The end of spring and early summer felt like two separate, yet equal dreams where the youngest Dreyar drifted between training in the humid heat or serving icy drinks within the guild's walls. Nothing felt progressive. Not even her her magical growth. Everything felt stagnant and distant. Observed rather than lived.

Time was melting. As was she. She'd thought that, with everyone gone, she'd find herself being more productive, both at work and in her training, but this just didn't seem to be the case. Instead, without her sister's constant drama once more, she was forced to truly face what Kai's departure (as well as Ravan's to a lesser extent) meant for her. She'd never really made many friends and now, without her only one, things were...a bit lonely, honestly.

She still had Erza, of course, and her parents. Her aunts and uncles. She had Ajax to contend with and with Navi gone now, Lucy frequently sought her to babysit the twins. There were plenty of people around and much for her to do, to keep her busy, but sometimes…when it was quiet…

Before Haven left for Bosco with Locke, she'd asked her younger sister, quite plainly, what she wanted out of her life. Out of her training and out of the guild. Marin had dodged the question, insisting as she always had, that she was fulfilled and content with her current placement, but that never had been true, had it? She wasn't happy, when she was a little kid, being forced to absorb a massive amount of magic at the behest of her parents. She wasn't pleased, as she grew, to find that their near constant coddling of her was playing into her lack of development in multiple areas. She wasn't content with just hanging around the hall and she wasn't content now, as a barmaid, and there was more out there, she knew there was, but she just didn't understand how to get around life's blockades.

A lot of her time was still spent down by the river, near the same spot she always had, with Kai. He wasn't there to fish now, but she could still meditate and practice small moves in the water. It was relaxing, but at the same time, another blockade. A different kind. The river, even on its mightiest, post-heavy rains days, was nowhere near what she needed now, if she intended to improve her abilities. She'd outgrown it, the same as Kai had the fish there, but unlike her friend, she still found herself attempting to extract from it something that just wasn't there.

One day in particular, she found herself more frustrated than calmed by the bubbling brook and, instead of drying off, she laid back after climbing out, blinking in annoyance up at the warm sun. She'd been working, recently, on a new move. It was rather silly, but she thought that if she could absorb water droplets and residue after a shower or swimming, then she could power herself up in that way. It didn't seem impossible, anyways, and while the sun dried her off, she also focused some on trying to soak the water straight from her pale flesh.

Marin didn't understand how the others did it. Her father. Locke's. The Salamander or even Wendy. Even though they'd all met, found kinship among other slayers, there was something equally as lonely in the magic itself. It was a dead art, gifted to her purely from the lacrima that loomed beneath her surface. There was no one there to guide her, to teach her. Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy had learned, at least originally, from their dragons, but slayers like her own father had to carve their own path. Figure it out on their own.

And now it was her turn, but sometimes…

Sometimes…

Sometimes, like she was trapped in that very moment, she would just stare up at the endless sky above and, if it was clear, if she just distanced herself from reality even slightly, then she could imagine it. Gravity being reversed and she'd just fall, slowly, stupidly, into the sky, but it wouldn't be the sky, would it? The endless blue would have changed, somehow, and when she broached it, instead of vapor clouds, she'd be greeted with foaming waves and they'd just consume her, fully. It would be so nice there, in the ether, the lost world.

While she was staying with her off and on over the past few months, Haven told Marin about it once. What it had been like. After a particularly horrible nightmare, Haven had come into her younger sister's room across the apartment, knocking at the door, but hardly waiting for an answer before rushing in. And they sat in a way that was weird for them, together on the bed, where Haven told her about it for the first time. Not necessarily her experience, but rather what awaited them all on the other side. Or at least her.

Mirajane, their mother, insisted to Marin the next day that this wasn't true. When she brought it up to the woman, Mira only smiled at her, took note that Haven wasn't around the hall that day, before outright stating it was hardly what her oldest had imagined. Rather, it was trick. A play enacted purely for her benefit. That there was nothing to fear and not to focus too much on it.

But her mother didn't understand.

Marin's interested was hardly piqued from a place of fear. Quite the opposite.

When her sister was explaining to her, the eternity in which she was entrapped didn't frighten the teen, but rather seemed...inciting.

Not to imply that she was in any way wishing for death or like! No. It was...a different sort of longing.

Haven described it as floating, endlessly, mind numbly, but gosh, that was all Marin wanted. And she could picture it then, perfectly, falling into the sky and finding it so wet and aquatic. Swimming through it. And not thinking. Not having to.

She thought constantly. About everything. Worried over her sister and father. Her mother. Watched carefully the relationships of her family members ebb and flow. Shoulder all of Kai's burdens and look out for any that might befall Master Erza. Atop it all sat the guildhall, mostly, which she wasn't the sole keeper of, but it sure felt like it sometimes.

The idea of just...not worrying about any of it was alluring.

Her sister just turned it all off. Tuned it all out. When she left for Bosco weeks prior, it was with the intent of not thinking of Magnolia or the guild much at all. She was the same when she took off that first time, when she was seventeen, to struggle all alone. For so long, the idea of this was frightening to Marin, but recently…

She could get lost in herself and that wasn't any good, because thoughts were just thoughts, and if you dawdled int them too long, you delayed action. And the actions she needed to be taking at the moment were getting up, drying off, and rushing to the hall before the start of the dinner rush. It was her night to man the kitchen and she had to get there early to prep.

Not much had changed following the second round of S-Class trials. As Locke was the victor and almost immediately took off with Haven, there was no new S-Class member hanging around, vying for jobs. And, by proxy, all of the others he'd gone to the trials with were still around to sulk and train, once more, in hopes of qualifying in the following year.

It was kind of sad for Marin though, maybe, the man not being around. Even at his lowest, the past year, he'd always tipped her well and had a kind word for her when they saw one another. He told her that he loved her, before he left, and though the idea made her blush, she did feel something of a relationship with the man. He'd always been her sister's something and it was weird when he wasn't around to pat her on the head and assure her it would all be okay.

But everything wasn't okay at the guild that day. Or at least it wasn't function as well as it should have been in her absence. The dinner rush came early and Kinana hadn't sent for her, instead trying to weather it alone. They were short staffed that week, as Lisanna was off on a job and Mirajane couldn't fill in, given that she and Laxus were on a vacation of sorts, a few towns over.

It had just been Kinana and Marin manning things, but the older woman sought to give the younger a break and, well, it was blowing up in their faces a bit, apparently.

"Where have you been? I was waiting for you."

She did make a face though at her cousin Ajax when she found him hanging about, apparently waiting for her. Though he was verging on becoming a man, the teen was still flailing a bit. He was old enough to take jobs on his own, which he did, very frequently, and make his own money, to use accordingly, but he somehow always ended up broke far too quickly. With both his parents out on separate jobs and all his aunts and uncles too busy for him, he saw it fit to whine to his cousin over his lack of food.

"I haven't eaten all day," he insisted to Marin as, the second she got into the guildhall, he descended on her. But she was only quickly passing him, headed back to the kitchen and Kinana called something out to her. Over this though, Ajax said, "Well, I mean, I ate a sandwich...and some rice...and some fruit, but-"

"Jack, I'm busy," she griped, but she never got the tone right. It sounded far more pleading than commanding. Due to this, he only followed right behind her, into the kitchen area, where Marin was quickly shrugging on an apron. AT the sight of him still standing there, she only groaned before saying, "Fine, I'll make you something."

"Alright! I want-"

"If," she insisted and he only narrowed his eyes, "you get out there and help Kinana. Bus tables or something. Just ask her what she needs."

"But I'm hung-"

"'jax-"

"Fine," he groaned, turning on his hill. "I'll help."

"You'll work," she corrected to his back, but it was softly as even years out, she was still finding her true voice.

The night was only just beginning and she did allow Ajax a break, about an hour later, handing him a dinner plate and making him promise not to run off after he'd been fed. And though he was known to hoodwink a person or two, his cousin was hardly someone he'd attempt one on. He shoveled his meal down before getting right back to working. Marin re quested he take out some garbage and, well, it beat having to wash dishes.

He hated that.

It had been a few hours since the sun fell outta the sky, meaning it had cooled off a bit finally. Still, while it was no longer sticky out, it was certainly the remnants of a scorcher and Ajax found it a bit odd, maybe, when as he headed to the back of the sprawling property that he felt a strange, cold breeze blow over him. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and, though he glanced about, he saw nothing out of the norm. While people liked to hang around the property, most rarely ventured into the back and, as he walked all the way to the back gate, the shining moon above was his only company other than the distant voices and sounds wafting from the guildhall. He was alone. He was sure of it.

And yet…

If there was anything that Ajax knew, it was the feeling of being watched. Of another presence. His father had kept five little lost souls as playmates since he was a boy and, now, they frequently followed his son around. Though Ajax cared for them very deeply and had already had a 'talk' with his father before, on what to do with them, should and when the man himself passed on, it didn't mean that they couldn't get on his nerves at times. They made privacy difficult and, as a growing teen, he only grew to crave it more and more.

So he was used to them sneaking about, not necessarily to spy on him, but more to surprise him, at inopportune times. This felt much like that. In fact, he almost expected, each time he glanced over his shoulder, to find his father had arrived from his job and it was one of the souls, encased in their little wooden bodies, hoping to get his attention.

But no one seemed to be about.

Shaking the feeling off, when he got to the dumpster, Ajax took to holding his breath and tossing the bags he'd carried out into the container. He didn't know how Marin did it everyday. Any of it. He'd much rather be on the road than hang around the guildhall and have to deal with this stuff.

It was as he tossed the final bag in and grinned victoriously over the completion of the most menial of tasks that it happened.

That feel again. The cold wind. And then, an immense magical presence overwhelmed him, causing the teen to tense up and his fists to alight with a soft green glow.

"Come out!" he yelled, whirling around in a defensive stance. "And I mean it! Don't make me find you. Because when I do-"

"Alright, alright. Here, I'll come out, see?"

And Ajax had to blink some, as a black fog seemed to appear right before his eyes, dissipating only when, from it, there appeared a creature. As the fog faded, the intense magical presence did as well and the teen only frowned, glancing over what now stood before him.

Err, well, stand wasn't the exact word.

"You're an Exceed," he remarked quite dumbly as, dropping his hands, he stared at the winged animal with a bit of a grin. "Right?"

It was a silver, slim cat that didn't look unlike Happy or Pantherlily, the ones that Ajax had spent the majority of his life around. The former especially. But it looked younger than them, almost more akin to a kitten than anything else.

Raising up a hand to scratch at his hair when the kitten didn't answer, Ajax asked instead, "Were you lookin' for someone? Another Exceed? Like Lily or Happy? Or Carla? Because-"

"I am." Glancing passed Ajax then, he questioned, "Is this...Fairy Tail?"

"Yep!" Ajax never could quite help it, the grin that always spread across his lips at the very mention of the place. It was something of a point of pride for him, just the existence of the guild. It meant everything to him. "C'mon! I'll take you ins- Hey, are you okay?"

It happened in an instance. One second, the Exceed was hovering there before him and the next, he just fell straight down to the hard ground, even letting out a bit of a cry of pain at this. His wings were gone and Ajax only frowned down at him.

"My magic..." the Exceed whispered as it shoved up, "It isn't very-"

"Here." And gently, the teen moved to scoop up the cat. Though it resisted at first, flicking it's tail and verbally protesting, he only insisted, "Let's get you inside. You said you were looking for someone in the guild?"

Hesitantly relaxing into the teen's grasps, the Exceed admitted, "A family. Or at least someone bearing the name."

"Oh, yeah? Which one?"

Again, there was a pause before the creature whispered, "Dreyar."

And Ajax almost dropped the cat. Recovering, he took off in a true sprint now. At the Exceed's balk, he only snickered in a way that sounded much like his father as he insisted, "If you want the Dreyars, then you've come to the right place."

Just a few chapters that will lead into a separate story. This runs alongside Operation (timewise, this falls around A Call to Arms), but doesn't really touch on it. You don't really have to follow this stay caught up with Operation and you don't have to follow Operation to pay attention to this part of stuff. They'll intersect eventually, obviously, but for now, it's all just parallel to one another.