Last time…

A large telescope captured the scene on the dock from the top floor of the local chapel. The viewer was none other than Marlin himself.

"Well, well, the fairies have come to town eh?" Marlin mused. "Looks like they've got some new people with them as well."

He turned away from the telescope. The room he was in was dark, quiet, dusty and filled with rotting books. His eyes traveled to a spot beside the door of the room, where a creepy guy in a business suit was sitting on an aging box. "Lee, be a dear and investigate them, will ya?"

"Leave it to me." The businessman replied, bowing politely. With that, he left the room, leaving Marlin to himself.

Chapter 14: The Woman Who Wields Her Sword

Back in Magnolia, the sun was rising, bringing out the birds and the townspeople.

Wendy Marvell skipped down the cobble stone road, happy as ever. Her white cat companion, Carla, was by her side as usual, judging anyone with a ten foot radius.'

The two were on their way to see what treats were being sold at the town shopping center. She wanted to surprise the gang and get a treat of some sort.

She paused in her tracks as she noticed a woman with strikingly red hair walk through the shopping area, a large bag in tow.

"Carla, I thought she wouldn't be back until later this week?" Wendy said, voice trembling slightly.

"Well, it looks like she came back a little early." Carla replied. Taking note of the trembling in her friend's voice, she continued. "Why? I thought you liked her?"

"I think Nate is going to be in trouble..." Wendy said.

Wendy was Natsu's adoptive little sister, and she had taken notice of how often he'd been out of the house when he normally would be home. Anytime she tried to visit him at the office, he was out training. She figured it probably had something to do with Lucy.

"Maybe I should go get a strawberry cake instead of a bunch of snacks?" Wendy continued.
She watched as the scary woman entered the very shop she was considering.

"Or maybe not."

The welcome bell chimed as the door to Magnolia Leaf, the best bakery for twenty miles, opened.

"Welcome to Mag-" the young woman at the counter began, stopping short as she came face to face with her most frequent customer. "Red-Chan! You're back!"

"Hi, Claudia." Red said. "Do you have any strawberry cakes ready?"

She smiled as she headed toward the kitchen. "We just finished a fresh one. Would you like a slice or the whole cake?"

A subtle smile settled over her face. "The whole cake and then some."

Moments later, Wendy watched as her fellow Fairy Tail remember exited the shop, bag in one hand and a spoonful of cake in the other. Her eye wandered to the right, finally spotting the blue haired eavesdropper.

Wendy gave her a tentative smile.

Erza nodded towards her and headed off in the opposite direction.

Wendy and Carla exchanged a glance.

"So much for the strawberry cake plan." Carla said.

Wendy sighed. "Come on, let's go back home." She said, heading in the opposite way of the scary woman.

-.-.-

Erza Scarlet, known as Scarlet Titania in the gang world and as Red to the few who knew of her outside of that realm, made her way down the steps into Fairy Tail's main base, somehow managing to eat her complimentary slice of cake, balance a cake tray and walk at the same time. Even outside of the main hall, she could hear the loud clamor of the gang.

As she approached, the attendant outside the door gave her a weary nod as he opened the door.

The chatter paused on her arrival, but quickly continued again.

"Scarlet!" A familiar voice called.

Erza would know that voice anywhere. "Hey, Mai." She replied, walking over to the bar.

"How was the trip?" The white haired bartender asked.

"It was fine," She began, settling into a chair, "I took down a newly formed pocket of the Rip Tide. They were small fry. Don't even remember their gang's name, let alone any of theirs."

She stuffed another piece of cake into her mouth, a small smile forming on her face. "It was so amusing too. The leader said something like, 'I swear on my grave, I—whatever his name was—leader of—their gang name—will kill you myself!' He was dead moments later."

"Cruel as usual. That's good to hear." Mai said, continuing polish a glass.

"What about back here?" Erza asked, changing the subject. She glanced around, noticing a very important person was missing. "Have you seen Nate today?"

Maijin tapped her chin briefly, as if deep in thought. "He's out. He and Steel are going to Bosco to find out if what that guy said was true."

"That guy?"

"I think his name was Brass. I caught him skulking around a couple days ago." Mai answered.

"You think? I thought it was 'cruel' not to remember their names."

"They don't call me Maijin for nothing, Scarlet." She answered with a wink. "I really had to pressure this guy too. He refused to talk for 80% of my treatment." She scrubbed furiously at the plate in her hand. He wised up at the end though, but he still left out a lot of information." She began to pout. "So I had to pull out my most effective methods. Unfortunately I went a bit too far before he agreed to tell me any specifics about the people he was working for, so I only got their location."

"Damn, Mai." Erza said. She opened up her cake tray and cut a new piece. "Hopefully he will be back soon, I had a very important task for him to complete in my absence."

"Oh?" Mai said, perking up. "I'm interested."

"He was supposed to get rid of someone…" Erza began, trailing off. She popped another piece of cake into her mouth. Mid chew, her eyes lit up in realization. "Where's Gary?! He should know if he did it or not."

"Gary was in here a moment ago?" Maijin said, puzzled. "He must've left right before you did."

"He ran out the back as soon as you walked in!" Maijin's brother, Elfman, shouted. To the world, he was known as Rock.

"Eh?" Erza hissed angrily, gripping her plastic fork so hard it snapped.

The top of the fork tumbled to the ground, the piece of cake she was about to eat on its tines. She looked on in horror as it splattered dramatically to the ground.

"Oh my." Maijin mumbled, grabbing another plate to clean.

A low growl rumbled from Scarlet, a fiery aura surrounding her.

"GARY!" She roared.

-.-.-

In the secret escape route leading from Fairy Tail up to the surface, Scarlet's angry cries reverberated through the walls, standing Gary's hair on end.

"Fuck me!" Gary cursed, picking up the pace. "Goddammit, Natsu, I'm going to kill you!" He seethed, running down the hall.

The hall was obscenely long, but he was almost at the exit. He just needed to keep sprinting and he'd make it.

Seconds later, the door behind him sprung open loudly, crashing into the wall next to it.

A large dagger flung past his ear, ruffling his hair and pinning the solid wall in front of him. It stuck out of the wall, wiggling from the force of being stuck in the wall.

A small stream of blood trickled down his ear as a few hairs floated to the ground. Gary touched his ear hesitantly, gulping down the huge lump in his throat as the sword wielder stormed towards him.

"Trying to get away, huh?" She snatched him by the skin of his neck, seeing as he did not have on a shirt.

He winced in pain. "I'm sorry!" He cried, struggling under her grasp.

"Sorry won't cut it, Gray." She growled, emphasizing his real name.

Said man's eyes bulged out of his head.

"Help!" He yelled to no one in particular.

She relinquished her grip on his neck and dragged him by his knicked ear back into the main hall. The other gang members looked on, amused. Somehow, he still managed to slip everyone off, especially pointing his offending finger in the direction of Elfman, the man he'd been sitting with prior to Erza's sudden arrival. She noticed and pinched his ear even harder as she pulled him through a door at the back of the room, leading to the main office spaces. She wanted answered, and she wanted answers now.

Elsewhere, Natsu was sneezing up at storm.

"Ew, stop sneezing in my ear!" His partner, Steel, complained to him through a microphone.

"I can't help it, metal breath. Must be something in the air." Natsu replied, wiping his nose with his arm.

Although it was several hours before their mission would commence, he and Steel were casing the bar, apparently called The Seaside Tavern, in preparation for Lucy and Levy's arrival. They managed to find both of their partners dresses not long before, so all that was left to take care of some protective work on their side while the girls got dolled up. Natsu was tucked away in a patch of bushes across the street, peering into the establishment with a telescope. Steel on the other hand was checking out the merchants just around the corner, as they too could hold key information.

"Luce, you there?" Natsu whispered into his ear piece.

Silence poured in from the other end. He clicked his tongue.

"Hey, Lucy? Can you hear me?" He repeated, a bit more gruffly this time.

"Yes! I'm here." She responded, a tad out of breath. "Not sure what was happening with the microphone."

"Right…" Natsu replied. "Well, be sure to be dressed and down here in an hour. I'm in position, and Steel…" he paused, glancing to the pierced man.

Steel glanced up from the metal trinkets he was inspecting, obviously annoyed. The woman behind the stand smiled at him intently, as if he was the first customer she'd had in a while. Steel gave Natsu a look.

Natsu sighed. "He'll be in position in ten." He watched as Steel turned his attention back to the stand before continuing. "I'll contact you and Bluey again soon."

"Roger." Lucy responded.

Natsu sat fully on the ground, attempting to get comfortable in his hiding spot. He pulled out his disposable phone and dialed a number.

It rang for a full minute straight. No answer.

Back at Fairy Tail, quite awhile had passed since everyone had last seen Scarlet and Gary. Everyone in the gang's main area seemed to have forgotten about the unfortunate encounter—except the people involved of course.

"Oi, Elf-nii," Mirajane whispered, "Why did you do that to him?"

"Well," he said, leaning onto the bar counter, "He beat me in a game of checkers by cheating, so I needed to get back at him."

"So mean." Mira replied, shaking her head.

"Serves him right!" Elfman laughed, taking a swig of the beer in front of him.

-.-.-

Inside of Erza's office, Gray was maintaining a strict silence in front of the brash and dangerous woman.

"Look," She said, pulling a sword from the wall behind her and stabbing it into the floor, "This could all be over if you just told me what that pink fool did this week."

"Look," Gary began, tensing in his seat, "I didn't see him at all this week. I don't like him. Why would I keep tabs on that hothead?"

"So you blatantly ignored an order from me just because you don't like him?" She countered, gripping the handle of her sword tightly. "How interesting."

Gray's mouth set in a straight line, preparing for whatever she was about to do to him. He looked on quizzically as she relinquished the sword, the dangerous aura surrounding her fading rapidly. She inhaled a sharp breath.

"JAYLA!" She screamed, causing the man in front her to wince in pain.

"Hey! Don't call her!" Gray fussed, suddenly looking distraught.

"Gary's got something very important to tell you!" She continued, smiling devilishly.

Gray's hair began to stand on end. His Juvia senses were tingling.

"He's been c-h-e-a-"

"STOP!" He yelled.

Erza paused, obviously satisfied. "So, you're going to talk now?"

Gary paused, looking down at the floor.

"Scarlet-sama, you said something about Gary?" Jayla said from the other side of the door.

"Yes, fine!" Gray whispered, hiding behind the desk. "Just get her to go away!"

Erza smirked and patted him on the head. She strolled from behind the desk over to the door. Gray ducked all the way to the ground in an attempt to hide himself.

"Sorry, Jayla." Erza began, "I was mistaken."

"Aww." The blue hair woman said, disappointed. "Have you seen him today?"

"I heard he's at home sick." She replied.

"Oh no!" The love-struck woman gasped. "Jayla has to go see him at once!" With that, she turned and sped away.

"Take your time at the store! Be sure to bring him lots of snacks and love!" Erza yelled after her, waving at her fleeting figure.

Gray gripped his fists, silently cursing the red haired woman. She shut the door, looking quite devilish indeed.

"How could you?" Gray said, peaking over the desk to make sure his stalker was really gone.

"Your fault for not telling me what I wanted to know." Erza shrugged. She pulled another sword out from an unknown location and pointed it directly at her comrade. "Now talk."

Back in the bushes next to the Bosco pub, Natsu sneezed yet again. "Damn that Gary," Natsu cursed to himself. "He's definitely snitching."

He sighed. "Luce, how's it coming?"

Seconds later, Lucy chimed into the earpiece. "Great. We're ready when you are."

"Excellent." Natsu responded.

As long as this went well, everything would be just fine. Natsu would just have to put a little bit of semi blind faith in Lucy. She seemed like she could handle her side of the job. This was a simple information gathering after all.

Yo! I'm back from my hiatus. I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but I hope it was worth it. I really wanted to get it up before 2017 ended (for me) and I succeeded! To everyone reading, happy new year! Please leave a review below if you feel like it. I had a really rough semester, so it'd make me feel better!

P.S. I'm thinking of changing my name. I feel bad about it because I've been "af1-chan" for so long, but I think it's time for a change. I dunno, you'll find out if I change it soon enough. Just keep an eye out for my story name, not my user name.

P.S.S. I hope your new year is everything you need it to be. My best wishes go out to all of you!

Love,

Af1-chan