A/N: Hola Mish Amigos! (Kudos if you know what that's from!)

But it's Sunday once again, so here's a new chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 17: The Mechanic

April 11, X792 - Early Morning

Daniel made his way out towards an overly large, black ship. The white sails stood out on the dark boat, but they were covered with its insignia of black skulls. He had managed to find a small boat to use from one of Nube's ports. He had been knocked out most of the night and had woken up with dried blood across his head and the wound across his chest still aching and sticky with blood as well. He hissed in pain every time he moved the paddles of the boat, but managed to keep his focus on the large ship that he had no choice but to go back to now.

He sat in his small boat for a moment when he came to a stop next to the larger one, contemplating on if he really wanted to go up on deck or not. He huffed, knowing he didn't really have a choice, and grabbed one of the ropes hanging on the side. He managed to climb his way up to the deck, rolling over the side and sprawling out across it. He laid on his back, staring up at the dimly lit morning sky until it was suddenly blocked out by a face that instantly shot irritation through his entire being.

"You're ruining the view, mutt," Daniel grumbled.

"It's better that I ruin your view than what you pulled on Nube," Mingo retorted quickly with a straight face.

"You better not have said anything to the Captain."

"He already knows," Mingo said, "He watched the entire thing and I gotta say, he's not real thrilled with you right now. I'm surprised you had the guts to even come back here at all."

"Like I had any other choice," Daniel said, "And stop trying to scare me so early in the morning."

"I would suggest taking his warning, Daniel," a deep voice said, sending fear surging through Daniel's body and causing his blood to run cold momentarily. Mingo moved out of the way only to be replaced by Madmartigan, "How are you, Daniel?" he asked with a dark smirk before stepping onto the wound on his chest and pressing down hard.

Daniel let out a growl of pain, but he clenched his teeth to keep it from being a full shout, "I…I'm fine, Captain."

"Really? It seems to me that you're in a bit of pain," he said as he pushed down a bit harder, "You could have saved yourself a wound like this if you had listened to my orders like you were supposed to!" he shouted before sending a sharp kick into the man's side, "I told you not to go looking for a fight with Storm's Helm! You've ruined what little advantage we had against them, you idiot!"

"But Captain," Daniel said lowly, struggling to climb to his knees, "You told me that if I saw a chance to take the map, that I should take it."

"Don't go twisting my words to justify yourself!" the Captain yelled, "I told you that if at all they figure out you're tailing them to get in there and get the map! Instead, you went and attacked them first and gave yourself and our crew away! Now they know we're after the map! And you didn't even get close to taking the map back either! I told you not to underestimate them!"

Daniel stayed quiet, unable to find anything to say to defend himself.

"Tch, now I have to clean up your mess," Madmartigan said, "Since they know we're after the map, I'll be sending in someone that can actually retrieve it successfully. We don't need to worry about hiding our presence since someone already ruined that," he continued, glaring down at Daniel, "Get up and go get yourself cleaned up. You look like shit."

"Yes, Captain," Daniel said as he got up and made his way below deck as quickly as he could.

"Dammit," Madmartigan cursed as he looked out at the rest of his crew, trying to decide on who he should send.

"If I may," Mingo said, appearing next to the Captain, "I know someone who's dying to go after that guild due to the fire they started at the beginning of all of this. She's a bit upset that it destroyed quite of bit of her things. I think it's only fair that she gets her chance at revenge for that."

Madmartigan looked at the man's smirking face and it took him a moment, but he finally realized on who he was talking about, "That may work, especially on that island of fog. That'll give her a bit of extra cover."

"So you agree then?" Mingo asked.

"Yeah," Madmartigan answered, "Micky!" he barked out, a woman moving out from the crowd of the crew to stand in front of the Captain.

The woman's full name was Micky Blakely and she was one of the younger members at the age of eighteen. Though, she wasn't to be underestimated due to the type of magic she had that made her the unannounced mechanic for the Black Skulls. She was a fairly short woman at 5'2" with sun kissed skin and a thinner frame, giving her a boyish look, especially with her chest taped down. Her blue hair was cut short and messy, but her eyes were wide and a soft blue. She wore a black, mechanic's outfit with a large zipper on the front of it. The top half of the full body suit was pulled down to hang at her hips, showing a white tank top underneath. There were also a few bandaids on her arms and one across the bridge of her nose. Finally, there were slight bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep she normally had.

"Yeah, Captain?" she grunted in response.

"As pleasant as always," Mingo smirked down at her. He only received a sharp glare in reply.

"Enough you two," Madmartigan said, looking down at the woman as well, "I have a small mission for you."

"You know that I'm working on rebuilding my collection of scraps right now," she answered, "I don't have time to be doing one of your stupid missions. Send out your first mate there instead."

Just as she turned to leave, Madmartigan said something that managed to capture her attention greatly, "It's a mission that comes with revenge on Storm's Helm."

Micky stopped and the crew could see the tension rise in her muscles, "Those punks that destroyed half my scraps?"

"Precisely," Madmartigan grinned, "I need you to retrieve Blackstroker's map for me from them and you're more than welcome to take out your anger on those little mages that messed up our bar and your materials."

"No holding back?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.

"No holding back," he answered, "But you might want to be a bit careful. The Navy is now involved. The Western Forces to be exact and you know how those Captains can mess with your magic."

"I can handle those two assholes," she grumbled, "But fine, I'll go."

"Good girl," Madmartigan smirked, "Head out as soon as you're ready. They should be heading to Nebula next. It's not too far from here."

"I know where it is," she snapped as she pushed crew members out of her way. She threw most of her scrap metal into a large wagon, though she would normally have two wagons full if the fire had destroyed half her supply. What scraps she left on the ship, she would use with her magic to create a floatation device to head to Nebula, "Scrap Build: Hydra!" she shouted. The loose scraps on the ship began moving, linking together to create a three headed hydra in the water. Micky then jumped onto the back of the creature, bringing her wagon with her, "I'll be back soon."

"Don't you go underestimating them either," Madmartigan said.

"I know what I'm doing," she answered before moving away from the ship.

"You think she'll be successful?" Mingo asked.

"You were the one to suggest using her, weren't you?" Madmartigan said, looking over at him.

"Yes, I suppose I was."

"She'll be fine," Madmartigan said, "She's a better choice to send to Nebula anyways. Rumor is that's where Angel's Cove is. She'll have an advantage over the rest of you idiots at least."

"Let's just hope her grumpy attitude won't get the better of her," Mingo said, laughing nervously when Madmartigan narrowed his stare at him, "I'm just…uh…gonna go check on that idiot Daniel," he said before disappearing down below deck.

Madmartigan watched him disappear before turning back to look out at the ocean, "Even after all these years, your guild is still causing me problems, Duke Ramirez. Is this my punishment for what I did to you?"

. : + : .

"Honestly," Nanami huffed after making sure Securus had made it to the bathroom in time before he got sick, "Sometimes I think you may be more trouble than you're worth, Securus-kun."

"Yeah, but I see you're still adding the kun to the end of my name, so it can't be all that bad, can it?" he asked before heaving into the toilet.

"Finish getting sick before you try making smart remarks," Nanami said from outside of the bathroom. She gave him a few more minutes alone before it finally went silent. Once she was sure that he was finished, she walked back into the bathroom to see him sitting across from the toilet, leaning up against the wall, "You should probably get up and brush your teeth now."

"Just give me a moment to recuperate here, Shiraki," he grumbled.

"I think you had plenty of moments last night," she said, narrowing her eyes at him, "You really messed up, I hope you know."

"Messed up? I fought off that Black Skull idiot, didn't I?"

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it."

Another moment of silence passed between them, Nanami continuing to stare down Securus while he looked away to stare at the floor.

"I drank just a little too much, so what?"

"So what? You made Cordelia-san cry," she answered, frowning at him.

Securus chuckled at this, "Yeah right. You're making that up."

"She was crying! You were just too drunk and passed out to realize anything!" Nanami snapped, causing Securus to go quiet again, "I know you have a lot to deal with, all of us S-Class mages know this aside from Jean since he's so new, but you can't go around drinking yourself stupid and then ending up in Cordelia's office. It takes a toll on her too and she already has enough to deal with."

"So…I really ended up in her office?"

"Yes. You stumbled in, dropped a sake bottle and mumbled something about that voice of yours before promptly passing out on the floor."

"Ah, geez," he sighed, running a hand through his hair, "I should apologize."

"Normally I would say you should too," Nanami said, "But I think you should leave things alone this time. Cordelia-san seemed pretty shaken up last night when Matilda-san checked up on her. You're lucky that the woman had enough sense to come to the S-Class mages first. If Isaak-san and Eli-san hear about this incident, then I'm sure you will need to write up your will much earlier than one should."

"Guess we'll need to make sure they don't hear about it then," he said, attempting to smirk up at her. Though, it quickly faded, "So what was she crying about then? Did you ask?"

"Something about a promise. I wasn't able to get much out of her before she disappeared somewhere with Seth."

"She's still volunteering for that then," he mumbled.

"Volunteering?"

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm fairly certain it's too late for that," she stated, "But I suppose I can talk to you about this later. You should really brush your teeth and get a shower."

"Where the hell am I even at?"

"In my room," she answered, digging through one of the drawers in her bathroom, "Couldn't have you getting sick and acting like a fool in front of everyone. I'm the only one on the woman's S-Class dorm ship, so it was more private."

"You sure you didn't just want to get me in your room alone?"

Nanami sent him a flat stare before throwing the toothbrush she had dug out from the drawer at him, "Get cleaned up," she said before walking out of the room and shutting the door behind her.

"Oi! You know I need a towel and a change of clothes unless you want me walking around your room naked!" he shouted. The door was suddenly thrown open and a towel was slammed into his face before it was closed shut again, "Thanks love!"

. : + : .

Regina moved around the kitchen at a quick pace, having been baking since three in the morning. She was never able to settle down when she was worried and her daughter showing up in the middle of the night with Seth looking shaken and sad had her more worried than ever. Over the years, she had found that baking was one of the only things to keep her mind busy when she couldn't sleep.

Just as she was finishing up her most recent batch of cookies, there was a solid knock on the front door. She popped her head out from the kitchen to glance at it for a moment before another knock came again. She set the cookie tray on the oven before heading towards it and opening it to find Eli on the other side of it.

"Eli?" Regina questioned, a bit surprised to see him there.

"Morning," he answered with a small smile as he glanced into the home, smelling all the sweets she had baked, "Looks like you had a busy night."

"Come in, come in," she said quickly, shutting the door after him, "You're more than welcome to help yourself to anything in the kitchen."

"Where's the old man?" he asked, looking around for Finn.

"He's up top for the morning talking with some friends."

"I see."

The two went quiet after that as they moved into the kitchen. Eli started to look over everything she had baked when Regina started speaking again, "So what brings you here so early in the morning?"

"Ah, well, Seth told me I should stop by…to see Cordelia," he answered quietly, turning away from the food since he no longer felt hungry, "She's here, isn't she?"

Regina gave him a warm smile, "You're always such a good boy," she said, patting him on the cheek gently. Though, her smile quickly fell, "She was really upset last night. Is she really doing okay as the guild master? I heard about the fight with that Vice Admiral and dealing with the Black Skulls. Maybe…maybe it's too much for her."

Eli laid a hand on her shoulder to silence her, "She's doing fine. Starting out it always a bit tough. You should know that from Finn, yeah?"

"Yes, but…"

"She'll be fine. You know she'd be mad if she heard you doubting her."

"I'm not doubting her, but Cordelia is my daughter, so I just worry a lot."

"I know you do, but she also has a lot of people looking out for her and loyal to her. She'll make it," he smiled, "Now, is she in her room?"

"Yes," she answered, "And Eli," she said as the man began walking away, "Thank you for coming down."

He simply nodded at her before making his way back to the room Cordelia had through her childhood. He came to the closed door that had been painted blue, although it was in dire need of a paint job due to the color slowly chipping off. He knocked on the door a few times, but like he expected, no one moved to open it.

"Still such a kid," he sighed as he opened the door, "At least she left it open this time," he mumbled as he walked in and closed the door behind him. Her room was smaller like the general dorms, but it was big enough to hold a bed, a closet and a desk. The room was still decked out in an ocean theme with the walls being painted blue too and there was a small, round window across from the door. He looked over to Cordelia sitting on her bed, flipping through a journal. She had a few other journals around her that she had filled through the years, "Cor, you should at least answer the door."

He didn't receive an answer from her as she flipped to the next page.

"Oi! Are you listening to me?" he called out as he walked up to the bed and yanked the journal out of her hands.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"So you finally noticed me?" he said, looking down at the journal. He saw that the writing that filled the journal was a bit messier than what she had now, "Is this from when you were a kid? I didn't know you had been writing for so long. Let's see," he said, skimming over the page, "Eli is so stupid! He tied mine and Zinnia's shoelaces together so we would trip and fall. The idiot didn't realize we were sitting right next to the edge of the boat, so we ended up falling over the edge. Dad had to come pull us out of the water and everything! But I guess it was all right since Duke gave him a pretty hard training session later on. I hope he hurts for days from it!" he read, looking up at Cordelia with a twitching eye. He grabbed onto her head tightly, squeezing it a few times, "An idiot, am I? That was one of the worst days of my life, I hope you know!"

"You deserved it! And don't read my journals!" she snapped, yanking the journal back into her possession, "Why are you here?" she asked, pulling the journal to her chest and curling up back on the bed.

"To check up on you. Seth seemed pretty worried about you," he answered, picking up the other scattered journals and setting them on her desk, "Why did you pull these all out? I hope you weren't up all night reading them."

She shrugged, "I just wanted to read them again, that's all. Life was different back in these journals."

"I don't think life's all that different now," he said as he moved up onto the bed to sit next to her, "It's still the same guild, but with more people."

"Then I guess what I meant was that life was easier back then."

"Of course it was. We were kids back then," he said, setting a hand on her head, "But you set out what you promised to do. You're the guild master now, so things are going to be harder."

"Yeah, well, I don't feel like a leader," she mumbled, "I can't even make good on a simple promise."

Eli frowned for a moment, "What promise are you talking about? Is it about-"

"Does it matter which one I'm talking about?! I haven't come through on any of them!"

"Cor, it'll take time to take care of some of them."

"But the longer I take, the harder of a toll it'll have on people."

Eli sighed as he pulled her into a hug, "Look, you aren't always going to be able to make people happy. You can't solve all the worlds problems."

"But I should be able to solve a few of them. I've taken an even longer time on the promise I made you than the one I made to Securus. It shouldn't take this long, Eli."

"Yes, well, you haven't given up though, have you?"

"Of course not!"

"Then that still means something," he said, "Not everything can be fixed instantly. Some things just take longer than others. I know you're trying, so there's no need to stress yourself out about everything. Besides, you'll worry the guild if you keep letting things build up like this. You already have Seth and your mother worried, so lighten up a bit."

Cordelia was quiet for a moment as she looked down at the journal in her hands. She finally sighed and laid it down next to her, "I guess so. And I guess I should say thanks for coming down here."

"You guess?"

"Well I would say it if you hadn't read from one of my journals," she answered, elbowing him in the side.

"Your thank you really sucks, ya know that," he mumbled, rubbing his side, "Now, if you're feeling better, you should get up on deck. We need to make sure we're on track for Nebula, right?"

"You afraid that Matilda and Sam can't handle it?"

"Sam, no, but Matilda might be driving the poor kid a bit crazy by now."

"You make a good point," she said before jumping up onto his back, "Lead the way then!"

Eli simply rolled his eye in response, but he still smiled nonetheless as he made his way out of her room and up towards the deck.

. : + : .

"Are you sure about this sir?" the male, Western Captain asked, looking at Bern, "Is it really that important that we go after Storm's Helm? They are a legal guild after all."

"Are you really questioning me right now?" Bern answered, pulling out a fresh, blue toothpick, happy to see that a new supply of them had been picked up from Nube. He began chewing on it as he eyed his two Captains.

"Well, it does seem a bit over the top, even for you, sir."

"Not it doesn't," the female Captain answered, "He just hasn't had a good fight for a while. You really need to loosen that ass of yours up. You must have a pretty big stick shoved up there."

"Excuse me?!"

"Desmond! Kira!" Bern shouted, slamming a hand down on his desk, "Shut up both of you!"

"Yes sir!"

He sat back watching the two of them again, wondering how he had ended up with the two of them as Captains. He supposed their skills made up for their crappy personalities. Although, Bern wouldn't consider himself a good judge of personalities, considering what his own was like, but his Captains were total opposites of each other, so it made it rather annoying most times when they were stuck being around each other.

"So like I was saying before, I want the two of you to go out before me this time. Get them worked up a bit. It's always more entertaining when they've been riled up," he smirked, "Just don't go overboard or do anything stupid," he said, looking towards Desmond more than Kira. The two sighed in response, but nodded at him nonetheless, "All right then, head out to Nebula as soon as you can," he said, waving them out of his office, "Oh and don't think I don't know about the explosion you caused on deck while I was gone. You'll both be cleaning that up when all of this is over," he said, chuckling to himself when he saw them both falter slightly before making their way out of the office.

A/N: And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it!

Credits

Micky Blakely - DarkHyena

So I know that was a bit shorter than usual, but this chapter was mostly setting up some of the things to come for the second clue, but it was still enjoyable for me to write nonetheless, so I hope you all enjoyed it too!

Not too much to say this time around, so I'll jump right into the reviews!

Thanks to all of you that reviewed last chapter!

Momochan77 - Yeah, it was a pretty intense fight with Bern all the way up to the end! But we also got to see some other mages enter the fight! Yeah, I would say Securus needs a hug at least, lol, not like he got it this chapter though. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Dreadburner94 - ^.^ I didn't know you liked K so much! It's actually the first newer anime that one of my friends and I sat down together to watch and we both liked it. So it's moved pretty high up on the favorites list for many reasons. But I liked most of the characters in it, namely Mikoto…sigh…I always, ALWAYS pick the dudes with tragic pasts or tragic futures! What the hell?! Well anyways, the next step is watching the movie and finding the manga and light novels for it! Thirteen episodes just wasn't enough! Well, anyways, we've had that discussion about Isaak and Cordelia now, so you no longer need to wonder like the rest of the reviewers, lol. But I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

LightandDarkHeart - Haha! Bern is pretty ridiculous, but in a totally awesome way! But I'm glad you enjoyed the endings of the battles! And I can't believe you went South Park there for a moment, lol. But we've got some time before everything with Securus and that voice is revealed. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Joshua1277 - Yep, Daniel was totally left behind. No one from his crew even came to get him! But he kinda deserved that. But yes! More Bern to come in the very near future! But first a bit with his Captains! Yep, lots of promises to go around. Between Securus, Eli and I'm sure many others, Cordelia will have her hands full of them! But I'm sure she can do it! CHA! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

XLil MEkoX - Nope, Bern definitely won't go down that easily! The dude even got burned by that Red Fire on top of all the other attacks and he's just moving around like it's not big deal! But we finally got to meet another member of the Black Skulls! So I hope you liked that! You're just setting sail so many ships! LOL! Hopefully you came back to that NanamixSecurus ship though! HA! But yeah, definitely a bittersweet moment. I hadn't even realized how sad it was until I went back and re-read it. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

DarkHyena - That's normally how it goes. We get a bunch of stuff wrapped up, but then we still have so many unanswered questions! Yeah, a sad moment for Cordelia, but like you said, she has all those people looking out for her and everything, so she'll make it through! Haha! All that shipping! I hadn't even originally planned out for it to be like that. It all just sort of happened! But thanks for the free cookies, lol! Hope you enjoyed Micky's intro and the chapter!

PlaguedAmbition - I haven't read the light novels for K yet, but it's on my list to hunt down. I'll probably have to order them online or something since 13 episodes just wasn't enough for me for that series! But I'm glad that you're enjoying how everything is moving along in the story. I really am glad you sent in Securus since he's got a lot going on and he's fun to write. But if I have ever have questions about him or whatnot, I'll let you know! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Origm2012 - Haha! Yeah, I know some of those lines were pretty cheesy, but they just worked so well! Plus, it was Securus saying it while smoking a cigarette so I figured his badass-ness would give it a few bonus points at least, lol. But I'm glad you enjoyed how their fight scene ended with Daniel! And I'm glad that you're loving Gamu so much, both in character and magic. He really is a great character! Haha! Yeah, Eli…he tries, he really does! He's just…well you know, lol. But at least he's got that wicked Fire Magic to back him up. I had thought about using Bern's Captains first several times, but it just wasn't the same as being able to use Bern! He's just so awesome and I wanted to show off that fighting passion of his! But I'm glad you liked his first fight nonetheless! And that prediction…well I guess we'll just have to see if you'll be right or not, lol! I'm glad you enjoyed that last scene so much! Tying in everyone is one of the biggest things I worry about since I'm always worried if it works and makes sense, so I was really happy to see that you're liking how everyone's personal lives are being tied into the story! And no need to apologize on the long review! It made me happy to read everything! ^.^ Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

mrady - Glad you're always looking forward to the weekly updates! And I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Benthino - Glad the chapter was worth the wait! And that you enjoyed the conclusion to both battle scenes! But yeah, Cordelia has a lot on her plate right now, but I'm sure she'll bounce back real soon…like next chapter, lol. And I'm sure Jack was less than amused by having three people show up in his infirmary, but it could have been much worse! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

ThePrinceOfLight - ^.^ Glad you enjoyed the chapter! Glad I could catch you off guard a bit with John showing up to deflect that bullet! Daniel lives for now, although much more humiliated now. I'm sure he'll really be aiming to kill the next time he meets up with Storm's Helm again. But I'm sure it won't be a pretty battle if he ends up against Securus again. Bern is pretty ridiculous with that strength and magic power of his, but it's all just so awesome! So yeah, it's just another thing for the guild to worry about, especially with the Captains getting involved now too. But I'm glad you enjoyed that last scene too! She does have quite a bit on her shoulders, but she'll eventually overcome it all! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Sakura-Fiction - Definitely an action-packed and emotion-filled chapter! But I'm glad you liked it! A few more fights with the navy is putting it lightly, lol! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Well, that should be it for this chapter.

See you all next Sunday!

Please remember to review!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson