A/N: One more chapter before my vacation ends!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 12: Phantom Hearts

July 22nd, X784

"Goddamn it all," Raoul cursed as he trudged his way towards the guildhall, blood leaking from his wounds as he walked down the dirt road, Nika fast asleep on his back, snoring lightly into his ear as he drew closer to the guildhall, "We really did lose," Raoul sighed as he came to a stop in front of the building, taking time to look up at the now missing Phantom Lord flag before his eyes fell down to the broken front doors and his regular sitting spot, smashed to pieces in the fight with Mystogan, a frown appearing on his face as he let out another sigh before walking into the ruined building. He took a moment to look around, noticing that Darling and Rena had already woken up and were doing their best to tend to the wounded scattered across the room, many of who were deeply upset by the loss.

"Fucking dammit!" he heard Iva curse loudly, followed by a loud crash as she kicked a chair across the room, the chair smashing into pieces as it hit the wall, "I couldn't even land a single blow! How fucking lame is that! How can I be this pathetic! I'm supposed to be a Dragon Slayer!" she continued to scream as Izzy tried to draw closer to the angry girl, "Stay the fuck away from me!" Iva snapped, swiping at the older woman, who had to take a whole step back to avoid getting hit.

"I'm sorry… I just thought you could use some support, is all," Izzy said softly as she tried to reach out to Iva again, only to have her hand smacked away.

"Don't touch me," Iva growled, quickly turning her head away as soon as she saw the hurt look on Izzy's face, "I don't want to hear whatever you have to say, not today," Iva mumbled before walking over to the wall, leaning against it before sliding down it to the ground so she could sit, Raoul swearing he could see tears forming in the Dragon Slayer's eyes from where he was, but chose to ignore it for now as he walked over to Darling.

"What's the damage, doc?" he asked as he approached the doctor, who was busy stabilizing Zeke's ankle.

"Well, asides for Mr. Moore's ankle here, Mr. McKlyne has a fractured wrist. But miraculously those are the only severe injuries, only minor cuts, bruises and whatnot for everyone else," Darling explained, "Is Miss Anastasia all right?" the doctor then asked as he looked up at the sleeping woman on Raoul's back.

"She took some heavy hits from what I could tell, but she's just sleeping right now," Raoul answered before he felt Nika begin to stir.

"Hmm?" Nika hummed drowsily from Raoul's back.

"Finally decided to rejoin the land of the living, eh?" Raoul chuckled as he let Nika down off of his back, the woman taking a moment to look around at the damage.

"So it wasn't just a nightmare then," the woman sighed heavily as she looked around before kneeling down next to Zeke, looking at his wrapped up foot, "I'm sorry," she said, a guilty look on her face as she looked down at him.

"What for?" Zeke asked as he leaned up on his elbows to look at her better.

"That I couldn't stop this," Nika explained before standing up moving to another mage, apologizing to them as well while Raoul watched from a distance.

"She's gonna be beating herself up for a long time after this," he sighed, scratching the back of his head as he watched her move from mage to mage.

"She doesn't have anything to apologize for. That man was a monster, there wasn't anything any of us could do," Zeke huffed as he laid back down, looking straight up at the ceiling.

"This is what she does, takes on the blame for everything that goes wrong around her, and she's upset that we got stuck in an illusion and didn't even realize you guys were fighting out here," Raoul stated before letting out another heavy sigh, "I haven't seen her like this since we first got transferred here."

"You're goddamn right you should be!" they heard Connor shout from across the room, Raoul, Zeke, Darling and Rena looking over to see him yelling at Nika.

"How cruel," Rena muttered softly, "She… did all that she could."

"I know, sweetie," Darling replied as he reached out to rub the young girl's back, comforting her as best as he could while Raoul stomped over to where Nika and Connor was.

"That's enough, Connor!" Raoul called out as he approached them.

"And where the hell were you!?" Connor shouted back, "Not here when it mattered, that's where!" he accused as Raoul's eyes fell into a harsh glare, unable to refute the accusations hurled at him.

"Connor! No more fighting, please," Layla begged from a short distance away, the girl holding the brim of her hat down in front of her face, still trembling in fear from the illusion she had been trapped in while her black cloak was noticeably blank, the many drawings of suns, moons and stars now missing from it, "Please."

"Tch… Just piss off. The lot of you," Connor growled before Nika and Raoul walked away, Raoul wrapping an arm around Nika to comfort her as she began to sob, the woman quickly turning into him and grabbing ahold of his blue jacket while she buried her face in his chest, crying as he wrapped his arms around her.

"It's all my fault… This is all my fault… I could have stopped all of this," Nika cried, gripping Raoul's jacket tighter and tighter as Raoul rubbed her back with one of his hands, trying to comfort her as best as he could, "I… All I ever do is disappoint people and screw everything up. First with my parents, then with Jose and now with all of you. Why can't I ever get anything right!? I should have listened to you! Why did I run off on my own!? Why didn't I notice what was going on sooner!? Why didn't I!?"

"Stop it!" Raoul snapped back, Nika flinching back to look up at Raoul, seeing tears threatening to fall from his eyes as well before he pulled her back in to wrap her in a tight hug, "It's not your fault this happened, okay? If you have to blame someone, blame Jose for pulling us all into this fight that none of us wanted. You did everything you could, we all did. So stop blaming yourself for this! It's not your fault. It's not your fault," Raoul repeated, whispering it over and over again to Nika as she buried her face into his chest again, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Well isn't this a pitiful sight?" they heard a gruff voice call out, everyone turning and looking to the front entrance as they saw a chained up JV shoved to the floor, the man surrounded by a whole brigade of Rune Knights while one of them stepped forward, a tall, bald man with several scars across his face and on his head, "My name is Hector Gunnar, Captain of the Rune Knights Second Custody Enforcement Unit! And you criminal scum are in violation of waging an illegal Guild War, that you sorry lot lost handily I might add," the Rune Knight mocked, laughing as he noticed countless glares being directed towards him.

"You can't possibly arrest all of us for that," Vincent countered, stepping forward while Nika turned away from the man as she tried to clean her face of tears, "We didn't even attack anyone, we were attacked by Fairy Tail."

"Unfortunately you're right about that one," Gunnar chuckled as he stepped into the guildhall, "Now which of you sorry lot are in charge of this branch?" he asked as Nika turned back around and stepped forward to face him.

"I am," she answered, trying to put on the bravest face she could as the man approached her, chuckling darkly as he towered over her.

"You? What a joke. No wonder you all got your asses handed to ya," the Captain mocked before reaching into a satchel hanging off of his right hip, pulling out a rolled up piece of paper, "Now then," he began as he unrolled the paper, "It is my exclusive delight to inform you lot, that the Magic Council, in their excellency, as punishment for waging an illegal guild war and threatening thousands of innocent lives in Magnolia Town with weapons of mass destruction, such as the Jupiter Mark Two Cannon and the forbidden spell Abyss Break, has chosen to officially disband the Mage Guild, Phantom Lord, and all of its various branches across Fiore. Meanwhile, its Guild Master, Jose Porla, is to be stripped of his title of Wizard Saint and will take on all charges lobbied against Phantom Lord."

"So that's it then," Nika sighed, "Phantom Lord is dissolved."

"That's right, wench, which means you lot have twenty four hours to clear out of here before the Magic Council seizes this property and you all get arrested for squatting," Gunnar chuckled, not even trying to hide the sneer on his face.

"What!?" Nika protested, "But this is the only home several of these mages have! They'll be homeless on the streets with nowhere to go!"

"Not my problem. Or are you trying to refuse the orders of a Rune Knight?" Gunnar challenged as Nika quickly backed down, "That's what I thought, all bark and absolutely no bite, you little bitch," Gunnar laughed before turning around and pointing to JV, "Get those cuffs off of him, we're leaving," he ordered as a Rune Knight rushed forward to unlock and retrieve the handcuffs before the all marched away from the building, many of the mages just watching in shock, powerless to do anything about what had just happened until Nika took a deep breath, walking forward to the entrance before facing her former guildmates.

"Unfortunately, you all heard that, Phantom Lord is no more," she began, looking throughout the room at each and every face in it, "That means, none of us have a home here any longer and to comply with the demands of the law, we have to leave this place behind. It has been a privilege and an honor to serve as your Guild Representative and my one regret is that I wish I could have done more to stop this from happening," she stated before looking down at the ground, no longer able to look any of them in the eyes as they all started to move around, several of them moving towards the rooms to pack their things while others left to head towards their homes in town.

"But I don't have anywhere to go," Rena could be heard saying softly next to Darling.

"It's alright, you can come stay with me and Delia, how does that sound, Miss Miret?" Darling said softly as the young girl nodded, taking Darling's hand.

"I'd like that," she answered as Darling pulled a pair of crutches from his bottomless bag before helping Zeke to his feet, "These, are for you my, Mr. Moore. If you need a place to stay, my door is open to you."

"Thanks, but no thanks, doc," Zeke replied as he moved the crutches under his arms, "I got a place to stay," he stated before hopping off on his crutches.

"What about you, Zavid?" Darling asked, calling out to the young boy, who was now frantically flipping through his notebook after scribbling on another page before looking up at Darling.

"Yeah, I could use a place to stay, Dr. Darling," the young boy answered.

"That settles it then, let's go pack up both of your things and then we'll head out," Darling said before leading the two young mages back to their rooms.

"Oi!" Rocco shouted down at Iva, who was still skulking against the wall.

"The hell do you want?" she huffed, not even bothering to look up at him.

"You don't have anywhere to sleep tonight do you?" he asked, Iva finally glaring up at him, Rocco feeling a bit of shock when he noticed tears had been running down her face this whole time.

"What of it? It's not the first time someone's ripped my home away from me. I'll be fine," she mumbled before looking back down at the floor, memories flashing in her mind, "Why did it have to be today of all days? Some kind of sick joke," she mumbled to herself as Rocco let out a heavy sigh.

"Now I know for certain you won't be fine," he huffed before reaching down and grabbing her by the arm.

"Let go of me!" Iva snapped, weakly hitting Rocco's chest as he pulled her to her feet.

"No. You're staying at my place tonight, no arguments. My conscious would kill me if I didn't make sure you had a place to sleep for at least tonight," Rocco retorted as Iva kept trying to hit Rocco, each blow weaker than the last until she finally stopped, "Got that worked out of your system yet?" he asked as Iva only huffed in response before looking back down at the ground, slowly nodding, "Good, now let's go pack your things," he said before leading Iva back into the guildhall towards her room.

"They'll be alright," Raoul said as he watched the mages go to and fro, many of them working out who will be staying with who overnight, "We've done everything we can for them."

"I hope so," Nika mumbled before Raoul took her by the hand.

"Let's go pack your things, you need a place to stay too, yeah?" Raoul asked as he lead Nika up the stairs, the woman smiling softly as her longtime friend led her up to her room.

. : + : .

It was a quiet walk through Jaborosa Town as Rocco led Iva through the streets, many quiet onlookers watching them and whispering as they passed.

"I can hear them all," Iva growled, "Mocking us… Belittling us… Pitying us."

"Try not to let it bother you," Rocco sighed, not used to Iva being so depressive, "It's better to just ignore them anyways.

"Easy for you to say when you can't hear what they're saying," Iva muttered before Rocco grabbed her by the wrist and began to walk faster, forcing her to keep up with him until they reached one of the rivers that ran through town, the two of them following it until they came to a stop at a townhome, Rocco leading Iva up to the front door before letting go of her so he could unlock the door.

"Are you okay dear?" they heard a concerned woman ask from a window above them, Rocco's one neighbor, Iva assumed as his townhouse was on the end of the building.

"I'm fine, ma'am," Rocco responded, taking a moment to look up at the older woman sticking her head out of a window.

"I heard about what happened to your guild, I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do for you and your friend?" the woman asked, her concerned eyes looking between Rocco and Iva, Rocco taking a moment to think before the woman spoke again, "How about I make you some dinner?"

"That'd be appreciated," Rocco answered back before looking at Iva, "Anything you want her to make?" he asked, only receiving a quiet shrug in return, "Well, you know what I like. I know she likes vegetables and fruit and such."

"I can work with that!" the woman called back, "It'll just be an hour or so!" she said before ducking back inside her window while Rocco turned to open his front door, leading Iva inside, revealing a well-furnished, but open living room with a few candles spread about the room, a couple bowls of fresh fruit laid out in the kitchen behind the living room and one in the living room itself, while a staircase led up to what Iva assumed would be the bedrooms.

"Make yourself at home," Rocco instructed as he pulled off his boots while Iva continued to look around, noticing that all the décor had a noticeable beach theme while the place was painted in whites, light blues and light greens while the whole apartment smelt of a sea breeze, much like Rocco himself.

"It suits you," she eventually said as she kicked off her own boots, "Where can I leave this?" Iva asked, moving her right shoulder to gesture at her duffle bag hanging from it before Rocco headed to the staircase.

"Follow me," he said as the Dragon Slayer followed him up the stairs, "There's a spare bedroom over there that you can have," he said, pointing down the small hallway at the top of the stairs to the left before pointing over his shoulder to the right, "This one's my bedroom. We'll have to share the one full bathroom though," he added pointing to a door in the middle of the hallway, "There's only a half-bath downstairs," Rocco said before walking past Iva and back down the stairs, leaving the girl to wander into the spare bedroom.

As she stepped in, she noticed that it was rather bare, but the walls were painted a light green and bed was covered in similarly colored sheets. It had a small desk tucked away under a window that faced the street to the left of the townhouse while a few potted plants sat on top of it while a wardrobe sat near it, tucked away on the wall opposite of the wall the bed was pushed up against the center of.

"At least it's bigger than what I had at the guildhall," Iva shrugged before tossing her duffle onto the bed and leaving the room, heading back down to see Rocco reclining on his couch, feet kicked up on the coffee table in front of it before Iva let out a sigh, moving around the couch to sit down on the opposite end from him, the two of them falling into an awkward silence until Rocco decided to break it.

"Did something happen to you on the twenty-second?" he asked cautiously, noticing Iva tense up for just a moment before settling, letting out a sigh before answering.

"Yeah… My dad died today, seven years ago," she explained, curling her legs up to her chest before hugging them against her, "He was killed, by another dragon."

"A dragon?" Rocco repeated, disbelief thick in his voice, "There ain't any dragons anymore," Rocco retorted before Iva shot him a harsh glare.

"I didn't open up just to have you mock me like everyone else has," she snapped, "My dad was a dragon and he was killed by another dragon, a huge, black one covered in blue markings."

"Sorry," Rocco apologized, holding up one of his hands in an attempt to calm Iva, "It's just a bit hard to believe, but if you insist one still exists, I'll believe you for now."

"Thanks," Iva muttered.

"So what happened to the other dragon?" Rocco asked.

"Don't know," Iva admitted, "But I'm going to find it and I'm going to kill it one day," Iva declared before the two of them fell back into silence.

"What happened to your real parents then?" Rocco questioned as an angry glare appeared on Iva's face.

"Don't know, don't care. As far as I know, they abandoned me with dad when I was a baby. He knew who they were, but he never cared to tell me. Dad would only say that he would tell me who they were and where they were when I was strong enough to know," Iva explained, tightening her grip on her knees.

"But they're out there somewhere?"

"As far as I know, but I don't give a damn about them since they clearly didn't give a damn about me."

"I can relate to that feeling," Rocco huffed, "It's just me and my brother here in Fiore. Dad was an ass, so we ran away. At least, I think Van is still in Fiore."

"Are you not from Fiore?" Iva asked, turning her head to look at the man next to her.

"Nah, Caelum," Rocco replied before a knock could be heard at the door, "That must be Ms. Candace," Rocco stated before standing from the couch and heading over to open the door.

. : + : .

A lone, young girl ran down the dirt path to the old Jaborosa Branch guildhall as the sun set on the town, clouds obscuring the sky as rain drops slowly began to fall all around her as she came to a staggering stop in front of the ruined building.

"No!" Miyako gasped before turning around and running back into town, tripping and falling into the mud before clawing her way back to her feet and taking off as fast as she could again, dashing as fast as she could through the muddy road, eventually making it back to town just as the rain picked up and she turned to run towards the north side of town running through the slippery stone streets as fast as she could before coming to a stop in front of an apartment building, running inside and up the stairs without stopping for a single moment until she came to a door on the third floor and began pounding on it, "Raoul-sensei! Open up! Please!" the young girl begged, tears streaming down her face as her hair stuck to her head and her clothes were thoroughly soaked with rain. She kept pounding and pounding the door until she heard it start to open from the inside.

"Squirt," Raoul started to say before Miyako charged into him, wrapping her small arms around the man.

"It can't be true! It can't!" Miyako cried as Raoul tried to shush her, placing one of his hands on her back as he peeled her off of him before bending over to pick the girl up.

"It'll be okay, Squirt," he said with a grunt, not used to carrying her like this anymore, while she cried into his shoulder.

"Is she alright?" he heard Nika call from living room, as he carried Miyako into the room, setting the crying girl down on the couch next to Nika.

"It can't be true… you guys can't of lost, you're the strongest," Miyako sobbed before wrapping her arms around Nika, both of the adults' faces falling.

"We lost, Miyako," Nika admitted, "Phantom Lord is gone for good," she said as Miyako began to sob harder.

"But…! But you can't! You guys were going… You were going to be the best mages ever! You can't break your promise!" the small, silver-haired girl continued to cry as Nika looked up to Raoul before looking over to where the phone was on the wall, Raoul catching the hint before walking over to before dialing a number in.

"Hello," Raoul said quietly, breathing a sigh of relief when he realized it was Miyako's mother, Hoshiko, on the line, "Yeah, yeah, she's here. She's okay. She was just worried about us. Nika's with her now. Poor kid's crying her eyes out," he carried on softly as he spoke with Miyako's mother over the phone.

"What're you guys gonna do?" Miyako asked as she began to dry her eyes, looking up at Nika, the woman's expression becoming downcast again.

"I don't know. I'm sure most of our mages have left the town by now, but… Raoul and I don't really have anywhere else to go. No one is going to want an ex-Phantom Lord Mage after what Jose did," Nika explained softly while Raoul hung up the phone.

"Her old man is on the way," he sighed before taking a seat on the other side of Miyako so that the young girl was seated between him and Nika.

"You guys aren't going to give up, are you?" Miyako asked sadly, turning so that she was facing forward where she was sat, looking down at the ground with a frown on her face.

"Squirt, I really don't know what we're going to do," Raoul admitted, scratching the back of his head, "We've been discussing options all evening and it's just… nothing seems to work."

"Maybe dad could help," Miyako muttered quietly to herself before the three of them fell into silence, eventually, a hard knocking at the door alerting them to the presence of Miyako's father on the other side of it.

"I'll get it," Nika said, knowing how much Raoul hated dealing with the man. She quickly made her way to the door, opening it to reveal a giant of a man with upright, spiking brown hair and maroon eyes.

"Where's my daughter," the man demanded to know, staring down at Nika.

"She's inside, Katashi" Nika answered as she lead the man into the apartment, Miyako quickly jumping off of the couch and running to her father, wrapping her arms around one of his legs.

"Dad! You have to help them! You have to! Please!" Miyako begged as Katashi quickly knelt down to get as eye level as he could with his eldest daughter.

"And how could I help them?" Katashi asked as he looked Miyako up and down, scowling as he noticed how caked in mud her hands and knees were.

"You could help them! You can help them make a new guild!" Miyako declared as a look of shock crossed both Raoul and Nika's faces.

"What!?" Raoul gawked, waving his hand dismissively, "We don't have the kinda cash needed to do that between us!"

"Even if we did, we don't have anyone to be guild members. We can't make a guild with just two mages," Nika sighed.

"Dad! Please!" Miyako begged, the large, muscular man looking down at his daughter's pleading face, the man letting out a sigh, knowing that he couldn't say no to her.

"You two have to make me a few promises, first," Katashi declared, looking up from his daughter and to Raoul and Nika, instantly catching both of their undivided attention, "You must swear to me that you will protect my daughter. You must swear to me that you will help her grow strong like she wants to. You must swear to protect this town. And lastly, you must swear that your guild will become the strongest in Fiore," Katashi demanded, giving the two mages in front of him a harsh stare as he spoke.

"We swear," Nika answered first, determination and hope welling up inside her.

"We swear," Raoul repeated.

"Good," Katashi replied, "I'll be back in the morning. I'll have some of my boys round up whoever of your Phantom Lord mages are still around town and are willing to join up with your new guild. After that, we'll head to town hall and get started on that paperwork."

"But what about the fees? And what about a building for a guildhall?" Nika asked, looking up at the tall man as he stood up, Miyako seating on one of his broad shoulders.

"Don't worry about the money. Hoshiko and I will pay for it for now and you two can focus on finding missions for your guild to pay us back down the line," Katashi explained, "And for the guildhall, well, we already have a building, just need to fix it back up, don't we? You'll just have to promise not to let it get so easily smashed up again," the large man huffed, clearly annoyed that they let a building he made get ruined in the first place, the two mages wearing rather ashamed looks on their faces under his ruthless gaze, "Now then, I need to get my daughter home and cleaned up and ready for bed. In the meantime, you two work out all the details for your new guild," Katashi stated as he turned to leave, ducking under the door frame so Miyako didn't hit her head.

"Bye Nika-sensei! Bye Raoul-sensei!" Miyako called out before Katashi shut the door behind them as Raoul and Nika immediately jumped into discussing plans for the new guild.

. : + : .

July 23rd, X784

Two dozen mages stood in front of Jaborosa's townhall, confused as to why they had been dragged there by construction workers so early in the morning. At the front of the crowd stood a massive man, the young girl many of them knew as Raoul and Nika's student perched atop his shoulder while the two mages stood next to the large man.

"This is all that's left, eh?" Raoul huffed as he looked at the twenty-two other mages in front of him and Nika, "Down from over a hundred to just twenty-four counting us."

"I think it's a perfect number for a new guild," Nika stated, "If there were too many more, we might struggle to make sure they all have jobs to do."

"True," Raoul replied, "Just some odd faces I didn't expect to see in the crowd is all."

"My boys searched high and low just to find as many as they did, be grateful," Katashi demanded, Raoul quickly apologizing before the large man looked to the crowd, "Many of you might not know me by name, but you know my work! I am Katashi Ranji, founder and owner of the Ranji Construction Company that built half of this town!" the man began, his loud voice demanding that everyone present pay attention to him, "In spite of yesterday's events, the dissolution of Phantom Lord and the destruction of your guildhall. I have decided that this town needs a Mage Guild to fill the void left behind by the loss of the Jaborosa Branch!" he bellowed to the crowd, many of them whispering among themselves before he continued again, "As such, I am willing to sponsor the creation of a new Mage Guild and I am also willing to repair the old Jaborosa Branch Guildhall to house this new guild!"

"We'll owe a great debt to Mr. Ranji if we choose to go through with this," Nika called out over the crowd, "He's offering us all a home, a place to work, a means to make money. Raoul and I have chosen to accept his offer and while I'll understand if any of you choose not to stay here with us in our new guild, I sincerely hope that you will all choose to stay with us!"

"Well I am certainly out of my main employer," Darling could be heard musing, "I do believe I will join, this time as a proper member of the guild, rather than as a doctor that was hired on."

"Dr. Darling," Nika said as a smile appeared on her face.

"I'll join too," Rena said as she stepped forward, Lilly fluttering happily over her head.

"And me!" Zavid called out.

"You know I'll join whatever guild you two are a part of," Lillian shouted over the crowd, "We're friends no matter what happened to Phantom Lord."

"Whatchu guys thinking?" Vincent asked as he stepped over to Rocco and Iva.

"Not like I've got anything to lose," Rocco shrugged, "Joining a guild here means I don't have to pack up and move, "I'm in!" he shouted towards Nika.

"To hell with it then," Vincent said before calling out his intention to join as well, "Iva?" he asked, looking over to the Dragon Slayer.

"I don't know. There's someplace I need to go before I decide on anything, I think," Iva sighed.

"You don't have to go it alone," Rocco stated, giving the woman a serious look before she rolled her eyes.

"Fine, but I'm still making this trip first thing," Iva huffed before looking towards Nika, "I'm in! For now, at least."

"I'll also join! I need to make sure my garden is in good shape after all," Izzy called out next.

"And me!" Layla shouted, raising her hand up high.

"Me as well!" Emrys yelled, each and every last mage there agreeing to rejoin until there were just two mages left.

"What do you think?" Kord asked, looking down at the shorter, JV, who was scowling heavily.

"Other than I hate mushy moments?" JV scoffed.

"It's inspiring I think," Kord stated, "I wasn't planning to join until I saw how devoted everyone else was to this new guild. You'll have me, as well!" the man called out, leaving JV as the one, lone mage that hadn't yet stated whether he'll join or not.

"Fine, but my one intent is to use you all to grow stronger," JV huffed before a satisfied smile came across Nika's face.

"Now, there's the matter of who will be leading this new guild," the woman began.

"Well, it's gotta be you, yeah?" Lillian suggested.

"She is the only one with any experience even close to being a guild master," Jaku added, while Cleo let out a sigh.

"It's certainly better than the alternative of Raoul trying to be a guild master. I doubt he'd take it seriously," Cleo muttered as mostly everyone came to an agreement on the matter.

"I think that settles it then," Raoul snickered, "Why don't you tell everyone the new guild name, Madam Guild Master?" he suggested while a blush appeared on Nika's face, the woman thoroughly embarrassed by the title.

"Yes, well… Knowing how much Phantom Lord meant to all of us and the community here and knowing how much of a void in our hearts the loss of it has made, Raoul and I decided on the name of the guild last night with those thoughts in mind," Nika explained as everyone looked to her, listening intently to her explanation, "The name we chose represents that loss, that reminder and promise that never again shall we suffer a defeat like we did yesterday, that we carry on the legacy of Phantom Lord in our hearts, the legacy of what it used to be in its glory days, the legacy of what it meant to us. The name of our new guild is… Phantom Hearts!"

Credits:

Captain Hector Gunnar – Dreadburner94

Katashi Ranji – Dreadburner94

A/N: The guild is born! Finally! After a dozen chapters we can finally call our cast of characters the mages of Phantom Hearts! With the start of this new story arc, the Phantom Hearts Story Arc, we can expect our heroes to begin the reconstruction process of their guild as they struggle to carve out a place in the vacuum of power left behind by Phantom Lord, but it won't be easy as other nearby guilds may try and take a piece of this pie for themselves too.

But, this means, barring that I come across a sudden burst of inspiration in the next nine and a half hours, MyDearWatson has until the 15th of March to write a total of 6 chapters for any of their stories.

Anyways, I'd like to thank Benthino, rokebuto, XLil MEkoX, MyDearWatson, Grimnack and Elements08 for the reviews. They are all appreciated!

That's all for now!

Your host,

Dreadburner94.