"Cactus Hammer!" Mario's arm shifted into a spiky cactus as he swung it at Natsu.

Natsu swerved around, dodging his blows with ease. Then, the cactus struck his forearm. The dragon slayer grinned as embers began to hit the sand, followed by cactus thorns.

Mario took a look at his cactus arm in shock. "He burned off all it's thorns!"

"Fire Dragon Talon!" Natsu shouted out as his flaming knee struck Mario's chin. "Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" Bursts of fire surrounded Natsu's hands before he threw them in Mario's direction.

"Agh!" Mario cried out as he crashed into the ground. The brawny man grunted as he stood back up. "Guess I shouldn't have expected any less from Natsu, the Salamander, huh? Needle Assault!" A storm of needles suddenly shot out from Mario's hand and flew towards Natsu. Natsu began pummeling them with his flaming fists.

"Go on and try to defend against them all you like. Even you have to get tired eventually!"

"Oh yeah?!" Natsu considered that a challenge. And he was never one to back down from a challenge. A massive amount of fire began to burst up from his feat, surrounding his entire body like a geyser. He roared out at the top of his lungs and the fire around him expanded in size. All of the needles around him as well as the ones just barely coming out of Mario's hands began to melt within seconds.

"Impossible! He's able to melt them even from all the way over there?!" Mario grunted at this fact. "Fine then. Sand Tidal Wave!" A large wave of sand appeared in front of Natsu, ready to sweep him away.

However, Natsu simply remained still, an unfazed look on his face. Two balls of flames appeared in his hands and he smooshed them together to create and even larger one. "Fire Dragon Brilliant Flame!" He chucked the giant sphere of flame right at the wave of sand.

The sand was burned away to nothingness as smoke form Natsu's flames billowed around the area. Mario stepped back a bit, confounded that one of his strongest spells had been so easily decimated.

Natsu ran up to him, swinging his fist. Mario was knocked back into a rock and spat out some blood as a result. "Fire Dragon Flame Elbow!" Natsu struck him in the gut with his attack and Mario slid across the ground.

"Alright, I admit it. You're impressive."

"Glad you finally realized," Natsu said in a cocky voice. He held up his hand and curled his fingers backward. "Now, come and get some more. You and your buddies are going to the slammer."

"I don't think so," Mario argued, wiping some of the dust off of his upper lip. "We can't be arrested. Not yet…not until we've changed the future!"

Natsu raised an eyebrow at that. "Change the future?"

Mario placed both his hands on the sand. "Desert Oasis!"

At those words, all of the desert sand began to soften. Natsu started sinking into the sand at a rapid pace. "What is this?! Why can't I move?!" He asked in irritation as he struggled to fight against the sinking sand.

"Isn't it obvious? It's quicksand! Now, go on, Salamander! Become one with the desert for eternity!"

"No way in hell," Natsu refuted as he continued to struggle to get out of his current predicament.

"It's useless. Even if you escape, there's no where for you to run to. I'll just use it again. You see, I use Desert Magic, so as long as you're in my domain, you can't win!"

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" Natsu slammed his burning fist right into the sand. He drove it in deeper and deeper and soon the whole underground lit up with flames. Within a matter of seconds, all of the sand had melted away.

Mario's eyes went white and his jaw dropped at that, completely speechless at the event that had just occurred.

"Heh, where's your desert now?" Natsu smirked as he stood in the middle of the now barren and charred wasteland. "Fire Dragon Roar!" A huge blast of fire emitted from his mouth and struck Mario down for good.

"I can't believe it…I lost…" Mario looked up at the setting sun. The red tint of the evening sky calmed him down a little, yet still brought some tears to his eyes. For it reminded him, of just how low in the world he was…and would always be. The tears rolled off his cheeks ever so slightly as he tried his best to contain his quivering lip.

Natsu walked up to Mario. "Hey, you still okay down there?"

He didn't answer him for a while. Partly because he was still bitter about his defeat, but also because he simply felt too ashamed to let Natsu hear his shaking voice. Eventually, however, he came to the conclusion that he should at least give some sort of reply.

"Why do you want to know? I'm your enemy."

"Well, it's not like I want you to die or nothin'." Natsu told it to him straight, while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mario said in a rather irritated voice in an attempt to mask his sadness.

"You said something about changing the future?" Natsu suddenly asked, curiosity coating his voice. "What did you mean by that?"

"It was for all the unlucky people," Mario told Natsu with a low voice. "I wanted to give them happier lives. A happier world…"

"A happier world."

"Yeah. A world where those like Dante wouldn't have to cry and suffer anymore. You see, Dante grew up in a poor town that had people constantly falling ill. His dream was to turn that place and others like it into more prosperous and wealthy places. Places where families could be happy and always smiling. Where children wouldn't have to suffer from terrible diseases…I respected him for having a dream like that. I became a bandit just so that I could survive. I was only thinking about myself. But Dante…he was purely selfless. He stole for the sake of others' safety and well-being. He took up arms to protect his people. To protect his family…That's why I decided to form the Thief Harbingers with him and my wife.

"That's why you formed it?" Natsu was beyond shocked to hear Mario's reasoning. The whole reason why those three were stealing items from Daisy City wasn't for anything evil or selfish. It was simply to protect the poor. To protect family…That resonated with him, of course. Family is the most important treasure there is. And that's all that the Thief Harbingers wanted at the end of the day. To keep their family safe.

"Natsu! There you are!" Wendy waved over to her husband as she ran up to him.

"Oh Wendy!"

She stopped and rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She looked down and noticed Mario lying flat on the floor. "So, you beat their leader?"

Natsu folded his arms with pride. "Naturally."

"Great! No we just have to find Aki." She sniffed the desert air for a trace of her daughter's scent. "I smell her. She's over that way." Wendy pointed towards the south.

"Sweet, let's go get her then." Before Natsu walked off, he gave one last look at Mario. "Don't worry. Your dream won't end here. I swear it." His voice was stern yet kind as he whispered those words.

"Aki…Aki…wake up."

"Mommy?" Aki slowly opened her eyes to see Wendy and Natsu standing above her. "What are you guys doing here?"

"What do you think, silly? We came to get you."

"Yeah," Natsu nodded. "What kind of parents would we be if we just left our daughter all alone out in the desert?"

"I guess you're right," Aki laughed, still in a bit of a daze.

Wendy looked over at the boy lying on the ground. "Who's that?"

"That's Dante. He's super strong…"

"Dante?" Natsu muttered to himself as he stared at the young bandit. "So that's him."

"Did you beat him all by yourself?" Wendy asked as she placed her glowing green hands over Aki's chest.

Aki's wounds began to heal up. "No, I think it was more of a draw…"

"A draw, huh?" Natsu sat down next to Aki and made a wide-toothed grin. "Not too shabby for your first match. Way to go, little one!"

Aki beamed at that. "Thanks, Daddy!"

Once Wendy was finished healing Aki she stood up. "Alright, now I'm going to heal that kid over there." She looked over at Natsu. "Is that okay?"

Natsu nodded, "Definitely. But before you do, there's something I need to tell you guys."

Natsu, Wendy, and Aki walked back into the mayor's house. He was drinking a cup of green tea when he noticed they had returned. "Oh, you're back already! That didn't take nearly as long as I expected! Though, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You are Fairy Tail S-Class Wizards after all." He clapped his hands in delight. "I can't thank you enough for getting those scummy Thief Harbingers out of my hair." The mayor looked around the room in confusion. "Huh? Where are they? Did you already take them to the prison cell for me, perhaps? Oh, you didn't have to-"

"We didn't arrest them," Natsu cut him off in a harsh voice. "We came to say that we're not finishing your request."

"What?" The man's joyful expression quickly turned to one of disgust as he scowled at Natsu and the others. "You're backing out? What caused this all of a sudden? I didn't take your guild for cowards."

Shane's heart skipped a beat as he realized a fireball had just shot passed him and scorched a hole in his wall. Sweat rolled down the side of his forehead as he watched an intense veil of flames flicker around Natsu's figure.

"You'd better shut up," Natsu warned him in a hostile voice.

Meekly, the mayor shrunk in his boots and decided to listen to what Natsu had to say. "Y-yes sir…"

"Listen, we realize that they're thieves and that they shouldn't be stealing from anyone. But the Thief Harbingers aren't bad people. All they want to do is protect their family."

"Nonsense!" Shane shouted out, swinging his arm to the side. "They've been taking everything from me and my citizens! They deserve to be punished!"

"I said shut up!" Natsu barked at the man once again. And yet again, the mayor shrunk at Natsu's intimidation. "They only stole things from wealthy people like you. And they stole it so that they had food, water, clothes, and shelter. Dante grew up in a poor town where countless people lost their lives every day because they didn't have any access to medicine. He wanted to find some way to save them. And the Thief Harbingers was the way he decided to go about doing it. I understand that you're angry. But at the end of the day, all he was doing was protecting his family. I can't support arresting that."

Natsu held up his flaming fist as he glared at Shane. "And if you still try to lock them up, you'll have to go through me first."

"Why you…why you…" Shane grumbled at Natsu waving his fists and stomping his feet in fury.

"Problem?" Natsu asked, shooting a frightening leer at the mayor.

"Eeep! Nope, not at all!" He said, now hiding behind his dark blue sofa. "F-fine! What do you want?!"

"Share your resources with Dante's town," Natsu demanded, still staring the mayor down with a scowl. "Give them medicine, hire wizards to help them out, and help them build and maintain their town. Those are my requests."

"Are you crazy?!" Shane's eyebrows twitched. "Do you have any idea how much jewel that would cost me?!" His heart dropped as he realized another fireball had just launched past him. A scorched piece of his hair falling to the floor as a result. H clenched his hands over his head, cowering in fear. "Alright! Alright! Deal!"

"Wow, you actually did it." Dante walked in with Mario and Jessica at his sides. "Thanks a lot, Natsu Sir."

"It's all good, just call me Natsu."

"Right. Thanks, Natsu."

Aki studied Dante for the longest time before the bandit finally decided to speak up about it. "What the hell are you staring at kid? Cut it out!"

"Why didn't you just tell me about your dream? I wouldn't have fought against you if I knew about it."

Dante glanced away from Aki's face, slightly blushing. He rubbed his cheek a little in embarrassment. "I'm just…not very good at saying what's on my mind, alright?"

"Well, that's no good!" Aki placed her hands on her hips as she leaned forward. "From now on, you've gotta always let me know what you're thinking, okay? Let me know whenever something's wrong."

"And just why would I do that?!" Dante shouted out, bewildered by Aki's ridiculous request.

"Isn't it obvious?" The small dragon slayer innocently tilted her head. "Cause that's what friends are for!"

A little while later, Aki, Natsu, and Wendy were walking away from the mayor's villa and waving goodbye to the Thief Harbingers. "Thanks for your help, Fairy Tail!" Mario said as he waved goodbye along with Jessica and Dante.

Jessica called out to them as well, "Let us know if you ever need us to repay the favor!"

"And thanks for sharing some of your jewel with us," Dante said with a smile. "This should definitely help out my town."

Then, Aki turned to her father to ask him a question she had on her mind for the past few minutes. "Hey, Daddy? Why couldn't we take the payment again?"

"Because we didn't actually finish the job," Natsu told her as they kept walking. "We did turn against our client after all. I don't regret doing it, but we still have to be honorable. Otherwise it would hurt Fairy Tail's reputation."

"Oh, I see…" Aki lowered her eyes to the ground and stuck her hands in her pockets, fumbling around with the jewel inside them. She pushed them deeper into her pockets as she looked up at Natsu, becoming anxious that he might find out what she had done…