"Have you missed me, Precious?" I heard in the darkness. I kept turning my head and trying to find where it came from to no avail. I knew exactly who the voice came from, and that alone terrified me. Running from it was all I needed to do.

"W-where are you?" I shouted, panicked. I stepped backwards, still looking for where it came from. Without warning, one hand clasped under my chin and one on my stomach. I latched onto the arm that wound around my waist and attempted to burn it, but my power would not come through.

"Closer than you think... June, is it now? My, how I adore that name of yours. So fitting for your... Heat," he whispered in my ear. "I need a new name myself, don't I..? What... Pleases you?" His warm touch crept from my stomach up my chest, my chin to my hair.

"G-get off..."

"I'm thinking Oberon... A king of fairies... Hey, you're one of those now, right? That would make me your ruler."

Hands grabbed my chest and my hair. I was powerless, terrified, and speechless.

"There's a fairy queen in the guild, too, isn't there? Erza? I think when I'm finished with you, I might start analyzing wizards... She should be the first, don't you think?"

"Enough! You won't hurt anyone here!" I finally yelled. Still latched onto my breasts and my hair, he jerked me around to face him and slammed us both down onto the ground. Through the stars in my eyes and the darkness of the room, he was close enough now for me to see. Dark blue eyes gleamed hungrily at me against tanned skin. Brown hair was streaked with blue, and a glistening, white smirk streaked his face. He was strong holding me down, a strength that I painfully remembered.

"I'll hurt whoever I damn well want to, Whore. Need I remind you of who made you come to realize your abilities? Who loved you before anyone else? All I wanted was you... All of you... And you had to run away. I would have made you happy before it all, June. Pleased you. And after your pleasure, the experiments would have been seamless. You would have been fine with me. But instead, you ran. You found yourself a new team. A new man. I think before I find, love, and kill you... I'll go for him. Yolric... What a hero. He won't sound like it when I get my hands on him."

Before I could even choke out a word, I heard screaming.

Yolric's screaming.

I listened as he struggled. As he begged, pleaded for not his own life to be spared, but mine. I heard every blow that was made to him, images of where and how he was being hit flashing through my mind. A spear to the leg. A dagger pierced and drug down his arm. A sword to his stomach. His cries for help only grew weaker and more desperate.

As I writhed underneath Oberon's weight and cried out against the darkness, Yolric's last words hit me like an arrow.

"Look what you do... Oh, Ruby Blue..."

I woke up screaming out Yolric's name as he held my shoulders. The look in his eyes was panicked, scared. As soon as I looked into them, I felt a numbing calm. I quickly latched onto his blonde hair and pulled myself into him.

"I've got you... It's okay," he crooned, rubbing my back. "Who was it?"

I could only shake my head. Knowing what I meant, he hugged me closer into his chest. Perspiration was dripping down my whole body while it shook, still in shock. I wanted to tell him what I had seen and heard, but my mouth would not form the words. I could only sit in silence as Yolric whispered sweet words in my ear.

"It'll all be okay, my dove. No matter what, I'll be here with you. We are safe here... Just think, one day maybe we can have a home... A family of our very own, free from worry. Then it'll all be worth it."

I pulled back from him ever so slightly and softly kissed him. Even though he worried so much for me, he never worried without cause. He knew how to calm me, to make me feel safe. Through the calmness, I began to notice how sore I was from the fight from the previous night. I was about to comment on it when another person flashed through my mind.

"Where's Erza?!" I panicked, jerking away quickly from Yolric. He looked back at me, stunned and confused.

"Her and Lucy, Natsu, Grey, and Happy all just left on a job. What's going on?" Yolric replied, gently holding my aching shoulders. Shrugging him off, I jumped out of the bed and looked down at what I was wearing. Same clothes as the night before. No shoes, jacket in the floor. I quickly grabbed the jacket and ran out the door barefoot as Yolric yelled after me.

I went as fast as my feet could carry me down the long flight of stairs, taking two and three steps at a time and shrugging my jacket on. When I came to the common area of the guild, I felt a few questioning eyes on me as I ran through them all and out the door. The group was just barely in eyesight, only dots on the horizon. Not wanting to lose sight, I activated my pendant and was in front of them in what couldn't have even been a second. I put one hand out and sheathed my armor with the other hand, heart beating out of my chest. All of them excluding Erza looked at me as if I had scared them to death. Erza herself only looked slightly concerned.

"Where'd you come from?!" Natsu yelped.

"Erza... You can't go..," I panted. She raised an eyebrow and her face hardened ever so slightly.

"June, what's wrong?" Lucy asked, stepping forward and resting her hand in my arm and then jerking away. "You're freezing!"

"That doesn't matter! I need you to stay here, just for today, Erza," I continued, feeling more and more sweltering heat.

"Why?" Erza questioned plainly. I had no idea how to explain it. I couldn't just worry them all about a dream I had. It could just be a dream, right? But Oberon was dangerous. Surely Erza would be able to take him on, but he was crafty. He would have his way before she even drew her sword. On the other hand, I didn't want them to think that I had brought evil with me. I hadn't, had I? It was just me and my team that came here... Right?

"I-I... I have a bad feeling... About you running into trouble..," I stammered out. All of the others let out a sigh of relief, again, except for Erza.

"I know you know a little about all of us already, but you haven't seen Erza in action. If anything, your bad feeling is for whoever gets in her way," Grey joked. Natsu and Lucy smiled and nodded in agreement, and Happy let out a confirming "Aye!". I was about to assure them that what I felt was valid when another person came up and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry, guys," Darren grinned, "she's sort of out of it from last night. She needs a little more rest. Come on, June!" With that, he put his arm completely around my shoulders and ushered me off. I tried a couple of times to turn back around, but Darren would just keep making me walk back toward the guild. I could feel him tense up as I became more and more upset.

When the group was out of eyesight, I forced my way in front of Darren and shoved his chest. "What the hell, Darren!" I harshly questioned. He flinched slightly when I did so, but reflected an air of annoyance back at me.

"I should be asking you the same thing. We've been in this guild for less than a week and you've already picked a fight and now you're trying to worry people?! Usually you're the one telling me not to do this crap! What are you trying to do, expose us?!" Darren hissed back. He was always the one that never minded getting mad at me. I never thought anything of it until now. Honestly, his words stung a little.

"I just don't want them to go through what I did, Darren. I saw him in my dreams last night. He's calling himself Oberon. He said he was going to go after Erza after I was out of the picture." Darren considered this for a moment and then put out his hand, wanting to know if I would let him see what I had dreamt. I took it and put it on my forehead and his eyes immediately lost their focus as he began to see something else. His expression slowly became somber and, without warning, he jerked away. Sweat had beaded up on his forehead, his green eyes gleaming with worry.

"Okay... We don't know if this is even true or not."

"Darren!"

"But, we have options here. The people in this guild are strong. They can help us fight if it comes to that. Until then, we need to wait for Xavier to see something. While convincing, it could still just be a dream. If it's not, he'll see it soon. I see why you're worried, June, but we can't speak of this to anyone. Let's just hold onto this until we absolutely have to let go."

I opened my mouth to object but then decided against it. Darren was right, I shouldn't blow everything out of proportion just yet. The sight of Oberon just chilled me so much that it made me abandon my senses. Biting my tongue, I nodded and kept walking towards the guild.

"No offense, June, but you look terrible," Darren noted, drawing us away from the previous topic. "You clearly have a fever, too. I'm not even a doctor and I picked up on that. You feel like an ice cube when you have one."

"Yes, Mom," I joked. I had to admit, now that I was calming down, I did feel terrible. My fever made me feel extremely hot, and along with the extreme soreness of my body, all I wanted to do was go back to bed. At the same time, I knew I was still too wound up to rest.

"I will chain you down if you try to do anything," Darren mumbled, reading my thoughts.

"Didn't know you were into that stuff. Does Cana approve of that?" As soon as Cana's name escaped my lips, Darren stood up straighter and blushed deeply, his neatly combed hair almost standing on end.

"That girl, she's a tough one," was all he said. He usually had such an easy time with girls, but apparently when Cana was sober enough, she gave him a run for his money. Darren could usually read a girl's mind and woo her, but I had a feeling Cana wouldn't let him through.

I let the topic lie as we approached the guild's doors. This time, no eyes were on me as I walked through with Darren. I could already tell that everyone was used to my actions at this point. I looked around the room and found Xavier, who looked up to meet my eyes when I spotted him. Darren and I went over to him as he drank his morning tea. For the first time, I noticed how long his blonde hair had gotten since we had come here. It was down to his shoulders now, pulled back into a ponytail.

"Making a grand escape, Juniper?" Xavier mused, his Australian accent poking through his words. He used to hate the way his voice sounded and would try to speak differently, but it seemed as though this new place made him feel more comfortable.

"Not escaping, just rushing around," I replied as Darren sat down. "Do you by any chance know where Elysia is?"

"I don't think you need to pick any fights today, given your condition," Xavier responded. "Apparently your body doesn't like electricity, it won't heal at its normal rate. Granted, it will get better, but you have to be a human for a bit and rest up. I know wounds and fevers won't stop you, but it's worth a shot."

I took my jacket off and looked at my arms and stomach. Scratches and bruises were placed randomly, my side stitched up. I could see more wounds through holes in my pants, but nothing too awful. "I don't see anything bad."

"Look at your back when you get the chance. Pretty awesome bruising. That's what happens when you get struck by lightning, though I did think it would be gone by now. Don't know why Elysia's magic is any different than anything you've experienced, but I'll do some research. Oh, while I'm at it, I made sure no one else saw your little... Oddity," Xavier continued, pointing to the corner of his lip. I remembered the blood Elysia saw and let out a sigh of relief. I felt like I could trust her with a little information if it came down to it. I continued to look and Xavier until he gave me the answer to the first question I asked.

"Upstairs, left side, medical room. Wendy has been keeping an eye on her. She's not extremely hurt, just a few burns, which I easily healed. She's just tired and a little bruised up at this point," Xavier sighed. I gave a smile and nod as I followed his directions to where Elysia was resting.

I easily found my way to the room where Wendy's sweet, young voice rang out. Elysia was sitting in her bed, legs crossed, talking to Wendy about what sounded like her previous journeys. Wendy looked at her in awe the whole time. I didn't want to interrupt their conversation, but I knocked on the open door anyway. The two immediately stopped and looked over at me. They both smiled widely when they realized who I was.

"So nice of you to check on an old enemy," Elysia joked, patting the area on the bed in front of her. I walked over to the bed and sat facing her.

"Well, I will let you two chat! Call me if you need me, Ms. Elysia. Good to see you are well, Ms. June!" Wendy chirped, bowing and walking out of the room. When the door clicked shut behind her, Elysia and I looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh.

"I-I've never been an impulsive person, but yesterday I took it so far!" Elysia sputtered out, trying to get a grip.

"I'm the same way... Well, maybe not most of the time, but sometimes," I giggled.

"Well, I'm glad you're so cool about everything. I think this will be great, being a part of a guild. I've always been sort of quiet," Elysia confessed. "See, I have a brother. A twin, actually. He is always so great with people and would break the ice for me a lot of times. He's not about the wizard life, though."

"Second Generation Dragon Slayer, huh?"

"Yeah, I mean, technically... I hate it when people say I'm not a real Dragon Slayer. The thing is... I feel like I have memories of being with a dragon. When I was younger, any time I was by myself playing, sleeping, daydreaming... I would see a dragon. She was so beautiful... Lei was her name. At first it sort of scared me, but then it grew to be as if she was my best friend. I would go out to the ocean every day just to be with her. She taught me everything I know. I kept it all hidden, especially since I looked up to my brother so much and he didn't care for it. But one day... She stopped showing up... The odd thing is that the same day she disappeared, I got this scar on the back of my neck. No one saw Lei, so no one believes that I'm a First Generation. So, eventually... I just stuck with it. I hate fighting with people about it," Elysia explained. It shocked me so much that she told me all of this when I barely knew her. She noticed my expression and looked down, embarrassed. "Sorry, I know that's a lot... But people's stories tell a lot about them."

"No, you're fine! I guess I never expected you to open up to me like that," I quickly replied. Elysia rubbed the back of her neck and sighed.

"Well... The way I see it, someone's story tells so much about them. If you didn't know my story, you would think me being shy and not wanting to fight was sort of odd, especially with me being a Dragon Slayer... I also sort of have a problem with people not believing me. Again, that goes with my story. Oftentimes, the past explains the future, if that makes sense."

"Yeah, of course! I totally get that. So, what happened to your brother?" I asked. Elysia's face lit up as she continued her story. Her brother now worked for the kingdom as one of the king's advisors. She went on to tell me stories of people in her past that had done her wrong, girls that told her that her abilities would never get her anywhere. Despite the criticisms and differences, her mother and brother always accepted her and encouraged her to do big things.

As Elysia told me her story, I began to think of my own team. Vanya had always been open to me about her past, but I knew that there were things she had not told me. As for the guys, they never once mentioned their past and neither had I. We had always been running and fighting, never really having a spare moment to sit together unguarded.

So many aspects about the ones I held dear to me came to mind. Vanya's quietness, loyalty, and strength. Xavier's caring, sensitive, and healing heart. Darren's quick tongue, addictive personality, and fighting spirit. Yolric's loving, worrying, and perseverance. I had no clue what caused them all to be this way from the moment they met me, no questions asked. We had been through a lot together, that was certain. But how well did I really know them?