Thank you to every one who read the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one!

Chapter 76

Nirvana Arc - End

Shelly

I've worked for Heart Kruez Mansion for several years. When I started the building was owned by Irene Scarlet. She used it extensively along with her immediately family. Wendelyn Marvell visited often as well, though I had little interaction with her.

I originally got the job because of my own health problems. I had been in an accident which left me with a very bad limp. On top of that, the medical bills were far higher than anything I could ever cover. I was alone in the world. My father was dead, and my mother was no where to be found. I took a gamble and applied for a position as a maid at Heart Kruez Mansion. I pretty much failed my interview. I was in tears on my way out, that's when I met Irene. I had a conversation with her where I explained everything I was going through. She hired me on the spot.

When I first met Wendelyn I didn't know who she was, or at least who she was in relation to me. She always seemed like a cold-hearted woman, very different from the motherly woman that was Irene. That's why it was a surprise when I learned she had a daughter. No, not just one daughter, several daughters, and I was one of them.

I debated quitting when I learned this but chose to stay. Irene was free to be friends with whoever she wanted. They were business partners, but at the end of the day, I worked for Irene, not Wendelyn.

Then Irene sold her shares of Heart Kruez to Wendelyn, and with it all her properties in Fiore. Suddenly, I was working for Wendelyn. Wendelyn went on to downsize massively on these properties. She sold a lot of them, but she kept this mansion. She eliminated much of the staff but kept me. To my surprise, she even gave me a raise. She rarely used the mansion, so it was a surprise when she suddenly showed up with her boyfriend to use it.

Now, here I am, standing right next to my own mother holding a tray with a variety of medicines on it. She was sitting at her desk inspecting each bottle. It's only been about a day since Nirvana was stopped, and she's been complaining about her neck hurting ever since she got back.

"Don't ever fall out a window." She advised me, "It hurts like hell."

"O-okay?" I wasn't that sure why she would be telling me that. That seemed like common sense.

"If someone throws you out the window though." She picked up a bottle, "You send them to the grave."

Wendelyn opened the bottle and pulled out the recommended amount of pills to take. She got into a huge argument about this earlier with the doctor. I was impressed that he was able to talk back to her. He witnessed what she did to Siegrain yet was willing to argue with her. She ended up listening though.

Speaking of Siegrain, I spied him at the door. He knocked on the frame.

"What do you want?"

Siegrain seemed to struggle to find the words, "I…I wanted to…apologize."

Wendelyn leaned back in her chair with a coy smile, "Aw, come to say sorry to mommy?"

Siegrain exhaled in annoyance.

"You're going to apologize to your big sister too, right?" Wendelyn reached over and rubbed my arm.

I looked at Wendelyn in surprise. She never once before gave in the inclination of knowing we were related. I had my suspicions that she knew. Irene had told me that she was aware of all her kids, but for one reason or another didn't want to be a part of their lives. I was always skeptical of this though, so to hear it so plainly from her mouth, I was surprised.

Siegrain didn't seem surprised though, "Yes…I am sorry. Both of you. The way I acted…was unbecoming of someone like me. I will pay to have the building repaired."

"Don't worry about it." Wendelyn replied, "I don't need, nor want your assistance."

"No, I insist!"

Wendelyn shook her head, "I already decided. That's it."

"But."

"No buts." She replied, "That's it, end of conversation. Now, more importantly...have they found his corpse?"

Wendelyn wore a devilish smile as he asked Siegrain this very disturbing question. If what I heard is true, she got into a major fight with a member of Oracion Seis. The battle ended in such a way that they couldn't find the other combatant. They've been searching for hours now.

Siegrain paused for a moment and replied, "They found him. He's alive but in critical condition."

Wendelyn frowned.

"Well, that's disappointing." The room fell silent.

"Uh…Miss Wendelyn..." came a new voice.

Behind Siegrain was Natsu. He was waiting rather awkwardly by the door.

"You're dismissed." Wendelyn waved Siegrain away, "How may I help you, Mr. Dragneel?"

Siegrain scrunched his eyes at Wendelyn, but left, nonetheless. No doubt, this conversation didn't go the way he expected. I would think it went better than he should have expected. After all, it seemed that Wendelyn didn't take the attack personal at all.

Natsu walked in and stopped in front of her desk.

"Did you…learn your magic from a dragon?"

The air around us grew stagnant. There was a hint of regret on Wendelyn's face.

"I did."

"Then…do you know what happened to them? Igneel, he taught me Dragon Slayer Magic and seven years ago he just disappeared!" Natsu exclaimed, "And the dragons that taught Wendy and Gajeel also disappeared seven years ago."

Wendelyn raised her hand to stop Natsu from talking, "I was trained a long time ago. Way before you were even a thought. I have no idea what happened to your mentor."

Natsu went silent. I could see the pain on his face. He really did want to find this Igneel fellow, but Wendelyn simply didn't have the answers he was looking for.

"That form you used, was its Dragon Force?"

Wendelyn nodded her head in affirmation.

"How do I use that?"

"Well, for a first-generation dragon slayer you would need to eat a powerful source of your magic. If you were second or third generation, you could just use the lacrima to unlock that form."

"Third Generation?"

"People who were both trained by a dragon and had their lacrima implanted into them." She explained, "I'm a Third Generation Dragon Slayer."

Natsu stood in place in thought, "Could you train me?"

I raised an eyebrow. Wendelyn wasn't the type of person I would want to be trained by. She was scary to say the least. Though, I guess she must have known things Natsu didn't. Things that could come in handy later.

"No." Wendelyn replied simply, "Now, is that it?"

Natsu was visibly upset, but continued saying, "I'm not sure if you're the right person for this, but I'd like to put in an order from Heart Kruez."

I knew for a fact that Wendelyn was not the person who took orders for her company. I expected her to give him directions to contact a sales representative, but instead she pulled out a pen and paper and took his request! Natsu gave her the details of his order.

"I'll have it shipped, free of charge, and throw in a discount on top of it."

"Really!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Consider it from one dragon slayer to another." Wendelyn replied, "Thank you for patronage. Now, if you will excuse me, I have other matters to attend to."

With that, Wendelyn rose from her seat. She rubbed her neck as she exited the room, and I followed her out. The rest of the day consisted of me helping to pack her things to be sent to other locations.

The guilds were just getting ready to leave when I got the chance to speak with Siegrain one-on-one. He was helping his teammates get all packed up, not that they brought an awful lot with them. We were standing outside the mansion, a safe distance away from the damaged sections of the building.

"So, what's going to happen with you now?" Siegrain asked.

I gave deep sigh, "I have no idea. Wendelyn says she may furlough everyone…"

"I'm sorry. I really did mess things up for you."

I shook my head, "You were being manipulated. It's like she said, you weren't in control of yourself."

"That's…very mature of you."

I smiled teasingly at Siegrain, "I AM older than you, you know."

Siegrain smiled back, "How long did you know?"

I gave him a puzzled look, "Know what?"

"About Wendelyn? Did you know she was…your mom?"

I paused for a moment before I corrected him, "She IS my mom. And I found out a few years ago. I found out shortly before Lady Irene sold her shares to her."

Siegrain fell silent.

"Is something wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just thinking."

At that moment, a limousine pulled out in front of the mansion. I recognized it as the vehicle Wendelyn was using to get back home. It pulled up in front of us and rolled down its window. Wendelyn peered out and looked me dead in the eyes.

"Are you almost done?" She asked.

I was at a loss for words. Was she waiting for me? I wasn't planned to be accompanying her anywhere.

"We're going to be late, if you don't hurry up." She continued, "Your luggage is already in the trunk."

"Wh-what?"

"Oh, right!" Wendelyn laughed, "I'm reassigning you to my beach front mansion. It will involve a little more work, but I'm sure you can handle it."

Now I was really at a loss for words.

"Sorry Siegrain, no work for you."

"I think I'll survive." Siegrain dryly replied.

She turned her attention back to me, "Well, are you getting in?"

"Uh, yes. Yes!" I quickly hurried into the vehicle with Wendelyn, "Goodbye."

"Take care." Siegrain said, waving me off.

With that, I shut the door and the limousine drove away from Heart Kruez Mansion. In the vehicle, Wendelyn was already pouring herself some wine. She pulled out another glass and offered me some.

"Are you sure?"

"Enjoy yourself a little, girl."

I graciously took the glass. I took a sip of the wine. It was a fine wine, obviously very expensive. I had wine of this quality before. Heart Kruez was well stocked with it. On very rare occasions, the other workers and I would indulge in it.

"Irene hired you, right?"

"Yes, almost a decade ago I would say."

"You must miss her."

It was true, I did miss Lady Irene. She was always a kind woman around me. She had two little kids who she loved very much. Her presence in the mansion was very much missed.

"She had such a good life. I don't know why she would give it all away." Wendelyn continued, "I miss her too."

Rustyrose

I leaned back in my seat on the train. A smile was adorned on my face. Our mission went flawlessly. Besides the fight against Phantom Lord, I hardly had to lift my finger on the mission. Even knocking out Racer was no problem. He was already restrained and ready to go. It was truly a blessing that Zero showed up, he distracted the legal mages long enough for us to recover the artifact we were after. Kain and I truly had an easy mission.

Speaking of the large pale man, he entered our cabin and sat down across from me. He had an assortment of snacks in his arms. I reached over to take one from him, but he quickly turned away.

A knock on the door prevented an argument.

"Please go away," I said, "We didn't order any service."

"Won't you please let me in, Rustyrose?" Came a feminine voice.

I didn't recognize the voice, and we weren't supposed to interact with anyone on this train. I glared at Kain. He wasn't supposed to so much as leave the cabin, but he didn't want to listen. Now we might have trouble on our hands.

"I think you have the wrong cabin, ma'am."

The woman ignored me and threw the door open. What I was greeted to was a young woman with long brown hair wearing a long black coat. What was most striking about her though, was the black tattoo that ran down the right side of her face. It was almost like a thunderbolt. I got an eerie feeling from this woman.

She shut the door behind her and sat down next to me. She smiled deviously at both me and Kain.

"It's an honor to finally meet you." She said.

"Whoareyou?" Kain asked very fast between bites of his food.

"Don't speak to me." She replied, "Fat ass."

Kain squinted his eyes at her and reached for Mr. Cursey. To his, and my shock, it wasn't in it's usually place on his person.

"Looking for this?" She said as she revealed her hand. In it was the voodoo doll.

"How did you?" I began.

"Let's get to business, boys." The woman threw the doll to Kain, "I have something you want."

"Excuse me!" Kain shouted, ready for a fight.

"Kain!" I replied, wishing to avoid a fight, "Let's hear what she has to say."

"Oh, thank goodness, at least one of you is smart." She said as she ran her hand down my cheek, "As I was saying, I have something you are looking for."

"And what would that be?" I grabbed her hand and moved it off my cheek.

The girl pulled her hand away from me and pulled a cylindrical container out of her jacket. She handed it to me. I looked at her puzzled but opened it anyways. Inside was a small, black bone.

"What is this?"

"The last key you're looking for."

"What?"

"Master Hades is looking for the keys of Zeref, right?"

I didn't recall any keys being bones, but then I wasn't given the full list. It dawned on me though, we still had no idea who this woman was.

"Who are you?"

The girl giggled to herself, "My apologies, I guess I jumped the gun. I'm a liason from Tartarus."

The woman removed her jacket from her shoulder a bit to show. I watched as she bared her arm to us. Upon her shoulder was the guild mark of Tartarus. She lingered with her jacket down for a few more moments before replacing it.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch." Zera replied, "We recently came into possession of it, and our Guild Master decided it would be best to hand it off to Grimoire Heart."

"But what do you want in return?" I asked, "There's no way you're just giving this to us."

The girl chuckled to herself, "All we want, is good relations. What with the arrest of Oracion Seis, we figured it would be good to tighten our bonds?"

It was a good deal. I had no idea if this really was a key of Zeref, but Tartarus has never given us reason to doubt them. What they lacked in strength, they made up for in information. In the past they had given us the resources to build up the Seven Kin of Purgatory.

"Well, I must be going now." The girl said as she stood up, "I do hope our guild's can be friendlier in the future. Especially once Zeref is revived."

With that, Zera disappeared from before my eyes. The door was wide open, yet I never heard it open…in fact, I never heard it close. I looked out the door but found nobody. I shut the door and sat back down.

"W-we should call Master!" Kain said.

"Agreed."

Thank you for reading. This concludes the Nirvana arc. Please let me know what you thought of it. What do you think of Wendelyn? How about the involvement of Grimoire Heart. Let me know what you think in a review!