy sighed for the umpteenth time that morning. She was sure her team had noticed by now but she really didn't give a rip. It had been a month since she'd come back to Fairy Tail and had been trying to get to know Laxus better but it seemed as if the Universe was working against them. If she wasn't on a mission with her team then Laxus was gone with his team and is she wasn't helping Levy decode some ancient language then Laxus was working with Gramps in learning how to run the guild, which involved a hell of a lot of paperwork. Laxus was a grumpy ass hole after a full day in the office with Master, so it was best to avoid him until he had his third beer.

She had informed Master Makarov and Master Sting, she still found it weird to call the exuberant dragon slayer Master, all that she had heard when she had rescued the twins. Rufus was researching things on his end, Freed was doing the same when he had time, and Lucy had Crux combing through any and all texts about this new threat. He was also looking into a more in-depth reason as to why a dark guild would even want or need light children, you know, outside the whole world domination cliche.

The dark guild hadn't tried anything, yet, but everyone was on their toes. Natsu had been itching for a fight since he'd missed out three times now; the original attack on Sabertooth, Lucy rescuing the twins, and the attack on Sabertooth when she brought them home. He'd been so antsy lately that he was starting to grate on even Happy's nerves, which was saying a lot. Team Natsu was taking turns sleeping on her couch as a precaution, which was also driving Lucy up the wall. She loved her team but she could use a little less of them right now.

Cobra and Kenzo were fully mated now and were heading to Fairy Tail to see the blonde woman who had inadvertently got them together. Lucy had apologized to everyone at Sabertooth, Bickslow, Gajeel, Cana, and Juvia for her less than stellar behavior. Cana and Juvia had given her the most grief over it and had her doing small tasks to be back in their "good graces," as Cana put it. For Cana, it was being a wing woman and letting her rifle through her extensive underwear collection, while Juvia was content with having Lucy pick up her groceries and help her out on a house cleaning mission. All-in-all it wasn't anything serious and they did a whole lot of talking during their time together.

"Hey Luce, hurry up! We're almost back to the Guildhall. Man, I hope that Mira has some fire chicken because I'm starving!" The team laughed, trust Natsu to be consumed with food first when they were close to home. Some things would never change and that small consistency had Lucy smiling brightly.

"Yo, Blondie," Laxus called upon the team entering the guild doors. "Got a minute?" Lucy nodded her head and told her team she'd be back in a bit. Laxus was standing with his arms crossed looking across the room from the second-floor balcony a tight look on his face. He was stressed about something. Now she may not have a lot of time to know Laxus up close in person but she had been observing the stoic dragon slayer when she could over the last month and had an idea about his non-verbal cues.

"What's wrong, Laxus?" Lucy quietly asked, hoping to avoid the other dragon slayer's hearing her question.

"What makes you think anything is wrong?" Laxus went from looking at her to glancing back at their guildmates. When he finally did look back at her she had one eyebrow raised and her own arms crossed over her chest. He sighed, before nodding his head into his office, closing the door behind the two of them. "I've been given a report from one of the magic council members saying there is a disturbance in Hargeon. Something in the water that's causing some major flooding. Normally I would just send you and Juvia to handle this but since we don't know what the dark guild's plan is I don't want just the two of you going."

"I don't care who else goes with Juvia and me, as long as it's not Team Natsu! I love them all dearly but being with them day in and day out for a month has me wanting to blow shit up!" Laxus briefly smiled at Lucy's plea.

"What will I get if I assign a couple of other mages to your mission?" Laxus smirked as Lucy looked him up and down with a skeptical gaze.

"What do you want," she slowly asked the tall blonde.

"I want a kiss, on the lips, when you return from the mission." Laxus had put a bit of thought into this. They hadn't even been able to go on their first damn date let alone try to make their . . . relationship work. His dragon wasn't exactly helping his situation out either, constantly picturing her naked in the shower with him, him fucking her in his large bed, her pink lips wrapped around his . . . NOPE! He wasn't going down that rabbit hole right now, not with her standing right in front of him.

"A kiss? On the lips?" Lucy whispered as she blushed. She knew Laxus wasn't one to mince words but that was a little blunt for her. Her gazed landed on his mouth for a second too long, finding a shit-eating grin was slowly making it's way across his lips. She gulped, realizing she'd been caught staring. "Ok. I can work with that."

"You'll leave in the morning with Juvia, Bickslow, and Gajeel. Cobra has also demanded he be allowed on this trip with you, which means his mate would be going too. I told them the two of them tagging along was up to you." Lucy giggled and wrapped her arms around Laxus for all of three seconds before she was bouncing out the door. If Cobra wanted to come with her then that must mean he was in the building somewhere. Laxus just chuckled and went back to his paperwork.

"For fuck's sake, Tink. You're like a fucking beacon right now. Turn off the damn rainbows and sunshine shit you have on strobe light!" Lucy spun around and ran to the crass man, who took a stance so that he could catch the crazy ass woman as she launched herself into his arms for a hug. Normally Cobra was against people in his awesome bubble but Lucy was different.

"When did you guys get here? Hey, Kenzo? How's our favorite prickly slayer treating his new mate?" "HEY!" Lucy and Kenzo laughed at Cobra's indignant shout.

"He's treating me just fine, Lucy. Fucks my brains out like a champ at least once a day," he smirked as Lucy's cheeks held a small tinge of red to them but she laughed anyway.

"Pft, you're just jealous that since we are out of seclusion it's not more than once a day." Kenzo smiled and kissed his mate on the cheek, to placate the fact that he was being teased when usually it was Cobra doing the teasing.

"Thank you for accompanying me on the mission tomorrow with Bickslow, Gajeel, and Juvia. I really appreciate your help."

"Bluebird, Iron Dick, and Crazy Eyes are joining us, eh? It's been a while since the seith mage and I had a decent conversation," there was an odd glint in his eyes as he talked about Bickslow.

"What's with the look, hun?"

"Later babe, later. Tell me Tink, is Bickslow dating anyone right now?" He watched as Lucy hummed in thought before shaking her head no which made Cobra look like he had just walked into his favorite poison shop.

"Babe, you're making us nervous," Kenzo took a step away from his mate. After being around his dragon slayer mate for the past month he was well acquainted with this look, the one that said he was about to cash in on a bet or debt.

"Stop being a bunch of pansy asses. I assure you, it's nothing remotely bad for anyone except Crazy Eyes."

"I'll leave you two to . . . do whatever you need to before we head out in the morning. I'm going to tell Gajeel and Juvia." Lucy made her escape before she could get pulled into one of Cobra's evil schemes. That was one man you never wanted to be on the opposing team when it came to pranks or evil plots. You might get turned into a giant metal fish.

"Fuck! Seriously Tink! I already said I was sorry!" Lucy laughed so hard that tears formed in the corner of her eye. That memory was one of her favorites to pull out at times like this when he was being more of an ass hole than usual.

"Hey, Gajeel!" Lucy waved to the man who was sitting on a bench at the gym with a towel hanging around his neck.

"Small fry. What are you doing here?"

"Laxus is sending me on a mission to Hargeon tomorrow and was hoping you'd join the team with Bickslow, Juvia, Cobra, and Kenzo."

"Yea, sure. What are we doing in Hargeon?"

"An issue with constant floods. Normally Laxus would just Juvia and I, but you know . . ."

"You constantly have a giant target on your back that says 'kidnap me.' You'd think by now that dark guilds would learn that kidnapping you means Fairy Tail is coming to kick their asses." Lucy couldn't help but giggle, he definitely wasn't wrong. "What time are we leaving?"

"Train leaves at eight am."

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning." Lucy was heading out of the weight room when something caught her eye in one of the other gyms. She took a couple of steps back and peeked through the window in the door. Bickslow was moving ridiculously fast on a set of suspended wood platforms that Laki had built and Freed spelled so they would stay floating. It was to help with his acrobatics training, but what shocked her was the fact that Juvia was standing on the floor firing balls of water at him. He was dodging fairly well until she picked up the pace, launching more than one ball at him. Bickslow caught one right in the chest that had him plummeting to the ground, thankfully his totems were there to catch him. Lucy smirked at how concerned her friend was over hitting the man. A small smile made it's way to her lips, maybe she needed to plant a bug in Mira's ear?

"Hey, you two," Lucy called out as she entered the second gym. "Hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."

"Juvia was just helping Bickslow with some training. Did Lucy need something from Juvia?"

"Actually, I am here for both of you. You and I have a mission in Hargeon. The town is being hit by constant flooding and has asked for our help. Laxus has asked Bickslow and Gajeel to join you and me."

"Juvia would love to go on the mission!"

"Kenzo and Cobra will be joining us as well, forgot to mention that." Lucy watched as all the color in Bickslow face drained when she mentioned the pair. This was an interesting development, to say the least. "You okay with that, Bix?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. Won't be a problem Cosplayer."

"Good! Train leaves at eight am, so I'll see you both in the morning!" Lucy left the gym to go and tell her team she'd be gone for a while and braced herself for the fact that they'd all want to have a sleepover at her house tonight. She was going to have to get groceries on her way home.

"Is everything alright, Bickslow? Juvia has been calling Bickslow's name for the last minute. Juvia didn't hit you too hard?"

"NO! I am great, Juves. Just realized I'm going to have to go home early now to pack shit for tomorrow."

"Ok. Well, Juvia had a fun time today. Perhaps . . . Bickslow will allow Juvia to help with training, again?"

"Definitely!" She smiled down at him since he was still sitting on the ground, then said goodbye as he watched her leave. "Ugh!" He threw himself back so that he was lying on his back. "I am so fucking screwed!"

"Daddy forgot about the bet?" Pipi asked in her cute little voice.

"No, but I had hoped I wouldn't see the one-eyed bastard so soon."

"Soon?" Papa laughed at the man. "You made that bet over six months ago." Bickslow and Gajeel had been Master's errand boys when it came to delivering information to and from Crime Sorciere. On one such run, it had stormed so he was invited to stay the night, drinks had been passed around, and before he knew it he was spilling his guts out to Cobra who happened to be the last one awake. Bickslow might have been drunk but he sure as hell wasn't black-out drunk. He remembered the bet that Cobra had issued and him being the oh so wise drunk fool, accepted.

"Man up!" Popo said, which ended up being chanted by all five of his spirits.

"Knock it off! I have to make a plan now since I only have a couple of days to fulfill his damn bet." Bickslow picked himself off the floor and proceeded to head home. He had to formulate some kind of plan in order to meet his end of the bet because there was no way in hell he was doing what Cobra wanted if he won.

The darkness consumed all light as the sound of heels in concrete filled the tense air. They had already failed at capturing the twin children of Sabertooth, who were now heavily guarded with its guild members on high alert. Trying to go after them again would be an utter waste of time. She was surrounded by incompetent idiots. How hard was it to keep two young children in their care and away from all the light, goodness, bull-shit?

Apparently too much for her weaker followers to handle!

Their dark guild had been around for ages, feeding off the chaos that others brought into the world. She was the first woman to be in the top ranks, ignorant bastards. A pissed off woman could do so much more than any man, even when properly motivated. She'd been planning this for months, MONTHS, and because those chauvinistic bastards couldn't follow her plans they botched the entire mission. She wanted them to wait two more weeks, just fourteen days, and her plan would have been full proof.

That exploded in their damn faces.

Now she was back to square one but still had to fit within the Elder's timeline of three months. She had three months to construct and execute another nearly flawless plan and this time it was going to work, or may the light burn them all.

"Mistress? You . . . umm, you have blood all over your robes. Would you like me to lay something else out for you while you bathe?" A mousy looking woman asked, head slightly bowed.

"Yes. I expect these robes to be gone, room cleaned, and you not here when I leave the washroom."

"Of course, Mistress," she all but squeaked out. She stripped naked in front of the small girl before heading to her private hot tub, smirking. The ones who defied her orders to keep to her timeline wouldn't be an issue anymore. The ones who had spoken out about her punishment wouldn't dare to do so again.

"Cera, have a new intel list brought to me by my evening meal as well." Cera bowed, not saying anything as she went about doing her Mistress' bidding, as the woman with pure black, waist-length hair settle into the warm waters. Now she had time to strategize, time to figure out how they would plunge the world into complete darkness. It was just a matter of where to start.