AN: I have been asked to add in Sting and Rogue or Cherria (Sherria – however you spell it. I'll look it up later) to the story so that Wendy will have company. Its not going to happen. Bringing in Wendy to the story early worked well because she is a Fairy Tail member. She was always going to end up being part of the guild.

Sting and Rogue are major players in Sabertooth. Before the time skip they are the same age however that doesn't change the fact that their guild has a huge redemption arc. Sabertooth is home to many mages and if I take away the twin dragons then I have to change the entire GMG arc and every other arc that they are part of. I'm not willing to that.

Doing that means I have to create new members of their guild to compete in the GMG and I hate writing OC's because I'll have to come up with their magic and personality. It changes too much and leaves too big gaps in the story.

Right now Cherria is even younger than Wendy so no I'm not gonna steal her from her cousin. We don't know anything about her past and I'm not really interested in bringing in more kids for Natsu and Lucy to deal with. Adding in more kids means more responsibility on the parents and that ends up writing yourself into a corner. As a parent your kid comes first not your adventure.

I'm not gonna make so many changes and make the plot shit because their focus is on their toddlers and not the war that they came back in time to fight.

Guest: You gave me an awesome idea for another arc later in the story.

Thanks so much for all the patience waiting for this chapter to come out. I expected to post this chapter ages ago but I couldn't get back into writing this story.

Chapter twenty six

Lucy watched everyone nervously. Ichiya explained that the Blue Pegasus guild had a flying ship named Christina. They were going to split up, find the enemy base and use the ship to bomb the base. It was a good plan justlike she remembered. A little extreme but she knew that the dark guild was capable off.

The ship carried a large amount of fire power however mages were capable of surviving explosions even though they were at the very center of those explosions. If the plan had worked, it was highly likely that they could have taken out at least four members of the dark guild. The rest of them would be able to take out the mages mostly due to the fact that they out-numbered them.

However Natsu was growling lowly and Wendy was picking up on her fathers distress. Since Natsu had taken Wendy fishing their relationship had grown in leaps and bounds. There was a closeness between the young girl and Natsu that hadn't been there before and it warmed Lucy's heart to see it. Wendy took many cues from her parents and she was sensing her father preparing to attack.

Jura noticed the tense atmosphere coming from the Fairy Tail members. He was one of the youngest members to be given the honor of being a wizard saint. Jura knew he was not the youngest person to reach the title but it was a major accomplishment. One that while he had a lot of pride in being able to accomplish he wasn't completely sure he deserved it.

Now Jura found himself able to work with not one but two other wizard saints. The name Siegrain Fernandes is still spoken with great respect within the magic council. Natsu Dragneel however was known for his sheer destructive power. He had seen some of the battle between the fire mage and Deliora and Jura honestly hoped to never be on the receiving end of that wrath.

The Fairy Tail members that stood before him were legends. They were all spoken about in every guild ever since the Deliora incident. There was no mage in Fiore who didn't know what happened in Hargeon. Now he was able to see them in action himself.

The plan laid out to them by Ichiya was a good one. He would be hard pressed to come up with anything better however he couldn't help but notice that Natsu had gone from wary, to tense to almost ready to pounce. He was not the only one who had noticed that Natsu had slowly grown more and more agitated during their strategy meeting.

The little blue haired girl took her cues from her father. She too had grown wary and seemed to be ready to fight at a moments notice. The other fairies didn't know what was going on but they had already started to close in together.

They were protecting each-others backs, covering their blind spots while searching for an enemy. An enemy that they didn't know existed. Natsu never voiced any concern that there was an enemy in the room. Jura couldn't understand how a group of people could be so tightly bound to each other.

Jura had never been part of many teams. He almost always worked alone when he went on jobs. From a young age, Jura always had a higher magical ability than the other mages in his guild. He reached S-class status when he was a teenager. He went on more dangerous missions, spent more time with older mages who could help him control his magic. Jura never spent time a lot of time with a team. He never became so aware of other people that he could read their behavior.

Lyon and Sherry didn't know what was happening but they were taking cues from the Fairies. Everyone was currently looking for an enemy that they couldn't see. The Trimens were also keeping watch but they were also looking lost compared to Lyon and Sherry who were taking the threat seriously.

"Natsu-dono is something wrong?" asked Jura and the growling stopped.

Natsu huffed, "We're being watched. I can't pick up their scent or follow them with my eyes but someone is here. They're gone now but someone was here."

Hibiki frowned as the others scanned the room, "How can you be so sure?"

Natsu frowned and tapped his ear, "You can hide your scent and turn yourself invisible but you cannot stop your heart from beating. There was an extra heart beat in the room."

No one said anything when Natsu turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, "We need to check on the ship. We need to make sure that they didn't overhear our plan."

It took a few minutes to catch up to him because Eve asked, "Why did he say that we needed to check on the ship?"

Lucy shook her head, "Natsu trusts his instincts. He says someone was here because he felt another presence. He tried to find the person via scent, sound, vision and touch but he couldn't. He thinks he heard another heartbeat but he isn't sure. Its possible he is being paranoid."

Gray huffed, "Natsu's instincts are never wrong. He is a dragon-slayer. They take on characteristics of dragons which means that he can sense when he is being watched. He just knows."

Natsu resisted the urge to grin as he listened to Gray. The fact was that he couldn't be absolutely sure that he heard an extra heart beat in the room. There wasn't a word to explain what he managed to sense. The best he could explain it as was that he was being hunted. He felt the eyes of someone watching his family with the intention of harming them.

It was more animal instinct than a human sense. However Natsu was a dragon. He was no ones prey. He was the predator. Someone fucked up. They let him know that they were there which meant that he could trace them. Natsu could feel bloodlust in the air. He was heading towards a fight.

Ichiya was left in the meeting hall as everyone chased after Natsu. Jura noticing that Ichiya hadn't moved asked, "Are you alright?"

Ichiya didn't say anything as his eyes focused on Jura. Jura knew something was wrong when Ichiya opened one of his parfume containers. There was a sweet smelling fragrance in the air and Jura took a step away from the other man. Every instinct that he had was suddenly screaming at him that something was very wrong.

Jura felt his throat close as he struggled to get air into his lungs. His chest burned as he choked on the parfume. He hit his knees as tears gathered in his eyes as he struggled to breathe. Jura crawled towards Ichiya who turned a blank gaze on him. The last thing Jura saw before he passed out was the milky white fog that covered Ichiya's eyes.

There was laughter in the air as Ichiya watched horrified as his body refused to obey him. He was even more horrified when he realized that he had harmed Jura. Ichiya wasn't even sure when he did this. He couldn't remember opening the containers.

As he watched Jura struggle on the floor the worry and horror started to slip away. Ichiya struggled again as the fog started to cover everything again. He was losing his self again. There was someone here with him. The more he tried to put together his thoughts the more it slipped away.

Ichiya found himself lost in the fog. Everything was white and it was suffocating him, covering his memories and thoughts. He couldn't understand what was happening anymore. All he could remember was the laughter in the air.

The sound was mocking and feminine. He didn't know how or when he had gotten caught in her web but she was using him as a puppet. He couldn't move. She walked out of the meeting hall, snapping her fingers, dropping her control over the short man.

Ichiya froze as control returned to him when suddenly everything hurt. He grasped his heart as it hammered in his chest. His vision swam before his eyes and suddenly everything went black.

Natsu could feel someone's presence in the air. They were there and then they were gone. It had happened so many times he wasn't surprised that he had gotten angry. He couldn't be sure if someone was there or not because every time he came close to figuring out what it was, it was gone.

He decided to find the Christina. If they managed to blow it up then that would be their best bet at figuring out whether or not someone had overheard their plans. Lucy ran next to him, her eyes darting around the forest looking to see if she could spot any enemies. So far everything seemed normal.

Hibiki pointed out the ship and Natsu nearly sighed in relief. There were mutters of relief that their plan didn't seem to be blown when Natsu felt magic in the air.

"Get down." He shouted and dived for Lucy and Wendy.

Siegrain grabbed Erza and Gray and jumped. Hibiki and Eve hit the ground hard trapping Lyon underneath the both of them. Ren dived for Sherry and managed to cover her just in time for the explosion to throw them all backwards.

The ship went down hard. Natsu could feel the debris fly outward and a piece of wood cut his cheek. The explosion happened later than it did in the last time line. They waited until the ship was as close as possible to the gathered mages before they shot it down.

They wanted to make sure that Natsu and his friends got caught in the backlash. Natsu knew that this was not going to end well. Somehow things here had changed. He didn't know why or what was going to happen but he knew that this wasn't going to follow the original time line.

Natsu frowned as he realized that his ears were still ringing. The explosion should not have been close enough to damage his hearing even for a moment. He shook his head as he tried to orientate himself however he lost precious time trying to re-orientate himself.

There were six people present, standing there watching them scramble to try and protect each other. Oracion Seis seemed to be mocking them however Angel seemed different. There was a strange pressure coming from her. Natsu had never felt magic like this. It was not something she had ever used in the times that they had met before.

Lucy assumed that she would summon angels from those strange golden coins. Gray told them that Angel had been exchanging her life force in return for the ability to summon those angels. Natsu didn't think they were real angels but at the time it was what she called them so they went with it. Natsu and Lucy didn't tell anyone but Team Natsu about her magic.

No one ever saw Angel use magic. Lucy couldn't tell everyone that Angel summoned beings out of coins without it becoming suspicious however Natsu believed that she would use the same magic. Once she lost her keys, Angel turned to the coins. Now that he was looking at her, he could feel her magic and it was something completely new to him.

Lucy could feel the difference as well. She knew that Angel did not have the coins in her possession however her mind was trying understand why. Her eyes swept over her companions until she saw Brain. He was the only difference. When Angel lost her keys she still had Brain as her mentor.

The last time Angel ended up following Midnight who encouraged her use of the coins. Brain was not callous with the lives of his members. He needed them because they kept his other personality sealed. If they were defeated in battle then their seals broke as well. He would not have let Angel use magic that would shorten or threaten her life. He would have found another type of magic for her to use.

Lucy got into a fighting stance, while keeping an eye on Angel. When they first met she used Gemini to steal her body and Lucy had been taken out by herself. She readied herself for battle, drawing her staff and planting it in front of Gray.

His jaw was clenched and she knew he was itching for a fight. Once the staff hit the ground in front of him, Gray was broken out of his thoughts and stared at Lucy. She shot him a warning glance, telling to stay put for the moment and he took a deep breath. He released it slowly while readying himself to attack. He couldn't be reckless or he would endanger the lives of everyone present.

Brain frowned, "I knew that they would send someone to take us down but did they really think that children would do the job?"

Erza frowned, "What do you plan to do here?"

Brain scoffed, "Nirvana has the power to change the world. We will claim that power for ourselves. However you have come to stop us and have already failed. We have taken out two of your own, your ship has sunk and now we will give you one last chance. Walk away or we can end this now."

Erza laughed, "Are you afraid to take us on?"

Racer and Angel scoffed, "You are simply pests. You're wasting our time so we came to end this now."

Lyon scoffed, "Enough of this. Let's go Sherry."

Sherry and Lyon ran forwards and Racer intercepted them. Neither of them heard Erza who tried to stop them. The brutal kick from Racer sent Sherry flying into Ren knocking them both out cold.

Lucy flicked her staff into whip form and caught Lyon by the ankle. He hit the ground hard but it was better than going sailing over the cliff. Wendy jumped out of the way when Hot-eye turned the ground into mush which caught both Eve and Hibiki.

Siegrain took to their air however Cobra met him in the air. The two were exchanging blows however none ever seemed to hit him. Natsu dived for Brain only to be caught in a white haze. Lucy froze when Natsu froze. Angel's magic power had risen which meant she was doing something.

Lucy was forced out of her thoughts when Siegrain screamed. Cubellios had managed to sink her teeth into his upper arm. Erza appeared out of no-where, sword in hand and slashed at the snake. Cobra's eyes narrowed in anger as she managed to hurt his pet.

Erza caught Siegrain and placed him on the ground. Cobra appeared before her and the two engaged in a deadly dance however she still wasn't able to injure him. Cobra flicked his wrist and covered Erza in a purple smoke which left her coughing on the ground.

Lucy winced as she leaped at Angel. She didn't know what she was doing to Natsu but her eyes were glowing and something was happening to Natsu. He was clutching at his head as he tried to do something. Lucy wasn't sure what was happening but she knew that the source of his pain was Angel.

Lucy leapt at the woman only to get thrown onto the ground by a sickly green light. Lucy winced, she remembered this happening. Brain and his weird staff with the green magic tendrils were currently holding them all down.

Racer scoffed, "Weak."

Wendy had been trying to reach Erza and Siegrain. Once Natsu had covered her in the explosion she moved out of the main fighting area. She hoped to gain some distance so that she could support the other members. To use her support magic she needed to see who was fighting. There were too many people and too many different types of magic flying around for her to concentrate.

Once she was far away enough she started to chant. However the fights were going too quickly. She couldn't decide who needed her help more. Once she found someone to support it took too long to chant. Oracion seis worked together like a well-oiled machine. No one stood a chance against them together especially when they were all working so seperately.

Then Siegrain went down and she decided to focus on healing instead. She made her way towards Erza and Siegrain when the green tendrils pinned everyone to the ground. Wendy froze when Brain stared at her. There was a calculating glint in his eyes.

"The maiden of the sky." Whispered Brain and Natsu started growling.

Wendy narrowed her eyes at him. He called her a 'miko' but as far as she knew she never trained to a priestess. Priestesses were known to have extra ordinary healing powers so it may refer to her ability to heal. He wanted her power for some strange reason.

"What do you want from me?" questioned Wendy.

"Your power." Replied Brain.

Wendy jumped over the first tendril that he sent towards her and roared. The blast of wind only seemed to annoy man. He spun the staff in his hands and hit the ground. Everyone was once more thrown off their feet and sent flying through the dirt.

Several green orbs followed the explosion which the exploded once they came near one of the mages on the ground. Brain was aiming for the mages on the ground.

Wendy shouted, "Leave them alone."

She attacked recklessly, taking to the air and shooting downwards towards Brain. The man smirked when the young girl took the bait. Cobra moved to intercept her attack. He sucker punched the young girl in the stomach.

Happy took to the air and tried to catch her before she hit the ground. Brain snatched them both up with one of his tendrils and Happy shouted for Natsu to save them.

Brain sent another wave of magic towards the mages to ensure that they were killed while the rest of his guild escaped with the young girl. She would be the key to the future. Brain prided himself on the amount of information he managed to collect but even he couldn't know the future. There was no magic in this world that would allow one to glimpse the future. This girl would be the key.

Jura managed to make it in time to protect everyone from Brain's magic. A few seconds later and everyone would have been wiped out. Ichiya tried to heal their friends when both Siegrain and Erza cried out in pain.

"Cobra's magic is highly poisonous. We knew this would happen." Muttered Gray.

Lucy resisted the urge to scream. She knew that fighting the six of them together would be a bad idea. The six of them were fearsome mages on their own however they were used fighting together. They worked together too well especially against a bunch of mages who weren't used to fighting together.

Now they were all banged up, Siegrain and Erza were poisoned and Wendy was missing. She was pissed. The last time they had taken a little girl whose power they desperately needed. They were obviously worried about her and what they were going to do to her. Now, they had taken her daughter and a member of Fairy Tail.

"We need to get Wendy back. She's the only one who can heal the poison." Said Carla.

Lucy resisted the urge to grin. The white cat spoke like she would claw out the eye of someone who dared to state otherwise. Carla and Happy had been quiet for a while now. They didn't interfere in the fight much either however Lucy was pretty sure the explosion tossed them further back than expected.

She seemed to calm down a bit more when everyone agreed that they needed to find Wendy as quickly as possible. That snake had taken down two of their most powerful fighters. Cobra had tossed so much poison on Erza that Lucy was actually a little shocked at the fact that she was still alive. He must have been pissed about the treatment of his pet.

Lucy waited for the other members to decide where they were going to search. While they decided on directions Lucy turned to Natsu and Gray, "We already know where Brain will be keeping Wendy. The question is why did he take her?"

Gray frowned, "The last time they took her was to heal Siegrain."

Natsu nodded, "He knew where to find Nirvana. We didn't tell anyone that he knows what it is or where it can be found. Cobra can hear our thoughts. The last thing we need is for everyone to be worrying about Nirvana."

Gray nodded. He knew how this played out the last time. Lucy told him everything that she knew however there were gaps in the story. Natsu told Team Natsu everything he knew as well. They both painted a detailed picture however they didn't know how Gray and Lyon defeated Racer. Neither one of them were present for that fight.

Something happened that turned Sherry to the dark afterwards but again they didn't know what happened. Midnight fought Erza but no one had been there to witness that fight. Jura fought against Hot-eye and he somehow turned towards the light. Lucy didn't know anything useful about Angel anymore since she wasn't using the same magic.

There had been many other dark guilds under the command of Oracion Seis that were hidden in the forest in the surrounding area. All in all everything had changed yet at the same time everything was still the same. They met at the meeting hall, fought, spoke about the plan, Christina got blown up and then they fought against Oracion Seis. They lost the fight, Brain kidnapped Wendy and Jura saved them.

While all those points remained the same it didn't change the fact that everything still played out differently. They had taken on more damage than expected, Siegrain and Erza had been poisoned and Wendy had been taken for only Mavis knew what.

There was no reason that any of them knew of for Brain to take Wendy again. There was no ally that Brain had for Wendy to heal. At least no one that could help him find Nirvana. The only thing that he knew about Nirvana that it was somewhere near here. They didn't have a location. They were searching through the forest with no idea what they were looking for.

Hibiki said that he would stay and try to set up a central base of control. Lucy agreed to wait with him and gave Natsu a kiss. He pressed their foreheads together for a moment, "I'll bring her back. I promise."

Lucy smiled, "I know you will. Be safe. I love you."

Hibiki smiled as he watched the exchange. There was something special between the two of them and it was so easy to see he almost felt jealous. He never had that with anyone not even when he had Karen. It was inspiring to see two mages who were able to keep their relationship so strong. It was rare for mages to have both the adventure and the love of their life.

He watched as Natsu and Gray raced off through the woods while Lucy sat in the middle of her friends. She took both their temperatures and generally tried to make them comfortable as they struggled through the pain.

"Something wrong?" questioned Lucy.

"No, I'm just surprised that you didn't go after Wendy." Replied Hibiki.

Lucy smiled at him. She spent a lot of this mission with Hibiki and he had protected her. He was a good person and she was grateful for the fact that he stayed here with her. She had been much weaker the first time this happened and so afraid. Hibiki had been kind and he tried his best to help her even though he didn't know anything about her.

She had stayed out of the fight because she knew that she wasn't the strongest fighter. Now though, she stayed because there was a high chance that an enemy would come across them. Hibiki was intelligent but he wasn't the most powerful fighter.

He was in the perfect position trying to co-ordinate everyone however he wouldn't have the power to take on a member of Oracion Seis by himself and protect the injured. Hibiki needed someone else here to watch his back.

"Natsu will find our daughter. There is nothing stronger than a dragon's sense of smell. He'll pick up her scent eventually and follow it directly to her. I'm more useful here."

Hibiki looked up from his screens and raised an eyebrow in question, "Both Erza and Siegrain need supervision. We need to know if they're getting worse or not and we need another fighter here. We're the only ones not moving. Its highly likely that someone will find us here. Besides everyone else paired up, its best that we stick to teams."

Hibiki knew that Lucy was intelligent. It was a well-known fact that members of her team often turned to her for advice. She was also known to have knowledge of magic that hadn't been heard off for a long time. However it was the first time that he had seen anyone apply knowledge the way she had.

It had been his idea to stay put and set up a command center however he over-looked the fact that someone might find them. He also didn't think of the fact that everyone had teamed up so that they weren't alone if they encountered the enemy.

Her mind moved in many different directions at the same time. Her eyes were on the goal but she was playing with more variables than he had calculated. Hibiki smiled to himself. He truly had a long way to go if he learned so much in merely one conversation with Lucy.

Wendy woke up in a cave. She looked around the room and couldn't help her skin from crawling. Someone was asleep on a flying carpet in a dark corner. There were torches on the walls of the cave and what seemed like a weird alter at the end of the cave. She was pretty sure that there were human bones in the cave as well. The air smelled like death and fire. She immediately wanted out.

Happy was passed out next to her and she could hear someone else in the cave with her. She steeled her spine and spoke clearly, "I know you're here."

Brain watched the girl. Her power had grown from what he had heard. He blamed the guild she had joined. There were many other dragon slayers there which meant that she had learned how to use her offensive abilities. However she was still young and with Midnight here the little girl didn't stand a chance dragon slayer or not.

"You are in a cave that the Nirvit people once used. They would select a girl and send her in here so that she would be able to hear the voices of the ancestors and provide them with guidance."

Wendy raised an eyebrow, "Aho, you do know I'm not really a miko right? I never trained in any temple or did anything associated with Priestesses."

Brain chuckled, "You do know your healing magic is lost magic correct?"

Wendy nodded, "Its part of my ability as the Sky Dragon Slayer."

Brain raised an eyebrow at her, "In what world does the sky or wind have anything to do with healing magic?"

Wendy didn't have a response for him.

"Your hair is blue. Your name before you were adopted was Marvel. Four hundred years ago the Marvel family was known to be Priestesses and Priests with extra ordinary healing powers. It was said that the family was wiped out when war lords came to conquer the lands where the temples were. Your family was peaceful people. How your bloodline survive four hundred years without notice I don't know."

Wendy just stared at him, "I'm a dragon slayer."

Brain nodded at her almost mockingly, "Yes, you are. However your healing abilities is a bloodline ability not part of your dragon slaying magic. Enchantment magic is a secondary magic to those who can heal. Enchantments basically imbue the body with extra ordinary powers. As a dragon slayer you are able to command your element and draw power from it. That has nothing do with your healing ability."

Brain didn't say anything for a moment or two, "You are a miko. The maiden of the sky since you are a dragon slayer as well. Technically speaking you are able to use three different types of magic. Now you will use your ability to help me."

Wendy stopped her mind from flying in different directions. She would speak to her parents later about what she learned. Right now she had more important things to worry about.

"I will not help you."

Brain laughed, mocking her, "But you will save an innocent. You see during my search for Nirvana I came across someone else who had been looking into the magic and my guild. He had gathered quite a bit of information on me, my members and he was looking into the history of Nirvana. He also had ties to someone from Fairy Tail."

Wendy felt her eyes widen, "Fairy Tail?"

Brain nodded, "Indeed. He loved someone in your guild and was loyal to him. This member of your guild sent him to travel the world while warning him of enemies. He named my guild as a danger to his family. The person decided to try and protect your guild. However I found him while he was trying to make his way back to your guild."

"What did you do?" questioned Wendy.

Brain frowned, "I didn't do anything. There were many rumors and some said that he had knowledge of the future. I inquired about it and to keep himself from falling under Angels control he ingested an unknown potion. It placed his body in suspended animation."

Wendy looked horrified, "He did what?"

Brain rolled his eyes, "A death trace little girl. He doesn't need to eat, sleep or even breathe but he is alive. The problem is that even I don't know how to undo what has been done to him. In fact, I believe that the potion didn't do what it was meant to do. It was likely meant to put him to sleep instead it turned him into a living corpse."

Brain sighed, "I brought him here to these caves and left him here. I hoped that while the other members of the guild searched for Nirvana I could try and wake him up. Then I found you."

Brain stepped aside and gestured for her to look at the person on the floor. The first thing she realized that he wasn't a person or even a man at all. He was a full-grown panther. He had sharp teeth and claws and he had fur that was black and white. There was no guild symbol on him but Wendy's eyes widened as she realized who she was looking at.

Happy and Carla told her about the exceeds village. Mystogan explained that they were a type of species and that he had a friend who was able to transform into a giant panther. He explained how they were friends when he was younger and how Panterlily had helped him many times.

She knew that Mystogan had not seen him or heard from him in a while and he was worried about him. Now she knew why and she was terrified. She didn't know what Brain wanted from the exceed but he had drank an unknown potion in the hopes that he would be able to get away from Brain.

She didn't want to help him but at the same time she knew that she couldn't leave him like this. If she refused then it was highly likely that Brain would hurt her or Happy or Lily. She needed to buy time and the only way she could do that was if she were doing something.

Wendy would heal him and hope that her father found her before anything else could happen. There wasn't any other option here. She couldn't leave him like this. After all he was like this because he tried to protect their guild.

"I'll heal him."

Brain smirked in victory and Wendy really wanted to kick him in the bloody teeth. He was getting on her last nerve.