So... This chapter happened. It wrote itself and the Freed thing ran away from me a tiny bit. Have fun.

Fairy Tail is Hiro Mashima's and the Pradeshes belong to Desna.

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Freed had been sitting calmly on the second floor balcony drinking tea when it happened. He had been thinking of Macbeth, worrying about whatever secret mission he was on and hoping he and his team were staying out of the weather. Honestly since his friend took off most of Freed's time was spent worrying about him. Then suddenly Juvia and Kinana had begun screaming hysterically because every last member of Team Natsu had just vanished.

Of course Freed had lept into action immediately. As far as he was concerned Macbeth had entrusted him with protecting his 'sister' while he and Erik were on their mission. He still had the note he had found in his mailbox the morning after he left to valify that opinion. 'We all know Polaris gets into trouble and her team is nuts , so I'd appreciate it if you could watch out for her while we are gone.' Macbeth had asked and so of course he had done his best to oblidge up until this most dreadful moment when Miss Lucy had been snatched right from under his nose.

"What do you mean there was no spell?"

"There just wasn't! My darling Gray was right here and then he was gone! There was no magic at all!"

"She's right, Freed. I was looking right into Lu's eyes when she just vanished."

"It was the same with Erza." While Juvia was prone to extreme displays of illogical psychosis Levy and the Master were nnot. He would have to accept what they said as fact.

"Is anyone else missing?"

"H-happy and Natsu!" Freed felt his eye twitch. He already knew that, but Kinana seemed unable to get over the trauma of Happy dissapearing right out of her arms. "W-wendy and C-c-carla weren't in the guild. D-do you think they are g-gone too?"

"Easy there Rugrat. We will find them." *find them, gotta be somewhere, search everywhere. Whatever reassuring or paranoid, but ultimately pointless thing was going to be said next was cut off when the guild doors slammed open to admit 'Mystogan', Sorano, Erik, and an unfamiliar man with long, dark hair and enormous black wings.

"Daphne!" Freed got a good look at Erik's wide, slightly crazed eyes as he frantically searched the guildhall for the recently missing woman. "Where is she?" The slayer grabbed Bickslow by the shirt and shook the six and a half foot tall man like a rag doll. Why he expected the seith mage specifically to know Miss Lucy's location Freed wasn't sure. "Where is Lucy!"

"Dude! Calm the fuck down!" *chill, shaking daddy's brains out, wait a second. Erik backed away, eyes still searching frantically. 'Mystogan' was acrualky attempting to guide people away from the panicking man.

"E-erik?" Kinana tried reaching for her friend, but he backed away.

"Cu. I can't- I felt it. Like something yanked my heart out of my chest." His breathing was growing increasingly unsteady. "The angel said the world was bleeding. Two days. Two days we flew and when we got here... Nothing! Where were you! The whole town! Gone!" Their poison dragon slayer was quite obviously having some sort of break down.

"Erik." The winged man spoke bruskly. "You must calm yourself." That did not seem to be what Erik needed to hear, because instead of afraid and panicked he was now enraged.

"Calm myself? Calm myself he says. And why the fuck is that?" There was a sneer on the man's face and his words had a cruel twist to them. "Oh, I'll be calm." Burgandy scales rippled into being on his arms, the poison dripping fron his claws was sizzling when it hit the floor and eating holes in the wood. "I'll be calm when I Find My Mate! WHERE IS SHE!"

Now, when Freed had met Erik it had been at the party to welcome the man into the guild. Sure he was snarky and sarcastic, with a twisted, morbid sense of humor, but the man had always been relatively friendly. He smiled and laughed and played games with little Romeo. All of Fairy Tail knew he had been one of the most feared dark wizards in the country, but none of them had seen him that way. This crazed man snarling and exhaling noxious fumes into the air was not Fairy Tail's Erik. This was Cobra, and Freed was quite frankly at a loss as to what to do, because if he was understanding the situation right the slayer had lost the soul deep bond with his mate. As in Miss Lucy was no more.

The slayer's entire body suddenly jerked. The expression on his face slowly changed from deranged to confused before finally settling into a look of disbelieving awe. No one moved. No one spoke. There was a long, extremely tense moment before the slayer let out a whimper and turned his head toward the doors.

"I can feel her again. I can... I hear you, Daphne." Freed wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but he was desperately thinking of ways to deal with the slayer's poison if his mood swung back the other way again. Then, lo and behold, their temporarily missing blond came dashing through the doors Erik had entered so dramatically only a few seconds before. Erik lunged for her and when the two connected they seemed to crumple. The slayer curled around his mate with his ear pressed over her heart and just... started sobbing.

"I'm so sorry baby. I felt it too. I didn't realize until to late what it would do to us. I'm sorry. I'm ok. I promise you I'm ok. I'm right here. It's gunna be ok. You're home now, and so am I."

"What the fuck just happened man?" *what the fuck, that was crazy, doesn't make sense, where did Cosplayer go, please be done.

"I'm... Not sure." While everything seemed to have righted itself Freed felt a growing sense of unease. Miss Lucy continued speaking softly to Erik where they sat and no one wanted to disturb them for fear of setting him off again. Freed looked over to where Evergreen and Sorano were attempting to comfort a distraught Kinana, and then it hit him. He had been so caught up in his guiltmate's rapid descent into murderous insanity that he hadn't seen it before. "Sorano... where are the others? Where is Macbeth?"

"He's fine. When we realized something had happened to Lucy he told us to go and that they would catch up." Oh. Ok. He was alright. But... They had flown for two days. That would take almost astronomical amountsof magic energy. And where on earthland were they that was two days of flight away? Out of Fiore for certain. What had they been doing?

"Do we know you?" *do we, look familiar, seen you somewhere, maybe. Freed turned his attention to the winged stranger. Now that Bickslow mentioned it there was something about the man...

"Doubtful."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Sorano placed a hand on the man's chest, which Freed now noticed was bare, and smiled. "Introductions. Guys, this is-"

"Excuse me?" There was something cold in Lucy's voice as she stared down at her mate. "Surely I just heard you wrong and you didn't just say Pergrande." Silence fell over the guild. "You went to Pergrande. Without any backup or telling us where you were going. What..." Her eye was twitching. This couldn't be good.

The math suddenly clicked in Freed's mind and what followed would forever be known in the guild as 'that one time when Freed totally lost his shit'. Considering Erik had just come seconds from poisoning half the guild to death he thought they were being dramatic. However looking back Freed had to admit that there were a couple moments when he might have overreacted just a little bit. The first of those moments being when he transformed into his Absolute Darkness form and the second being when he yanked his sobbing guildmate from the arms of his recently presumed dead soulmate and slammed him against the wall with his claws around the man's neak.

"Two Days As The Crow Flies Would Put You In The Heart Of Pergrande. You Left MACBETH In PERGRANDE!" Another of those moments was when he grew so enraged by the lack of answer from the man he was strangling to death against the wall that he threw him through another wall. "How COULD You!"

"Stand down Demon!" Then came the moment where he challenged an undefeated gladatorial Archangel mage.

"Move ANGEL Or I Shall Destroy You As Well!"

"Freed, stop!" And the moment where he threatened to kill Macbeth's sister.

"Interfere And I Shall Feast On Your Heart!" That moment also happened to totally piss off the aforementioned Archangel who would have attacked him if the little moon maiden had not been actively shoving the man back while Lucy threw herself in front of Freed.

"Freed you need to calm down!"

"Do You Have Any Idea The Kinds Of Things That Could Happen To Him There? Did You Think Of That Before You ABANDONED Him In That HELLHOLE!"

Lucy tried to physically prevent him from going around her to get to her mate at which point he had another of those moments and struck Macbeth's other sister hard enough to send her crashing through the wall he had origionally pinned her mate to. This had both said recently murderously psychotic mate and the gladitorial Archangel in such a state that someone would have died if not for Bickslow's interference. There was a flash of green and the next thing Freed knew he was surrounded by concerned faces and feeling rather lost.

"Freed, man, you good now?" *good, done being crazy, so scary, friends again.

"I... What?" Evergreen huffed.

"He's back to his usual self."

"Freed." He looked over to see a rather contrite looking, completely sane eyed Erik. "I don't think anyone is more capable of handling themselves over there than Macbeth. He got six us all the way in without a single incident. I'm sure he can get the three of them out safely. I am sorry though. If I had known what he ment to you I would have handled the situation a bit differently."

"I'm not sure I understand." Erik looked at Bickslow who shook his head.

"He's fine. He:s just obtuse." *thick in the head, doesn't see, slow on the pick up.

"Demon, has your memory been damaged?" Freed narrowed his eyes at the winged man.

"My Name is Freed Justine. Kindly address me so. And my memory is intact." He shifted his attention to Erik. "My appologies. I believe I lost my temper." Lucy giggled and Sorano made a snorting sound.

"Lost his temper he says. Freed, you totally lost your shit."

"I owe you an appology as well Miss Sorano, and Miss Lucy as well." Sorano glared at him.

"What about Zen? You owe him an appology too?"

"I do. My appologies for losing control like that and threatening your wellbeing... Zen." Why did that name sound familiar? Bickslow was right. They knew this man from somewhere. Though he could have sworn those wings would caused instant recognition.

"You're Boscan, right?" Evergreen was tapping her fan on her chin. "Could we have met you on one of our visits over there?" That settled it. All three of them thought the man looked familiar. They knew him somehow. "No. I haven't been to Bosco since I was an infant." Freed glanced at Bickslow to find him staring at the man in wide-eyed... Horror? Awe? Like he was seeing a ghost, which really wasn't out of the realm of possibility with Bickslow, though he usually reacted differently.

"...Zen..." It was hearing Bickslow say the man's name that brought the memories to the surface. Bickslow had spoken that name before, but always with reverence reserved for the... dead. This man was dead, or at least he was supposed to be. Beleived to be? Freed very rarely cursed even within the confines of his own mind, but what the Hell was going on?

"No fucking shit!" Erik was grinning widely over the top of his mate's head. "We straight uo had no idea who he was when we went after him. Sorano was just bound and determined to rescue 'the last true angel' and wasn't gunna take fuck no for an answer."

"What... Where the hell have you been!" Bickslow started to reach for Zen, but stopped when Erik held out an arm and shook his head violently. "We thought you were dead! Dad's gunna just... Lose it!" *insanity, back from the dead, so happy, amazing.

"Oh. My. Mavis. You're That Zen!" Freed wasn't sure if the man knew who he was or not, but his reaction to Bickslow and Evergreen knowing who him was... Less than positive. He looked like he was about to run.

"Perhaps we should contact your family, Bickslow. Kaleb or Farron might be the best choice at this point." Zen's dark eyes locked onto him at his mention of the eldest Pradesh sibling. So he remembered his brother.

"Hold it!" Sorano threw her arms in the air. "You guys know Zen?"

"They do not. However... Bickslow... was adopted by my father afer Pergrande killed my mother and took me to the labs." There were gasps of shock from around the room.

"Woah, woah. I'm only Bickslow when I'm in trouble, or if you have a huge stick up your ass like the nerd here. Also there is an easier way to say that, dude. Bix is my brother. Try it. It's super easy." *Bix is my brother, Bix is my brother, come on, say it. Zen just gave Bickslow a highly gaurded and suspicious look.

"Wow." Lucy ran her hand over her face. "This has just been the craziest few days. Freed lost his mind, Bickslow's brother came back to life, Edolas, and Exceeds, and Lisanna-"

"Lisanna!"

"What is a Edolas?"

"What do you mean 'few days'?"

"Where is Juvia's beloved?"

"Yeah, where's Team Natsu?"

"What the hell happened to Erik?"

"And why the hell does Lucy suddenly look like she has been through some sort of battle?"

"I don't understand what's giving on!"

"Chill the heck out people! Let's just calm down and wait for the others to get here. Then we can all tell our stories." Freed had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

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To be continued.