Fairy Tail isn't mine and I have no rights. Just ask my 4 year old.
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Alanza waited. Gramps stared at her. She tossed her feet up onto the corner of the table and quirked a brow at her guild master. He finally stopped just staring at her and sighed.
"Your being here makes things so much simpler and so much more complicated all at the same time." She shrugged at him. "You say I can bring Mest home because you know what is going on in Alvarez. What can you tell me?"
"About Alvarez specifically?" When Gramps nodded she dropped her head back onto the chair to stare at the ceiling. "The reason they retreated from their attack on Ishgar the last time wasn't fear of the councils tools. Their Emperor simply called them back because he hadn't sent them over here in the first place. Something about timing I think. I can't really remember."
"The last time you say. So they will attack again."
"Emperor Spriggen will lead his shields right into Fiore. There are, what, nine? Twelve?" She stood up and started listing them on the chalkboard. "Ajeel the sand king, Wahl the robot guy, Demaria and her time thing, Brandish, Irene Belserion, August, Larcade, Neinhart." She paused and tapped her foot as she thought. "There are twelve. Invel the winter king, uhh... Jacob the assassin... Oh Shit! How could I forget! Bloodman." She hesitated. "And, uh, bad news bomb, God Serena defects." She sat back down while Gramps gasped and sputtered.
"Wh-what!"
"Not sure if he is now, but he becomes one of the Spriggen Twelve. They are all at that power level too." She pointed at the motherboard. "We won't see them till Evil Crybaby. As you can see we have a whole year between The Cube and when Alvarez gets here. The Emperor wants the Lumen Histoire. We can't let him have it."
Alanza let Makarov think in silence as she ran her eyes over the timeline. There were so many enemies in their future. She knew her guildmates could be victorious, but.. She had changed things. With her here who knew what would happen. She looked down at her hands and winced. And she was still useless. Expanding her magic origins did her as much good as tossing a robin into a cock fight if she couldn't do anything with the magic inside her.
"I see. Tell me child. What else will we be facing?" She stood and walked to the board. Since she really wanted to avoid telling anyone who the Seis were she was going to lie and pretend they first met them during the Infinity Clock incident. Hopefully doing that wouldn't bite her in the ass. With that in mind she touched the labels as she spoke.
"Grimoire Heart and a dragon attack. Oracion Seis and the church of...uhh... Zentopia. Interguild drama, time travel drama, dragon attack. Tartaros, another dragon attack, some idiot activates the FACE protocol and tries to destroy all magic. Alvarez war, another dragon attack."
Gramps was pale when she sat back down. Honestly she had plans that would hopefully wipe out all three of those dark guilds. However she wasn't going to tell anyone about those. It was just to dangerous to risk others getting involved. She was an extra here. She wouldn't really be missed aside from her knowledge. She would deal with this on her own.
"Up until now your brats have basically been playing games. From this point on they will be walking in death's shadow. You can't keep going like you have been."
"Agreed. This new information makes asking for counsel from my peers a necessity instead of just an option."
"Once Laxus and the Thunder Legion return you may want to include Arman and- Who is the Master of White Sea right now?" Makarov shot her a curious look.
"Grenlow, though there has been talk of him retireing."
"Arman and Grenlow then. Anyone who is about to retire should probably include their successor on the Chess Club roster." It wasn't like Kaleb wouldn't figure out what was going on from listening to those who knew. Kaleb, Farron, Arman, and Cobra would all know what was said in the Hall of Secrets if they were around Chess Club members. There really was no avoiding it.
"Why do you feel the need to involve Bosco in Fairy Tail's wars?" She just grinned at him. "Keeping those secrets for now, eh?"
"Yep." Honestly a huge part of it was that White Sea handled their wizards in a way Fairy Tail should at least observe. The Pradesh Clan was emotionally and mentally healthy. Mostly. Exposure to that might help change a few things around here. That and the ships. All the ships that were totally sweet and sexy and just so shippable. "Anything else Master?"
"I... No." He sighed heavily. "I'll have a letter for you to take to Bob once we are done dealing with Phantom Lord." She stood, erased the chalkboard and walked toward the door. She paused before leaving.
"It'll be alright Master. Your brats have crazy levels of just have to help them meet them without going totally batshit crazy along the way. We aren't alone in this, and asking for help is not a bad thing." He hummed to acknowledge her words and she headed downstairs.
She stood at the top of the stairs and just watched her guild. They were so happy. Even when they were trying to kill each other, like Lucy was Happy right now. Like a family. One big, happy, crazy family. She hummed a bouncy song that reminded her of and 'danced' her way down the stairs. Juvia, Cana, and Levy were all out of the guild and she wasn't exactly comfortable with anyone else yet, so she sat herself at the bar.
"Hey Alanza! Latte?"
"Please, Mira!" She turned around and leaned back against the bar to watch the guild. Gramps had called everyone in due to the threat of Phantom Lord so it was full to bursting. They really did need a new building, especially since she hoped to add to their family. She found a few missing members, but not many.
"Here you are!"
"Thanks. Hey, Mira, do we know where Bisca and Alzak are?"
"They are out scouting. We are keeping eyes out at all times. The alarm will be sounded if anyone matching the discriptions Juvia and Gajeel gave us is sighted." Oh. There went her plan to learn requip from the gun wizards. Maybe later.
"What kind of..." Whatever question she had been about to ask totally flew out of her head. "Mira? Please tell me I'm really looking at a pink-haired preteen with golden wings on the sides of her head?"
"Hmm? Oh. I see her. I don't recognize her. Who is she?"
"Well. I'm hoping her mother sent her. Do we have somewhere I can take her to talk? I wouldn't want her to see the motherboard. Preferable before she tries to kill Gray."
"Kill Gray? Oh. Is she a... What did Levy call them? A chess piece?"
"Yep."
"I will bring snacks up to Laxus's office. It's the door next to the Hall of Secrets. I doubt it's locked."
"You're an angel Mira." Alanza waved her hand over her head. "Meredy! Meredy!" Meredy looked visably shocked for a moment before she schooled her features and walked toward Alanza. "Hey girl! I wasn't expecting to see you so soon. Your mom send you? C'mon." She hoped up and walked toward the stairs. "Let's go sit somewhere a bit quieter." She only glanced back once to make sure the blank faced girl was following.
After the chaos of Gramps office and the dusty neglected state of Mystogan's Alanza was shocked by Laxus's office. It was neat, clean, and tastefully decorated. There was a dark rug on the floor and art on the walls. He even managed to fit a couch in here without makng the office look like a furniture warehouse. She hopped uo to sit on the desk and gestured for Meredy to have a seat on the couch.
"I'm Alanza. I'm assuming Ultear sent you with questions about what Erza told her or some sort of message." Meredy's eyes seemed to flash, but her expression didn't change.
"No. Ultear is unaware of my presence here. I heard of her interaction with Fairy Tail wizards on Galuna island, and came here in an attempt to gather additional information. How is it that you know of my relationship with Ultear? How is it that you know me?" So she had been attempting to go undercover. Alanza considered herself lucky the girl hadn't bolted.
"My magic shows me many things. I only recently joined Fairy Tail or we would have reached out sooner."
"What is it you want?"
"Several things actually. I'd like Ultear to be able to hear what her mother's spirit has to say about the past. I'd like her to get revenge on the person who actually harmed her and on the ones who really lied to her." Hades was the one feeding her all that timey wimey bullshit after all. "I would also like her to release her hold on Jellal. Oh, and I should probably tell you that Zeref is very much alive and aware. He will be pissed off if you disturb his peace." The girl's bright eyes grew large.
"You... You know Lord Zeref?"
"No. But I know people who know people who do. And my magic has shown him to me." The girl was back on her feet now and radiating violence. Alanza felt a moment of panic before Mira's light knock sounded and her cheery voice came through the door.
"I brought refreshments." She bustled in the door. She seemed to completely ignore the obviously hostile girl. "You didn't bring your coffee up so I brought it with me, finger sandwiches, and I wasn't sure what your friend liked so I brought a triple berry smoothie." Mira smiled sweetly at the pinkette. "I'm Mira! Your name is Meredy, right?"
"Yes." Even though she was still radiating dark energy Alanza could see her interrest in that smoothie.
"If you don't need anything else I'll head back downstairs. I'll be back for those dishes." That last line was tossed at Meredy. Probably rubbing in the idea that Alanza wasn't really alone. The pinkette continued to eye the smoothie after Mira was gone. Alanza set her coffee down, picked up the smoothie and took a big sip.
"Not poisoned or anything. See?" She held out the drink and waited. Meredy snatched it out of her hand and took a step back. There were clearly trust issues going on here, not that Alanza blamed the girl. She sipped at her coffee as she waited for Meredy to make her next move.
"You know where Lord Zeref is?"
"Not at the moment, no." That was true. She suspected he was on Tenrou, but she didn't know for sure. "And if I did I wouldn't tell you. You would end up telling Ultear and Hades and they would try to go get him and you would likely end up dead. I'd rather keep you alive if I can." The girl glared at her.
"If you know about my guild why are you being nice to me?"
"I'm hoping you and Ultear will leave Grimoire Heart and join Fairy Tail. Or you at least. Personally I'd like to have a nice long talk with Ultear and once she pulls her head out of her ass have her stay on the council."
"But...why?" Meredy had dropped her stoik mask in her confusion.
"Because I like you. You are a good person who has just gotten caught up in bad things." She took a deep breath and sighed. "Ur loved her daughter. She cried for her until the day she died. The researchers at Era told her Ultear had died. If you can keep from hurting them long enough you can talk to her students. They will tell you the same thing." Meredy hissed in anger.
"Gray Fullbuster stole Ultear's mother and then killed her!"
"He did nothing of the sort. Don't judge a person until you know the whole story, Meredy. Take you for example. If people judged you before getting to know you they would assume you were some sort of cold, murderous little psychopath." Meredy seemed to consider that for a moment. A firm knock came at the door. "Come in!" Gramps entered.
"Mira says you have a visitor? Hello child. I'm Master Makarov." Meredy bowed.
"Greetings Master." He seemed to preen a bit at her show of respect.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I just wanted to see who our guests was."
"Meredy here is a sensory mage. I'm trying to convince her to join Fairy Tail, but she has family issues that prevent her from doing that right now."
"Oh? I can understand that. Family is very precious. You are more than welcome to visit with my brats and get a feel for the guild. We just got two other new wizards your age. Wendy is out of town on a mission, but Ryos should be around here somewhere."
"He went house shopping with Gajeel. Who knows when they will be back."
"Ah. Well I expect they will show up for food eventually. They are dragon slayers after all."
"Slayers?" Meredy looked a bit worried at the idea. Then again Zancrow seemed to be all kinds of totally nuts and he was the only slayer she knew. Maybe Cobra, and he wasn't exactly a good guy right now.
"They are good people Meredy. Gajeel can be a bit rough around the edges, but he means well. Natsu our fire slayer just got back from a mission on Tenrou island. I bet he would be thrilled to tell you about it." Meredy's eyes glinted. Literally.
"That sounds... Interresting."
"Play nice." Meredy looked at her with a slightly confused expression. "You are welcome here. Make some friends." Meredy looked even more confused as Alanza picked up their dishes and shooed her out the door. Gramps stopped Alanza before she could follow the pinkette down the stairs.
"Who is she?" Natsu and Happy all but tackled the girl, chattering about her pink hair.
"A child of her circumstances, Gramps. Not a Tower kid, but something similar. She is here because of the message I sent to Ultear." They both went downstairs then. Alanza to hand over the empty dishes and Gramps to perch on the bar and watch the guild. Once she had fresh coffee she leaned back on the other end of the bar and did the same.
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To be continued