Chapter 8

Natsu, as Iris soon discovered, had a big mouth. When they arrived back at Fairy Tail, Lucy had been a bit upset that she'd been left again and started demanding Natsu told her where he took Iris. Natsu started arguing back, claiming that it was none of his business and the next thing Iris knew, the whole guild was in a brawl. She doubted half of them knew what they were even fighting about.

Makarov put a stop to it easily and Iris wondered how often did he have to do that. "Who started it this time?"
"Natsu!"
Makarov sighed and had a look that said why am I not surprised? he made his way over to Natsu, who had settled down with some of his friends. There was Iris, Lucy, Wendy, Happy and Carla. Erza was not far behind Makarov, while Grey made his way from the other side. Grey figured the interesting stuff would happen around them.

"What now, Natsu?"
Natsu grumbled, "Lucy was trying to make me tell her something."
Makarov turned to Lucy, "was it important enough to get that response?"
"Yes. He took Iris somewhere this morning and I want to know where, especially because she seems shaken up," Lucy explained.
They all looked at Iris, who had sat down with her head in her hands. She was scared more than anything, if her last name was Leith, that meant that woman was after her.

"You said you knew the Leith's," Iris said suddenly, catching them off guard. "Who are they?"
"I can't tell you if it puts them at risk," Makarov told her.
"But I need to know, they won't be put in any harm," she promised.
Makarov looked at her, then at Natsu. "I think it's time you explained where you went."

Iris really didn't want him to tell and Natsu didn't want to expose so many of Iris's secrets, but he had to tell some of it. So he did.
"We went to that secret prison thing that the Magic Council has." The replies weren't good, but Makarov spoke over them all.
"Why?"
Natsu looked at Iris, silently asking if she wanted him to tell.
"I wanted to see my old guild master," she admitted, deciding it was best to come from her mouth.
Lucy frowned, "I thought you said you didn't have magic."

Iris shrugged, "I lied."
Makarov, who already knew this, simply asked the question to sate everyone else's curiousity. "Why?"
"My guild master told me to," she mumbled, her voice getting quieter with every question.
"Which guild were you a part of? It must have been a Dark Guild if you were visiting him in prison," Erza noted.
"Nox Turba," she answered, "the one you guys caught the other day."

It did make sense and they wondered why they hadn't sussed it all out. "Is there anything else?" Makarov knew there was something else, he just wanted them to tell him and sound polite about it.
Natsu looked at Clyde and Gaia, "I need to talk to you two."
"Okay," Clyde said, before the three left.

Iris sat in the middle of the mages, who all now knew she was a mage and that she'd been lying to them. "Don't worry," Lucy smiled, "we understand why you lied and won't hold it against you." She then sat down next to Iris, Wendy sat in front with Carla, Happy had followed Natsu, and Grey sat on the other side of her while Erza sat by Wendy. Makarov remained standing.
"What kind of magic do you have?" Grey asked, casually taking his shirt off.

"Do you have any paper and a pen?" She questioned, thanking Lucy when she passed her some. Iris hated being put on the spot, she could never think of anything, so, because of that, she wrote the simple item P.E.N. The wizards watched in amazement as a pen appeared on the paper. She now had two pens.

"That's amazing!"
"Wow, that's so cool!"
"Are there any limits?" Makarov asked.
"Some, I have to envision it clearly, and the bigger and more difficult the item is to get a hold of, the more it drains me," she replied.

Makarov nodded. "Iris, would you like to join Fairy Tale?"
The group around her tried to encourage her, they would love it if she joined. Iris frowned and rolled her sleeve up. "This was my old guild's mark," they all leaned in to see it. "It's not faded properly yet. Sometimes it looks like its gone, but other times its bold. I don't think it's right to join a new guild when my old one was disbanded recently."
Makarov smiled, "of course. The offer always stands though."
"Thank you."

Natsu stood with Clyde and Gaia off in a corner on their own. Neither Clyde nor Gaia had any idea what he wanted, but considering he was with Iris before this, Gaia had her suspicions. As did Clyde, but he tried not to get his hopes up.

"What's up?" Gaia asked, "does Iris need some more clothes?"
Natsu wasn't one to beat around the bush. "Iris is your daughter, isn't she?"
Neither of them knew what to say, how could he be so sure?
"How do you know?" Gaia's voice was full of hope. If he knew for sure...
"We went to see her old guild master, he said her last name was Leith and that they stole her as a baby," he explained. "I didn't think you ever had a child, but if someone had their child stolen it wouldn't be something that you'd talk about a lot."

They didn't hear most of the sentence. Leith... Kidnapped by a Dark Guild... It had to be their Iris! Clyde almost shouted in joy, before he actually remembered what Natsu had said. "Old guild master?"
Natsu nodded. "She became a part of the Dark Guild, she actually cares about them."
Clyde could put up with that, he did have his daughter back and that was all that mattered. "We have to tell her!"

"No." The last thing either of them expected was for Gaia to say no. Natsu was excited and she wasn't his child.
"What?" Clyde asked, his jaw slack. "Why wouldn't we tell her?"
"Master told me not to," she mumbled.
"You knew?" Clyde felt slightly betrayed that his wife hadn't talked to him about it.
"I had a hunch," she replied, looking Clyde in the eye. "But Master said she has big things coming if she has magic, which she does. Telling her only adds more to her plate and she's confused enough as it is. We'll tell her once things settle down."
"But-"

"The guild master said there were people after her," Natsu recalled, stopping the two of them. "Gramps is usually right, I'd listen to him."
"But she'll need us," Clyde insisted, not wanting to lose her again.
"She'll have me," Natsu promised. "I'll help her through whatever's coming."

They both wanted to look after their daughter, they'd missed out on so many years of doing so, but they could wait a bit more if it meant keeping her as safe as they could.
"We're relying on you."