Thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows! Writing this story is really fun and I'm glad you guys are liking it :D

Well, here's the next chapter - enjoy!

In the crowd of onlookers stood a young girl with long, light pink hair. Much like the crowd around her she was utterly terrified, watching the battle from afar as the dark guild stormed through the city.

Hiyori saw the rocks crash into the building above her and as the world seemed to go into slow motion, she knew that it was too late to run, too late to escape what was going to surely be her death.

She raised her left arm above her as though some instinct had kicked in.

"No!" Hiyori screamed into the air, shutting her eyes and waiting for large blow of pain to swallow her whole.

Yet after a few moments of nothing happening, and the crowd around her becoming eerily quiet, she finally opened her eyes in shock.

Sting watched with equally wide eyes at Hiyori's raised arm - above her was a large, neon pick magic circle that had shielded her and the surrounding crowd.

What a stroke of luck! She doesn't look like a mage at all… that must have been her first magic spell. Sting was impressed with the size of the spell – what had just happened was very rare indeed.

"That's something quite remarkable..." Sting murmured to himself. Before he could do much else, the dark guild master in front of him began charging at him again.

"You won't be as lucky this time!" The dark guild master yelled as he conjured yet another magic circle.

This time Sting was prepared, blocking the attack with one of his own. Well, best not to let this drag on too much.

"White dragon's roar!" Sting used less power than he usually did, aiming the spell very carefully to avoid hitting any other buildings.

Upon impact, the dark guild master was shot backwards, clearing some of the other dark guild mages as he was pushed back by the white hot flames. The dark guild master was surely unconscious from the attack and Sting was hyper aware of the rather fragile looking shield that was blocking the debris from crashing into the remaining onlookers.

"Rogue! Minerva! I leave the rest to you!" Sting saw them both giving him a firm nod before he rushed off to help the civilians.

As he neared the group, he saw the young woman who had conjured the spell. She was wearing a light purple crop top with long sleeves and a dark denim skirt accompanied with plain black flats - it suited her pink hair perfectly.

Most of the onlookers had already ran out of the way but a small child no older than three years still stood under the shield, bawling loudly as he covering his eyes with his hands. Sting gently picked him up and carried him out of the way as quickly as he could. He looked back at the pink haired girl, her brows were furrowed and she looked rather pale. Sure enough, the magic circle was no longer as bright as it was when it was first cast, and it began to flicker more and more as the seconds went by.

The magic circle faded away completely but before the building debris came crashing down on her, Sting grabbed her arm and used a transportation spell to take her out of harm's way. Hiyori was now in his arms, leaning almost entirely on him and looking as though she would faint at any second.

"How are you feeling?" Sting looked down at her with a concerned gaze.

Hiyori looked up at him and gave a weak smile before blacking out.

Sting was quite alarmed when she suddenly fainted, looking around to see if her family might be somewhere nearby.

"Well they always did say you were a lady killer… I guess this was bound to happen someday." Minerva walked up to him with a sneaky smile on her face.

"C..Come on! Cut it out would you!" Sting took the unconscious girl and laid her on a nearby bench.

"He's right you know; this girl needs a doctor or something. Oh, we finished taking out the rest of the dark guild mages by the way." Rogue walked up to the two of them, joined by his exceed Frosch.

"Yukino's going to be so heartbroken." Frosch said when he noticed Sting sitting next to the pink haired girl.

"I thought she had a thing for Rogue actually." Minerva added in a scandalous voice, still teasing Sting.

As much as Sting wanted to stand there and argue with the two of them, Rogue was right – he needed to take the young woman to the hospital. Rolling his eyes at Rogue and Minerva, he picked her up from the bench and took her to the nearby hospital.

…

Unknown to Sting, Yukino was standing around the corner, listening in to the exchange taking place. She saw Sting carry a beautiful, pink haired woman bridal style off somewhere in the city.

It's nothing, it's just some unconscious civilian…. But still… her magic spell was so large.

Something in Yukino made her dislike the girl. Perhaps it was because of the way Sting looked at her with concern filled in his eyes, perhaps it was the way she had saved all those people without being an experienced mage. Perhaps it was because after all the events that had taken place in the recent past, she felt powerless.

Even today one might say she did more harm than good, the building that had caught on fire had in fact also collapsed just after she had taken the last civilian to safety.

Maybe I just have bad luck…

Yukino looked at Sting as he went out of sight. He felt so out of reach, especially at times like these.

…

Sting was waiting by the hospital bed that the pink haired girl was laid on. The doctor said she would wake up soon, putting an ice pack on her head before he left.

Hiyori opened her eyes slowly; her head was pounding but she forced herself to sit up. She immediately noticed a gorgeous young man sitting by her hospital bed. I must be hallucinating... She thought.

"Hi there! I'm Sting, Sabertooth's guild master." Sting looked at her expectantly.

"Oh right, I'm Hiyori." Hiyori looked at Sting curiously – he was a guild master but he was only a year or so older than herself.

"I wanted to thank you for helping out back there! You don't look like a mage – was that you're first spell?" Sting was very curious about what her magic type was, perhaps her parents were mages (which would certainly explain how her spell seemed to be quite powerful).

"I.. umm yeah it was my first spell, I guess. I don't really know what happened, I just wanted to save the people around me and the next thing I knew was that there was a huge magic circle above me." Hiyori's mind was still reeling from the ordeal, still exhausted from everything that had happened.

"We could use more people like you in the guild you know! I can help you find out more about your magic. But first we have to do a lot of work to rebuilt everything again – the city entrance is in shambles and..." Before Sting could continue, Hiyori started crying uncontrollably...

She had lived in the city for the past year and had so far never had to experience any form of danger as she did today. The smashed-up building where the battle was unfolding happened to be her flat.

"I'm sorry, it's just that one of the buildings that was destroyed happened to be my flat…" Hiyori half whispered between sobs.

"I… I'm sorry I should have been more considerate." Sting said as he inwardly cursed himself.

"It's not your fault, you did stop the dark guild after all." Hiyori said as she rubbed her now puffy eyes.

Hmm well she knows about dark guilds, I guess word must have gone around since the last major battle Sting thought.

"No, I'm the guild master... The responsibility for what happened falls on my shoulders." Sting shook his head, he had been telling himself the same thing ever since the Tartaros battle, maybe even ever since he first became guild master. Feeling responsible for Hiyori losing her house, he did what any other decent guild member would have done.

"I know everything must be really confusing right now, you just found out you're a mage and you've also lost your home. Sabertooth wasn't well known for being the loving and supported guild, but I hope that by new members like yourself joining, we can make it a guild we can all be proud of." Sting looked at Hiyori's red eyes, feeling guilty for what she had been through.

"I don't even know anything about guilds though…" Hiyori trailed off.

"Well you saved a bunch of people today with your spell. I'd say your halfway there already." Sting gave her a bright smile, hoping it would lighten the mood.

"I would love to try it." Hiyori suddenly felt very shy; she knew was a mage but didn't know which direction to go in from here on out.

"I'm sure the guild will love you." Sting replied cheerily.

~Present day~

Lucy walked up the cottage tucked into the forest of Magnolia. The fresh air was very relaxing, especially since she spent a lot of time cooped up in her flat recently. She could smell the cut grass and wildflowers as she walked up to Natsu's house. Despite what you'd think, his garden was pretty well maintained, with some pure white roses lining the sides of the door.

Aww I love white roses! I wonder when Natsu planted them in his garden…

Lucy knocked on the door, but when she didn't hear an answer, she decided to just walk straight in.

He barges in on me all the time, I think it's fair to get a little revenge every now and then. Lucy chuckled to herself as she stepped into Natsu's house.

"Natsu? Are you there?" Lucy stepped inside carefully, half expecting Natsu to jump out at her from behind a door or something.

Her eyes wandered to the table in the middle of the room. As Lucy walked towards it, she could see the remains of some food lying here and there. There also seemed to be a series of very delicate and old looking books sprawled across the table.

When she looked more carefully, she saw that the books were all about what holder type magic is and how celestial mages cast spells and summon spirits – essentially it was all about the type of magic that she used.

What?! Natsu read a book! Lucy couldn't believe her eyes, yet in front of her was what looked like hours on hours of work. Her heart warmed as she realised that he must have been worried about her.

"Natsu." Lucy whispered into the empty room.

From the messy table to the warm fireplace, everything in the house reminded Lucy of Natsu. It's as though his bright, fiery smile was imprinted on everything in the room.

"Well, he must have gone to the guild already." Lucy decided it would be best to just head there herself. She also thought it would be best to apologise for her long absence. After all, she knew just how worried everyone must be.

…

Meanwhile Erza was walking in Magnolia park, admiring the newly planted sunflowers that bordered the central fountain. She spotter Jellal sitting in the shade of a nearby tree and walked towards him.

"It's not often you come to places like these." Erza looked at Jellal questioningly, he usually avoided coming to public places.

"Yeah well, we realised it was getting hard avoiding people everywhere we went so I thought I'd just make a special cloaking spell to make things easier." Jellal said casually as though he was talking about the weather.

"You created a spell on your own?!" Erza was very impressed, creating a spell was no easy feat, even for an S class mage.

"Well, the other members of Crime Sorciere also helped." Jellal chuckled as he saw Erza's surprised face.

"It's pretty straightforward, everyone can see us but most people only see a disguised version of ourselves – so for example when people look at me, they see someone around my height with black hair and brown eyes." Jellal explained how the spell works, trying to keep his voice down so no one else heard.

"And for some people you can choose to let them see you as you are? That's pretty interesting…. Still, I'm a little curious to see what you'd look like with black hair." Erza arched an eyebrow, she had always seen Jellal with blue hair ever since she'd known him.

"Trust me, it's not a good look…" Jellal trailed off.

"So, what did Lucy say?" Jellal had asked Sawyer and Macbeth to go on ahead to Shirotsume to do some scouting, but if Lucy didn't want to take part then things would get really difficult.

"Yeah, she agreed to come along… are you coming with us?" Erza sat next to Jellal, enjoying the cool summer breeze.

"I'll come along with Meredy and we'll meet with Sawyer and Macbeth when we get there. The rest of the team is staying here since we don't want to attract too much attention by traveling in a large group." Jellal wanted this to be a discrete mission. If other people found out about the temple and tampered with it, it could end up becoming sealed away forever.

Jellal took in the smell of the vibrant flowers that were spread around him, the sun was shining bright that day and the people living in Magnolia were enjoying their new found peace.

I hope it stays this way. He thought inwardly.

"How about we meet up at the train station tomorrow to catch the train?" Erza suggested.

"Yeah that should work just fine." Jellal noticed Erza looked a bit antsy.

"Is something wrong?" He added.

"Well, when I was speaking to Lucy, she seemed a little hesitant. I just don't want her to be disappointed if it doesn't go as planned." Erza was still worried about Lucy, and as much as she wanted to go on the mission with Jellal, she was still sceptical.

"Well, I think I have just the thing for that." Jellal delved into his pocket and pulled out a four leafed clover.

"For extra luck." Jellal smiled as he gave it to Erza.

"Haha thanks, we'll need it. Where did you find it anyways?" Erza gladly accepted the four leafed clover, it was almost like a sign that things would work out in the end.

"Oh well… I just found it in the park a while ago." As Jellal looked at Erza's smiling face, he wanted to engrave the image in his mind. Jellal had actually gotten to the park early in the morning and had since searched almost the whole day before he actually found it.

It was definitely worth it. Looking at Erza now, he knew that he would gladly search the whole month if it would mean seeing Erza's happy face. After all, Erza always had a rather stern look on her most of the time. But that's also adorable in its own way… Jellal looked at Erza's earnest expression, feeling as though he could never get bored of gazing into her beautiful dark brown eyes.

"I should head back to the guild. Lucy and the rest are probably waiting." Erza noticed the look on Jellal's face, but thought it would be better to leave that discussion for later given that they were talking about an important mission. She carefully put the clover into her pocket, knowing she would treasure it forever. The first gift Jellal has ever given me… Somehow it makes me feel excited.

"Oh. Right, of course. I'll see you tomorrow then." Jellal took Erza's right hand and gently kissed it. He saw Erza's face turn as red as her hair and chuckled lightly.

"Until next time." Jellal let go of her hand and started walking out of the park. Leaving her seemed to get more difficult every time, but there was still a lot of work still to be done.

Erza on the other hand was still frozen in place, Jellal always had a habit of making her heart race.

She sighed before turning towards the guild hall. Well, he always knows how to make an exit. A smile danced on her face as she walked in the warm afternoon sun.

…

Back at the guild hall, there was yet another fight taking place.

"Flame brains! For the LAST time, I don't know anything else about the mission!" Gray fired some ice missiles at Natsu who melted them with his flames.

"Happy heard you talking to Erza! I'm not an idiot you know!" Natsu had a fist full of fire and was chasing Gray around the guild.

"Well, not a total idiot anyways." Cana said as she rolled her eyes.

Before the fight got too out of hand, there was another loud yell that boomed through the guild hall.

"Will the both of you please cut it out!" To Natsu and Gray's surprise, it wasn't Erza who was glaring at them, but actually Lucy who had taken out her whip and looked ready to fire.

Well, it's a good thing Lucy seems back to normal. Natsu was inwardly relieved.

Before anyone else could do anything, the doors of the guild opened to reveal Erza marching in with some train tickets in her hand.

"Lucy, Natsu and Gray! Get in the guild library." Erza's commanding voice rang through the guild hall.

"But-" Before Natsu could finish protesting, Erza cut in.

"Now." Erza's stern voice silenced Natsu and the group made their way to the guild library.

"Gray, what did you and Loki find?" Erza said as soon as she closed the door.

"Almost nothing actually, its almost as though someone else had taken all the material about celestial magic already." Gray looked at Lucy expectantly who shook her head.

"Actually, I don't have them either." Lucy saw the surprised look on Gray and Erza's face.

"Natsu has them actually." She added.

"WHAT?!" Gray and Erza said in unison.

"No way! As if Natsu would actually read a book." Gray scoffed in disbelief.

He looked at Natsu's slightly red ears and his eyes became as wide as saucers. Erza just smiled, thinking that it was actually very adorable for Natsu to put in the effort.

"Well then, did you find anything useful Natsu?" Erza enquired.

"Well there isn't much detail about anything regarding celestial temples, except that they are very rare to find and are usually enchanted so that mages can't use magic when inside." Natsu replied, noticing how everyone in the room was still staring at him.

"Come on! It's not that much of a shock you know." Natsu grunted.

"I see. Well I guess we'll just have to find out for ourselves." Erza made a note to relay the information to Jellal at some point. Just as Natsu was trying to slip past her unnoticed, she grabbed his collar.

"And another thing. Don't mention this mission to anyone else. Jellal said that if someone tampered with the temple sight then it could become permanently sealed away." Erza looked straight at Natsu, he had a tendency to get into trouble and they needed to be cautious.

"I'll meet you all at the train station tomorrow." She said as she handed everyone their tickets.

"The train…. Ughhhh." Natsu was already looking green but he knew he had to go on this mission no matter what. He would never admit it out loud but the second he heard about the mission from Happy, he half sprinted to the guild hall to know more. This mission had to be a success at all costs.

For Lucy.