AN: thanks jamman428, glennlewis2346, TheLoneSpartan117, Kriim-Sauce786, and Goku275. The destruction of Sabertooth has been set in motion, as jamman428 and TheLoneSpartan117 predicted.

Also, a quick note, I recently re-read some Natsu/Millianna fanfiction and realized that they influenced my story. These works were "The Cat of Prey and Her Rescuer" by Awareness_Bringer and "Tales of Fiore" ("A Visit") by vannahfanfics, both on Archive Of Our Own. I just wanted to give them credit, as they inspired some of the earlier scenes in my story.

Without further ado, chapter 12!

Jiemma sat before his subordinates. He was like a king on his throne, giving out orders for the upcoming battle. The members of Sabertooth's GMG team stood in front of the others to receive personal instructions, as befitting of their power.

"Orga, take half of our guild's members and guard the outside of our guild hall from Fairy Tail," commanded Jiemma. "Rufus, take the other half and guard the inside. Minerva, move around the battlefield stealthily and look for any opportunities to ambush enemy mages. Sting, Rogue, come with me for a… special assignment."

"Yes, Guild Master Jiemma!" responded everyone. They immediately departed to their assigned positions, leaving only the guild master and the two dragon slayers.

Jiemma rose from his seat. "Follow me."

He began walking to the guild hall's subterranean level. Sting and Rogue silently obeyed their guild master, following a few steps behind him.

After a few minutes, they arrived at their destination: a small dungeon, complete with cells that nullified the magic of those within. Only one cell was occupied, containing two prisoners.

"In this cell," spoke Jiemma, gesturing to the occupied cell. "Is the wife and newborn daughter of Natsu Dragneel."

The two dragon slayers stiffened at this, shocked. Jiemma ignored his subordinates' reactions and continued talking.

"I expect that Fairy Tail will send some of their more powerful mages to rescue them. You two will stand guard over our prisoners, ensuring that they remain prisoners."

"Pardon, sir," piped up an uncertain Rogue. "But is this truly necessary?"

"Necessary?" repeated Jiemma, as if he could not comprehend why Rogue had asked this question. "Fairy Tail has brought Sabertooth's strength into question! We must prove our superiority by destroying that trash in an all-out battle, and we need bait to lure them into such a fight!"

"But could we not have done something less extreme?" questioned Rogue nervously.

"Natsu Dragneel, while an emotional idiot, serves as a symbol of Fairy Tail's former power! In order to prove our might, we must defeat him in battle! Doing that requires us to target him personally, otherwise the coward may run away like he ran from his guild's S-Class Trial! Do! You! Understand!?"

"Yes, Guild Master Jiemma," replied an intimidated Rogue. The shadow dragon slayer was already on thin ice with Jiemma for coming in third place during the GMG, and he paled at the thought of what would happen if he made his guild master any angrier.

"Good," responded Jiemma more calmly, a smugness entering his voice.

His orders delivered, Sabertooth's guild master left the dungeon, making his way back to his "throne" where he would wait for Natsu's arrival. Jiemma was curious if Fairy Tail's guild master would appear before him as a defeated prisoner or a doomed challenger.

Either way, though, it would end with the dragon slayer broken and defeated, unable to do anything but watch as Sabertooth destroyed whatever remained of Fairy Tail right before his eyes.

With this thought, Jiemma felt a chill run down his spine. He had been getting this sensation ever since the night of the GMG's third day. The guild master just brushed off the feeling as excitement over his impending glory.

Had Jiemma been less arrogant, he may have recognized the sensation as fear. More specifically, fear of the "emotional idiot" that was about to teach him why nobody messed with dragons or Fairy Tail, much less both.

"Ugh, why is Master Jiemma taking these Fairy Tail wimps so seriously?" Orga complained to himself as he scanned the area for approaching enemies.

Him and his guildmates had been standing guard outside their guild hall for roughly half an hour, and they were all starting to get bored. Only the fear of their master kept them vigilant.

Fortunately, they would not have to wait much longer. Within a minute of Orga's grumbling, one of Sabertooth's mages spotted the Fairies approaching.

"Just walking right up to us," noted Orga mentally. "At least they're making it easy."

The Fairy Tail mages charged toward Sabertooth's guild hall, fury written over all their faces. Their guild master was in front, leading their group.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" shouted Natsu, unleashing a massive flame that tore straight through Sabertooth's ranks like a cannonball through a pane of glass. The spell didn't stop until it hit the guild hall, blowing apart the front door.

Natsu and six of his mages took advantage of the hole he made in Sabertooth's defenses, rushing into the guild hall while the rest of their numbers spread out to combat Sabertooth's remaining external forces.

Internally, Orga could only feel relief that the dragon slayer was not staying to fight him. The god slayer decided to focus his efforts on eliminating the small fries still outside and leave the flaming nightmare beast to Master Jiemma.

"Smoke Crush!"

"Purple Rain!"

A barrage of smoky fists and flaming bullets snapped Orga out of his thoughts. Unfazed by the attack, he merely turned toward its source and saw two mages. One had a cylindrical hair style and a pipe in his mouth, while the other had dark blue hair and stubbles on his face.

"Heh," chuckled Orga. "Is that all you got? I guess your guild master's the only strong person in Fairy Tail."

"Natsu may be the most powerful mage left, but nobody in Fairy Tail is weak!" retorted the mage with the pipe.

"Yeah!" agreed the blue-haired mage. "And that goes double when you threaten our nakama!"

"So we'll be taking you down!" shouted both mages in unison.

"Threaten their nakama?" wondered Orga. Master Jiemma had not told anybody the specifics of why Sabertooth was battling Fairy Tail, only that this was an opportunity to prove their guild's might.

"Meh. I bet Master Jiemma said that he would use Sabertooth's position as Fiore's strongest guild to get the Magic Council to disband their guild or something," concluded Orga, shrugging off the words of his enemies.

With that, the god slayer fired a bolt of black lightning at the two Fairy Tail mages, beginning their battle.

"Fairy Tail has gotten past Orga!" alerted Dobengal in a panicked voice. After the guild's performance in the GMG, nobody had genuinely expected them to get past the front gate. The only reason they remained vigilant was out of fear of Master Jiemma.

"Hmm, it appears that we have underestimated those mages," mused Rufus, contemplative. "This makes me remember why Master Jiemma is our Guild Master; he has the most memories of magic and combat."

"What should we do?" asked Dobengal, slightly exasperated by his guildmate's apparent lack of concern over the assault. "Should we gather the others for a counterattack or face the Fairy Tail mages by oursel–"

As he was speaking, a wave of sand struck Dobengal, slamming him into a wall and knocking him unconscious.

"I recognize that spell," noted Rufus to himself. He turned towards the man who cast that spell. "It was your Sand Slash, Max Alors. Here for revenge, I presume?"

"Nah," replied Max in a casual tone, grinning. However, his body was tensed up, indicating his true emotions. "We split up to cover more ground, and I just happened to run into you.

Max shifted into a fighting stance, and sand began to float around his body.

"But," the sand mage continued. "I might as well kick your ass while I'm here. Sand Wave!"

Max fired his spell at Rufus, yet the Sabertooth mage was unfazed.

"Memory-Make: Ice-Make Shield," uttered Rufus. A barrier formed, just like the one Lyon had created the previous day. Unlike then, though, the shield did not break.

"It seems you did not learn how feeble you are from your defeat in the Grand Magic Games," commented Rufus. "I suppose I will just have to carve memories of your weakness into your heart here and now."

As he spoke, the memory mage prepared a spell of his own to fire at his opponent. Rufus did not expect much from this battle, but he did have some hope that it would prove to be a decent challenge. Many people did remember Fairy Tail as a powerful guild, after all.

"This doesn't feel right," stated Rogue nervously. The Shadow Dragon Slayer had tried to avoid thinking about it, but he couldn't ignore that they were holding a woman and her baby prisoner while guarding said prisoners.

"Ugh, why are you still on about that?" complained Sting, irritated. "It's like Master Jiemma says: 'it's the privilege of the strong to do whatever they want to the weak.'"

"But kidnapping?" countered Rogue, growing frustrated with his partner's attitude. "We can't abduct random people just because we're stronger than they are! It's wrong!"

"They're not just random people!" retorted Sting, suddenly furious. "They're Natsu Dragneel's family! That coward was too afraid to take on his guild's S-Class Trial, then got rewarded for his spinelessness by becoming Fairy Tail's guild master! He deserves to be taken down a peg, and this is the best way to do it!"

Then, much more quietly: "Besides, it's not like we're actually going to hurt them. Those two are just bait, and Master Jiemma will let them go once this is all over."

"You're wrong."

The two Sabertooth mages turned towards the person who spoke those words, Millianna.

"My husband isn't a coward," declared Millianna. She couldn't hear what Sting had murmured to Rogue at the end of their conversation, but she heard everything else. "The reason he skipped out on the S-Class Trial is me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Rogue, confused.

"I discovered that I was pregnant with little Erza here…" explained the cat woman, looking down at her daughter with a fond smile. "…just before the trial. When I told Natsu that I had big news, he decided that I was more important than becoming an S-Class Mage and dropped out."

"You-you're lying!" denied Sting. "This is some sort of trick, isn't it!? Natsu didn't take the trial because he was afraid of it!"

"Natsu didn't take the trial because he cares more about other people than some title!" responded Millianna, angered by the dragon slayer's stubbornness and low opinion of her husband.

"Now, let's all just calm down," interjected Rogue, attempting to defuse the situation.

"No!" rejected Sting, his focus shifting to his guildmate for a moment before returning to the captive. "Even if he did skip the trial because of you, that still makes him weak! He gave up a chance to prove his power because he cared more about other people than himself! Like Master Jiemma says, the strong only look out for themselves!"

"That's not true at all."

Everyone present stopped talking and turned to the room's entrance. There stood the speaker, Jet. With all eyes on him, the Fairy Tail mage made a daring statement.

"And you're about to find that out. The hard way."

Natsu charged down a corridor, annihilating every Sabertooth mage he came across without breaking his stride.

When the dragon slayer and his guildmates split up to search the guildhall, Natsu simply moved forward in a straight line. The others were trying to find his family, but Natsu had a different objective.

And, as he reached the end of this hallway, that objective came into sight.

"So, you have arrived, Guild Master of Fairy Tail," boomed Jiemma, his authoritative voice echoing throughout the room. The guild master lounged on his seat, an arrogant look on his face. "I expected you to take longer."

"Yeah, well you're clearly an idiot," replied Natsu, his voice angry but controlled. "Why else would you kidnap my family and demand to fight Fairy Tail?"

"Hmph," snorted Jiemma. "Some fools out there believe against all logic that your is still powerful. I simply wanted to show them the truth. Using your family as bait was the easiest method of accomplishing that goal."

"And you think you can get away with that?" questioned Natsu, incredulous. "Even Fairy Tail wasn't going to thrash you into next year, the Magic Council would be all over your asses for this!"

"No sane people, not even the Magic Council, would dare act against Fiore's strongest guild!" declared Jiemma. "It is the right of the strong to walk over the weak, and weak is exactly what you and your guild are! Other than you, all of Fairy Tail's strongest members are dead! You cannot possibly take on all of Sabertooth with the meager scraps you have left!"

"Don't you dare talk about my nakama like that!" exploded Natsu. "We might not be as powerful as we were, but when any one of us is in trouble, the rest will fight with everything we have to help them out! Our bonds make us the strongest guild there is!"

"Your bonds?" chortled Jiemma mockingly. "Don't be absurd. Caring about others is a weakness, not a strength! Even if it weren't, the fact they you're here to fight me instead of out trying to rescue your family makes it clear how weak those connections really are."

"You're wrong," rejected Natsu adamantly. "I'm here because of the people I care about, to keep you from harming any more of them and to get revenge for those you've already hurt. Millianna and little Erza will be fine, because I know with complete confidence that my nakama will be able to find and save them from your assholes."

As the dragon slayer spoke a short conversation went on in his head.

"I've found Millianna and little Erza!" communicated Jet mentally. "They're in some sort of prison in the basement, with Sting and Rogue guarding their cell!"

As he "spoke" to his comrades, Jet sent them a mental image of the prison's location within the building.

"Got it," confirmed Droy.

"I'm on my way," responded Alzack.

"Be there in a minute," replied Bisca.

"I might be a while," said Max, preoccupied. "I got into a fight with Rufus."

Warren had set up a telepathic network between the Fairy Tail mages before they entered Sabertooth's guild hall. This was so that they could communicate with one another, and to enable whomever found Natsu's family to lead to others to their location.

The sixth member of the group remained quiet, preoccupied battling Sabertooth mages.

"And it looks like my trust has paid off!" spoke Natsu, cracking a grin. "My guildmates found Millianna and little Erza, and they're about to beat up your guard dragons!"

"Hmph," snorted Jiemma again, realizing from his fellow guild master's "guard dragons" comment that he was speaking the truth. "As if your weaklings could beat two of my most powerful subordinates."

The Sabertooth guild master got up off his chair and continued speaking, taking on a dismissive tone.

"No matter. While my dragon slayers put your fools in their place, I will do the same to you."

"Heh," chuckled Natsu as he created a flame in his right hand. "I was thinking the same thing."

Omake

"Next!" announced the Magic Council representative currently on duty, a bored expression on his face and a dull tone in his voice. He was standing behind a desk in the waiting area of the Magic Council's main building, responding to the questions and complaints of citizens one after another.

"Ugh, this is taking so long!" complained Laki to Kinana. While her comrades were fighting against Sabertooth to rescue Guild Master Natsu's wife and daughter, the two of them were stuck here, waiting in line to report the enemy guild's crimes.

"It's not so bad," mollified Kinana. "Besides, Porlyusica said that you can't get into any fights until you fully recover."

"Yeah, but I still feel like a could be doing more," grumbled Laki, pacified by her friend.

"Doing more about what?" interjected a familiar voice.

Laki and Kinana turned toward the voice in surprise.

"What are you doing here!?" they shouted in unison.

"I work here," replied Doranbolt, deadpan. "I'm a member of the Magic Council."

The two Fairy Tail girls blushed, embarrassed about their outburst and the fact that they forgot that detail.

"It's complicated," answered Kinana, the first to brush off her embarrassment. "But we have something important that we need to tell the Magic Council about right away."

"Well, I'm not doing anything important right now, and I do owe you guild," responded Doranbolt. He then gestured for the two to come with him. "I can get you help much faster than if you keep waiting in line."

The Fairy Tail girls exchanged a glance, then nodded. They followed Doranbolt away from the line and explained what happened.

"It all started when we were celebrating the birth of Natsu and Millianna's daughter…" began Laki.

AN: Fairy Tail's assault has started. Most of the fights have been established, though Minerva remains hidden and the last member of Fairy Tail who entered Sabertooth's guild hall remains unidentified. I hope all of you reading this will enjoy what I have planned. For now, though, bye!

P.S. The bit about Jiemma feeling chills is a reference to chapter 8's Omake. Yeah, he's about to get the beating of a lifetime.