If I wasn't so desperate, I wouldn't have been in this situation. I would have been happily sitting back at home spending some much needed time alone. Instead, I was sitting in a train, trying my best to hold in the contents of my stomach.

I sat perfectly still with my arms crossed over my chest, Hayden and Phillip chatting away across from me. Neither of them seemed to take notice of how much pain I was in. Then again, I was sure Phillip knew I had motion sickness so he was likely distracting Hayden so I wouldn't have to take part in any conversation.

This was my least favorite part about being a Dragon Slayer. We each had the same ailment of motion sickness. When I was a child, I thought it had just been something Rogue and I dealt with, but when I found out Sting experienced the same thing, I wondered if it was a pattern. Meeting Natsu only confirmed it. We were all burdened with this illness.

The color had drained from my face not long after the train started moving and I was surprised Hayden hadn't noticed. The redhead was normally very observant of things like that, but I wasn't going to complain. He hadn't bothered me at all for the first half of the ride.

However, when we were just a half hour away from Hargeon, I heard his voice enter my ears. "Hey, are you okay? You look like death."

"I'm-" I began, only to have my stomach lurch at my attempt to talk. Once I let out a deep breath from my nose, I continued. "Fine."

Hayden stared at me for a long moment, clearly not feeding into my lie. Slowly, he leaned down to whisper into Phillip's ear. "I think she's going to die."

As Phillip snickered, I scrunched my nose in displeasure. "If you think I can't hear you, then think again."

"Oh," he grinned over at me. "I knew you could hear."

A low growl escaped my lips as I made a move to try and hit him, only to feel a wave of nausea. I leaned back once more and placed my head against the window. "You're an ass."

Phillip switched seats so that he was sitting next to me, his paw rubbing my arm sympathetically. "We'll be there before you know it. Stay strong!"

It was at this moment that Hayden realized what was wrong. His eyes widened in realization before he let out a hearty laugh. "You're motion sick! Oh that's too good, I thought that was just a Natsu thing!"

"I am nothing like…" I brought a hand to my mouth to contain the bile that threatened to spill out. "N-Natsu.."

Hayden continued to make fun of me for a few minutes and I did my best to ignore him. If there was anyone that I didn't want to be compared to, it was that idiot pyro. Natsu and I were polar opposites, that was how we were born. Fire and water had nothing in common and I liked it that way.

A cart came into view, multiple bottles of water and other refreshments filling the shelves. The woman who was pushing the cart stopped in front of our seats with a smile on her face. "Can I get you guys anything?"

The woman had barely finished speaking and I was already handing her multiple jewels. She seemed taken aback by my actions as I grabbed the entire stock of water. I quickly popped one of the bottles open and chugged it down without batting an eye. This continued with a few more bottles before the lady shuffled away, clearly unsure of what I was doing.

I continued this pattern of action without a single care and Phillip reached to grab two bottles, handing one to Hayden and keeping another to himself. He opened his own bottle and took a normal sip before smiling at Hayden. "She'll be done in a minute."

Hayden sat, staring at me in astonishment. By the time he opened his bottle, I had emptied ten of my own. "Uh… Won't that make you more sick?" Logically speaking, chugging down absurd amounts of water would make anyone ill whether they were motion sick or not. Myself on the other hand, was another case.

The final bottle of water emptied and I tossed it to the side, finally taking a much needed breath. "Much better.." I muttered, leaning back, a faint smile on my face as the nausea I had felt had faded away.

The poor boy's expression continued to show confusion and Phillip chuckled, interjecting to explain. "Cece's a Water Dragon Slayer. Drinking water that she didn't produce gives her strength, so in turn, it can cure simple illnesses. It would be similar for someone like Natsu and fire, but fire isn't as readily available as water." He grinned up at me. "Thus why she just drank half an ocean!"

I rolled my eyes. "Not half an ocean. The more I drink, the faster I feel better."

Hayden blinked, considering the new information. "That makes sense…" He closed his eyes and leaned back, throwing his hands behind his head. "Not like Natsu could set fire to the train just to prevent himself from feeling ill." He paused. "Or maybe he would.."

"Do you mind not talking about that pyro?" I narrowed my eyes at him, crossing my arms. "I don't care if you talk, just not about him."

After the battle against Phantom Lord, I had heard that Natsu had been the one to defeat Gajeel. It angered me to no end that he had the strength to defeat the Iron Dragon Slayer. I had wanted to be the one to do it and I was anything but happy that Natsu beat me to it. And how was he able to defeat Gajeel anyways? Gajeel should've knocked the shit out of the pink haired mage. What the hell made Natsu so powerful?

Hayden opened his eyes to meet my glare. "Eh? Why not? He's a pretty fun guy."

"I don't care if he's fun or not, just drop it." I snapped, turning my gaze out the window. The last thing I needed was to have an argument with someone who wouldn't be able to help me anyways.

Phillip looked between Hayden and I with a frown. "Cece.. Just talk to him. Please?" When I didn't respond, the mint cat sighed. "She doesn't know how Natsu beat Gajeel."

"Phillip." I snarled at him, as if warning him not to go further.

"She's been asking what makes Natsu different from her since they have the same amount of experience."

"Phillip!" I reached over and grabbed him by the ear, forcing him to stop talking. It wasn't often I got angry at my best friend, however, when he pushed his luck by telling others my own personal thoughts, my fuse was quite short. "You have no right to tell him that."

He frowned. "He probably knows, though.." I released his ear and he rubbed it to try and lessen the pain. "Come on, Cece-"

"We're here." I cut him off and got to my feet, slinging my bag over my shoulder. "Let's go."

As I made my way to the train door, I could hear Phillip mutter and apology to Hayden and I scoffed. No matter how much I loved Phillip, he had no right to push the limits of my social interaction. We had been over it dozens of times over the years, my intentions weren't going to change.

"Thanks sir! We'll make sure to take care of the situation and report back to you in the morning." Hayden bowed to the mayor of Hargeon as we exited their home. The mayor had explained the situation about the bandits, reporting that they had been holding up not far out of town, jumping travelers that came through. Some people had been left seriously injured or lost their life savings due to these events so the mayor was rightfully worried.

The three of us gathered near the town entrance and I gave a survey of the path that led out of town. "Look." I raised my index finger to point down the path. "The path is clear for about a kilometer, then it breaks out into trees. It's likely that if they're held up anywhere, it'll be in the trees. If I had to guess, they're closer to the other side of the forest so they're not easily caught."

Hayden nodded, gesturing for Phillip and I to follow him out of town. "I just want to check something before we head out." Phillip and I glanced at each other, unaware of what he meant, but we followed him nonetheless.

Hayden led us up the path, maybe ten yards from the edge of the forest. "Here, this should work." He grinned at us before kneeling down on the ground. Both of his palms lightly collided with the ground as a yellow rune appeared underneath him.

My eyes widened. His red hair and red cloak whipped around at the magic energy and I wondered what he was doing. I knew his magic allowed him to manipulate Earth, but this felt different from manipulation.

"Found them." He muttered, the rune disappearing, his hair and clothing relaxing. He stood up straight and turned to me. "There's eight of them gathered on the east side of the forest." Another grin appeared on his face. "Only one of them are magic users so this should be a piece of cake."

I took in the information, but one question still lingered in my mind. "What was that?" I gestured to the ground. "That spell. Aren't you just an Earth manipulator?"

Hayden shrugged. "You could say that, but Earth has a lot of different components. Especially if it trusts you." When I continued to look at him with confusion, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "The guy who taught me my magic also taught me that you need to have respect for the elements you control. He made me stay out in the woods for a week so the Earth and I could have an understanding. Guess it was around then that I started being able to… Talk to it? So that spell I did only connects me with the Earth so I can gather some information like a person's location."

Part of me was astonished, though my face would never show it. He had developed his magic in his own way, of course like many others, but it still amazed me that he had accomplished a feat such as this. Gaining the respect of Earth itself. That wasn't something many people could say they had done.

"That's so cool!" Phillip's eyes lit up as he flew over, landing in Hayden's arms. "What do you and Earth talk about?"

Hayden chuckled. "It's not like we're best friends who stay up late and braid each other's hair. We just help each other out when need be."

"Interesting…" I mumbled, wondering if that was at all possible to do with water as well. Sadly, that would be an experiment for another time. "Let's go then. I want to make sure no one is attacked again so we need to be done before nightfall."

My two companions nodded and we continued down the path and into the trees. I walked ahead of them, keeping my head on a swivel to make sure nothing caught us off guard. The last thing we needed was to have any creatures to get in the way of our job. Then again, why was I in any rush? It wasn't like I could go home until tomorrow at the earliest.

I glanced over my shoulder at Phillip and Hayden who were having a hushed conversation which resulted in quiet snickers. A smile crossed my face and I caught myself wanting to question what was funny, to be a part of their conversation. My mouth opened to make even the smallest comment, but realization filled my mind causing my smile to fade and my mouth to close. Damn. I thought as I turned my gaze back forward. Was I really considering making a friend? What was wrong with me?

"They're just up ahead." Hayden spoke underneath his breath, hoping to stay as quiet as possible.

Phillip had made his way into the hood of Hayden's cloak, doing his best to stay out of the way. Due to the forest putting cover over the area, it wouldn't be wise for him to fly around. We'd either lose him or he could be put into a dangerous situation. None of us wanted that so he was happy to hunker down in the warmth of the hood.

Hayden and I stood not far from the edge of the bandits camp. As subtle as possible, we looked around the edge of the trees. It was clear which one was the mage, we could easily sense his magic energy no matter how small it was. Then again, that wasn't a reason to underestimate him. Though, there were no cases of them attacking mages so I highly doubted we would have a problem.

I glanced over at Hayden. "Walls."

He furrowed his brow in confusion, but after a moment his eyes widened in understanding. Bringing a hand up, he extended his index and middle finger, raising them both into the air. Walls began to rise from the ground, surrounding the bandits. As they began to close them into the area, each of them got to their feet, raising their weapons. Before the wall got too high, Hayden and I jumped over top of it.

"Crap, they sent a request out to the guild association?!" One of the men shouted, shuffling backwards towards the wall.

"Giovani, negate their magic already!" Another exclaimed and the man, Giovani, rolled his eyes.

"You guys are useless.." He muttered, snapping his fingers.

In an instant, I felt my magic energy disappear. At the change in energy, I staggered a bit, but easily kept my ground. We had seen this coming. This was something we often saw when it came to bandit groups. If there was either one or two mages, they were likely someone who could negate magic. Either that or they played a highly supportive role in their operation. But this was where having a mage such as Hayden came in handy.

It took the group a moment to realize what was going on, but the mage, Giovani's eyes widened. "W-Wait! How is this damn wall still here!"

Hayden smirked, beginning to walk closer to the man. "The Earth doesn't have to listen to your magic. It does what it wants." Giovani began to cower back, trying to put distance between himself and Hayden. "So tell me, is everything you stole here, or somewhere else?"

"H-Here!" Another bandit shouted, gesturing to a crate beside him. "It's all in there! Just take it and leave us alone!"

I hummed, walking over to the crate. Once I managed to pop it open, I dug through its contents. "All of it, huh? I'm not sure about how much money you supposedly stole, but there's some artifacts missing that I can't seem to find." I glanced up at the man. "Care to explain?"

As I stood up straight, the man backed away. "I have no idea what you're talking about lady, we only ever stole money!"

"Did you, now?" I cocked my head to the side. "Are you sure? It's not like I'm missing anything large in size, just a few trinkets. I'm not stupid enough to let you people hide them on me."

"You've got it all wron-"

The man began to try and defend himself but I sent a kick to his gut causing him to go flying against the rock wall. "I already told you, I'm not stupid." I leaned over his bruised body and reached down, plucking a necklace from his neck. "You guys couldn't afford something like this even with all the money you've stolen."

Hayden grinned over at me. "Nice eye! Knew it was smart making you the one to keep track of all the stolen stuff, princess."

I rolled my eyes. "It was only smart because you're too simple minded to even try to remember." I turned my gaze to the rest of the men. "Anyone else wanna go? Or are we going to be smart and just hand everything over? If you return it all now, I'll be sure to spare your lives."

They all cowered under my gaze and quickly, multiple pieces of jewelry were thrown in my direction. Every single piece that was missing was here and they didn't even put up a fight.

"A-Alright, that's everything, now can we go please?" Giovani questioned, mainly looking towards Hayden who was still looming over him.

The redhead in question tapped his chin. "Good question… At least twelve counts of robbery, seven of which you also harmed those you robbed.. It's safe to say you're not going anywhere." He removed his finger from his chin and in the next moment, his fist collided with Giovani's face. The single punch was enough to knock him unconscious and in turn, return our magic energy.

I connected my hands and cracked my knuckles. "Much better. And since I don't trust any of you at all.." I trailed off, loosening my fingers so that only my thumbs and index fingers were connected. A blue rune appeared at the palms of my hands as well as above each of the men. One by one, a ball of water surrounded them, nothing that would harm them, but just enough to keep them trapped inside.

Each of them were banging their hands against the walls of the sphere, trying desperately to get out. "You said you'd let us go if we gave you that shit back!"

"Did I?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow. "I recall saying I would spare your lives. You are alive aren't you?"

It was clear none of them were happy with the situation, but we certainly were. Payday was here and we barely had to put any effort into it.

By the time we returned to town, it was well past dark. Hayden, Phillip and I delivered the bandits to the Hargeon prison, letting the mayor know that the magic council would handle the situation from there. After we gave him all of the stolen goods, we were able to leave.

We were currently making our way back to the train station to return home before the last train left for the evening. I had Phillip in my arms as I began to trail behind Hayden. I couldn't go back yet. Odds were, Rogue would still be in town until at least tomorrow and since Master hadn't sent word, he must have been able to handle the situation but I still needed to wait till tomorrow before returning.

Seeing that I was falling behind, Hayden stopped, looking towards me. "Hurry up, princess. The train will be leaving soon."

When I didn't respond, Phillip looked up at me with concern. "Cece? Is something wrong?"

I clenched my teeth together, tightening my grip on Phillip. "Rogue… He's in Magnolia."

My companion's eyes widened. "He found you?"

I gave my head a shake. "N-No… Fairy Tail was just next on his search." I muttered, looking up towards Hayden who seemed very confused by what we were talking about. "I need to stay till tomorrow."

"Ah… Okay." He nodded, contemplating his next words carefully. "Is everything okay?"

Our gazes bore into one another, his auburn eyes felt as if they could break me apart at any moment. "I…" I trailed off, biting my lower lip. It hadn't hit me till now, but a wave of sadness rushed over me and I struggled to hold back tears. My older brother was in Magnolia and my first instinct wasn't to run away, but to run into his arms, tell him how much I missed him and that I wanted to come home. I wanted desperately to be with him and it broke my heart that even when he was so close, I still couldn't be.

"Cece.." Phillip placed a paw on my hand as if to remind me that I still needed to breathe.

My mouth opened to take a breath, but that breath led to a single tear falling down my cheek. "No… No, nothing is okay."

It's honestly so amazing to see people reading this, it gives me so much motivation to work on it! I've been story boarding so much more than before so I'm getting back into the grove of updating which is even better. Feel free to leave a review! I'd love to hear what you guys think! Thanks for reading!