A/N: I finished the chapter! Here it is! Thanks to those who keep supporting me and reading and leaving me nice reviews; it really helps keep me motivated even though I haven't been in the mood to write lately. But I'm not gonna let writer's block get me down!

I'll still be slow for a few chapters, exacerbated by the fact that I am finally employed. Ah, the good old days when I posted on a weekly basis...days long passed...


Mist colored the forest shades of gray and obscured even Natsu's sharp vision. But he knew he and the other Fairy Tail members were alone; all he could smell in their vicinity was rotting leaves and wet dirt. Phantom Lord was out of his range, but he was sure that if anyone came into the forest, he and the other dragon slayers would notice.

That said, he almost wished someone would come into the area just so he could beat them up. He'd get his own ass beat by Erza if he tried to fight Gajeel while he was telling them all the info he'd gathered while at Phantom Lord, but Natsu was dying to release his pent-up energy somehow.

"So," Natsu said, crossing his arms, "you mean to tell me that you don't know who their Lord is."

Gajeel frowned. "Yeah, but—"

"Isn't that the most important piece of information? How could you—"

"Of course I don't know any names! Just be thankful I got the information I did, got it? Fuckin'…"

"All right, stop fighting," Erza said. "Honestly, Natsu, let Gajeel finish."

"Thank you," Gajeel said. "As I was saying, there's someone in the government that's passin' on their Lord's orders or some shit. There's this whole convoluted chain of command so it'll be tough to figure out exactly who the Lord's liaison is in the capital. We'll have to do some diggin' ourselves. Or maybe the geezer knows something and isn't telling us."

"He didn't mention anything," Lucy said, "but there's a chance he might have some leads. We should ask when we get back."

"So a dark guild called Tartarus is trying to revive a demon," Erza summarized.

"A stronger one than any of the others that've been released so far," Gajeel said. "Unfortunately, that's all I know. All that's useful, anyway. I could go on forever about the romantic crap Jose spouts about him being a savior and shit."

"You've already done that plenty," Gray said wryly.

"Well now we have a name for them," Levy said. "And some clues about their intentions."

"Makarov was right," Wendy said. "Although it wasn't the government itself, just some corrupt officials that are part of Tartarus."

"I'll do a little more digging when we get back to the guild," Gajeel said. "Meet us here again tomorrow morning. Come on, Juvia. It's time to put our undercover positions to good use."

Juvia bowed formally, and the two disappeared back into the mist. Just like that, the almost surreal meeting was over.


As they walked back to camp, Erza questioned Lucy about her impressions of her new acquaintances.

"So? What did you think of Gajeel and Juvia?"

"Juvia seems nice," Lucy said. "She was quiet, though. Gajeel is…blunt."

Natsu laughed. "And you probably though I cursed a lot."

"A little," Lucy admitted. "But he was really crude. I was surprised."

"I think he talks like that so nobody gets the wrong idea that he's a decent person or anything," Natsu said.

"Natsu."

"Yeah, yeah, keep defending your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend," Levy snapped.

"He's not?"

"Of course not!"

"But you two have already kissed, haven't you?"

"Wait, really?" Lucy said.

"Natsu! You can't just say that out loud!"

Gray spoke up. "Hate to break it to ya, Lev, but everyone kinda already knows about that."

"What? How? Natsu, I thought you said you wouldn't gossip!"

"I didn't," Natsu said defensively.

"It was Droy," Wendy said. "He came running into the guild in a panic saying he saw you two…uh…"

"Sucking face," Gray supplied.

Wendy flushed. "Yeah. That. Jet made everyone promise not to tell you we knew. I thought you'd have found out anyway, knowing Fairy Tail."

Levy covered her face with her hands. "This is mortifying."

"There, there," Erza said, slinging an arm around Levy's shoulders. "Gajeel is an attractive man, and a tough nut to crack; everyone at Fairy Tail can only admire you for managing to wrap him around your finger."

Lucy was still stuck on the fact that the two of them had a thing. "Levy and Gajeel. Huh. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can kind of see it," she said.

Levy whined, "No, Lu, not you too."

Natsu picked up on the nickname. "Lu?"

"Yeah. Lu. Lucy."

"If anyone besides the girls tries to call me that, I'll make you regret it," Lucy said, hand moving oh-so-subtly to her weapons and her eyes on Natsu and Gray.

"Aww, come on, Lu," Natsu joked. But then he met her glare and gulped. "…cy."

She smiled. "Thought so."

"Only I'm calling her that anyway," Levy said. "But I'll convert Erza and Wendy someday."

"Lucy is a beautiful name," Erza said. "It would be a shame to shorten it."

"I really don't mind," Lucy said. "But thanks."

Levy pouted. "Erza's making me look like a bad person for giving you a nickname now."

"I was actually glad," Lucy said, smiling. "No one's ever given me a nickname before."

"Why can't I give you a nickname?" Natsu said.

"Because I said so."

"But why?"

"Because Levy's special."

"And I'm not?"

Lucy hesitated a moment. "Not in that way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just give it up, Hothead," Gray said. "Lucy likes Levy more than you, that's all. You may have brought her here, but she can make friends with whomever she wants."

"That's right," Levy said. "You can't have her all to yourself."

"I wanna be Lucy's friend too," he whined. He knew that he and Lucy were friends, but why wasn't he special enough to use a nickname? He didn't really care about the nickname itself, but the principle of the matter frustrated him.

"You already have her time at night," Erza pointed out.

Gray was startled. "Woah, wait a second, what do they do at night?"

"They spend forever talking," Wendy said. "You never noticed?"

"No. I actually sleep at night. Gods, you people need to get some proper rest for once, all of you."

"I get as much rest as I need," Natsu said. "Talking to Lucy is fun."

Gray gave Natsu a long look, and Natsu stared back. He wasn't sure if this was a challenge, or what the pensive expression on Gray's face meant, but he wasn't about to back down from a staring contest.

Gray broke eye contact first. "Whatever," he said. "Just don't mess it up."

"Yeah, yeah," Natsu said, cleaning his ear with his pinky finger. Whatever Gray was telling him not to mess up, he didn't feel like dealing with it right now. He had to hold onto his patience for another day before Gajeel and Juvia came back with more information, and listening to Gray's vague criticisms would only make him itch for a fight.


The next day when they returned to the tree, they must've gotten there early or something because Juvia and Gajeel were nowhere to be found. They were told to meet in the morning, but noon passed and still no sign from either mage.

Erza paced back and forth in full armor with arms crossed, debating out loud between waiting a little longer and going to Phantom Lord directly to see if something happened.

"They're probably fine," Levy said, standing a safe distance away from Erza's radiating aura of stress. "It's probably just taking longer than they thought. You know how Gajeel tends to overestimate himself."

Lucy chewed on her thumbnail. "That may be true, but it's been hours," she said.

"But what if we go there and mess everything up?" Wendy said.

"We'll wait," Erza ordered, coming to a stop. "Just…just a little longer. If they're not here within the hour, we should operate under the assumption that something went wrong."

"I could go check on them," Charle said.

"No," Erza said, "let's trust them for now. Gajeel was going to look into some sensitive topics, so if something did go wrong, the guild will be on high alert. We shouldn't send anyone out there alone."

But they didn't have to worry much longer, because Natsu picked up their comrades' scents mixing with the forest air. Hours late, they'd finally arrived.

"Lord Gray!" Juvia came barreling in, nearly tackling Gray to the ground. "Juvia missed you so much!"

"Woah, she's back to normal," Natsu noted. He'd been worried seeing how quiet Juvia was yesterday, but it was good to see her acting like herself.

"Seems so," Gray said with a grimace. "Did something happen?"

"Juvia had to hold herself back soooo much that Juvia was afraid if she broke her undercover persona she wouldn't be able to go back to acting. But Juvia and Gajeel cut ties with Phantom Lord, so now Juvia can be herself again! Was Gray worried?"

"You cut ties?" Erza said. "Why did you do that?"

Juvia turned to smile at Erza, her arms still locked firmly around Gray's neck. "Gajeel started a fight and exposed his cover, so Juvia helped him take out the rest of Phantom Lord."

"Don't leave the most important part out, Juvia."

"Gajeel!" Levy exclaimed.

"What's this about taking out Phantom Lord?" Erza said.

Gajeel let out a long sigh and scratched his head. "Kind of a long story," he said. He reached the group and rested an arm on Levy's head. Levy puffed her cheeks in annoyance but he ignored her, continuing. "Long story short, I asked too many questions and got exposed. But not before I got my answer."

"Answer to what?" Gray said.

"Grimoire Heart is connected to Tartarus."

"Grimoire Heart? Aren't they a dark guild?" Erza said.

Gajeel nodded. "I asked when the next time someone from Tartarus was gonna contact us, and Jose said Grimoire Heart was on their way. They were supposed to come and collaborate with our Element Four on some assignment passed down by their boss. I couldn't let that happen of course, so I beat him up and came here to get you guys. We've got an hour."

"An hour?" Lucy exclaimed. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Calm your tits, Bunny Girl. I just did," Gajeel said.

"Bunny Girl?"

"You're wrinkling your nose. Like a rabbit," Gajeel said.

Lucy opened and closed her mouth, fury and indignance on her face.

Happy giggled. "Now you look like a goldfish," he pointed out.

"Shut up, cat."

"No need to get your panties in a twist," Gajeel said. "I give everyone nicknames. Ain't that right, Shrimp?"

Levy pouted. "You know, I really wish you'd use my name once in a while," she said.

"Stop bickering and get moving," Erza said, lifting a large bag over her shoulder. "They'll be arriving at the Phantom Lord guild, correct?"

"Yeah. There's a narrow path leading up to the entrance where we can ambush 'em. Though they can probably sense us, but to hell with it, worth a shot, right?"

"Juvia will show Lord Gray where Gajeel is talking about," Juvia said.

"Show the rest of us, too," Erza said.

Juvia frowned. "Of course! Juvia favors Lord Gray, but everyone here is also her ally. Except the Celestial Spirit." Lucy started at the sound of her name. Juvia made eye contact with Lucy, staring at her suspiciously.

"Eyy, Lucy's one of us," Natsu said, slinging an arm around Lucy's shoulders.

"Juvia thought the Celestial Spirit was only allying with illegal mages like Fairy Tail to take out demons at Oración Seis," Juvia said. "Juvia does not want anyone to interfere with the happiness of her friends at Fairy Tail. If the Celestial Spirit gets Juvia's friends arrested, Juvia will not forgive her."

"I'd never do that," Lucy insisted. "I'm an illegal mage, too. Besides, Natsu's right; I may not be a member of Fairy Tail, but for now, I am a member of this team and I intend to solve this Tartarus issue along with you."

Natsu was somewhat saddened by the thought that after this, Lucy would go back to being a lone vigilante again. If it weren't for Lucy, Makarov may have never sent this particular team out to investigate Oración Seis, and Natsu would still be wandering around looking for Igneel. Whether she knew it or not, right now she was the glue that held this team together.

"Enough arguing, I said," Erza said. "Juvia, Lucy is trustworthy; she singlehandedly took out a member of Oración Seis and worked as a team with Natsu to take out another. And you know how difficult Natsu can be when it comes to teamwork."

Part of Natsu wanted to be offended, but he couldn't really argue with the fact that his teamwork skills were awful.

Juvia nodded. "Juvia apologizes to Lucy. Juvia was just being cautious, but Juvia sees that she was wrong."

"No, don't worry about it. It's a natural reaction to have," Lucy said.

"Uhh, guys?" Wendy said. "Shouldn't we get going? Gajeel said we had an hour and we've already spent five minutes just talking…"

Gajeel put a hand on Wendy's head. "The guild ain't that far. We've got time," he said. "But you're right. Let's go."

Gajeel and Juvia brought them all the entrance gate of Phantom Lord's guild building. The guild was nestled with its back to the forest at the end of a narrow canyon path to its entrance, and on the other side of the path was a sprawling town in the shadow of a sheer cliff. But the path was long, and the town distant, so silence hung thick in the air as the Fairy Tail team settled in to wait.

Either Gajeel's timing was extremely accurate, or Grimoire Heart's was, because they showed up exactly when Gajeel predicted. At first they were just specks in the distance entering the entrance to the canyon.

"That's them," Gajeel muttered, just loud enough for Natsu and Wendy to hear and relay the information to those near them. "Nobody else'd be stupid enough to approach the guild without magistrate approval, and Jose controls the magistrate."

Natsu bounced on his toes as he repeated Gajeel's instructions to Happy, Lucy, and Levy: wait until Grimoire Heart makes the first move, then go to the previously specified locations for battle.

Grimoire Heart's members all used different types of forbidden magic, and that was all Gajeel knew. In discussion of what strategies to use once the fight was underway, they collectively decided was best to split up and fight their enemies individually so the lost magics couldn't be used together. Overcoming the power of lost magic would be hard enough without the enemies combining their abilities for team attacks.

Grimoire Heart approached slowly. Their pace didn't slow even as they got closer and closer. At this point, they had to know that Fairy Tail was waiting for them, but they continued on like nothing was wrong. It was a game of chicken: the first to acknowledge the other side loses.

Gajeel lost.

Across the canyon from Natsu, Gajeel jumped to his feet and pounded his chest with an iron fist. "Come at me, Grim bastards!"

For a moment, Juvia's mouth formed a little 'o' beside him, but then she was in action too, and so was Grimoire Heart, and suddenly the entire end of the canyon was in magic chaos.

Well, looks like the divide-and-conquer plan was out the window, with everyone battling all in the same small space. But Grimoire Heart was still down on the canyon path while the rest of Fairy Tail used their high ground advantage, and Natsu was having none of this long-distance fighting shit. Copying the move he saw Lucy pull the first day she was at Fairy Tail, he jumped down from the canyon wall, doing a little flip and landing neatly on his feat.

In front of him now were seven mages, most of them human but at least one of whom was clearly not. He could feel the magic radiation off of them in waves; they were strong.

Natsu grinned. "Hell yeah, now I can really let loose. Fire Dragon's Roar!"


A/N: Woo now for some battle chapters! Fight scenes! Yeah! I know everyone's already seen these fights in the actual manga, but not to worry; just like the last one, I'm just using the characters and doing the battle my own way. I'll try to keep it interesting haha. Battles are important! For character development!

Anyway, thanks for reading!