Thank you to all of the lovelies who commented. I promise we'll end up seeing all the main characters, but for some of them, it will take a while for them to appear.

Also, I named the chapters with story arcs.

Chapter Ten - Levy, Part One

I yawned as I entered the guild. Honestly, I was really tired. I had finally managed to get results with the last Earth spell; Crack of the Earth.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much of a result.

I managed to get a tiny crack, but that was about it. The spell is supposed to split the earth open, and all I managed to do was make a tiny crack.

So I practiced. I practiced, and practiced and practiced.

And I managed to make the crack bigger. But the ground still didn't split. The most I could get was somewhat of a crack and some shaking. I managed to make a tree fall.

Honestly, I was so pissed off.

But I knew it wouldn't come easy. I was learning magic, for fucks sake, it's not going to all come in a day, and besides, I'm only nine.

That being said, the fact that I can pull off part of all the Earth spells is amazing, even if I can't really complete them all yet.

I've also gotten to the point of summoning two seven feet tall golems for Army of the Earth, but right after that happened I had collapsed on the ground and was barely able to sustain the golems.

I sighed again. Maybe I just had to meditate more.

I pushed open the door to the training room to find Laxus talking to Cana about her cards while Juvia meditated."-no, I do think that Summon Lightning is a great attack, but you need a bigger area attack."

"What do you mean?" Cana asked.

"I mean…say you end up fighting a giant monster, like a Vulcan or something! I don't think Summon Lightning would be able to take it down, just weaken it."

"What do you suggest, then?" Cana asked stubbornly.

Laxus hesitated, obviously not coming up with an alternative.

"Multiple directions," I said.

They turned to look at me, and Juvia opened her eyes. "Onee-sama!"

I smiled at her. "Good morning, Juvia. Concentrate on your meditation."

She beamed and closed her eyes.

"What do you mean, Elle-nee-chan?" Cana asked.

I stopped to think. "Laxus, can you get up and come here?"

He complied and stood next to me.

"Alright. I…" I paused and turned to Juvia. "Actually, Juvia, we could use your help, and it would also help with your control."

She opened her eyes and beamed.

I turned to Cana. "Do you have any blank cards I could use for demonstration?"

She handed me ten. "Do you need more?"

I shook my head. "Nah, this should be good, especially for now." I turned to Juvia. "Can you coat all of these with your water?"

She nodded and held all of them in her hands, letting her water body run over them.

"Okay, now we're going to test your mental control," I told her. I pointed to the spot in the air a bit to the right and above of Laxus. "Can you hover one of the cards here?"

Juvia nodded, determined, understanding now why she had me coat the cards. Using her mental control, she moved the card (surrounded in a layer of water) to the spot I was pointing.

"Can you hold that one?" I asked. "And also add another one?"

She nodded.

I pointed to a spot opposite the first one, a bit to the left and above of Laxus. "Right here, then."

She moved another card, slower this time, to the spot I was pointing.

"Do you think you can do two more?" I asked.

Juvia nodded. I noticed a bead of sweat on her face.

I pointed to a spot a bit in front and above of Laxus, and a spot a bit behind and above of Laxus.

Slowly, two more cards came floating to those spots.

"Alright, just hold those as long as possible for now," I told Juvia.

I turned to Cana. "If you can shoot multiple cards into an area like this, than you can strike the target from all directions. Using multiple Summon Lightning cards should help increase the power, too, and you can always move the cards farther apart for a bigger target. If you add more and more cards, like a few more down here" – I gestured to each of the corners around Laxus's legs "and above here," I pointed above Laxus's head, "you can get an even bigger reaction."

"Will I ever need something that big?" Cana asked.

I shrugged. "What if you have to fight a dragon?"

Cana didn't notice, but Laxus paled.

I turned to Juvia. "I don't need you to keep holding them anymore, Juvia."

Her face was beaded with sweat. "No, if it's okay with Cana-san, Juvia would like to continue this. It is making Juvia stronger than meditation, and Juvia likes this exercise."

"Sure," Cana said, before heading over to some paper and writing down plans and blueprints for her new spell. I could see the words Summon Lightning; Cage and Summon Lightning; Aerial Attack, written on top of the paper.

I felt a hand on my arm, and I turned to look at Laxus, who had a hold on my hand and was pulling me over to the corner.

"A dragon?" he whispered. "Cana will have to fight a dragon? This Cana?"

I followed his look, to where little Cana was writing on her paper. She was almost six years old, and I'll admit, it was a bit frightening to consider a small five year old fighting a dragon.

"There will come a time when we will all have to fight dragons," I said. "Not until most of us are adults, luckily, but that's another reason I'm pushing everyone so hard. So we're as strong as possible."

Laxus had a look of fear on his face before it was replaced with determination. "Alright. Then I'll get as strong as possible. Strong enough to beat Jiji!"

I smiled at him and hugged him. "Thank you, Laxus."

He nodded. "If you say we'll have to fight a dragon, then that's what I'll do. And I'll beat that dragon."

He deflated a bit. "Now if only there were more dragon slayers."

I giggled. "Give it a few years."

His eyes widened. "Seriously?"

I smiled. "Seriously."

Cana finished writing, ran over to us, and hugged us. "Thank you for the help, Elle-nee-chan, Laxus-nii-chan!"

Laxus blushed and looked away. "D-don't call me Nii-chan."

I stared at him. He was fucking eleven. Why the hell was he acting like a tsundere?

I smirked and hugged Cana back. "Don't listen to your 'Laxus-nii-chan'. He's happy to help, he's just embarrassed. After all, he's a badass boy, he can't be seen going around, helping little girls."

"E-Elle!" Laxus yelled.

I cackled as I let go of Cana and ran off into the guild, towards Enno. When she wasn't dancing, she was acting as a barmaid.

"Hey, Ellie-girl, what'cha need?" she smiled at me.

I sighed. Despite repeatedly asking them not too, most of the older generation (ei: Macao, Wakaba, and Enno) have decided to call me Ellie, rather than Elle, because, as Enno put it, 'it's just so adorable!'.

Honestly.

I just really hope they grow out of it when I get older. In like, a year.

Though that was probably asking too much.

"You got any cookies?" I asked her seriously.

Enno giggled as she tried to hide the cookies she was passing me, though guessing from the guffawing behind me, we weren't doing a good enough job of being sneaky.

I turned and glared at Macao, before grabbing the cookies and sticking my tongue out at him. Okay, honestly, I act a lot more childishly around most of the guild adults, but it was kinda fun. I never got to do any of this the first time around.

"Hey, did you hear?" Wakaba asked Macao. He took his attention off of me and I hid under a table to eavesdrop on their conversations.

I'm a kid, it's not like I'm gonna get in trouble.

"Hear what?" Macao asked.

"About the McGardens," Wakaba said.

McGarden? That was Levy's last name.

"The family that owns the great magic shop over in Onibas?" Macao asked.

"Yeah, that's the one. Some thieves raided their shop and killed the couple. They took the daughter, too, for ransom, and the girl's grandmother, the only one left of her family, had a heart attack when she heard. Now she's at the hospital in critical condition or something and the police are clueless about what to do about the girl. I doubt the thieves do, either."

"Fuck," Macao muttered.

I didn't listen anymore. I was a girl on a mission.

I ran back through the training room doors and stopped to look at everyone. Laxus and Cana looked up, and Juvia broke her concentration.

"Onee-sama!" she complained.

"Sorry, Juvia," I said, panting. "But I've got our first mission."

They all looked at me.

"Are you sure we're ready for it?" Cana asked.

I nodded. "I'm positive, actually. We can easily do this."

"What's the mission?" Laxus asked.

I smiled. "We're gonna rescue Levy McGarden."