A/N: And here we are again.

I don't own Fairy Tail.

I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 26: Take Over

August 1st, X784

Vincent darted through the large halls of the fortress, a shroud of sand flowing across the floor beneath him, muffling the sounds of his footsteps as he dashed forward, Jinjo flying ahead of him near the ceiling, keeping an eye out for any Rune Knights on patrol. Vincent came to a stop at any doors he found, quickly and quietly opening them to check inside as he looked for the vault before shutting the door and moving on.

"Where is it?" he growled, shutting another door before taking off down the hall again, quickly stopping at the next door and opening it.

"What the-!?" a Rune Knight began to shout from inside the room.

"Shit!" Vincent cursed as he dashed inside the room, slamming his fist onto his open palm, "Sand-Make: Slabs!" he announced as sand swarmed to either side of the Rune Knight, forming two large slabs of sand that quickly slammed together, smashing the knight in between them before they disappeared, leaving the Rune Knight to drop to the floor unconscious.

"What was that noise?" Vincent heard a Rune Knight shout in the distance.

"I think it came from that room over there!"

"Dammit," the purple haired mage hissed as he started to look around the room, quickly seeing a large storage closet, "Gotta hide this," Vincent huffed as he knelt down and lifted the unconscious knight up by his shoulders, dragging him over to the closet slowly, "Damn armor… Why's it gotta be so heavy?" he grumbled before reaching the closet, beginning to sweat as he heard the clanking of the Rune Knights' armor coming closer to the room, "Get in there!" he hissed as he opened the closet and stood the unconscious knight up inside it, surrounded by polearms and swords before closing the door to the closet.

"Ready?" he heard one of the patrolling knights ask.

"Gotta split!" Vincent whispered before he suddenly disappeared in a cloud of sand that flew up into the air hiding right above the doorway as the knights entered the room.

"There's nothing in here…"

"Weird," the knights muttered as the cloud of sand quietly rushed out the room over their heads before it flew down the hall, reforming into Vincent as soon as it rounded the corner.

"Too close," he whispered before Jinjo flew down to him, cawing softly.

Vincent stared at the bird for a moment as he tried to understand his meaning before he smiled at the bird.

"You found the vault, didn't you?" Vincent whispered, the bird cawing softly once more in response, "Take me there, partner," he requested before Jinjo took off flying again, Vincent chasing after him as the bird led him deeper into the fortress.

"There's been an assault on the front gate!" he heard another Rune Knight shout from somewhere in the fortress, "All available personnel rally to its defense! Alert the Captain!"

"Sounds like Rocco and Iva have made their move then. Good, we'll need the distraction," Vincent said as a smirk crawled onto his face, "We've got to get to the vault quickly then!" he stated as he started sprinting, rushing as fast as he could to keep up with Jinjo.

"Here?" he asked as he saw Jinjo begin to circle and then dart down another hallway, Vincent rounding the corner to see a large, secure door flanked by two guards.

"Intruder in the keep!" one of the guards shouted upon seeing Vincent, who was pulling his hood as far forward as he could to obscure his face while still being able to see.

"Alert the rest of the guard that there is an intruder at the vault! The assault on the gate must be a distraction!" the other guard shouted while drawing their sword and beginning to draw runes in the air.

"Sand-Make: Battering Ram!" Vincent shouted as a large cylinder of sand formed next to him before flying forward and smashing into the guard drawing runes, startling the second guard as they drew their sword long enough for Vincent to close the gap as sand gathered around his fist, pulling it back and slamming it into the second guard's face with a powerful punch, bouncing the guard off of the vault door before sliding to the ground unconscious.

Vincent took a moment to make sure the two guards would stay down before examining the vault door, noting that there were two keyholes before checking the guards.

"Well, lucky me, two keys," Vincent chuckled as found a key on each of them before inserting them into the keyholes, unlocking the vault door and opening it, taking his time to examine the threshold and noticing runes drawn along it, "Would've worked on an impatient rookie, that's for sure," Vincent stated as he lifted one of the guards by their cloak before tossing them over the threshold, causing the magic runes to flare to life around the guard, trapping them in a magical prison, "But I'm not a rookie," Vincent chuckled as he stepped around the prison and into the vault and began looking around, seeing piles and piles of books and scrolls lining the walls with a few different magical trinkets on display in cases.

"Jinjo," Vincent called out as the falcon landed on his shoulder, "See if you can't find the tome Nika sent us here for, I'm gonna grab some other stuff to try and throw them off the trail."

Jinjo cawed in response before taking off again, flying off into the vault as Vincent began to look around, pocketing a few different pendants and bracelets while he stuffed a magical book and a couple of scrolls into his bag before his eyes landed on a beautiful, ornate jeweled dagger kept on a pedestal and underneath a glass case.

"Now that's treasure," Vincent chuckled as he examined the dagger, taking note of its curved blade and beautiful leather scabbard, "Gotta be from Desierto originally with this style. Wonder if its cursed?" he thought for a moment before smashing the glass case and grabbing the dagger, "Guess I'll find out later," he chuckled before hearing Jinjo caw from further inside the vault and heading off to find the bird.

"Did you find it?" he asked as he watched Jinjo land atop a black tome emblazoned with the guild mark of Phantom Lord in a dark purple, "Oh, that's gotta be it, for sure. Good job," he said, reaching out and giving Jinjo a few scritches on the underside of the falcon's head before Jinjo hopped up onto Vincent's shoulder as he lifted up the tome and placed it into his bag, "All right, let's get out of here then," he said before taking off out of the vault.

. : + : .

Donovan panted heavily as he stared down Captain Gunnar, the bald Rune Knight cackling to himself as he stood with his arms crossed, seemingly untouched despite the several large gashes in the stonework all around him while several Rune Knights surrounded the both of them.

"Not the greatest plan, was it?" Gunnar chuckled as he stared down Donovan, eyeing the mask the man had put on under the hood of his cloak.

"Maybe not, but its working," Van smirked, "But we're just getting warmed up, aren't we?"

"Oh-ho! So there's more to this than your attack on me and the front gate then!" Gunnar laughed, "Doesn't matter when I'm gonna imprison you and take my time extracting every last piece of information out of you!" Gunnar declared as he removed his scabbard from his belt and began to draw a large, chipped, single-edged blade from it before tossing the scabbard to the side, "I think you'll live if I chop off a leg, you seem tough enough to survive the pain!" Gunnar roared before charging Van.

"Undead Soul: Wyvern Skeleton!" Van shouted as his body quickly transformed, gaining a slight skeletal appearance as his skin stretched over his growing body and a wyvern-esque skeletal armor sprouted over his arms, legs and head while skeletal wings and a tail grew from his back before flapping the wings and leaping backwards to dodge Gunnar's sword swing as it narrowly missed it, carving through the stone floor before the Captain reached out his hand, a magical chain appearing from it and flying after Van, grasping onto one of his arms.

"Bad move!" Van shouted before taking advantage of his enhanced strength to pull Gunnar up through the air and into the wall before darting through the air and ramming his knee into the Captain's stomach, causing him to cough up a lot of spit before Van threw him into the ground.

"Defend the Captain!" Van heard one of the Rune Knights shout as he landed on the ground, moving to the side just in time to dodge a sword strike before fist connected with his face as a few more Rune Knights grabbed onto him with Chain Magic of their own, wrapping him in the magical chains for a moment before Donovan broke them, grabbing onto the remnants of the magical chains and swinging them around, using them to clear out several of the Rune Knights before a blade swung through the air, cleaving one of Donovan's wings from his back.

"I'm your opponent!" Gunnar shouted as Van turned his head to see the cackling man reaching out just before he grabbed onto Van's face and slammed him into the ground before raising his sword up into the air.

"Shit!" Van cursed as he reached out with his skeletal wyvern tail, tripping Gunnar, causing him to fall to the ground just long enough for Van to scramble away and return to his feet while Gunnar got back up.

"You're a slippery bastard, ain't ya?" Gunnar growled as his men returned to their feet, once more surrounding Donovan, "Men! It's time to teach this scum why we're known as the Chain Gang Regiment!"

"Sir!" the Rune Knights shouted as they all sheathed their weapons and held out their hands as magic circles appeared in the air in front them.

"Chain Magic: Iron Prison!" Gunnar announced as he held out a single hand before several chains began to fly out from the magic circles surrounding Van in seemingly random directions, embedding themselves in the walls, ceiling and floor as they rushed around Van, rattling and whizzing through the air as Van tried to escape, but was continually cut off as the chains became more and more numerous until all Van could see around him was chains.

"It's time! Restrain the prisoner!" Gunnar ordered as a chorus of 'sir' rang out before the chains tightened around Van collapsing inward and catching him inside of a large sphere made of chains that was held aloft by several chains embedded in the ceiling, walls and floor.

"Capture complete sir! The prisoner is restrained!" Van heard from outside of the prison as he was slowly crushed by the ever-tightening chains.

"Am I really going to have to resort to that form?" Van thought to himself inside of the prison as he let his Skeletal Wyvern form disappear, preparing to transform once again before the sound of something like sand rushing through the hallway could be heard.

"Sand-Make: Tsunami!" Vincent shouted as a wave of sand rushed down the hall, wiping out the Rune Knights while Gunnar stood against the tide, struggling to hold it back.

"The hell is this-!" Gunnar roared before he was swept away as well, carried down the hall and around the corner as the chains went lax and disappeared, dropping Van to the ground.

"Thought I was on my own?" Donovan gasped as he lifted himself up on his hands and knees.

"Yeah, well… Crabs for brains would never forgive me if I saw you in trouble and didn't help," Vincent shrugged before turning around, crossing his arms, "If we run into any more trouble though, you've gotta handle it. A spell that big takes up too much magic."

"Got it," Donovan agreed as he stood up and began following Vincent, "Hey… Thanks for that," he said, Vincent staying silent for a moment.

"Yeah… Don't get too used it. I'm leaving you behind if you get stuck like that again," Vincent huffed as they made their way to the front of the fort.

. : + : .

"Dammit! Where do they keep coming from!" Rocco shouted, glaring at the dozens of Rune Knights that had just showed up despite the dozens of unconscious Rune Knights already on the ground.

"The fort, duh," Iva chuckled as Rocco shot her a dirty look through the mask and cloak he was wearing,

"You think you're cute, don't you?" Rocco huffed.

"And you don't think I'm cute?" Iva smirked back.

"Wha-?" Rocco blushed as he looked back at Iva, still smirking at him from underneath her own cloak and mask.

"Head out of the clouds! They're coming!" Iva shouted as Rocco shook his head before focusing on the incoming attack.

"Damn gecko," he growled before sidestepping a sword slash and counter with a hard jab, flattening out the knight while Iva darted around him, tripping another Rune Knight while Rocco reached out to grab the poor man and throw him into another charging Rune Knight.

"Nice!" Iva shouted, grinning all the while she dodged and kicked at another knight, "It's so nice to just let loose against these mooks without using magic!" she laughed as she countered another knight by grabbing onto their arm before punching them into the ground before a sudden rumbling shook the fort before a loud roar was heard in the distance.

"The fuck was that?" Rocco gawked after flattening the last Rune Knight.

"C'mon, let's go see," Iva suggested before the two of them ran outside the gate, the two of them stopping in their tracks as they saw a massive beast just outside the town in the harbor covered in black scales and purple bioluminescent lights while five heads sat upon five long necks, "The hell is that?"

"A hydra of some kind," Rocco guessed, "But where did it come from?" he wandered aloud before the hydra took note of the town and began to swim towards it, "Shit… It's going for the town, we've gotta stop it."

"But what about Vince? And your brother?" Iva asked.

"They'll be fine. We've cleared out the gate. You can wait for them if you want."

"No. I'm going," Iva stated as Rocco nodded in return.

"Right. Let's go then," he said as the two of them ran into town, finding a place to dispose of their cloaks and masks before running towards the harbor.

"They're all in a panic!" Iva shouted as they tried to push their way through the stampede of people running and screaming in the opposite direction.

"No shit!" Rocco huffed as he slipped into an alley, "This way!" he called out as Iva pushed her way through the crowd to follow him as they ran through whatever alleyways they could that led closer to the harbor until they finally found themselves near the piers.

"Holy…" Iva gasped as they looked up at the hydra, its massive size allowing it to tower above a nearby lighthouse before it smashed through the stone building with one of its heads, but not coming any further onto land.

"We've got to get it back out to sea," Rocco stated, "If we're lucky it'll swim away."

"And if we're not!?"

"We'll have to kill it," Rocco declared as magic swirled around his body as he took on his Karkinos form before running towards the beast, Iva running after him.

"Plant Dragon's Great Spire!" she shouted before stomping her foot, causing a massive pillar of wood to burst up from the ground and into the hydra's belly while Rocco leapt up onto the wreckage of the lighthouse before pushing against the hydra while Iva continued to run past the beast and onto one of the piers, "Plant Dragon's Vine Whip!" she yelled as several extending vines shout out of the palm of her hand, wrapping around one of the hydra heads and she began to pull on it as the beast let out a deafening roar.

"Iva!" Rocco shouted as he noticed one of the hydra's heads move to look at Iva before flying towards her, the Dragon Slayer leaping out of the way just in time before the pier was smashed.

"I'm fine!" Iva called back from another pier as the hydra began to move away from the shore and out into the water towards a ship entering the harbor, "Damn it! It's going after-!"

"I see it!" Rocco yelled back, taking on his Hippocampus form before diving into the water, chasing after the monster while Iva stood on the pier, helplessly staring out at the hydra.

"Finally, you're alone," she heard a woman say from behind her.

"You!" Iva snarled, turning around to see two of the cloaked figures from earlier that day, "You're behind the hydra attack, aren't you!?"

"We are, yes. And it's all to get to you, Iva," the woman explained as Iva stared daggers at her, carefully eyeing the man hunched over next to her, remembering the blue flames he could make with his magic.

"Why are you doing this? What do you know?" Iva questioned.

"As I said, to get to you. And I know everything you want to know," she chuckled, smirking as Iva let out a low growl, "My mother would want to tell you herself though. Let me take you to her," the robed woman offered, holding out her hand to Iva.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not keen on taking free handouts from a creep in a robe and I doubt you know what I want to know anyways," Iva spat while the woman let out a sigh.

"Well, mother won't be able to say I didn't try to bring you to her willingly. Dimo, capture her," the woman ordered as the man hunched over next to her suddenly stretched out, letting out a roar as smoke and blue fire billowed out from underneath his robe, burning it off and revealing a man with a buzzed head and green eyes with vertical pupils that was covered in scars and metal shackles.

"He's… a Dragon Slayer?" Iva gawked as she suddenly realized why the man smelled strange to her while she watched several dark blue scales appear on his arms and sides.

"Yes. One of our most powerful creations. A Second-Generation Dragon Slayer. Without the wisdom of the Dragons to guide us, we needed to find alternative ways to harness their magic," the woman explained before Dimo leapt at Iva, slashing at her with his clawed fingertips as she narrowly dodged the strike, calling on her scales for just a moment before allowing them to disappear.

"Dragomirov…" Dimo growled as he sunk low to ground, sensing Iva's hesitation before bursting forward in an explosion of blue flames, headbutting Iva in the stomach and sending her flying back towards the town, past the robed woman.

"Plant Dragon's Spore Bomb!" Iva shouted, slamming her hand against the ground as Dimo charged towards her again, a large flower sprouting beneath him and releasing a huge cloud of spores that instantly ignited, exploding beneath the other Dragon Slayer as Iva scrambled back to her feet, standing on guard as the smoke dissipated, revealing an only slightly singed Dimo.

"SSSlayer…" Dimo hissed while Iva could feel sweat dripping down her forehead, well aware of her extreme disadvantage against his magic. Her thoughts were cut off though when Dimo charged again, blue fire erupting around his forearms and swiping wildly at Iva while she did her best to dodge the attacks.

"Dammit!" Iva thought to herself as she tried to continue avoiding Dimo's attacks, "Why the hell am I so weak compared to other Dragon Slayers!?" she continued as she got launched backwards by a lucky punch, her feet sliding across the stone pathway, "I thought if I just fought like Gajeel… If I just imitated him… I could become stronger! But why the hell am I so fucking weak!" she berated herself before Dimo charged again, this time sending her flying into a nearby building before taking in a deep breath, preparing a Dragon's Roar while Iva laid in the wreckage.

Iva stayed still for a moment, embracing the calm before the storm as she slowly began to remember something.

"Child. When you one day leave this forest, you will inevitably be forced to fight against fire, your greatest weakness. But remember, fire can be beneficial to plant life as well as destructive. You need merely know how to take advantage of it."

"Dad…" Iva muttered as she sat up, racking her brain as she quickly as she could as she watched Dimo prepare to unleash his spell, her eyes reflecting the blue light of the torrent of fire as it was unleashed upon her, releasing a large explosion of flames.

"Dimo… I said to capture her. Not turn her to ashes!" the robed woman snapped upon seeing the explosion, "You idiotic beast!" she shouted as a stream of liquid metal flew into the air around her before lashing Dimo's back as the smoke began to clear.

"Ssslayer…" Dimo hissed as his eyes remained locked on the smoke, the woman looking over as well to see the smoke cleared and Iva standing there, covered in a fleshy green and red skin.

"Plant Dragon's Ice Plant Skin," Iva panted as she stepped out of the wreckage.

"How?" the woman gawked.

"Not every plant is sensitive to fire and my strengths don't come from brawling with the enemy like that Metalhead," Iva explained as she clenched her fist before slamming it on the ground, "Plant Dragon's Fire Sprouting!" she shouted as dozens of trees suddenly burst from the ground, rushing towards Dimo and wrapping around him before growing up into the air before twisting and slamming him back down into the ground while several flowers began to sprout on Iva's arms, slowly releasing clouds of purple pollen.

"Poison?" the woman gasped while Iva smiled.

"I'll wear you both down slowly if I have to!" Iva declared before Dimo exploded out of the trees pinning him down, only to be met by Iva charging him as several blades of grass grew along the sides of her forearms, "Plant Dragon's Grass Cutter!" she shouted as she swung the blades at Dimo with her elbows, Dimo struggling to deflect the blades with bursts of blue fire as she pushed him back towards the piers, his movements growing slower and groggier as he breathed in Iva's poison pollen as they stepped onto the pier, Iva striking again and again until Dimo fell backwards, losing his balance as he breathed in the poison, "Got ya!" Iva declared before a sphere of liquid metal flew through the air and smacked her on the side of the head, sending her falling down into a small rowboat tied onto the side of the pier.

"My, oh my. It seems you forgot to pay attention to your surroundings, Dragon Slayer," the robed woman chuckled as she looked down at Iva, whose plant skin had disappeared while she tried to resist the urge to hurl in the rowboat, "I will admit that was most impressive though. You had Dimo beaten despite your weakness to fire.

"D-damn cheater," Iva moaned as the boat bobbed up and down in the waves as the woman reached down towards Iva.

"Hold it!" they heard Donovan suddenly shout.

"Iva!" Vincent called out as he and Donovan came to a stop at the edge of the pier.

"Why do you insist on getting in my way!?" the robed woman snapped.

"I've got my reasons, don't worry," Van retorted, "But yeah, you're not taking her today," he stated, crossing his arms while looking down at the defeated Dimo, "Unless you want to fight two on one since your friend there is down for the count."

"Tsk… Have it your way then," the woman huffed before snapping her fingers as the third member of her group suddenly appeared.

"Lady Emilia?" Jozo questioned.

"We're leaving, Jozo. Leave the mages to clean up the mess with the Deepscale Hydra," Emilia huffed.

"And her?" Jozo asked looking down at the motion sick Iva.

"We'll leave her behind, this time," Emilia stated.

"Understood," Jozo replied before teleporting the three of them away.

"Who the hell were those guys?" Vincent questioned as he stepped onto the pier and reached down for Iva.

"Dragon Cultists from what I understand," Van answered.

"You know them?" Vincent asked as he pulled Iva out of the rowboat.

"Something like that," Van answered as he stared out to sea, looking at the hydra.

. : + : .

Rocco continued to swim as fast as he could, chasing after the hydra. He could hear explosions back at the docks, but he knew Iva could take care of herself and whatever was happening back there. He had to catch up with the hydra, no matter what. The lives of everyone on that ship depended on him.

"Shit!" Rocco cursed when he saw that the hydra was now bearing down on the vessel, gritting his teeth when he saw the beast rear back before thrusting two of its heads forward at the vessel before bright golden shield appeared and blocked the hydra's attack. Rocco let out a sigh of relief, knowing that there was at least one mage aboard the ship, but he still needed to hurry.

Soon, he had caught up with the hydra and leapt up out of the water, his large water hammer appearing in his hands as he swung it, slamming it into the side of one of the hydra's heads and sending it flying backward and drawing the hydra's attention to himself as he dove back into the water, the beast diving to chase him down while Rocco spun around, swimming backwards to look at the hydra as he reached out to control the water, forcing currents of water to form and slam into the beast again and again as the currents wrapped around the hydra, trapping it inside a sphere of water currents that were slowly forming a whirlpool around the beast as it let out a loud roar, pushing through the currents of water with one of its heads and breaking the spell before spinning around and slamming into Rocco with its tail, sending him flying through the water as it turned its attention back to the ship, bashing its heads against the magical shield again and again while Rocco swam to try and catch up once more. He saw a crack form in the shield as he breached the water and reached out, forcing currents of water to rise up from the sea and wrap around the hydra while he was carried up to one of its heads.

"This has gotta be one of the stupidest things I've ever done," Rocco said through gritted teeth as he landed on top of one of the hydra's heads before returning to his normal form, "Take-Over!" he shouted as a bright light enveloped both him and the hydra.

Rocco found himself in the dark, the deep inky abyss the Deepscale Hydra called home. He could feel its mind pressing down on him. It's aggression, it's need to protect what it claimed as its own. Its desires. The thirst of the hunt. These instincts and feelings weighed down on Rocco like the pressure of the oceans the beast called home. They were crushing, squeezing and devouring him like the dark, cramped places that he feared. He was suffocating under the hydra's influence and all he could do was squirm and writhe as purple lights lit up all around him, bubbles of air leaving his mouth as he tried to scream under the deep waters.

He could hear the beast's roar.

It echoed throughout abyss. Surrounding him with fear. But there was something else. Screaming… Not his own, but the screams of others as he saw through the hydra's eyes, it was beating down on the magical shield, roaring, demanding death for being disturbed. It didn't know how it came to be there. But it must have been the fault of those who claimed it as their territory. He would take it. It would be his. He would own it as his own territory.

Was that right?

"No," Rocco muttered. He wasn't here to take, he was here to protect. That's what it was.

"Right, to protect," Rocco said quietly as he reached out, his arm becoming covered in dark purple scales. Rocco watched in amazement as the scales spread across his arm until they covered his entire body, his face transforming until it became more lizard like as his eyes glowed a sickly green in the dark and his hands grew claws and his feet transformed into something more befitting of a lizard while a large tail grew from his back and thick, black horns grew from his head, curling outward as all he was left wearing was a pair of black cargo pants.

Rocco suddenly opened his eyes, finding himself on the deck of the ship with the hydra nowhere in sight. He had done it. He had taken over the beast and it was now gone. It had become a part of him.

Rocco's thoughts were suddenly cut short as a loud cheer erupted on the boat as the many sailors and passengers aboard celebrated Rocco's victory over the hydra. Many of them rushing over to surround him as he returned to his normal form as the ship continued its course towards Coleus Port, eventually docking at one of the intact piers where Rocco was able to get off, still having people cheering for him as they set about their business.

"You absolute pyscho," Van chuckled as his brother approached the group, "What did we say about trying reckless take-overs like that?"

"I know, I don't need you giving me such a hard time," Rocco sighed, while his brother lightly punched him in the arm, "What the hell happened here after I left?" Rocco asked, looking around the battle-damaged area.

"Our friends from this morning picked a fight with Iva," Vincent answered while Iva looked down the ground before looking back up at Rocco with a smirk.

"I kicked their asses though!"

"That definitely explains why I had to fish your ass out of that rowboat," Vincent chuckled.

"Shut it sandy-ass!" Iva snapped back, "He doesn't need to know that!" she continued as they started to bicker.

"Surround them!" they suddenly heard Captain Gunnar shout as Rune Knights poured into the area.

"Shiiiiit," Vincent cursed as they watched the Rune Knights surround them.

"I take it you lot are responsible for all this," Gunnar huffed as he stared down the four mages, "Arrest them!" he began to order before a hand landed on the man's shoulder.

"Give the kids a break," a tall man with faded neon green hair requested, "They just got out of a fight with a hydra that was about to level your town. It'd still be here if one of them hadn't used Take-Over magic on it."

"And who are you to order me around, civilian?" Gunnar snapped back.

"You know the name, Murdock, don't you?" the tall man asked as a few more figures departed from the ship.

"You're not the Guild Master of that guild of pirates anymore. What authority do you have?" Gunnar snapped back.

"Just leave the kids be and we won't cause any problems while we're here. We're just on our way to Hargeon is all," the man explained, tightening his grip on Gunnar's shoulder, Gunnar growling at the man for a bit before turning away from him.

"Men! Ignore the mages! Clean up this mess!" Gunnar barked, receiving a chorus of 'sirs' in response.

"You all right, kid?" the man asked as he stepped up to Rocco and the others.

"I'm fine," Rocco answered, eyeing the man carefully.

"More importantly, who are you to chase off that guy?" Vincent asked while Van narrowed his eyes at the man.

"Finn," the man answered before turning away, "Stay out of trouble," he said before walking off while Iva narrowed her eyes at another woman with the same neon green hair, noticing a guild mark on the woman who was being flanked by a tall man with silver hair and a shorter woman with brown hair.

"Guild Mages?" Iva wandered aloud.

"We should probably leave before scarface changes his mind though," Vincent suggested, the group nodding in agreement and heading for the entrance to town, the group quietly walking until they were a bit out of town.

"Well, this is where we part ways then," Van suddenly announced.

"Van," Rocco started to say before Donovan cut him off by holding up his hands.

"Don't worry. I'll keep my promise to come visit you at your guild. I've just got some business to take care of first and so do you, yeah?" Donovan said while Rocco let out a sigh.

"Yeah," he said as Donovan waved one more time before started to walk off in a different direction, "Hey! Take care of yourself, all right?" Rocco shouted after Donovan, who merely waved once more in return as he walked off.

"C'mon, we've got some ground to cover to get to the nearest train station that'll take us to Jaborosa Town that's not in Caelus Port," Vincent stated.

"What!? Train station!" Iva began to protest.

"Hey, we walked here to take your little detour and after all the trouble we've gone through the last few days, we're taking the easy way back and riding the train," Vincent argued as Jinjo landed on his shoulder.

"You'll live," Rocco huffed.

"Ugh… Fine…" Iva pouted as they began the long walk to the next town.

Credits:

Finn Murdock – MyDearWatson

A/N: And there it is, the finale to the Phantom Hearts story arc. With Punk Cubed's mission all wrapped up, we'll be able to jump into the start of the next story arc next chapter.

And I'm not sure if I mentioned this, probably did, but Phantom Hearts takes place in the same universe as MyDearWatson's Storm's Helm. So we'll get neat little cameos like the ones in this chapter from time to time. But it'll be a while before we get another one.

Anyways, I'd like to thank Benthino, Grimnack, MyDearWatson and UnseenAssailant for the reviews, they are all appreciated like always!

That's all for now.

Your host,

Dreadburner94.