"Sometimes I still can't believe this counts as normal here." Victor said dryly, glancing at a number of his guild mates as they brawled.

"Just give it a little time. It's actually a lot better to let things run their course. At any rate, Master certainly seems angry and I don't think it's because of them..." Freed noted.

"Oh, it isn't." Carla walked over with Wendy, Hope, Levy and Lily, the first having caught that. "Wendy and I heard him telling Mira how the meeting about the battle with Scorpion Blade went. He seems less than impressed with their response. Master's in a bad mood because he tried to see if he could be allowed to meet with some of the members."

Hope gave her a curious look "Do you know why?"

It was Victor who answered "Actually, it's because of you. We heard a few things from Cameron and...well, we told him yesterday. He thought of asking to talk to some of the members so Erza and I agreed to wait and see how that went before we explain. There's another reason he asked you to join them, Hope..."

After he recounted their talk with Cameron, Levy began to think "So...we were just going on guesses because Hope wouldn't have known but it sounds like he really was the Altair's direct descendant all along..."

"This is a problem. The first lead and we can't even use it with the Council blocking us." Freed crossed his arms.

"Master Makarov mentioned something about them not allowing him favors, apparently they brought up how Scorpion Blade's ally is still on the loose." Wendy informed.

After questioning some members, it was revealed that Scorpion Blade had merely been assisting in the theft of the silvanus lacrima shipment. The instigator was an ally, one who had helped them come so far. However, they couldn't get a name or even a hint as to their identity.

"That's uncalled for, where do they get off?" Levy frowned.

'I couldn't agree more. Normally, I don't like to count on such a source but it was our only choice. We would have at least had a starting point to go on.' Endymion remembered Yajima's warning about the guild's relationship likely deteriorating with the new Council but he didn't think they'd do something like this.

"Exactly..."

"It's fine." Hope interjected. He was a little disappointed but also skeptic. Like his partner, he didn't think relying on their word would have been a good idea. Truthfully, he wasn't sure he would've known how to deal with the situation even if a lead had turned up. He was coming to terms with the past but it was still a touchy subject. It meant a lot to him that Makarov had tried so either outcome would have been okay. "I appreciate your concern but there's no helping it so let's leave it at that." There was no point letting this bring him down. "Anyway..."

"Gah!" came a few strangled cries.

Lily blinked "What...?" He flew up to take a look at the first floor, one group had been knocked out while the rest's action came to a complete stop. "Everyone's stopped? What just happened?"

Endymion noted Gildarts standing in the middle of the first group before Hope did a moment "Oh, it's Gildarts...Now this makes sense."

Levy nodded "None of them are crazy enough to pick a fight with him."

"Natsu-san already did." Wendy recalled.

"Right...I don't see him anywhere though. Maybe he learned his lesson?"

"Fat chance, Levy, he's down with the group that fought Gildarts." Victor stated.

"Why am I not surprised?" Carla sighed as some of the rest sweatdropped.


Gray raised an eye as Gildarts concluded his tale of the recent excursion "That makes it sound like you've done three jobs, not one."

The man chuckled "Nah, it's like I told Hope, I just helped people."

"So what was this weird thing that happened on your way back?" asked Happy.

"About that..." Hope spoke before he could answer. He had been sensing something odd but very familiar about the crash mage for a while now. The boy could think of one reason behind that. It was time to clarify his suspicion.

He held up a hand and concentrated a little magic on it. A couple of seconds later, something flew out of Gildarts' pocket before landing on Hope's spread palm.

Lucy's eyes went wide at the sight of the glowing violet shard. It went without saying that the reaction showed everyone what this meant. "You found one?"

"Apparently..." Gildarts appeared just as thrown off. "...I wasn't sure what it so I figured I'd ask around. Who knew? So how many does that make, Hope?"

"This is the last one." The boy answered before placing it right over the pendant. The shard immediately went into the vacant center area. The pendant shone for a few moments before it stopped.

Cana raised an eye "Anyone else thinking that's kind of anti-climactic?" She noted a few people raising their hands before continuing. "Yeah, thought so...I don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't this."

"It's not so simple..." Hope paused. "...the magic really increased. It's way more steady now but unstable too."

'Well, after all this time it might be that the shards' power has to balance out.' Endymion guessed.

"Could be," Makarov agreed. "There's a lot we don't know about it anyway so we'll just have to wait and see."


A few days later...

The members of Team Natsu (with the exception of the dragon slayer himself and with the addition of Lily, Gajeel and Rebecca) had gathered at the team's training spot beyond the forest's end.

Lily and Erza were facing off in a sword fight while Hope and Wendy polished their techniques. Rebecca was busy working Erza's recently given tips accordingly with her style while she trained with Lupe. Lucy was training her summoning, checking the effects of her work with Capricorn. She had summoned Gemini and Lupe (Loke came of his own power upon learning) and was currently talking to the first.

No matter how he thought of it, Loke just couldn't tell why.

He had plenty of experience with mages who were proficient in different types of magic. What puzzled the spirit was that for some reason, Hope's light magic reminded him of something. Loke couldn't be sure just what that was but he couldn't shake the feeling.

Gray braced himself, facing Gajeel with a smirk "Think you can take me on, Gajeel?"

"Oh, please." The latter gave a similar expression. "Don't go acting tough, Snow fairy. I'll be breaking through your ice like I do with glass."

"We'll see about that!"

Happy and Carla sat on a tree branch nearby, not missing the interaction. "Odd, I thought Natsu would be here by now. He would like every part of this."

"Yeah, I know. It was weird. He went to get something from our home but all he would tell me was that it was a surprise." The blue exceed remarked.

"I wonder what that could be..."

"Well?" Gemini prompted.

Lucy exhaled "Oh, all right..."

"Gate of the Water bearer, I open thee! Aquarius!"

The mermaid appeared after the usual flash of light and bell chime. She wore a frown as she crossed her arms "What do you want now, brat?"

"We're kind of running a little test, I wanted to see if I could summon you now. Just consider it part of Lucy's training." Gemini offered.

She raised an eye but shrugged eventually. The mermaid spirit would never admit it but she was relieved that Lucy was striving to become stronger.

"Fine, whatever. Now that you've had your test, send me back. I was on my way to see Scorpio..."

"Oh, it's Aquarius!"

The three turned around to find Rebecca approaching with Lupe, the first beginning to smile as she continued. "So did he like that bangle?"

"Didn't the brat tell you? Well, he did."

Lucy had asked Rebecca to make a present for Aquarius to give Scorpio for their anniversary. The mermaid spirit (who was surprised by the whole thing) had grudgingly accepted but there was no denying that they were all impressed by the girl's skill.

"Great..." Rebecca noticed the key in Gemini's hand. "...hold up, you can..."

Gemini gave a smug grin "My abilities also include copying the person I turn into. So summoning when I transform into Lucy is a piece of cake!"

"Really? Nice!"

"Gemini has enough of a big head, let's not give his ego more of a boost, shall we?" Lupe remarked.

"Hey!"

Lucy's lips twitched "She's kind of right." Ignoring Gemini's indignant huff, she went on. "Anyway, good timing. Since you brought that bangle up..."


Aquarius frowned as she saw Gemini talking to the girls and exhaled. Well, she figured it couldn't hurt to stay a little longer. Besides, hearing about this training from the other spirits had her a little curious so it was about time she sees it for herself.

A minute later, she would come to like her decision. Why? Well, one of the reasons was what happened next.

"I see you haven't changed a bit."

Loke blinked and turned his head, stiffening when he saw "A-ah, Lupe! Fancy meeting you here..." The wolf spirit gave a flat look and he immediately guessed that she heard him flirting with Lucy a few minutes ago. "...how's tricks?"

Lupe remained unimpressed though "...I doubt I'll ever understand what she sees in you, dear fearless leader."

"You wound me! I assure you I do the best for all of us."

"Funny, that's what you said last time." Yup, she definitely wasn't giving an inch. Loke knew why too, his flirty tendencies irked her because of the consequences they caused years ago. He could safely say Lupe was one of the most intimidating spirits he'd ever seen, even when she wasn't even trying to be.

"I'd say it's more like best for you here though. You're obviously the same playboy, huh?" Lupe didn't even blink as he began to stutter a response. "Never mind, the answer's clear. I'll just give you a little reminder. If you hurt her again, leader of the zodiac or no, I will make sure you're in for a world of hurt, got that?"

"Loud and clear!" He returned.

A bewildered Lucy watched him go back to the Celestial World and Lupe go over to Wendy and Hope."What was that?" Noticing Aquarius observing with a smirk, she continued. "Ah, any chance you can tell me?"

"That big mouth told you about me and Scorpio but he never said a word about Lupe, huh?"

Lucy blinked "Actually...he was acting a little funny when I mentioned her key. He just pretended that it didn't happen and Scorpio just laughed hard about the whole thing."

"No surprise there. Lupe's actually best friends with Aries. We used to think Loke and Aries would be getting together, but then his playboy attitude made another come back and ruined the whole thing. Of course, that landed him in plenty of trouble. Lupe's been keeping an eye out ever since...well, you can tell how that's going." Aquarius remarked.

Lucy placed a hand on her forehead as she sighed. She knew Lupe's protective nature well enough by now so her response wasn't really surprising. The celestial mage figured that the only reason she herself hadn't been included in Lupe's threat was that Loke's flirting had no effect on her.

All in all, she had to say Loke had it coming.

"...You know what, he's on his own."

Aquarius chuckled "Knew you'd see it my way, brat."


That situation being one reason, as it so happened, the second reason took place minutes later.

"Aquarius?! What're you doing here?" Happy wondered.

"Gemini decided to summon me. Got a problem, blue cat?" She demanded with narrowed eyes.

"N-no, ma'am!" He responded, hiding behind Hope afterwards.

"...You really need to watch your mouth, Happy." Lily advised.

"Salamander never showed up in the end." Gajeel leaned back a wall.

'Hm, whatever made him miss training must be important.' Endymion stated, both knew fully well how much Natsu liked those rounds.

Little did the phoenix that he would wind up taking his words back very soon.

Why, you may ask? Well...

"Knowing that brat, you'd probably wind up doing more without him around." Aquarius remarked.

"That's not..." Hope never got to finish because that was when the ground around them was struck by a barrage of fireballs that stirred up a dust screen.

Lily's eyes widened "What was that?!"

Happy and Wendy cried out when they saw a monstrous figure with glowing red eyes appear in the screen, looming over them. They hid behind Gajeel and Hope when the creature gave a powerful roar.

Gajeel's eye twitched "You've gotta be kidding me..."

Hope looked exasperated "Not this again..."

Endymion knew that they had caught on and so kept his attention on Wendy and Happy 'It's all right, you two. That's not what you think it is.'

Aquarius raised an eye "Meaning?"

"Hang on a sec." Gajeel transformed his arm into a pole before he waved it horizontally, with enough force to dismiss the dust screen around them. This revealed...

"Natsu-san!?"

"You've got five minutes to explain, Salamander." Gajeel scowled.

'Starting now.' Endymion added.

"Ah, it's just..." Somehow seeing the phoenix talking in that neutral tone unnerved him more than Gajeel glaring and angry behavior. He wondered how that worked.

"Natsu-san, that was mean!" Wendy pouted.

"Yeah! We prank everyone together, why'd you do it on me?" Happy whined.

The cat blinked when Aquarius picked him up, noticing everyone looking at him then "Come again?"

"A-ah, I didn't mean...I'm sorry." Happy hung his head.

"Good."The mermaid let him fall.

"Oww..."

"I warned you," Lily said idly.

"Oh, lighten up it was a joke!" Natsu blurted at the unimpressed looks coming his way.

"Yeah? How about I do something that makes me laugh?" Gajeel cracked his knuckles.

Hope frowned at Natsu before speaking "Well, I can start you off with something that will help." He felt bad about his idea but knowing Natsu's liking for pranks and how he it could go through various means, everyone in the guild agreed that it was safer to cut him off before he got some momentum. Unfortunately, that tended to require some forceful measures.

He knew fully well that none of them had any shot of stopping Gajeel and Aquarius from retaliating. Freezing the two would only delay the inevitable and likely make it even worse. To be honest, Hope did think Natsu was asking for this.

With that thought in mind, he lifted his arm, revealing that he had frozen one of Natsu's fire balls when it had flown that close to him.

"You're kidding, right? The moron eats fire!" Gajeel reminded.

"Not his own fire." Hope looked satisfied at the glimmer of interest he saw then. "But for the final touch..."

He surrounded the ball in a sphere of light. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm actually impressed, Bird boy. Hand it over and I'll make sure he gets burned." Gajeel declared.

Aquarius lifted her urn "And I'll douse him afterwards."

Natsu blanched, Gajeel was one thing but Aquarius? He'd rather fight Erza. "Er, can't we talk about this?"

'Well, everyone?' Endymion asked.

"No." was the consensus.

'That's what I thought.'

Carla looked unsympathetic as she noted Natsu stiffening "It serves you right."

"Come on, we'll leave them to it." Hope told the others.

"Time for some pay back." Gajeel stated with a growing smirk.


Gray, Lucy, Rebecca, Victor, Makarov and the Strauss siblings burst out laughing at the end of the story.

"Oh, man that sounds hilarious! I wish I was there!" The first admitted.

"M-me too!" Elfman managed through his laughter. "Hope's the MAN!"

Mira gave him an amused look "Well, this might be one time I agree with you."

"No wonder Aquarius looked so pleased with herself..." Lucy mused. "...That really doesn't seem like something Hope would do though."

"Oh, it wasn't. We talked him into that." Makarov informed. "Natsu deserved it anyway and after one of the pranks lead to him getting sick, it was either this route or let Endymion handle it."

"...Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Knowing the phoenix like they did, Lucy understood at once that Hope was the better choice here.

"You'd think Natsu would learn after last time though." Lisanna shook her head.

Wendy blinked "This happened before?"

"Yup, seeing as Natsu and Happy..." Lisanna aimed an incredibly unimpressed look at the exceed, who shuffled nervously. "...went on a pranking spree around the time Hope and Endymion joined up. When they decided to try a big one on us, Hope turned the whole thing around before they actually knew it and it must've given them a surprise because neither of them tried anything for a long time."

"And I've never been more glad to know Hope since." Gray added happily.

"Yup, the kid's brilliant." Makarov nodded, looking proud.


"Oh, so that's what it was..." Lily trailed off upon hearing from Endymion that Hope had been wondering if leaving Gajeel and Aquarius to it had been a good idea. The phoenix had reminded him of the agreement and told him not to mind that. "...I'm with him on this. You worry too much, Hope."

"It was just a thought...Natsu's pranks wind up in some harsh punishments and from what Happy and Lucy said, Aquarius-san sounded extreme." He explained.

'Fine, I'll give you that much. But my point still stands, he brought it on himself and he should pay for his actions. It's nothing for you to concern yourself over.'

"Exactly, he deserved it." Carla stated. "Besides, we all know how Happy can be over-dramatic sometimes."

"That's true..." Thinking back, Aquarius really hadn't seemed that bad to him.

The teen found himself distracted when a clearly irritated Natsu sat down on the couch across from theirs. "Thanks a lot, Hope." He grumbled sarcastically.

Lily spoke before the teen could respond "...Natsu, even if Hope hadn't done a thing, do you really think the rest of us would have let you off so easily?" He didn't receive a response. "Good. It was your own fault anyway. You were repeatedly told to lay off."

"Hey, it's good fun..."

"Really?" Hope shook his head, it was clear the punishment hadn't done much of anything. "Then would you consider the fact that I happen to remember a bunch of stuff from the prank books Gray destroyed and am perfectly able to test them on you good fun?"

"Wha...you...I..." Natsu spluttered, not expecting this in the least.

That seemed to be enough of an answer for the templar, who gave a bemused look "I thought so."

The surprised Carla and Lily exchanged looks and smirked. Endymion chuckled, you'd have to be deaf to miss the implication here. Lucy, Gray, Erza, Gajeel and Gildarts happened to catch the exchange and started laughing a result.

Gajeel barely managed to restrain his own amusement as he draped an arm around Hope's shoulders. "I'm starting to really like you, Bird boy."

Hope merely smiled "So what were you saying before?"

"Oh, right! Come on..." The two headed to the second floor.

"That. was. priceless." Gray snickered. "See, Lucy? This is one of the reasons why Hope's peacekeeping attempts work a good amount of times."

"Clearly." She responded, smiling. Even if he had to deal little with the same craziness on this basis, Hope was still one of her most sensible friends. So what if he had to resort to handling things with aforementioned craziness? It was obviously working.

Happy knew that Hope's response was because of Natsu's attempted defense for the pranks. He knew very well how creative the boy was. Now the exceed liked pranks too, but inciting retribution of that sort was detrimental to one's health. "You were asking for it, Natsu."


"Maximum sweet strawberries? Ah, from that job..." Mira trailed off as she remembered.

Wendy nodded "Carla and I tried planting a bit of our share and they're really growing. I think they'll be ripe soon."

"That's a good idea, Wendy..." Lisanna started to say.

"Good? It's fantastic!" Both girls almost jumped at the voice, sharing a bewildered look as they saw that Erza had arrived. "That's very well done. Wendy, would you possibly be willing to spare me some berries once they're ripe?"

The young dragon slayer had almost forgotten how much Erza liked strawberries. She smiled sweetly at the redhead "Sure, I'll tell you when."

"Thank you!"


Well, that's that. Sorry if the characters seem a bit Ooc but I really wanted to try this.

Quick notes:

-With everything that went down with the shards, I figured it would be different to find one this way so here we are. The pendant's complete again, yes. But it won't be working normally for a while because of the reason stated above.

-About Loke's hunch regarding Hope's light magic...it's actually thanks to it reminding him of another mage. One he met a long time ago. He just hasn't realized that yet.

-Okay, I might have went out there with Aquarius but she was perfect for what I had in mind. She's basically decided to give Lucy and the others some slack because of the anniversary present, something that paid dividends for her.

-Just to be clear, Natsu(and sometimes Happy) like to try pranks occasionally, but those occasions were drastically reduced thanks to the punishments they cause. So everyone in Fairy Tail agreed that while they can be harsh, the punishments were a good deterrent. That's exactly what convinced Hope. That...and well, if Endymion had a shot back then, it would have been bad for them. So yeah, Hope was the safer option and both Natsu and Happy know that. I did say Endymion can give an angry Erza a run for her money, right?

Thanks to everyone who kept up with this story. Please leave a review.