Finished at last! Thank you all for your patience, here is the next chapter. Warning though, this ... this is not a happy chapter. Necessary for character and plot development, but not happy. Just a warning.

Review Response: Dear ShugoYuuki123, Greetings! Here you go! I hope you enjoy it!

Dear mun3litKnight, hello there! Nope. Their magic is much too different and there's no way Gildarts would agree to teach a child his ultra-destructive magic anyway. You'll see what Wren has planned in this new chapter. You're welcome! I'm glad you love it!

Dear The Star In The Night, hi! Yeah, he is. He's also a bit of an idiot though. Exactly. I also think that part of his loneliness stems from losing Cornelia, the only woman he loved enough to marry. He couldn't stay in one place, for the reasons you pointed out, but he loved her enough that he would have come back to her each and every time he could. But she couldn't, or wouldn't, handle his constant absences and left him instead. Rihanna has a plan ... but there's no guarantee that it will work. If it was easy to get Cana to admit her relationship to Gildarts, it would have happened long before the Tenro Arc in canon.

Dear BizzyLizzy, hi there! Nothing good, I can assure you. I've almost got the one after this finished, but updates are still probably going to be spotty for a while (sighs). You're welcome and I hope you find this chapter worth the wait!

Dear Wander Mage011, hello! Glad you enjoyed his intro, Gildarts is a cool character. Flawed, goofy, and doesn't show up very often, but cool. You'll just have to read this new chapter and see how it goes! Wren will try her hardest to help Cana out though. Hmm, that would be a good way to get those two to study together, and I can totally see Makarov wandering up and volunteering Levy to help Wren out, not that Levy would mind I think. She's such a helpful little girl. Wren is definitely sick of adult teachers and their patronization by the way. Hope you like the update!

Dear Chamele, hey there! Wait no longer! The update is finally here!

Dear Guest, hello there! Yep, a problem indeed. Still, even though she can't tell them, that won't stop her from trying her hardest to help.

Author's Note: So, as stated above, this is not a funny/fluffy chapter, especially not the end. But it is an important chapter for plot/character development, so bear with me. That said, I hope you all still enjoy it. I thought I had an announcement ... but I can't remember it now, so it probably wasn't that important. Anyway, happy new year everyone!

Chapter Eighteen: Operation - Delay

(Three months, one day since joining guild)

Gildarts was being stalked. Or at least, he thought he was being stalked. He'd been getting a strange, jittery sensation ever since he had gone to pick up a stack of jobs from the guild that morning. Not hastening his leisurely stride, Gildarts swept his eyes over his surroundings in a lazy yet attentive manner for the hundredth time. Seeing no one suspicious for also the hundredth time, Gildarts allowed himself a frown.

His instincts were rarely wrong, having been honed by years of missions and the infamous Fairy Tail Luck, so if he felt like he was being stalked, then he was sure he was being stalked. The only problems with that were, who was stalking him, why, and how were they doing it without him being able to spot them?

Seriously, I haven't had this much trouble spotting a stalker since I accidentally got on that ninja clan's hit list a few years back… Shifting the weight of his shoulder bag slightly, Gildarts glanced around again. Still nothing. Not a flash of movement, no threatening auras, not even a crowd of fangirls. Pity on the last one. It's always nice to be followed by pretty women. He had planned on going straight to the train station to begin his next round of tough jobs and quests, but in light of the persistent itch on the back of his neck, he decided to take the long route.

He meandered for almost an hour through Magnolia, flirting with any single ladies that happened to pass by and secretly keeping an eye out for his stalker. To his frustration, there was still no sign of anyone out of the ordinary. Just everyday Magnolia citizens who looked a touch wary about Gildarts possibly walking through their houses. Which was silly because he only did that by accident when he was tired and coming home from a long trip, not when he was refreshed and about to go on another long journey.

After another few minutes of wandering, he decided to take a risk and be blatant, otherwise he might miss his train by using up what time he had left. Which would be a pain, because then he'd have to face down the cranky old man who haunted- ahem, worked at the ticket booth to buy a ticket for a different train.

The old man had never quite forgiven him for accidentally walking through the ticket booth twenty years ago. It didn't matter that Gildarts had apologized exactly nine-thousand and twenty times over the years, complete with apology gifts and bribes. The old man held a grudge longer than the glaciers of the northern continent were old and still overpriced his tickets as revenge.

Pushing that thought aside, Gildarts stopped in an abandoned section of Magnolia Park, set down his shoulder bag, and called loudly, "Alright, come on out. I know you've been following me."

There was a long pause, during which the feeling of being stared at intensified. Then, just as he was about to call another challenge, he felt a light tug on his cloak. Gildarts blinked in surprise and looked down. Solemn hazel eyes bored into his and Gildarts jolted about a foot in the air in shock. A strangled curse escaped him as he placed a hand over his heart, "Holy-! Where did you come from?"

The little girl blinked, looked in the direction of a nearby tree, then looked back at Gildarts and raised an eyebrow. Gildarts huffed a faint laugh at her expression, "Right, dumb question. How about this one, kagehime-sama, why are you following me?"

The girl, Wren was her name if he recalled correctly, blinked again then tugged at his cloak, trying to pull him in the opposite direction of the train station. Gildarts felt a smile grow on his face, "You don't want me to leave, is that it?" Wren nodded and he chuckled as he patted her head, "Well, as honored as I am that you want me to stay kagehime-sama, I have jobs to do as a Fairy Tail mage. Maybe we'll play when I come back, ne?"

Wren shot him a look that could have melted iron and tugged firmly on his cloak again. Gildarts sighed and mentally checked how much time he had until his train arrived, "Would an ice-cream buy my freedom, kagehime-sama?" He wondered if the cunning look that flashed through her eyes was his imagination but then she dazzled him with an adorable, kitten-worthy smile and he found himself leading the way to the nearest ice-cream stand.

A few minutes later, Gildarts was doing his best to withhold his chortles at how focused the girl was on her ice-cream cone. Her eyes were narrowed, tongue flicking out at precise intervals to lick the slowly melting chocolate ice-cream. Gildarts rolled his eyes and took a bite out of his strawberry cone, ignoring the wave of pain it sparked in his front teeth, and commented, "Dainty one, aren't you, Kagehime-sama?"

Wren glanced at him sidelong and he got an impression of deep cunning for a second time. He narrowed his eyes, is she planning something? Na… Gildarts heard the bells in the cathedral start to toll the hour and stood up. Turning, he gave an exaggerated bow to the pretentious little girl and intoned in a formal and solemn voice, "Well, Kagehime-sama, I must take my leave."

Wren rolled her eyes at him. Sliding off of the park bench, she idly threw away her still mostly-untouched ice-cream cone, an action which made Gildarts frown in puzzlement. He watched, oddly transfixed by a sense of doom that grew larger and larger by the second as she went through several warmup stretches, like a runner about to begin a race.

"Uh … what are you…?" She straightened up from her warmups, walked half a block down the street in the direction of the downtown area, then turned and held up a thick roll of papers which a shadow tendril had just handed her. The look of cunning was unmistakable now and Gildarts stared hard at the roll of papers while his Fairy Tail Luck sense went crazy.

Wren gave him a pointed look, saluted him with the roll of papers, and then started to jog away. The sense of doom was unmistakable now and, without really knowing why he did it, Gildarts checked the small pouch hanging from his belt that he used for holding job posters.

It was empty save for a forlorn, abandoned ball of lint.

Gildarts was well aware that he frightened several civilians with his thunderous roar of, "Oi! Give those back!" But with the little mischief-making Kagehime darting down the street just ahead of him, hand waving the roll of stolen papers like a victory banner, he couldn't bring himself to care or lower his volume.

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Rihanna flung herself around a corner, feet pounding the pavement as, behind her, Gildarts thundered and roared as he gave pursuit. Maybe this wasn't the best of ideas. But it had been the only one she had. She felt bad stealing all of his job posters, childish even. However, her act of supposed immaturity was an attempt to prevent years worth of grief and loneliness for Cana, the girl who had been so kind to her and had welcomed her so easily despite her muteness.

Gildarts could live with a missed train or two. A missed train was nothing compared to eighteen missed years of his own daughter's life. Of Cana having to spend twelve years an orphan in all the ways that mattered. Twelve years being forced to watch as the only blood family she had continued to disappear before she could tell him anything, until the words became too large to speak, too terrifying to reveal.

Somehow, Rihanna doubted Gildarts would choose twelve years of essentially abandoning his own child to be raised by the guild without his ever knowing over missing a single, stupid train. Hopefully though, if her plan worked, he would never have to miss those twelve years of watching his daughter grow up. Cana would never have to watch over and over as her father left without Cana ever getting to call him "father" or hear him call her "daughter" in return.

Those hopes didn't make her current situation any less hazardous or loud though. Rihanna agilely dodged around a horse and wagon, only to hear a panicked neigh and an odd crash of wood moments later followed by Gildarts yelling, "Sorry! My bad!" Before he resumed his bellows for her to stop and give back his job posters.

Rihanna just allowed a tiny smirk to grace her lips as she darted between the legs of startled pedestrians. She hadn't spent three years on the streets of a city that wanted her to starve to death to give up and get caught just because someone was yelling at her and running through obstacles rather than going around them.

Whirling lightly on her heels, Rihanna shot around corners and ducked between pedestrians with an agility born of practice. Gildarts followed on her heels, going through inanimate obstacles rather than around them, all while either yelling apologies to the owners of said inanimate objects or ordering Rihanna to stop and give his job posters back.

The first two hours of the chase consisted of much the same material. Rihanna running and dodging, while Gildarts chased and roared. Hours three through five consisted of hide-and-seek on the rooftop level. Rihanna had to give the man credit for his unrelenting persistence, even if she was certain that Makarov would not be happy to learn about how many chimneys and roof holes he would have to pay to fix because of Gildarts' big feet and general lack of roof-walking experience.

Hour six to seven had them going back to a wild chase through the city in which Rihanna was very glad she'd managed to get some rest during the hide-and-seek part of the hunt.

A pulse of magic behind her made Rihanna fling herself to the side just in time to avoid the large furrow that split open the street. Pedestrians, who had just been complaining up until that point, now screamed and fled the area. Rihanna stared uncomprehendingly at the deep crack in the cobblestones before whirling to stare incredulously at Gildarts.

Gildarts straightened up from where he'd bent down to slam a single finger against the ground, visible waves of dull red magic curling off of him like smoke. Rihanna's mind went slightly blank at the sheer power rolling over her senses from Gildarts. One finger. He just put a crack in the street almost a foot deep with One. Finger.

Gildarts locked eyes with her and growled commandingly, all humor gone from his tone, "That's enough, Kagehime-sama. Give back my posters."

Rihanna swallowed hard, fear clenching her gut in a vise grip. Logically, she knew he would never actually hurt another member of Fairy Tail, let alone one who looked like a child. But it was clear that she had finally over-strained his patience. She took half a step toward him to give back the posters, her instincts screaming that it wasn't worth it, that nothing was worth going against Gildarts when he had had enough.

But then Rihanna remembered Cana's tears in the anime. How she had almost left Fairy Tail, almost abandoned her sister in all but blood when there were invaders out to kill them all, all so she could pass the trials and be "worthy" of telling her own father that they were related.

Rihanna remembered her own voice, from years and years ago, back when she'd been a real child who still had a voice, asking for answers from her mother that she had been much too young to receive or understand.

"Mama? Why don't I have a Papa?"

Rihanna's fingers gripped the roll of posters so hard that they crinkled and warped in her grip and her jaw clenched tight with a sudden flash of rage that burned her fear away. Gildarts narrowed his eyes at her and held out a hand in demand, "Kid, give them back. Give them back and I won't get you in trouble with the Master over all this."

Rihanna took a deep, shaky breath, narrowed her eyes, and curled her lips back to show both rows of teeth. Opening her mouth wide, she hissed exactly like the feral street cats she'd sometimes had to fight with over scraps of food on the streets. Then, before Gildarts had a chance to chase her further or use his Crash Magic on the street again, she yanked roughly on the shadows and teleported away.

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Gildarts stood there on the damaged street and stared blankly at the spot where the girl had been standing mere moments before. That … he wasn't quite sure what to make of that. At first he'd thought that the entire thing was an immature prank taken too far and that once he showed a bit of authority, she would finally give back his posters.

But those hadn't been the eyes of a child taking a prank too far. Neither had that vicious, feral hiss been a child's defiance. For a split second, her eyes had been the eyes of an angry, jaded individual too old for her skin and too furious to care. And the hiss? That had to be one of the clearest, non-verbal versions of "make me, scum" he'd ever heard.

Gildarts blinked once, then twice, and wondered helplessly to himself, what did I do between yesterday afternoon and today to make her so angry? Unable to answer that question, Gildarts sighed and set off toward the guild building. There was no way he'd be able to find the little Kagehime without help now that she'd turned into a shadow and zipped off somewhere.

I'm going to be out here all day, aren't I?

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Cana shifted her backpack a little higher on her shoulders as she strode down the streets leading from the train station to the guild. She was tired, hungry, and really wanted a bath. I'm beginning to hate out-of-town missions. Really hate them. Fairy Tail Luck had struck her hard over the past two days and Cana was more than eager to just turn in her completed job poster, go home, and sleep for the rest of the week.

She paused a bit in mid-step as she finally noticed just how empty the streets were of people. Is something going on? It may be getting late, but it isn't that late. There should still be people around. The guild isn't under attack again is it?

Before unease could fully set in or Cana could move to take cover in case of ambush, a shadow swelled out from a fencepost and Wren was suddenly standing before her. Cana jumped in surprise, hand flying to her chest at the little Shadow Mage's sudden appearance, "Wren-chan! Don't scare me like that-!" Cana's original sentence ended sharply as she took in Wren's tired and bedraggled appearance, "Are you alright? Did something happen? Is the guid under attack?"

Cana looked around in alarm as she realized that Wren was there but Bickslow was nowhere in sight. I've never seen him let her out of his sight willingly, not unless there was a very big reason or he had detention. But he wouldn't have detention this late in the day would he? Does that mean-?

Wren whistled sharply to get Cana's attention and then shoved something into the surprised brunette's hands. Not waiting for Cana to figure out what she had just been handed or explaining why, Wren took off again and disappeared around the bend in the road. Cana opened her mouth to call after the girl, then closed it with a frown. No point in trying to catch her now. But what is going on? Worried for her guild now, Cana examined what Wren had forced on her in hopes of a clue.

The thing turned out to be several things actually, mission posters if she wanted to be exact. Lots of them, all around S-Class and all taking place on the northern continent. It was enough to keep a mage busy for at least a year, maybe two, and only if they were an exceptional S-Class Mage at that. Cana's heart shot up into her throat as her own observations sunk in, these can't be-!

"Oh, you there!" A deep voice, slightly graveled but so, so warm made her gaze snap up and her lungs freeze. Gildarts hurried toward her, looking irritated and rather … tired, though Cana could barely process that fact past the realization that Gildarts was back and he was right there. Her fa- Gildarts, ground to a stop in front of her and gave her a look she could only describe as pleading, "It's Cana-chan, right? Tell me you're going to give those back and that you aren't part of Kagehime's plan to drive me insane?"

He remembers me. He knows my name. He- wait, "Who's Kagehime?"

Gildarts held his hand close to the ground to indicate a height as he elaborated breathlessly, "Little midget girl, about this high, new to the guild I think. Uses shadows? I've been trying to get those job posters back since late morning. Or was it afternoon?"

Cana's dazed brain managed to put some pieces together, "Oh. You mean Wren-chan." She then narrowed her eyes and blurted scoldingly, "What did you do?" Because Wren-chan was hard to provoke and only really antagonized someone when it was well deserved. Most of the guild had already learned to fear her wrath and that, if pushed far enough, she lived up to the phrase "watch out for the quiet ones".

Then it hit her that she had just directed such a sharp, accusing phrase at her father and fought back the desire to learn Earth magic if only so that she could make the ground swallow her up. Gildarts waved his hands, seemingly oblivious to her shame and mortification as he answered, "Everyone keeps asking me that and for the last time, I don't know! All I know is she snuck up on me, tricked me into buying her ice cream and then made off with all of my job posters!"

He stopped flailing and sighed as he held out a hand to her, "But since you seem to have miraculously gotten them away from little Kagehime-sama, will you please return them to me? The last train is leaving in a few minutes and I'm going to have to run if I want to make it in time to a buy new ticket."

Leave? But we just started talking! Something formed a lump in her throat as she automatically handed over the posters Wren had pushed on her. Gildarts began to swiftly flip through them, presumably to ensure they were all of the ones he was missing, and Cana opened her mouth desperately, say it! Say it now before he leaves again! The words wouldn't come. They were stuck in her throat as she watched him hurriedly stuff the job posters into a pouch on his belt with a grunt of satisfaction.

Gildarts brushed past her, a large hand patting her hair as he swept by, "Thank's a lot Cana-chan! Well, I gotta run!"

Cana whirled, her heart hammering away so loud she wondered how Gildarts couldn't hear it, no-no-no-no-! "Wait!" Her fingers whipped out and snagged a corner of his cloak, trying to halt his departure.

Gildarts paused, and impatient expression on his face as he turned to face her. Cana heaved, just say it, just say it! Now, before he disappears again! "I-"

Gildarts cocked his head to one side, his impatient expression growing as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, "Yeah?"

The words slid back down her throat, too large to escape past the lump there and the look on Gildarts face, "Good luck." Please … please stay … just give me a few more minutes to say it … just a little more time…

Gildarts' face split into a quick grin as he patted her on the head again, "Thank's kiddo. Ja ne!" With that, he was off again, loping away to the train station without so much as looking back.

Cana stood there in the middle of the road, hands clutching the straps of her backpack as her vision grew blurry with all-too-familiar tears. Gildarts was nothing more than a small shape on the horizon when words finally slipped past the lump in her throat, "Daddy… please … you're my daddy…"

But there was no one there to hear. No one but the uncaring wind as it swirled by, snatching up her words and carrying them far away from the one set of ears she so desperately wished would hear them.

Japanese Translation: Kagehime/Kagehime-sama - Shadow Princess.