SEVEN SECRETS: A Secret Scheme

"You guys were right," Mirajane whispered urgently to Team Natsu the next day after they'd gotten back from their mission. "Master is reading the cards for his own amusement in the back room! I caught him!"

"How do you know he wasn't reading a letter?" Erza asked.

Mirajane shook her head. "It was a notecard, I'm sure of it. I saw a whole pile of them that he tried to hide from me." She glanced at Master out of the corner of her eye, looking betrayed. "We trusted him with our deepest, darkest secrets, and he abused his power. We need to make him pay!"

The others recoiled slightly from the demonic aura Mirajane was exerting. Lucy cleared her throat. "Don't you think you guys are blowing this out of proportion...just a little bit...?"

"NO!" Everybody snapped simultaneously.

"Just because you don't lead an interesting secret life doesn't mean that we don't, Lucy," Happy added, crossing his arms and giving her an irritated look.

Erza slammed her fist down on the table. "Mira is right! We need to show Master the error of his ways! I say we hang him upside down and pull at his tiny little limbs until he tells the truth!"

"No, we need to get him to admit to us that he lied without torture...we might get in trouble for that," Mira said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "And we need to make him tell the rest of the guild so there's not some kind of uprising that we won't be able to control."

"How do we do that?" Gray asked.

"I've hatched a bit of a plan," Mirajane said with a sly smile. She stuck her hand out. "But I'm going to need some help."

Natsu grinned and placed his hand on top of her's. "I'm in!"

"Me too," Lucy agreed, placing her hand on the pile.

Gray nodded, adding his hand to the center with a smirk.

"Aye!" Happy cheered, putting his paw in the pile.

"Fine, but if Mira's plan doesn't work then we're using mine," Erza conditioned, putting her gauntlet-clad hand into the middle.

Mirajane smiled. "Then let's get started."

Name: Cana Alberona

1. That pet parrot Romeo had? It makes a nice purse.
2. I drink alcohol to mask my inner turmoil and despair. Yes, inner turmoil and despair.
3. So Fairy Tail should allow me more alcohol. More alcohol for Cana!
4. I like older men.
5. Gildarts Clive is my -

Makarov jumped and hastily stuffed Cana's card into the crate of cards, pushing it out of line of sight from the door. "Y-yes? Mira, is that you?"

"No, Makarov, it is I." Guran Doma, the new Council Head, swept into the room flanked by three other Council members. Makarov froze. What was the new Head of the Council doing here in his guild?

As if reading his mind, Doma snapped his fingers lazily and a toad-like messenger hopped forward and unrolled a scroll. "Makarov, Guild Master of the guild Fairy Tail, you are hereby arrested for the use of the Council's good name for personal gain and entertainment, a crime punishable by law. The severity of your actions warrants two months in prison and a year of probation."

"T-two months of - a year - " Makarov stuttered, aghast. Two other toad-people leapt over and put him in magic-draining handcuffs before he could think of escaping.

"But before we do that," Doma said, halting the toad-men as they escorted him out the door. "I think you should tell your fairies what you've done. What do you think, Marvin, Probelx?"

The two toad-men grinned maliciously and brought him out to the lunch hall, where he could hear the guild members chattering boisterously. He thought he would die of shame when his children all stopped talking to stare at him being dragged upstairs by Marvin and Probelx, Doma and the messanger following suit. The toad-men raised him so he could stand on the railing of the second floor and invited him to speak to his guild.

"Do it, Makarov, or I will double your sentence," Doma ordered.

"Four months in prison might be worth not telling them," Makarov hissed back, casting a nervous glance at his anticipating guild. He shuddered when he imagined what they would do when they discovered his treachery.

"You tell them, or I will."

"Fine," Makarov squeaked, stiffening. The children needed to hear it from him if they were going to hear it at all, that was for sure. He cleared his throat and looked down at them. Who would run the guild while he was in prison...Erza? Mirajane? Could he still run the guild from behind bars? None of this was certain. Suddenly, Makarov wished he had the power to go back in time. He would have never indulged in that stupid prank.

"I have something to say to you all," he began, sweating nervously. "As you can see, I am being arrested. Right now I am looking at two months in prison and a year of probation for abusing the name of the Council."

This sent ripples of conversation through the guild, but it was soon silenced by the unfathomable curiousity all of his children possessed. He sighed, stalling, but continued. "A few days ago, I told you all that you were to write down seven of your deepest, darkest secrets and give them to me because of security issues in the Council. It was a lie. The Council ordered no such thing. I had you write down your secrets for my own personal amusement. I've been reading them in the back room."

There was an outraged roar in the guild. Makarov winced at the palpable waves of fury and horror that emitted from them, something no lone mage could defeat. I am so dead when I get out of prison.

"I know it was wrong, but I sincerely apologize and ask for your forgiveness, my children. I know I will never deserve it, but I still ask - no beg for it. I'm sorry."

There was a collective gasp from the guild as he said these words. He gave them a look. It's not like him apologizing was quite that big of a deal. Then he heard Mirajane's voice from behind him, where Guran Doma had been standing just moments before. "What do you say? Should we forgive him?" she yelled, casting a wink his way.

Makarov's head swiveled as he assessed the situation. Instead of the toad-men, Natsu and Macao had him hoisted upon the railing; there was no messenger either, that was just a grinning Lisanna. He gaped at all of them, dressed in Council robes, in disbelief. He'd been fooled by his own children!

The guild found this funny, for they were laughing at his dropped jaw and rotating head. He got his act together and blinked at the inevitable mastermind behind this operation: Mirajane. "Why? When did you find out?"

"We've been suspicious for a while," she said. "But I confirmed it while the others were gone, knowing that you wouldn't be so careful without them around. I must say, Master, I'm very disappointed in you. You betrayed our trust in you and used it so you could laugh at us."

"I know, and I really am sorry, Mira," Makarov said sincerely. He looked at the others. "I'm sorry, to all of you. It was a nasty thing for me to do, especially to my own guild. Ha ha, good thing I learned my lesson, right?"

Mirajane gave him a demonic smile and extracted a vial of clear liquid from her pocket. Makarov blanched, suspecting he knew what that was. Judging by the others' evil smiles, he was correct in saying it was some kind of Truth Potion that Mirajane had concocted. She wiggled it in front of his face teasingly, sloshing the contents inside.

"Oh, Master," she said, shaking her head, "you didn't seriously think you'd get off that easy, did you?"