So! I return with a new chapter and a request to please read the Author's Note! There is an important explanation, as well as an important announcement in there that I think will answer some questions before they show up.

Review Response: Dear Dragon Lord Draco, hello! Yay! I win! (bows low) I will do my best to live up to the honor of being on your favorites list. No, unfortunately, you are not correct at this point in time. But! Before you bite my head off for it, just remember to read the Author's Note down below, I will explain there.

Dear Guest, hey there! Oh, good, I was going for sad but heartwarming. As for Ivan's fake cheer, well, he's had years to perfect that mask and you know what they say, love is blind and all that. For anyone who didn't have Figure Eyes or future knowledge, he's actually very convincing. (laughs) I know what you mean, 99 percent of the most epic fights in the series happen because someone has foolishly broken that number one rule and messed with one of Fairy Tail's many family members. This chapter ... does not have Ivan getting ratted out unfortunately, please read the Author's Note for more info on why that is. I'm trying to move things along and include the others, but it's slow going. I have other stuff I need to cover before then and the nearest recruitment, Gray, doesn't happen until next year (X775, the current in-story year is X774) according to the timeline. Still, have more adorable!Levy and sassy!Cana moments in this chapter!

Dear Pixie, greetings! Yes, Wren is the only one who knows it's a hole in time-space. The few (re: three) other people who know about it just think it's a freezing explosion or a hole. They don't actually know what kind of hole, just that it ... is. Make sense? I ... actually didn't think about it in that way, but after careful consideration I can tell you that, no, she wouldn't be able to boost Lucy's Celestial Spirit Magic with her eye magic. The why behind that is too complicated for the moment, and is also a plot twist, so that's all I can say on that. I can say, however, that I think Loki would have a good idea on just what her eye magic does if he ever saw it. But considering how rarely she uses it, it could take a while before he even knows it exists. Hmm, the rest of the guild might understand to an extent, but not in the same way she does. To them, the stars are just as much a land as the earth under their feet, the concept of a vacuum between the stars is ... more than a little foreign. (chuckles) Glad you liked it! I'll try to include more Family!Raijinshū where I can, but you'll probably have to wait a while to see Scary!Mother-hen!Wren again, she only comes out when stuff really hits the fan.

Dear FlamingB1rd, hi! Aww, so happy to hear that! But, you really read all fifteen chapters in a single day? I'm ... both flattered and hugely impressed. Well, if you like Overprotective!Bickslow, then you'll definitely like the ending part of this chapter! I hope you enjoy the rest of it too! I'm glad you're learning some Japanese from this story, I put the translation notes at the bottom because whenever I'm reading anime fan fiction, I get really tired of having to stop and look up what various Japanese words mean. I figured other people might get tired of it too, so I decided to save some time and translate to the best of my (meager) ability.

Dear BizzyLizy, hello! Yes, yes he is. I will enjoy writing his comeuppance in a (far) future chapter. We'll get there eventually, but I wouldn't be too eager to see the side-effects if I were you. They are ... not going to be fun for Wren if/when she gets to that point. Levy is one of the more awesome, underused Fairy Tail characters in my opinion, so I was happy to include her early.

Dear The Star In The Night, greetings! Wow, I'm very happy I surpassed your expectations, I was kinda nervous about posting that chapter... Thank you very much for all of your compliments! Despite being awkward and kinda tsundere (in think that's the right term) right now, Bickslow is instinctively protective to people he cares for. Even ones who he fights with or who scare him occasionally. Heh, heh, (rubs head) I have a wee bit too much fun putting "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" and "the most dangerous place in the world is between a mother and her children" into practice at times. But I'm glad you approve. As for who is going to be scariest, I'm thinking that to non-Fairy Tail people or new members, that title will go to Laxus, but to those in the know, it's gonna be Wren they try to appease. Fallout and retaliation (because you are right, Ivan is a vengeful little glitch) is gonna have to wait several chapters. As for why, please read the Author's Note. I hope you enjoy the newest chapter!

Dear Reptil, hey there! Glad you approve! The others are coming, I promise, just be patient a while longer. This won't effect Ivan's exile drastically, not yet anyway, and no, Laxus does not have his trademark scar. I'm saving that one for a special future chapter (wink, wink).

Author's Note: So! A lot of you are anticipating Ivan getting denounced and exiled and Laxus getting the sympathy and therapy he deserves in this chapter. Well, sorry to say but, nope. Not yet. Before you collectively bite my head off, let me explain why. For one, Ivan has turned tail, grabbed a mission as an excuse, and fled to lick his wounds and plot revenge. Without Ivan's presence there to make things insufferably tense, I just don't see Laxus bringing it up with anyone. Remember, he's spent years thinking that the sparring/beatings were what he deserved and that everyone either experiences the same thing or already knows and approves. After all, Ivan has publicly brought up sparring with Laxus many times before and no one, not even Makarov, has said anything.

Now, we all know that the silence is because they don't know what Ivan really does, but to Laxus, the silence is as much approval of what has been happening to him as vocal agreement. Laxus has also spent years getting it hammered into his head that the spars hurt so much because he is weak and pathetic and NO ONE, especially young boys (trust me, I know one) will willingly bring up their shortcomings to the people they admire/look up too. Just because two people say that what's been happening to him is wrong isn't going to change his opinions in a single day (or even a single year) and make him suddenly open up about what has been happening. Plus, only ONE of those two people would be telling him to tell another adult about this. Bickslow sure wouldn't, because he's gone through similar, or even worse, treatment at the hands of an entire town of adults. As far as Bickslow is concerned, no adult can be trusted with knowing his weaknesses or the weaknesses of his friends. Not even Makarov. As far as Bickslow is concerned, Ivan not being present to hurt Laxus is enough. Talking to an adult would only cause Ivan to come back or for something worse to happen. Only Wren would try to convince Laxus to talk to somebody and, well, she's physically six. And she's a girl. Her opinion, for all of her terrifying abilities, is not going to be enough to convince Laxus to say anything and if Laxus holds his silence, Bickslow is going to follow his lead because Laxus is the Raijinshū's "chief". Wren can't go up an tell anyone on her own because she can't write yet, no one but Bickslow can translate her sign/whistle-language that well, and Bickslow is not going to translate on this matter. At all. So, she's stuck.

Of course, this isn't going to be the end of the matter, Ivan will come back eventually, things will blow up in everyone's faces, and at least some of his crimes are going to come to light and get him banished from Fairy Tail. But that all comes LATER. For now, the matter is at a stalemate for reasons that I hope make sense to everyone. Are we good? Good.

On to other matters! As my Transformers readers are already familiar with, I am a die-hard NaNoWriMo participant. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo is a month-long internet writing challenge that happens every November, with minor camp versions in April and July. It is my custom to put all my fan fiction stories on hiatus while I do these challenges. So, I'm essentially going to drop off the face of the earth this November. This is normal, so don't panic, I'll be back sometime in December. Normally I would bribe you all by saying I'm working on this story for that month, but unfortunately this November I'm working on an original work, not this story. So, sorry about that. I will try to post one more time before November (hopefully on my Transformers story too) but I can make no promises. Basically, this is probably the last you'll hear from me until sometime in December barring a scheduling miracle. Again, I'll be back, just ... later. Much later.

Finally! A quick shout-out to Hazel tree09, who gave me the excuse to write this chapter. If you are confused Hazel tree09 just read on, or look up your review for chapter 7 of this story. I'd been wanting to do it, but was afraid no one would like it, so thanks'. This chapter was a blast to write. Kudos to everyone if you catch the reference I made to a fandom that isn't Fairy Tail, nor the main fandom referenced in this chapter. Hint, it's a piece of dialogue. Please tell me if anyone catches it because I had way too much fun putting it there.

Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any references made in this story. The only things I own are my OCs who have officially stolen my plot.

Chapter Sixteen - Demon Cats and War Trophies.

(Two months, two weeks, six days since joining the guild)

Let's see, "Sanada-san … went to … town"? No, market, that's the word for market. "To buy a … a … dog"? No, that can't be right. What's that symbol mean again? Rihanna wished desperately for the ability to groan her frustration as she slammed her head down against the book splayed open on the table. This is humiliating. I can't even read a picture book correctly. Lifting her head from the book, she rubbed her face tiredly, I hate the Japanese writing system. So much. Why can't they have a simple twenty-six letter system like english does? Or at least, just one writing system? Why do they need hiragana, katakana, and kanji? Seriously, this is impossible.

Of course, in the back of her mind where her practical, pragmatic side lived, she knew that it actually was possible to learn to read Japanese. It really was. It was just very, very hard and very, very frustrating. Especially because she missed being able to cuddle up in a corner and read a thick novel for the afternoon. Being now reduced to struggling through a simple picture book was just … so unfair. Utterly, completely, humiliatingly, unfair.

It didn't help her mood at all that Bickslow wasn't around to help or distract her. He had finally gone too far with the nature of the pranks he pulled on the teachers and, just as Makarov had threatened, was being forced to suffer through solitary detention for the next three hours. A Fairy Tail mage Rihanna didn't know from the anime, Cedric, had been assigned to stand guard over the reluctant boy and make sure he actually did his detention time and didn't set something on fire out of boredom in the process.

Laxus was busy staking out the door to Makarov's study, which was temporarily serving as a detention room because the teachers at the school were too wise to Bickslow's trouble-making ways to let him be bored for three extra hours in the building in which they worked, guard or no, so he wasn't available either.

Personally, Rihanna suspected that both actions were direct results of the incident at the beach three days ago. Ivan disappeared to go on another long mission by the time the Raijinshū had cautiously gone to the guild building the day after the Incident. Infuriatingly, Laxus refused to speak to anyone about Ivan or what Ivan had been doing to him for years, and Bickslow was just as tightlipped about the other boy's trauma. Of course, since no one else in the guild spoke fluent "whistle" as Laxus put it, and both boys refused to be her translator, Rihanna was forced to hold her silence the same as her stupid, complicated, traumatized boys.

The only good thing that came out of the entire debacle, though she was shocked that anything good came out of it, period, was that Bickslow and Laxus had apparently come to some kind of understanding while she had been passed out on the armchair. The two were now even more glued to the hip than before, possibly even more than Rihanna and Bickslow normally were, and that was saying something when one considered the full implications. Rihanna and Bickslow had been living in each other's pockets for three years after all.

But back to Bickslow's detention, Laxus's stakeout, and her picture-book purgatory.

In truth, Rihanna had almost joined Laxus in his silent stakeout of the door, but then had realized that it was hideously immature to stake out the door when she knew Bickslow would be fine, just bored, and that three extra hours wasn't really that long of a time to be separated. Plus, they were in the exact same building, no more than a few minutes walk apart. She had told herself that she should be taking advantage of the time alone and go do something useful for three hours rather than sit and fidget next to Laxus.

Like attempting to improve her reading ability. Which was working out so well. In the sense that it wasn't working at all.

She wearily raised her head from the book to look at the wall clock that magically managed to survive the regular chaos of the guild hall to see if enough time had passed that she could go join Laxus on his stakeout without feeling immature and needy. The clock showed that all of ten minutes had passed and Rihanna gave a silent wail of despair as she slammed her head back on the book.

It probably said something about her mental state that staking out a door with a thirteen-year-old was a more appealing idea than doing something else, anything else, on her own, didn't it?

She was debating that statement, as well as arguing with herself over what to do for the next three hours, when Cana's voice rose above the general hubbub of the guild hall, "Hey! Wren-chan!" Slowly, Rihanna looked up from her indecipherable picture book and blinked at the approaching Cana. In one hand, Cana was waving a job poster while the other firmly clasped the wrist of Fairy Tail's newest recruit and dragged her along. Cana came to a stop at Rihanna's table and Rihanna tilted her head fractionally in question.

Cana smiled warmly at her, "There you are, Wren-chan! Levy-chan's looking to go on her first ever mage job and she asked me to help her out!" Rihanna nodded her understanding slowly before shooting an inquisitive glance at the faintly blushing Levy, so what does that have to do with me?

Levy tapped her index fingers together slightly and answered the unspoken question, "Ano … the poster recommends at least three mages work together on the job we picked and Cana-chan thought that maybe … you would … like-to-come-help?"

Cana nodded, "Yeah, I mean, Bicksaho is in detention for the next few hours and Laxus-kun doesn't seem to be around at the moment and I thought, you know, you might want to go on a mission with us. Just us girls!"

Rihanna cocked her head to one side, well, it would be something to do for a few hours… but what if something happens while I'm gone? Seeing her unsure look, Cana wheedled, "We're going to use the reward money to go jewelry shopping afterward…"

Rihanna had not been the most social person back in her original world and life, but if there was one thing she did miss about her previous social-life, it was girl-time with likeminded females. True, the current females in front of her were children, but Cana had a good head on her shoulders and Levy seemed like a sweet girl.

Plus, it was a valid excuse to stop futilely trying to read the picture book before she gave in to her urge to blow it up with her dōjutsu.

Rihanna nodded and stood up, absently slapping the picture book shut as she did so, and Cana smiled at her, "Great! Let's go find the client!"

After informing a senior member of their impending absence, the three girls left the guild hall and set off down the street. Suddenly realizing that she had no idea what they were doing, Rihanna tapped the job poster in Cana's hand questioningly. Cana glanced from the poster to Rihanna, "Oh, right, you can't read the posters yet, can you? It's nothing too big. Just an annual job that comes in every summer. I've never done it before, but it doesn't sound too hard. One of the Crocus royal court has a vacation house here in Magnolia and her pet cat always gets out. We're supposed to find it and bring it back to her."

Rihanna considered the new data, shrugged, then nodded. Okay. That doesn't sound too hard. Sounds pretty easy actually. I mean, it's just a pet cat.

~~~Minor Time-Skip~~~

Two hours later, Rihanna bounded over an overturned cabbage cart, ignoring the woeful cry of, "My cabbages!" that rang from behind her, and felt like slapping herself. I really, really need to stop thinking stuff like that. Curse Fairy Tail Luck! Just ahead of her, the demon spawn that masqueraded as a pet brown tabby cat spun around the corner of the busy street in a blur of hissing fur.

Two. Hours. That was how long they'd been chasing the … thing pretending to be a rich woman's house pet, trying to catch it long enough to put it in the pet carrier the woman had given them to help in returning the thing. They had chased it high and low all over the city, with Cana's arms being a testament to the fact that the demon-thing-cat had very sharp claws and a stubborn determination to remain free on the streets of Magnolia.

Taking a deep breath, Rihanna flashed into the shadows, then teleported to the rooftops so as to better keep an eye on the target. She had a strong feeling that if they lost sight of it now, the three of them would never find it again. No wonder the job requested three or more mages! We need a bloody army to pin this thing down!

On the street below, Levy called out, "Barrier!" sending blocky wall of letters crashing down in front of the cat to cut off its escape while Cana threw a salvo of paralysis and lightning cards at the feline. Dashing out onto the letter wall, Rihanna lashed out with her shadow tendrils from above, aiming to ensnare the thing once and for all, there! Gottch- what the what? Rihanna jerked back instinctively as the couldn't-be-a-cat thing didn't bother to slow down as it careened toward Levy's word wall. Instead, it kept running at top speed.

And shot straight up the vertical surface as if it was level pavement.

Rihanna barely had a moment to ask herself how in the name of Igneel a supposed cat could run straight up walls without any sign of using its claws before a ball of snarling, fuzzy-brown rage slammed into her middle and sent her tumbling off of the word wall. Her lungs heaving in a silent shriek, Rihanna struggled to catch herself with her shadow tendrils as the hissing ball of fur and bad attitude clawed its way up her torso and chest before using the top of her head as a springboard.

Reacting on some desperate desire to end the torture of a mission before it got any worse, Rihanna blindly latched onto whatever part of the demon-cat she could and held on tight. Hitting the ground on her back with a thud and a rush of escaped air, Rihanna squeezed her eyes shut in preparation to have the cat turn and try to maul her for grabbing onto … some part of it she had yet to determine the name of.

It actually took a full ten seconds to realize that the cat had not stopped running.

And that it was dragging her with it.

Several unrepeatable and colorful phrases fought for supremacy in her mind before one question rose to the fore, how is something that isn't even as long as half of my leg dragging me down the street? The question was immediately replaced by, I'm not getting paid near enough for this. Sliding down the street, her leg banging painfully against a lamppost as the cat whipped around another corner, Rihanna struggled to right herself or otherwise do something about her increasingly painful situation.

Clutching stubbornly at the cat, Rihanna blindly reached out with her shadow tendrils, trying to grab something, anything, that would anchor her down and stop the cat from dragging her down the street like a half-full sack of apples. She ended up wrapping her tendrils around three innocent bystanders, a stray dog, and an overfilled trash can.

The demon-cat to which she was clinging didn't slow down.

It sped up instead.

If Rihanna could have made a sound, she was certain she would have started swearing and screaming for help with all her might. For better or worse, three innocent bystanders, a howling dog, and a loudly rattling trash can were now doing that for her in a rather well-synchronized chorus. Somewhere in the rush of colors, buildings, and increasing dizziness from getting her head smacked repeatedly against the ground, Rihanna managed to let go her fellow victims and prayed that Cana and Levy would catch up and do something.

Stars started to dance and flicker across her vision, but Rihanna still somehow continued to keep a death grip on the demon-cat's tail. Whipping her tendrils out again, she buried them into the walls of passing buildings, curving the tips like hooks to form makeshift grapnels.

The sound of bricks, windows, and the occasional wooden door shattering behind and to either side did nothing to increase her confidence in the plan.

It did make the demon-cat slow down a bit though.

Finally, just as she was about to give up and release her tendrils before the magic strain added to the pain in her abused skull, the hooked tendrils caught onto several metal lampposts with ringing clangs and snapped taught. The tendrils, being attached to Rihanna as they were, quickly ran out of line and forcibly yanked her to a halt. The demon-cat kept going for all of three steps before Rihanna's arms ran out of stretching capacity and it was forced to a whiplash-inducing stop too.

Ow… Rihanna barely had time to marvel over the fact that she hadn't dislocated her shoulders with that move before the demon-cat had whirled on the source of its newest obstacle and moved in with the intent to maim.

Rihanna's face felt like it was being attacked by millions of tiny fire stingers as the claws whipped across her cheeks. Rolling to her feet with silent yowls of pain, Rihanna yanked hard on the cat's tail, trying to pull it loose of her face while spinning in a frantic, blind circle. The force of her tug and the momentum of her spin managed to dislodge the demon-cat from her face, making it go flying into the air, held in place only by Rihanna's grip on its tail.

This, of course, had the unwanted effect of causing a stalemate between herself and the demon-cat. She couldn't let go without losing the target of the job and having to start all over again, but she couldn't stop spinning for fear the cat would come at her with its claws again. Her concentration was too shot from the multiple head-to-pavement collisions and the current spinning to let her summon her shadow tendrils again, and her balance was getting shakier by the minute.

Come on! Cana, Levy, somebody! Help! As if they had heard her somehow, Cana's and Levy's voices approached from somewhere on her right. Or was it left? She was getting too dizzy to tell, "Don't let go, Wren-chan! We'll get it!" Hurry up!

Levy breathlessly squeaked out, "Metal Dome!" and something thunked into existence around and above Rihanna. Cana yelled, "Now, Wren-chan! Let go and get out of there with your shadows! I'll hit the cage with my lightning and paralyze the cat once you're out!"

Letting go obediently and sending the demon-cat smacking against the far wall of the newly constructed dome, she lurched away from it, scrabbling blindly for her shadows as she did so. The world kept moving and tilting in a sickening manner even though Rihanna was no longer spinning on her heels, making it nearly impossible for her to grab onto the shadows.

For a moment, the world stopped whirling just long enough for Rihanna to grab onto the shadows. Simultaneously, the tabby demon-cat stopped clawing at the walls and turned to stare at her, something much too intelligent and vindictive glowing in its amber eyes. The demon-cat lunged at her just as the colors of the world drained away. Scrambling back, Rihanna fell through the deeper shadows and their biting cold and landed with a thud on the other side of the street, in the shadow of a storefront awning.

Of course, things could never turn out that "well" for her. Ever. Because moments after hitting the ground outside the dome and dropping exhaustedly out of the shadows, Rihanna realized something.

She had brought a passenger.

Levy screamed shrilly as the demon-cat hissed and bolted toward her, obviously intent on running the girl down if the bluenette didn't get out of its way. Frantically, and with images of a clawed-up little Levy dancing through her mind, Rihanna summoned up her increasingly drained magic reserves and pulled on Levy's shadow. Slender, inky black arms and a torso shot up out of the ground and football-tackled the demon-cat, who promptly began to once more do the impossible and rip the shadow apart like it was flimsy fabric and not magic that had proven immune to daggers, swords, and the occasional explosive before now.

Just as Rihanna was losing control of the increasingly-damaged shadow, something flat and shining gold landed centimeters away from the spitting demon-cat. Lightning lit the area, followed swiftly by ten more thin and shining tarot cards that unleashed three more lightning charges, four paralysis charges, an explosive charge, a fire charge, and a water charge in that respective order.

Cana barked sharply, her voice holding an edge of command unexpected for a girl her age, "Levy! Form a dome again! Quickly!" Levy, reacting more to Cana's order than conscious agreement, shakily chanted out the spell for a dome again, causing a thick word dome to come crashing down around the smoking area of street. Levy's shadow, temporarily damaged beyond control, slid out of Rihanna's weak grasp and slithered out of the smoke and debris to lie meekly on the ground at the bluenette's feet.

All three girls stared tensely at the area of billowing smoke, steam, and dust particles, waiting to see if it was over or if the demon-cat was about to start a fourth, or was it fifth? round. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, the haze cleared enough to reveal Levy's dome and its contents.

The cat lay sprawled on the road, tiny spikes of electricity arcing across its singed, steaming, and drenched fur. Rihanna would have almost been afraid the thing was dead were it not for two burning amber eyes boring into hers, conscious and promising painful revenge once the paralysis wore off.

Luckily, Cana didn't wait for that to happen. Instead, she pulled out the card in which she had stored the pet carrier the client had given them, released the pet carrier, and then proceeded to hastily stuff the demon-feline-thing inside it. Locking the carrier door, she slapped several stasis cards on it for good measure before sitting back, "It's over … we did it…"

Rihanna grinned shakily, wincing as she stood up on wobbly legs. Yay, now we can go home and pretend this never … happened. Pantherlilies.

The street behind them looked like a scene from a war movie. Rubble comprised of stone, wood, and glass from the buildings Rihanna had tried to anchor herself with lay all over the street. People were slowly, cautiously peeking out from behind benches, alleys, and the blown out windows of the houses to see if the chaos was over. Dust from the destroyed stone drifted through the air like smoke … which Rihanna could actually smell. I guess Cana's fire card three streets back actually did land in that newspaper stand…

Carts were overturned, street benches were either shattered or flipped, a few trees planted by the sides of the street looked like they had just survived a hurricane and garbage from the overfilled trash can Rihanna had blindly grabbed onto lay scattered all over. Farther in the city, in the general direction of the route their hectic chase had taken, Rihanna could hear the bells of Magnolia's Fire Prevention Brigade ringing out over the vaguely stunned silence.

Slightly blurry memories of the earlier two hours of chasing the demon-cat flickered through Rihanna's mind. Memories of blocked-off roads and alleys because of Levy's barrier spells. Memories of burned, soaked, or electrocuted stalls, benches, trees, and mailboxes from Cana's missed tarot cards.

Memories of overturned carts, freaked out people, carriage-pulling horses, pets, a splintered dining room table, and the fridge Rihanna had accidentally knocked over when the chase had somehow gone first into the shadows, then into a series of interconnected houses. Rihanna winced, Master Makarov is going to have kittens over this. Exceed kittens.

Cana and Levy appeared to be thinking on similar lines, because their faces twisted into identical grimaces. Cana hefted the pet carrier in a weak excuse, "Well … at least we got the cat…?"

Levy tapped her fingers together, a nervous tic of hers, "Is the Master going to be really mad at us?" Probably. But I think he's also used to it by now. Or … he will be when Natsu comes along. Still, I didn't think we could even do this much accidental damage. Cana's the oldest, physically, and she's just eight. What kind of damage will we do when we grow up? Rihanna chose not to think about that. It was too horrifying. Instead, Rihanna grabbed Levy's dress and Cana's shirt sleeve, tugging them along toward an unscathed street, already plotting out an alternate route back to the client. Better get out of here before the police show up.

For a chase that had taken around two hours and probably tallied several thousand jewels worth of property damage, collecting their reward was rather anticlimactic. It was a fifteen minute walk back to the client's summer house, with about five minutes after that spent watching in fascinated horror as the woman snuggle-choked the demon pet and somehow didn't get even a scratch for her efforts. Two minutes after that and the girls had collected their reward from the long-suffering housekeeper and hastily left the house before the cat could escape the woman's clutches and make good on the revenge promised with its wicked amber eyes.

Rihanna shook her head as she recalled what the butler had muttered when he thought no one was listening, "They should have blown the thing up while they had the chance. Sneaky, vicious-!" Her recollection was interrupted by Levy's weak giggle. Rihanna glanced at the bluenette in confusion, while Cana cocked her head to one side, "What is it Levy-chan?"

Levy shrugged meekly, "It's nothing … I just realized that the cat's name is really, scarily appropriate is all."

It had a name? Oh yeah, it did. What did the woman call it…? Cana suddenly snorted, "I guess you're right. With a name like Tora is was bound to be crazy." Right, that was it. Tora. Appropriate name, but I'll bet that woman named it because of its black stripes and not its temperament. I mean, she tied a big, glittery red ribbon to it's ear instead of- Rihanna stumbled to a stop, her brain nearly tying itself into knots as old memories smacked her over the head. Crazy brown tabby with sharp claws and the ability to defy the laws of physics. Red bow on ear. Fat, over-affectionate woman owner who could be sued for pet abuse because of those hugs. Escapes regularly. Requires at least three people to catch.

Rihanna stared blankly off into the distance as a chill slid up her spine, it couldn't be, could it? She shook her head vehemently, no way, I'm in the Fairy Tail world, not the Naruto one. Surely it couldn't be that Tora. Right? Following after the other two girls, Rihanna tried to shake the notion from her mind. She only partially succeeded though, and proceeded to suffer daymares about a certain knuckle-headed, stubborn Dragon Slayer meeting up with a certain knuckle-headed, unpredictable Ninja and the sheer amount of destruction the two would cause, even in friendship.

Cana and Levy ended up half-carrying her to Magnolia's public bath after Rihanna suddenly had visions of Might Gai and Rock Lee meeting the Fairy Tail guild in general and partially fainted. Through half of the bath, the thought of, the destruction would never stop, rolled on repeat through her mind like a death knell.

"What happened to you?" Laxus watched as Bickslow bolted across the guild hall so quickly he could have been mimicking Mest's teleport magic. Without much conscious thought, Laxus found himself following, worry worming its way through his heart at the sight of the multitude of bandaids adorning Wren's arms, cheeks, legs, and the bandage wrap around her head. Bickslow's tikis shrieked worriedly while their creator alternated between frantically clutching Wren to his chest and inspecting her injuries.

Wren only gave her brother a weak smile, her blond curls damp and limp on her head while an equally beat-up Cana huffed something about demon cats and tarot card depletion. Laxus frowned slowly as he looked from Cana, to the new girl, to Wren, then back. Finally, Laxus asked Wren, "You went on a mission without us?"

Wren nodded with a shrug, then winced at the shrugging motion and had to put up with another bout of Overprotective!Bickslow. Levy inched closer, an apologetic look on her face as she bowed to Bickslow, "I-I'm sorry, Bickslow-kun! It was all my fault! I wanted to take a job but it required three people and Wren-chan agreed to come with us and the cat was actually a tiger-"

Cana butted in, "No, it was my fault, I convinced Wren-chan to come along!" A tiger? Those bandaids don't look like they'd cover up injuries from fighting a tiger … wait.

Laxus deadpanned at Cana, interrupting Bickslow's yelling tirade about "taking his baby sister on suicide jobs", "You did the Tora job, didn't you."

Cana nodded grudgingly and Laxus snorted while the eavesdropping guild members all shuddered in sympathy, "There's a reason that mission pays four times what a normal pet retrieval mission does, you know. That cat's a magic-wielding demon in a red bow and tabby fur."

Cana and the new girl chorused together while Wren signed presumably the same sentiment in time with them, "We know."

Bickslow looked close to setting something on fire, so Laxus addressed him next, "It's fine, Bickslow. Tora is just some rich lady's cat that has a talent for running circles around most mages. Wren-chan will be fine by tomorrow, right Wren-chan?" Wren nodded reassuringly, her hazel eyes tired but indulgently warm.

Laxus carefully pushed away memories of black eyes with red rings and how terrifying rage had replaced exasperated patience and forced himself to come closer and put a hand firmly on her shoulder, "Don't go on a mission without us again though. Bickslow might kill something."

Bickslow snarled lowly, "Darn straight! Just let me see this 'Tora' and I'll set it on fire with my tikis! That'll teach it to hurt my Imōto!"

Wren rolled her eyes and tilted her head to one side, causing her hair to shift slightly and Laxus blinked, "What's that?" Wren paused and looked at him inquiringly. Laxus reached out and touched the object puzzling him, "This. What's this?"

Wren pulled away with a faint hiss the moment he touched it and Cana fearlessly slapped his hand away, "Don't touch it! You'll irritate the hole!"

Bickslow's voice rose about three octaves, "Hole? What hole? There's a hole in my Imōto?"

Cana sent Bickslow a droll look, "Two, actually. We got our ears pierced."

If anything, Bickslow's panic increased at those words, "Pierced? Pierced? What do you mean, 'pierced'?"

Laxus stepped in to keep Bickslow relatively calm, "Easy, Bickslow. It's a girl thing. Mostly. People pierce their ears all the time so that they can wear jewelry from their ears."

Cana lifted her hair to reveal her own ear, which had a silver bead ring in it that was identical to the one Laxus had spotted in Wren's ear, "Yeah, all three of us did it just today. It didn't even hurt for more than a minute or two. The piecer said that Wren-chan had even had her ears pierced before, it had just healed over. All he had to do for her was reopen them so she can wear her job reward in a few weeks."

Bickslow had, thankfully, stopped hyperventilating, but was now clinging to Wren protectively and staring at Cana like she was crazy, "Why would you do something like that? Why would you make Wren do something like that? … Someone did it to her before? When?"

Cana crossed her arms defensively, "One, it looks pretty. Two, I didn't make Wren-chan do anything, she agreed to it. Three, how am I supposed to know? All I know is that the piercer said she'd had her ears pierced before."

Bickslow stared at Cana for several long seconds before glancing at Laxus. Laxus shrugged helplessly, he had no idea what went on the mind of a girl. Let alone a group of them. It could be some kind of feminine Rite of Passage for all he knew.

From her position in Bickslow's death grip, Wren looked decidedly unimpressed. Working herself loose, she turned to face Bickslow and held up a small, clear box that fit nicely in her hand. Laxus leaned over and scrutinized the item at the same time Bickslow did. Inside were two silver dangle earrings. The tops were rings that went in the ears, from which a bead protruded. Hanging from the bead on each earring were small, rectangular silver dangles that grew steadily wider the farther down they went. They were only about as long as Laxus's pinky from tip to second joint, and he didn't really see the point to them. Still, he recalled how the women in Fairy Tail reacted when their new jewelry wasn't cooed over and said, "Nice. Gonna wear them soon?"

Bickslow shot Laxus a scandalized look, then transferred the look to Wren, Cana, and the new girl who Laxus idly thought was named Levy, "Why? What's the point?"

Cana held up her own box of sapphire stud earrings, "War trophies, duh. If we could survive that demon-cat, we deserve trophies to show for it. Come on, Wren-chan, let's get some cookies from the bar."

Bickslow growled lowly, "You're not taking Wren anywhere, Same-boke."

Cana looked about to protest the name, probably starting a fight in the process, when Wren made shooing motions in Cana's direction, indicating that she would stay with her brother while Cana and the other girl went ahead to the bar. Cana grudgingly left, Levy following along, and once they were gone Bickslow muttered, "Don't ever do that again, Imōto."

Wren nodded and signed something to Bickslow, who slowly relaxed again. On an unspoken signal, Laxus, Bickslow, and Wren all made their way to the corner table they had unofficially claimed as theirs, Bickslow reluctantly asking, "So … how did the mission go?"

Wren signed something too complicated for Laxus to translate and Bickslow said disbelievingly, "It ran straight up a vertical wall without claws? No way."

Semi-repressed memories of hours-long chases and spitting balls of tabby death flashed through Laxus's mind and he shuddered, "Trust me, Bickslow. That is the least the thing can do. If they really caught that cat, then Wren-chan earned those earrings. In spades."

Japanese Translation: dōjutsu - roughly translates to eye power. Rihanna uses it in reference to the Naruto anime in which the Sharingan and Byakugan are classified as dōjutsu.

Imōto - little sister (shouldn't everyone know this one by now? Eh, whatever).

Same-boke - Idiot Shark.