I do not own Fairy Tail. Sorry that Gray isn't present that much in this chapter, but I needed to set everything up. Enjoy!


Gray stumbled through the undergrowth, trying to keep steady. Images flooded his mind like nightmares. Recent news of what he just heard had come close to making him physically ill. His pulse was racing uncontrollably fast. His heart beat in his cheat like a hammer. Breaths came to him in harsh gasps.

His knees gave in and he found the ground rushing up to meet him. His dug his fingers into the dark ground. His knuckles turned white as his paled face. He had plan on going home tonight, but now…

Deliora… How? I can't…

He slowly pushed himself up and continued to stumble forward. It just shouldn't happen. Gray swallowed the limp in his throat and tried to push the thought far from his mind. No, I just won't think like that. He shuffled his feet forward some more.

Besides, it's not like I'll actually become Deliora…


Lucy held the map in front of her. "It should be somewhere near here." She announced. The group of mages slowly made their way to their new meeting place. This one seemed to be closer to where the unknown forces appeared most frequently than the last.

"Aye, sir." Happy said next to her.

"I'm not a sir." Lucy complained to the feline.

"She's right," Carla said to the blue cat. "Say ma'am instead."

"I hope will finally get a fight!" Natsu pumped his fist in the air. "I'm tired of reading those boring reports."

"You haven't read them." Lucy muttered under her breath. The new meeting hall came into view. "Wow, it's like a real guild building."

Erza nodded in agreement. "Yet only people who know how to get here know its existence. Making it the perfect place for tracking the guild here without them knowing. I suggest we all search around here until we know the grounds, that way we have a better chance at outsmarting anyone."

"That's a wonderful idea." Sherry agreed.

Lyon nodded. "According to the reports, at last one of the unknown forces tends to appear around here once every few days. There's a good chance one could even turn up today."

"It's settled then." Erza stated. Their travel together through the grounds only lasted for so long. All the mages began to argue among themselves.

"Oi, what are you doing?" Natsu asked in an accusing tone towards Nullpuding.

"What does it look like, fairy. I'm sick of having to spend time with you trash. I'm setting traps to catch whatever keeps showing up so we don't have to try more than once."

"Traps?" Wendy asked. "Like runes?"

"Better," Nullpuding said in his gravelly voice. "something that I invented. It's like an animal trap. When they step in it…" Nullpuding picked a stick up to demonstrate and pushed it into the trap. "It attacks them." The mages watched in horror as teeth grew from the trap and encased the stick, splintering it to pieces. "The best art, it works on their own magic energy, meaning the more they try to escape it, the more it hurts.

Natsu clenced his fist in anger as Nullpuding put the trap down. "You're going to use that on people?" The fire mage raged in fury. Fire appeared around his fist. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Natsu sent his fist towards the mage's face.

Nullpuding dodged to the side. "If you don't like it, find the force before the trap does."

Natsu's eyes flashed with hate. Abruptly, the fire mage turned around and walked away from the guild. "Where are you going?" Lucy called after him.

"Isn't that obvious? I'm going to find this damn mage before that coward's trap does."


Aiko sat in the kitchen with Takeshi. Masaru and onii-chan had yet to return, so Takeshi was stuck, as he put it, watching her. Takeshi was in the middle of teasing her when he froze suddenly. "Do you feel that?" He asked her.

"Feel what?" Takeshi said nothing. A look of concentration crossed his face. Aiko focused and tried to feel it too. "It feels mean," she said after a while.

Taleshi nodded. "Sudden spike in demon attacks all at one. Come on, we're going."

"Going where?"

"Too many attacks for Gray and Mace to handle at once. I'll send you to one attack, a minor one obviously. I'll go to another and send a portal near you when you're done."

"Umm…"

"What?!"

Aiko shuffled from her feet, "It's just... I've only ever gone with onii-chan to an attack site. Plus, he says I'm not ready yet."

The teen rolled his eyes. She was way too obedient. "Think of this way, you want to help Gray, right? This way you can make his life that much easier."

"Okay then."

"Good." She is so easy to convince. Takeshi formed a portal. "Now I'll leave a mental communication line up between us. When you're done I'll form a portal same place you arrived at. It'll only be open for a short time, so make sure you get through. Oh, real quick, lets cover your guild mark." Takeshi waved his hand over her arm and the magic circle faded away. A portal formed in front of her afterwards. Aiko stepped through to the other side.

She placed her foot on a soft patch of grass. The looked around her and tried to get a strong sense of where the demon was. Turning to around she followed the feeling. She felt something else too. That feels like magic. Maybe there are mages here? Aiko brightened at the thought, other than the three ahe lived with she never meant another mage. Though Gray had told her a lot about his guild and his friends who were mages. I think he said it was called Fairy Tail?

Aiko turned slightly to the left, continuing to follow the feeling. Should be around here somewhere… Aiko turned towards a snarling sound that appeared behind her. A demon stood a few yards away. She recognized it as one of the minor demons Gray had taken her to see. Though she had only watched him fight it.

Aiko slowly kneeled on the ground, getting into one of the fighting stances she learned. She posed with a hand in front of her for balance. The other slightly behind her, posed like she was about to run a race. The demon lunged at her, jaws snapping. The small girl quickly moves her hand up against the earth, sending a wave of magical energy as she did. A mass of earth came up and hit the creature squarely in its chest. "Sorry," she told the demon. She hated fighting, but Masaru told her demons didn't have souls so it doesn't matter a lot. The demon moved back up and lunged again. Aiko sent another piece of land at the creature and flung it back.

A small grin spread across her face as the demon shimmered and disappeared. "Yay!" She pumped her fist in the air in victory. Aiko turned around and walked back towards where she came. She actually had walked a bit of a ways. Now was it this way… or maybe this way… The earth mage turned around a few times, realizing she was lost. I think it was this way.

The small mage made her way through a small forest. This doesn't look familiar, maybe I should turn around soon. Aiko took a few more steps forward in case she remembered if it was this way.

Something sharp wound around her leg, cutting into her flesh. Without meaning to she unleashed a painfully scream.

Natsu's ears perked up at a scream. Lucy turned around to the direction it came from. "Do you thi-" The fire mage didn't stay around to hear her finish. He ran towards the the place he heard the scream come from. Did that bastard actually catch someone?

Aiko squirmed in pain. She tried prying the teeth of the trap off her leg, only to have to teeth grow and travel up her leg, causing a new wave of pain. Tears were welling in her eyes and blood dripped onto the ground. A cry escaped her lips.

The smell of blood rushed into the dragon slayer's nostrils. He heard a small whimper up ahead where one of the traps must have been set. Natsu pushed some tree breanches out of the way and made his way to where the trap lay. His eyes widened at the sight before him.

A small girl had the trap wound up and down her leg. Blood fell to the ground from the open wound into a small puddle. Natsu kneeled down next to her, trying to stop the bleeding until Wendy got there. The young girl looked at him in fright and tried scooting back. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." If his words had any meaning it didn't show, the girl continued moving away from him.

"Natsu, where are you?"

"Over here!" He yelled back.

Lucy ran towards his voice. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. She dropped to her knees next to the girl, "Don't worry, we can fix that." She tried reassuringly.

New voices called after the two Fairy Tail mages. "Over here," Natsu called again. He looked back at the small, hurt, girl. Lucy was trying her best to calm her down. Though she still looked terrified.

The mages from Lamia Scale entered the scene, shortly followed by Erza and Happy. Natsu looked up at the new mage that enter the area. Nullpuding came closer to the mages. "So I've caught something." The dark mage said in a pleased voice.

"YOU CAUGHT A KID! YOU BASTARD!" Natsu's fist flamed up and he aimed at the mage. Nullpuding's smirk disappeared when Natsu's flames made contact with his face.

Nullpuding swung his arm out at the fire mage. "ENOUGH!" Jura's voice boomed. "This isn't the time for fighting, there's someone injured. NOW TAKE THAT DAMN TRAP OFF!"

"Who's hurt?" Wendy asked, coming closer to the mages. Her eyes widened when she saw the girl in pain. Nullpuding took his own sweet time walking over to the girl, than even slower, and rather roughly, removed the trap. Another cry came from the girl when he did so. Wendy quickly dropped to her knees and began her healing magic.

Aiko froze when the girl with long, blue hair started using magic on her leg. The first mage that had come was yelling at some guy with purple skin. A blonde women and a scarlet haired one kneeled next to her, trying to calm her down. Did these guys set a trap like this for people? What mage would do that? A blue cat sobbed next to her, promising the girl named Wendy would make her better. Is the cat talking? Like the one onii-chan told me about?

Aiko looked up at the mage she first saw once more. A red mark on his arm caught her eye. That's the same mark onii-chan has! She started realizing details then, he had used fire earlier. Is he the Natsu from onii-chan's stories. She looked at the other mages. So the one in armor must be Erza. That leaves the blonde one to be Lucy. Aiko looked down at the blue cat, and this is Happy. A sudden realization dawned on her, no way they could set a trap for someone, they're Gray's friends, they have to be nice.

"Wendy, how's it coming?" Erza asked. Aiko looked over at Wendy. She was trying to heal her leg, but it barely made a difference. The words Gray told her in her training came back the her, the thing about pure magic, the more you use it, the less affect regular magic has on you. Aiko focused on the magic, she remembered him saying afterwards she can let it affect her if she wanted to.

Wendy focused on the girl in front of her. Her magic seemed useless the wound. Relief washed over her when suddenly her magic started working again. "Do you live around here?" Lucy asked the small girl.

"Umm…" Aiko mumbled, not sure how to answer that. She thought it over, didn't Takeshi say he'll leave a mental link between them? Takeshi! She called mentally. Takeshi!

What?

There's a problem.

What problem?

One big enough to make you both regret this. Masaru's voice rang out in their minds. For now, go along with it, Aiko. All those mages around you were sent to look for us. Right now be our eyes and ears. More importantly, most of them are Gray's family, there's a good chance that they're in danger, keep watch over them.

But what do I say?

Make it up? With that their conversation was cut off. The blonde mage looked at her in concern. "Do you live here? We thought this area was free of people."

"Well, umm…" Aiko started thinking of what she could say. "I live here temporarily, just until my onii-chan comes home." It wasn't a complete lie.

"So you live here alone?" The cat, Happy, asked in surprise.

"At the moment."

"Absurd," the scarlet declared, Aiko panicked at the thought of being found out so easily. "If you have no one to live with you can stay with us until you do. Besides, we are obliged to help you now."

"There," Wendy said, tired by using so much magic power. "It's not perfect, but it can't be healed all at once."

"Thank you." Aiko said to the blue haired girl.

"Wendy, you shouldn't over do it." A white cat told the healing mage.

Aiko slowly got to her feet, only to fall back down. Erza caught her before she hit the ground. "Don't force yourself, take your time, you're still injured."

"I'm fine though, really." She replied, getting backup. She wobbled a bit but remained standing. One thing she learned from training with the other three pure magic mages, it was how to be strong. Granted pure magic users tend to heal themselves without them preforming healing spells.

Natsu looked at the young girl getting up. Tough kid, he thought. She was still weak though and only made it a few steps. "No need for that." Natsu told her. He picked her up gently and moved her onto his back, giving her a piggyback ride weather she liked it or not. "So kid, got a name?"

"Aiko."

"Nice to meet you Aiko." He and the other mages made their introductions and made their way back to the new meeting building. Sweet kid, but why would she be left alone?

Aiko listened to the mages introduce themselves. The mages she didn't recognize from Gray's stories were nice too, except the purple one, who slightly scared her. She remembered one of the Lamia Scale mages from one of onii-chan's stories whose name was Lyon, the guy Gray learned ice mage with. I wonder if he's as good as Gray? Aiko thought about it some more. Nah, no one's better than onii-chan.


Nullpuding stayed a bit aways from the other mages. He watched as they entered the meeting building, making sure they didn't see him, he traveled another direction. He hadn't mentioned it, but those traps were magic specific when it came to mages. She had to be one of the mages he was looking for.

The violet mage moved towards a figure waiting for him. "One of them is here." Nullpuding told the figure. "Now where's my part of the deal."

The figure looked at him. "Who makes a deal with a dark mage." The figure stated. In a flash the figure was in front of the Raven Tail. A dark, magic blade was pushed through the stomach of the purple mage. The mage's eyes rolled back into his head and he took his last breath.

Isamu sighed in annoyance, it wasn't the mage he wanted, but this was almost too perfect. He had the perfect live bait. Everyone from his new comrades, old senpai, and most importantly, his guild mates. He'll come for sure.