Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)


Chapter 28: Fiery Manipulation


The next day, Sting and Lucy were sitting at a table in the Sabertooth guild while having some plates of waffles covered in maple syrup for their morning breakfast. They had planned to train hard today, but none of the jobs looked promising in terms of rewards or having the potential to be dangerous and exciting. Sting had already checked the board before him and Lucy had gotten some breakfast, and the white dragon slayer still could not believe that the people in his own guild were leaving him with leftover jobs.

He even thought about going over to the guild of Fairy Tail to look for some decent jobs to do, but then Sting pushed that thought aside while he knew that there was the possibility of Natsu being there today. He did not want to get into any kind of drama with that idiotic guy, and the other members in the Fairy Tail guild may not be so kind to see people from Sabertooth walking into their guild to take jobs from their request board. Still, with all the hate directed at Natsu, could anyone besides him possibly hate Sting?

Speaking of people who were able to wield flames, Sting was still very impressed by how Lucy had beaten Bureizu on the island yesterday. Those two new spells that she used were known as fusion spells, moves that were on a higher level than the primary eight moves of each type of magic, and Sting had noticed how the fusion spells were much more powerful than the basic eight moves that Lucy was able to use. She could probably make a few more of those awesome fusion spells, but she would still need lots of magical power.

Fusion spells required much more energy, even needing more power than the eighth spell of every type of magic, and Sting had noticed how Lucy nearly passed out after they went to her room on the ship known as the S.S. Aqua. The non-spell ability of Fire Magic, however, allowed her to inhale some candle flames on a chocolate cake that was on the food cart. Lucy had felt revitalized, which was a good thing, but the fact that she had passed out was a sign to Sting for him know that enemies could not be underestimated and toyed around with now.

Also, in order to use fusion spells to their highest amounts of power, him and Lucy would have to be in an area where she could easily refill her magical power with the non-spell ability that went perfectly with the type of magic that she was using. For example, she could recharge her Lightning Magic in a place that was like a power plant. It would certainly help Lucy become stronger, and her spells would become stronger as well. This was certainly a great strategy for dealing with enemies, and Sting smiled a bit while seeing no flaws in his plan at all.

"Even though all of the best jobs on the request board have already been taken again, let's not be down because of that. Sting, we could just use this as a simple day of training for us. After all, that battle yesterday really showed me that I need to work on my skills some more before we decide to take on anymore criminals. Bureizu could have only been a slight taste of how tricky these next few enemies can be, so we'll have to be pretty cautious." Lucy told her boyfriend with a happy smile on her face while blushing, before cutting her waffles with a knife and fork.

Sting replied in a calm manner, grinning a bit while confidence made its way into his charming blue eyes, "Don't worry about a thing, Lucy. You're right, though. We do need to work on your spells, and we have to get your amount of magical power up to a higher level. We can definitely train today, and I will definitely help you turn that Fire Magic into something that would leave Bureizu and Natsu speechless. Your flames just need to be hotter like you are, and they need a nice ignition for them to blaze past anybody."

Lucy giggled a bit from hearing Sting's funny puns about her Fire Magic, always liking the many jokes that he could make about whatever was in her book, and he had even once said that her Wind Magic would be pretty useful for defeating enemies behind her by having Lucy break wind. He also let her know that the Water Magic in her spell book would never leave anyone thirsty while they were getting attacked by it, but Lucy had playfully told him that her Water Magic made some real blasts instead of a total splash. (I know my puns might be corny, but don't judge me.)

With Sting both set on improving this Fire Magic, wanting it to be at its best, where in the world could they go to test it out? Asking Natsu for any help at all would be like dealing with an explosive drama queen, and they certainly did not want to have to go through anything else with him. There had to be a pretty great place with some fire for Lucy to eat, and it could not just be somebody's campfire. It had to be large amounts of fire, a place that would be like an amazing kingdom of flames, and it also needed to be pretty hot.

Suddenly, a pretty good idea entered Sting's mind. He knew that neither himself or Lucy could win in a fight with power alone, and that appealing event in the Grand Magic Games had really given people a chance to show off their skills while making them look pretty good as well. If Lucy could make her spells look great while giving them some high amounts of power, then she would have nothing to worry about. Every good mage did need a sharp sense of creativity in their moves, after all. Being simple would lead to getting nowhere, right? With this great idea causing Sting to maintain his confident grin, he focused on finishing his breakfast while waiting for his girlfriend to finish hers as well. Whatever he had planned, it would certainly be brilliant.


Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...

Wanting to put her plan into action, Thorn had now entered the Fairy Tail guild in her teenage form. She had her purple hair down while trying to not look suspicious, and she simply had a happy look in her eyes that were red like blood. She wore an orange top with a yellow miniskirt to match it, wanting to definitely look like any other girl who wanted to join the second-best guild in Fiore, and her act would probably work. Since everyone was on high alert for Karen, Thorn would not really be such a big issue at the moment.

She scowled a bit while looking around in the guildhall, remembering how Mavis had made her erase the guild insignia of Fairy Tail from her body, and Thorn was intent on getting her revenge against the place that had ousted her. She had been such a successful mage back then, completing all of her jobs without any problems arising, but it was still frustrating to know that she had been kicked out of Fairy Tail in the end. Thorn had been one of the strongest people in the guild, and she was also an S-Class mage.

However, with her past life now behind her, Thorn was only focused on her plan to annihilate Fairy Tail. While she knew that Lucy would definitely be getting stronger, Thorn also knew that she could also create spells that would be sent to her glorious book as well. She would be indirectly doing a collaboration with her descendant, and the woman of darkness would be proud when the book became completed. While she would call it the beginning of the world in a darker atmosphere, some people might call it the complete ruin of the world.

As Thorn scanned the guildhall with her blood red eyes, she knew that a strategy had to be made for this little guild to be in quite a panic. It was simply like playing a game of chess, you know. If she wanted to win against the guild that had excommunicated her, then Thorn simply had to eliminate some of its pieces. Some people would prove to be more challenging than others, but every good antagonist needed to start somewhere. Of course, if she was to stay in disguise, she would need an ally to stand by her side and turn the guild members against each other when the time came for it.

She spotted Natsu Dragneel sitting at a table by himself, pretty much doing what he did every day, and the depressed look on his face was enough to make anyone leave him alone. Even Lisanna had not been talking to him today, believing him to still be the insensitive jerk who tried to make Lucy feel jealous because he wanted to bully her, and Natsu let out a depressing groan while slamming his head down on the table. His head was hard enough to rattle the table, shaking his large cup of hot chocolate, but Thorn had used the shadows to hold up the cup before it could fall over. As Thorn proceeded to walk over there, she was startled by Mira's sudden appearance.

"Hi, there! My name is Mirajane Strauss, and I'm one of the barmaids in the Fairy Tail guild. I'm also Master Makarov's assistant, so I can help you with whatever you need. Are you an interviewer for Sorcerer Magazine, or would you like to join our guild?" Mira asked in a polite manner while smiling at Thorn, after introducing herself to the girl with violet hair.

Thorn responded calmly with a few lies of deception, despite looking more freaked out than manipulative by how nice Mirajane was to her, "I would definitely like to join the guild known as Fairy Tail. I actually rooted for you during the tournament, and it's a real shame that Fairy Tail lost by such a wide margin. I'm sure that my powers could definitely take your guild to the top, and it would certainly never come crumbling down into the dust."

Upon hearing Thorn's supposed words of enthusiasm, Mirajane could only smile at the fact that the Fairy Tail guild would be getting a new member. She had already gotten the Fairy Tail stamp and the color kit from the counter, just in case Thorn had indeed been wanting to join the guild, and Mira had happiness in her blue eyes while asking Thorn about what color the insignia should be. Thorn calmly let her know that she wanted the guild insignia on the back of her left hand, and she wanted it to be violet like her hair. Mira happily understood that, and she now made Thorn technically become a reinstated member of Fairy Tail.

As the white-haired woman curiously wondered about what Thorn's name was, since that had not come up at all during the conversation, Thorn simply let Mira know that her name did not need to be spoken in such a public setting. She deliberately misled the older Strauss sister to believe that her name sounded slightly similar to a swear word, and Thorn did not want anyone making fun of her for it. Understanding her situation, Mira simply walked away with a smile on her face while being happy about a new person joining the guild.

With that interruption now out of the way, Thorn was now back to what she needed to do. She was going to gain the trust of Natsu, and what better way was there to play someone than by playing with their emotions and getting them on her side? She was going to make a pawn like him become pretty useful in her game of chess, at least until she found it necessary to throw him out when she no longer needed him to be her puppet. On top of that, he was so sad right now from beginning to realize that it was all his fault that he lost Lisanna's interest in him.

Natsu did look pretty sad while drinking his hot chocolate, and he was experiencing the depressing feeling of guilt right now. His actions had not only made him lose Lisanna, but they had given him such a bad rep with almost everyone in the Fairy Tail guild. Being a total jerk to Lucy, only wanting Lisanna to show her off, choosing his pride over a woman, and wanting to steal Lucy from her boyfriend just to bully her were definitely on the list of things that had made the fire dragon slayer become really infamous. As he drank his hot chocolate, Natsu looked pretty curious when he quickly looked up from his cup to see a new girl sitting across from him. She smelled like red roses, which was pretty sweet for someone who was so evil.

"If Lisanna has been telling you bad things about me, then go ahead. You can laugh at me everyday, if you want to. I'm Natsu Dragneel, the fire dragon slayer. Right now, I'm not so fired up. I acted like a total jerk to all my friends, and nothing can fix what I did. They'll hate me forever. I was so arrogant and prideful, putting myself before my own girlfriend, and apologizing to her is useless because it always blows up in my face." Natsu told Thorn in a gloomy tone, before going back to drinking his hot chocolate.

Thorn replied nicely while still maintaining the cheerful look in her blood red eyes, as she blushed a little bit, "I don't know who Lisanna is, and I just got here. You looked really sad, and I thought that you might need to talk with someone new to get rid of your worries. My name is Thorn, and I think that I have a way to help your reputation. You just have to work with people on jobs, and show them that you're not a jerk at all. Once they see how helpful you can be on missions, you will definitely be forgiven."

Upon hearing those words and seeing the nice smile on Thorn's face, Natsu knew that he had finally found a new partner to make Team Natsu become a team once again instead of being a solo act. The fire dragon slayer couldn't help but have a goofy grin on his face, and he seemed even happier when Thorn pulled him over to the request board to look for a job. She quickly chose one, a specific job that the shadows had put up while Thorn distracted Natsu to keep him from paying any mind to what had been going on behind, and Thorn ran out of the guild with her important pawn.

While she was running, however, Thorn did not notice that Elfman and Evergreen had seen her run out of the guild with Natsu. They found it really uncouth of Natsu to be running off with another woman, from how the situation looked to them, and Elfman knew that a real man always had to protect a woman from getting her heart broken by a guy who was seen as nothing more than a backstabbing user who would do anything just to make himself look good. Upon remembering what Natsu had done to Lisanna in the shower, since it was seen on the break day of the Grand Magic Games, Evergreen also found it necessary to protect another girl from being defiled by a guy like Natsu. Both of the mages ran after Natsu's team, but they did not know that Natsu was not the manipulator for once.


Elsewhere, in Makarov's office...

Gray had come to see Makarov about an important matter, and the ice mage had wanted to do his part in the situation. Cana and Lisanna had told him about how Karen had made impostors of the four girls in Team Sweet Melancholy, and Gray had remembered seeing that woman with the silvery-blue hair. She had come from the shadows to take Darcy away, after the violet-haired girl had laid a beating on Juvia and Gray without even really breaking a sweat, and Gray had been wondering who that woman was.

He had never thought of that woman as being evil, seeing her more as suspicious, but he was not here to talk with Makarov about Karen Melancholia. Gray was actually here to discuss the matter of the spell book wielded by Lucy, the blue book that she had used when they fought in the library during the survival tournament on the final day of the Grand Magic Games, and he had been very intrigued by it. Ever since he had seen the tag-team battle where Natsu got his butt kicked by both Thorn and Lucy, Gray had to wonder if that book was the one that went missing from Fairy Tail.

Gray had asked Makarov in a calm tone, hoping for some answers about that strange book, "Master, if you don't mind me asking, could you please tell me about the book that went missing from Fairy Tail? It's really important to our guild, right?"

Makarov responded in a kind tone while smiling a bit, before stretching out his right arm to gently pat the ice mage's head, ""Well, I suppose it would be all right to tell you about the book. It was created back in the X600s when the First Master was the guild master of Fairy Tail, and that book was made by a mage named Thorn Heartfilia. The history books consistently say how she was an exceptional sorceress for Fairy Tail, having mastered the eight forms of the infamous types of Demon Magic, and that magic was rumored to be lost forever."

"You're saying that the book that went missing from here is filled with all of her spells, Master? Well, what color is the book?" Gray asked curiously while looking a bit stern, hoping that the book Lucy had was not the one that Thorn used to have.

"Yes, it's filled with all of the extremely powerful and restricted spells that she created from using the blood of demons that she defeated. She used their blood as ink to write the spells whilst putting many abilities into that book, such as how it reacts to emotions and unlocks spells for its master when necessary. She wrote the spells for each type of magic in eight different languages of olden times, words that we do not use today. She even gave unorthodox curses to the book, such as altering the spells to coincide with the heart, emotions, and wishes of its master. As for the color of the book, I can't tell you. The stories vary on that, and it's hard to tell facts from the myths." Makarov continued, remembering what had been said about this woman from many history books.

Gray looked astounded to know that someone would put all those spells and curses into a book, especially by the fact that a spell book could choose its master. On top of that, she created spells from the abilities of the demons she had defeated. He had to admit that Thorn was impressive, but the fact that the color of the book changed so much had made Gray think that Thorn's book had actually split into eight separate books because of some kind of curse. Well, that would explain why Lucy had an orange book at one time instead of a blue one. Had the bookstores been selling them? (I know that Gray's assumption is way off, but it's mostly for some humor to this serious discussion.)

The ice mage asked out of curiosity, wanting to go further into the mysteries of the book, "Well, what happened to Thorn? Did she die, but leave her book here for someone to find it?"

"Well, Mavis had seen the vicious and destructive power of her spells. She didn't want such evil in Fairy Tail, so Thorn was kicked out. It can presumed that she didn't take kindly to that, since the legends speak of the earth roaring and shaking while lightning and darkness came down upon Fiore. The heavens descended in a cataclysm, the winds caused destruction, the seas raged with coldness, and great storms of fire nearly caused the end of the rest of Earthland. Her beauty was like a sweet-smelling rose, but her dark personality certainly did put a few thorns on the beauty of Thorn. She was killed by Mavis using Fairy Glitter in their showdown that decided the fate of the world. However, Thorn's book survived. The light of Fairy Glitter created shadows, perfect for Thorn's spirit to merge into. It's assumed that the black spells were made from that happening, and they are how she lives on. Her book won't work for anyone, however. The rumors say that only the one who unseals the book can use it." Makarov explained sternly to Gray, not telling him that Natsu was beaten down in the tag-team battle by the darkness of Thorn.

After all, the guild was rowdy enough as it is. Makarov had never thought that the dark power of Thorn would have been awakened, and he had never imagined that the book's seven seals would eventually break. Those seals had been used to keep Thorn in check, keeping her evil powers shackled down, and those were known as the Seven Good Elements of Purity. The Eighth Element of Impurity was Thorn's darkness, and it was also known as Shadow Demon Magic. She was not necessarily taught by a demon, but she certainly had the powers of one.


Inside of a volcano...

Lucy and Sting had arrived at a volcano known as Reversal Mountain, and they had gone down through the mountain's entrance to the first underground floor. The interior of this volcano was filled with magma, clearly stating to anyone that it was an active volcano right now, and that was perfect for Lucy to improve her Fire Magic. With all of the magma flowing within the volcano, along with some pools of bubbling lava that was sure to be flaming hot, this was definitely the place for anyone who could take the heat.

Sting had known that this place would really help Lucy improve her Fire Magic, and he simply stayed on the staircase of rocks leading up to the entrance while Lucy walked towards one of the bubbling pools of lava. She used her non-spell ability of Fire Magic to inhale some of the lava, feeling how burning hot the volcanic lava could be, but she swallowed it to gain more energy. It did not damage the blonde mage's body at all, since the book converted all of that lava into magical power, and a red aura surrounded Lucy's body.

She stretched her arms out, having both hands next to each other with her palms facing outward, and Lucy looked pretty fierce while calling upon her emotions as she opened the red spell book once again. Lucy narrowed her cocoa brown eyes while imagining the third fusion spell of Fire Magic in her mind, but she also knew that power would not be enough for a fusion spell to be really effective. The spells had to look their best as well, and using them in an appealing manner would also make Lucy feel pretty proud of herself.

The blonde mage decided to test out a new spell that was known as Fire Demon's Blazing Flowers, and its effect sounded pretty cool to Sting. He liked how this spell seemed like one of Lucy's trump cards, something that could make villains laugh at a first glance but then be begging for mercy in a matter of seconds, and the white dragon slayer had to wonder what would come out of it. He noticed that Lucy looked like she wanted to let out a burp of some soda that she had gotten on the way to Reversal Mountain, but what came out was completely different from gas bubbles.

Lucy unleashed a powerful beam of spiraling red flames from her mouth, and the beam immediately took the form of a large ring of fire in midair. The flames were dancing around in the ring, and they also had the interesting effect of making fireballs jump out of the lava to jump through the fiery ring. With each ball of fire that came through the ring, the flaming ring divided itself. If three fireballs jumped through the ring, three rings of fire would now appear in midair. Lucy could command them to go up, go down, and even tilt. They could burn through anything that they thought, and those three rings had actually multiplied the explosiveness of the spell when Lucy commanded the rings to detonate.

An enormous explosion of fire transpired within the mountain of magma, but Lucy quickly inhaled all of the flames to make sure that Sting would not get hurt. The sound of the explosion shook some of the rock walls, and the Fire Magic had greatly combined with the hot lava to give Lucy a pretty great boost in power. She smiled happily at the fact that she had made her third spell of Fire Magic look pretty good, but the flames had actually come more from Thorn's power. These were known as her four trump cards, and Lucy had filled in the space for the third one.

Sting told Lucy in a calm manner, as he saw the red aura go away from Lucy's body for the Fire Magic to possibly recharge, "It wasn't much training, but that spell looked pretty good. It looks like you could use it offensively, defensively, and for when you probably have to get large blocks of ice out of your way. Besides, let's see what your other spells can do when you get that aura back."

Lucy replied nicely, as she looked curious when she saw that her hands were no longer engulfed in the red aura, "Maybe these fusion spells just need me to eat enough lava for them to be used in succession instead of just relying on my emotions and magical power."


In some ancient ruins...

Thorn and Natsu had taken a job that supposedly involved capturing a criminal in the ancient ruins near the Desert Resort where Lucy had defeated Suna, but this was actually the first of Thorn's traps for getting rid of Fairy Tail. She had led Natsu here to get him distracted, and the ruins were actually pretty confusing. Taking one path inside of these ruins led to a crossroad of paths, and choosing a path would be pretty difficult. However, Thorn was pretty sure that the first step of her plan was going to succeed.

She had saved Natsu from a few quicksand traps in these ancient ruins, and Thorn had also informed Natsu that she was able to eat flames like he could. Natsu had been providing light for himself and Thorn in the ruins by making flames engulf his fists, giving her a great source of light, but the violet-haired girl had used the Magma Liquid spell, to make some explosions transpire. Their fire gave Thorn something beautiful to look at while she walked through the ruins with Natsu, and the sounds of her explosions had certainly caught the attention of Elfman and Evergreen.

Those two Fairy Tail mages were tailing Natsu's duo from behind, not wanting Thorn to be a victim of Natsu's manipulation, and Elfman hoped that Natsu would be enough of a man to actually let Thorn know how much of a bad guy he truly was. Evergreen also looked stern while noticing that Natsu was trying to hold Thorn's hand. He probably did not even realize it, but his hands did tend to get in many places. Natsu was also wondering how far they would have to walk in these ruins, since they had been walking for a pretty long time now.

As the fire dragon slayer was about to turn a corner, Thorn looked pretty serious while grabbing his left arm with her right hand. She had actually known that Elfman and Evergreen were following them, most likely wanting to see where Natsu would be taking the new girl, and Thorn could not let them find out that she was actually the one in control of Natsu right now. She was the one taking him on their little "date" through the ruins, but the fact that some uninvited guests were here was actually a cause for celebration.

The violet-haired girl quickly turned around to use her Fire Magic to create seven fiery rings in midair, making a straight chain line with them, and this was part of her fourth fusion spell. She proceeded to look scared while telling Natsu that she heard the criminal's footsteps coming from behind, meaning that the supposed villain was following them, and the fire dragon slayer immediately looked angry while telling Thorn that no one would lay a finger on her. He unleashed his Fire Dragon's Roar, making the beam of fire be unleashed from his mouth, causing both Evergreen and Elfman to look shocked.

"Natsu, what in the world are you going to do to her?! We're not criminals, you idiot! A real man doesn't use my sister to make anyone jealous to bully them, so you can save your explanations for someone who cares to-" Elfman exclaimed angrily to Natsu, wanting to get back at him for what he had done to Lisanna, until the fire shut his mouth.

Natsu's attack grew exponentially in size, as it passed through every ring of fire, and it was also growing in power as well. The Fire Dragon's Roar had now turned into a massive beam of fire, something that even Elfman's Lizardman Take-Over could not endure, and the speed of the attack was unbelievable. Elfman thought that he was going to get hit for sure, until he suddenly heard Evergreen scream in pain from being hit by the powerful attack. It completely consumed Evergreen, burning her with Thorn's devilish heat majorly involved in the attack, and Thorn knew that there was no way for anyone to survive that.

Elfman knew that he had to save Evergreen, and he looked pretty intent on doing that while rushing into the path of the beam while he grabbed his brown-haired partner. They were both feeling the intense pain from Thorn's heat, and the beam crashed straight into the wall before creating a large explosion of fire! It made a gaping hole in the ruins, before letting some more major parts of the wall crumble, and Natsu could only look utterly shocked at the fact that he had just annihilated his own nakama with an incredibly powerful spell.

"Elfman... Evergreen... What the hell did I do?!" Natsu shouted angrily while clenching his fists, tears starting to well up in his eyes.

Thorn thought to herself while standing behind Natsu, smirking evilly before going down into his shadow for him to have no evidence of blaming her, "Natsu, you simply trusted me and helped me unleash Fiery Ring Chain. It powers up other spells of Fire Magic, making them go in for the kill. That's two pests down, and only a few more to go."


How was the 28th chapter? Did you like it? I apologize for not having Elfman or Evergreen put up a big fight, but let's just say that they only got a taste of Thorn helping Natsu. However, the attack did not kill them. It merely sent them blasting off like Team Rocket. I won't reveal much about the next chapter, but standby for the update!