Happy New Years everybody! Hope you enjoy the next installment of this story! Review responses will be on the bottom.

Author's Note: Real quick thing before we start: Since I do not actually watch AoT barring some clips or read the manga at all, I hope Levi isn't OOC. If he is a teeny bit off, my excuse is that Levi never had to go through the sanity-breaking tragedy of seeing Isabel and Farlan get eaten by titans. So, while he's still a cranky, OCD midget, I don't think Isabel and Farlan would let him become quite so harsh as he did in canon. I hope that will make sense in later context. If not, welp, I tried my best. Another thing; while I am thrilled so many of you like this adaption/not-quite-a-crossover, I am baffled about the review complaining about it because they don't know AoT? Like ... do you really need to? I could have very easily made this an all original arc by dropping Wren on an island of tiny people OCs and given the monsters scales or something instead of being actual titans and the plot would literally be no different than it is now. The only thing bringing in AoT does is keep me from having to invent 1000+ new OCs, entertain the people who do watch AoT and enjoy the references, and change a bit of Wren's inner monologue to acknowledge that she's seen the show before coming to Earthland. Sorry, not complaining about people's opinions, I'm just baffled. I learned this from reading fanfic from a favored author on here and half the time I had no idea a crossover/cameo had just happened unless the author mentioned it in their notes, after which I thought it was a neat thing to do. It never mattered to me that I didn't know who they were so long as they were well-written. But that might just be me so ... whatever. I hope you can still enjoy this story either way. Moving on, enjoy the story everybody!

Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, or any references made in this story, the only things I own are my OCs who have run off with my plot.

Chapter Forty: Living Impossibility

(2 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, 6 days since joining Fairy Tail)

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Somewhere in the far back of his mind, Levi really wanted to know what Hanji had slipped in his drink and what he was really doing right now. Because this … this had to be a hallucination of some kind. Maybe even a death coma.

Then Isabel offered him a weak smile from the ground and Farlan's voice —a voice he never thought he'd hear again, shouldn't be hearing now— called up in the heavy silence, "Hey, Levi. You showed up just in time."

And Levi decided he didn't really care what Hanji had slipped in his drink. Until reality slapped him across the face —like it always did eventually— he was going to take this and pray that it was real. He had never taken any other reprieve the world offered —because it was a trap, always a trap— but just this once- Just this once he wanted badly enough to walk straight into the jaws of whatever trap this was if it meant keeping this moment. His feet unstuck from the roof and he launched himself off the side. The clothed titan —seven meter, blond, oddly proportionate for its species— flinched at his movement, but he wasn't coming for it —yet—.

He used the cables to slow his landing, bleeding off just enough momentum that he didn't break either of his ankles upon landing. He could hear the others shout from the rooftops, but he didn't care what they had to say. All he cared about was confirming the sight before him. Hands clenched tight on his blades, he took a few steps forward —and refused to admit that they were shaky, hesitant things that matched his heartbeat—. Ingrained caution warred with desire and he stopped before he could reach them, muscles wire tight with disbelief and the knowledge that there was a titan —a magic wielding titan no less— sitting right there.

Isabel had no such reservations, sprinting across the short distance between them and flinging her arms around his neck with the force of a runaway horse, "Levi-aniki!" She pressed her dirty face against his cloak and squeezed tight enough that it would've winded him if his shock had left any air in his lungs.

She didn't feel like a hallucination.

Her body shuddered faintly against his —with fear, his mind informed him, fear and relief— and he had no doubts that she was staining the shoulder of his cloak with tears as she gasped out quietly, "Ah thought Ah'd never see yah again… Ah thought we were goners…"

I did too. The words got stuck in his throat and he couldn't force his face to move out of its blank expression. Instead he just carefully wrapped an arm around her shaking back, mindful of the blade he was still clutching and the titan watching the interaction with too-intelligent eyes. Farlan staggered over to them a few moments later —his leg was injured, sprained at the least from how he limped and he was cradling his ribs— and rested a shaking hand on Levi's spare shoulder. Blue eyes met gray and Farlan offered a tired, rueful smile, "We're real," he murmured in answer to Levi's unspoken question, "we're alive. I don't … I don't fully understand how, but we are."

Farlan looked over his shoulder, "But I know Wren-san had a lot to do with it." Levi's gaze flickered back to the clothed seven meter who was watching them with a blank face but intelligent eyes as it clutched its forearm —strangely still bleeding, shouldn't it have healed by now?— with a hand. The same hand it had used to lift Isabel and Farlan down from the blanket sling around its chest without harming them.

No wonder Hanji was losing what remained of her warped mind from the relative safety of the roof.

He dared a glance back at Farlan, "Explain this."

Isabel pulled away with a wet sniffle that made him cringe internally —only internally, because his teammates and foster siblings being alive was worth the germ-riddled mess no doubt all over his cloak shoulder—, "Her name's Wren. She says she's a human. From anotha' island called Ish-somethin'. She's a mage there, from a guild called… Tail somethin'." Isabel made to wipe her nose on her sleeve and Levi risked sheathing one of his blades to offer her a handkerchief instead.

She took it and blew like a herald's trumpet while Farlan took up the narrative, "We met yesterday. Isabel had run out of fuel and I'd busted my gear in a skirmish with a titan, so we made for the old church in Fautenbach. It was raining so hard we could barely see anything, but at least it prevented any titans from smelling us. We entered the church and Isabel was getting supplies together when … when we realized we weren't alone." Farlan faltered, gaze going back to the silently shaking titan —who thought it was human? How did they know it thought it was human?—, "Wren-san was already in the church. We didn't suspect a thing at first, it was so dark and the church doors were shut when we got there… she'd hidden behind the supplies. We didn't see her for several minutes, she didn't … didn't make any move to approach us, didn't harm us after we did see her."

Isabel interjected, "Offered us some o' her own food- the biggest ration bar Ah've ever seen! Then she talked ta us an' had us sit on her lap so we didn' catch hypothermia." She glanced at the ground, looking sheepish for the first time in her crazy tale, "We fell 'sleep there. Woke up, the rain was gone an' she'd bundled us up in a sling ta carry us ta the Wall. She was tryin' ta get us home. Then titans winded us an', well, here we are."

…It was the craziest, most impossible story he'd ever heard. Worse than Hanji's theories when she was drunk off her chair. From anyone else, in any other situation, and he'd write it off as either exhaustion, stress, or alcohol induced delirium.

But it was Isabel and Farlan, who were alive against all odds, talking about a titan that was wearing clothes, hadn't attacked anyone yet and- He blinked silently up at the titan, then blinked again. On the rooftop, even Hanji went silent as everyone else turned their full focus back to the titan and realized that it —she?— was bandaging a still bleeding bite wound —it definitely should have healed by now— with the former blanket sling…

And crying.

He watched with a shocked sort of detachment as tears rolled silently down the titan's face to plop messily on its worn clothing. Its —her?— face was seemingly blank, but the faint quiver of the lip and the tautness of the jaw muscles spoke of pain and fear and emotional exhaustion. All things titans couldn't feel. Not like that. It didn't seem to notice them watching, or any of the previous conversation, just struggled to tie off the makeshift bandage with only one hand.

Footsteps echoed in the sudden silence and Levi almost had a heart attack when he saw Isabel walk back to the titan and clamber onto its lap. It flinched violently at the touch and behind his automatic blank expression Levi suffered multiple visions of Isabel being smashed like a bug by the skittish titan. Instead, tearful hazel eyes focused hazily on Isabel and the fumbled attempts to tie the bandage halted. Isabel held out her hands in offering, "Let me help ya wit' that."

His heart pounded a bird's rhythm in his throat as the titan slowly lowered its arm to Isabel, barely flinching when she straddled the injured arm in order to better reach the bandage. Isabel struggled to make the large knot tight enough and before Levi could even think of a protest —or voice the order to stay put— Farlan was there, straddling the titan's wrist despite his injured leg and ribs, taking charge and helping Isabel redo the poorly wrapped bandage so that it could be knotted properly.

Behind him, the other scouts slowly came down from the rooftops, all watching the display in speechless wonder. Even Hanji was silent. He could see the scientist scribbling frantically in her notebook out of the corner of his eye, but she refrained from her customary —loud— narration, possibly for fear of "startling the subject" or some such nonsense.

Levi began to mentally catalogue everything about the strange, sentient titan while his wayward foster siblings wrestled the bandage into submission around the sluggishly bleeding bite wound —it was going to scar unless the titan's healing factor kicked in soon—. He noted the hair color, eye color, type and make of clothes, body language, and facial expressions. He noted all of its weak points, reviewed how quickly it had utilized its magic —a titan with magic, that was even more terrifying than a titan that could think—.

He tried to smother the part of his mind that pointed out the shaking fingers —fading adrenaline, pain, fear— the large, silent tears —pain, shock—, the clues of youth in the shape of the face and proportions of the body. The part of his mind that looked at the titan —unknown type, powerful, threat— and only saw a scared, injured child that had gone out of her way to help someone else and suffered for it.

He wasn't entirely successful. And somehow, in the midst of wrestling with that part of his mind —the part that refused to grow up, the part that had taken one look at a red-haired child trying to protect an injured bird and known he had to take care of her—, he found himself standing on the titan's knees, helping Isabel and Farlan tie off the bandage. Once the bandage was tied, he helped Farlan back to the ground and turned to the other scouts, "We can't stay here. Get ready to move out."

Hanji finally snapped out of her —blessed— silence, "Levi! We can't just leave! This is the find of the century! Possibly the key to so many of humanity's questions! We have to capture it and take it back to the castle-"

Levi felt the titan —person, girl, child— flinch away from them at the mere mention of capture and he leveled his darkest glare at the section commander-come-scientist, "Hanji. Shut. Up." It was rare that she ever actually listened to him, especially when titans were involved, but something in his voice must have finally gotten through that titan-crazed skull because her jaw snapped shut with an audible click. He turned back to the titan —what had Farlan called her again? Wren, that was it— and looked her in the eye, "We're leaving. Taking Isabel and Farlan with us back behind the Walls."

There was a flash of terror —of being alone, of being left behind—, then a tight nod of acceptance. No move to bargain, no move to attack. Levi debated his next move, saw Isabel's begging eyes and Farlan's muted but pleading gaze out of the corner of his eye, and mentally acknowledged his insanity as he opened his mouth again, "You have a choice. Stay out here with the titans, or surrender to the Survey Corps. Choose to surrender and you will be under constant surveillance, you will be questioned extensively on your origins and abilities, and any use of magic without my permission will lead to my ending you personally."

He tilted his head fractionally to one side as he watched the internal debate of the titan —girl, child, impossibility—. Then he added in a voice he would forever deny was just a bit softer than usual, "You won't be experimented on or grievously harmed. Non-damaging tests only. So long as you cooperate, the Survey Corps will treat you well."

They held a staring contest for what felt like a very long time, nobody else daring to breathe. Her uninjured hand slid to the ground, hesitated. Levi watched with a carefully blank face as she drew clumsy kanji in the dirt, "Do I have your word?" He didn't allow himself to react to the fact that the titan could write, forced himself to instead give the question serious thought.

His word wouldn't mean much if Erwin countermanded the offer. It wouldn't mean anything if the idiots behind Wall Sera got wind of her existence. But Erwin was an even crazier risk-taker than Levi was, especially when the potential benefits were so enormous. He would listen to Levi's arguments about keeping to Levi's proffered terms and probably even agree to them —though maybe with a tweak or two—. Also, if Levi played his cards right, nobody outside the Survey Corps would know about her until they were good and ready.

He nodded, curt but honest, "You have my word."

Another hesitation, so long that the less disciplined scouts began to fidget. Then, a bow of silent surrender, acceptance of his terms.

If Levi had been a more openly emotional man, he would have bared his teeth in a feral grin over the first victory in his gamble. As it was, he just nodded curtly and turned to the other scouts, "Move out. We have to be back behind the Wall as soon as possible." Erwin wouldn't be expecting them for several days, and Levi would probably have to take at least one of those days to get back to the castle with their new prize without any loud-mouthed civilian getting wind of it.

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Traveling with the Survey Corps was … weird. But weird was distracting and any distraction from her bottled up emotions and the throb in her arm was welcome, so she didn't protest. The next Wall was closer than she'd thought, and just as Levi had ordered, they were on the other side within hours. All the Scouts had tensed once she had crawled through the gate, as if afraid she would go on a rampage now that she was through. Well, all of them except Isabel and —oddly enough— Farlan. Isabel seemed to have dubbed her a friend since the titan fight and Farlan was … not a friend, but calm and reasonable compared to most of the others. He treated her like a person now, not just a strange titan.

He had also been the one to explain that Wren didn't talk at all, but communicated through her magic, so at least she didn't have to worry about Levi trying to kill her for answering a question —she hoped—. She'd had to show everyone the scar on her throat and the mad scientist —Hanji was her name according to Isabel— had proceeded to lose her mind over it. If she'd thought Farlan's and Isabel's questions were bad, these were a thousand times worse.

The woman had no concept of propriety —or personal space, or privacy, or general manners— and Wren suspected that the entire trip might have turned into the world's most awkward version of twenty-questions if Levi hadn't told everyone to shut up and keep a look out. They were smuggling a —not— titan behind one of the two remaining Walls after all, and couldn't afford to be lax. So the hours passed in silence despite the incredulous —and in Hanji's case jealous— looks Isabel kept getting.

Maybe she shouldn't have agreed to let Isabel ride on her shoulder. But there hadn't been any spare horses and the sign of trust was both touching and potentially useful, so she'd agreed and now had a little redhead clinging to the shoulder of her shirt to keep her balance during Wren's swaying stride.

…Yeah. Today had not been normal. Even by Fairy Tail standards.

Wren wondered if it was the strangeness —and the stress she was firmly ignoring— that made her feel so … uneasy the farther they walked. She had thought that once she was behind a Wall that wasn't titan-infested she would feel safer, if only a little bit. Maybe a bit calmer without the scrape of the titans' eerie wrongness against her magic senses. Instead, it was as if the air itself inside the Wall was ever so slightly … off. Wrong. Not a stench, but something close that set off a purely psychological ache in the back of her throat.

It was like breathing near chlorine or a fridge full of mold, but it assaulted her magic rather than her nose. Something unnamed scraped at her magic senses the more she spread them out, burned and nicked until she gave in and pulled her awareness back as tight as she could just to get away from the low-level itch of wrong that seemed to subtly coat every inch of the landscape.

It was still bugging her when they settled down to make camp. Nicking at her senses like a pebble in a mental boot that kept her distracted and subdued while everyone nervously set up camp and Levi organized an armed watch around the tree she was huddled against. "You're makin' a weird face," hummed a voice by her ear. Wren suppressed a jolt, she'd forgotten all about Isabel on her shoulder. She glanced at the redhead —who seemed quite content where she was— and Isabel asked, "Is it tha bite?"

Wren swallowed back the instinctual horror that came with any thoughts about what lay beneath the makeshift bandage on her arm and shook her head minutely, careful not to dislodge her passenger. Isabel wrinkled her nose, curious and unafraid —and wasn't that a shock considering how recent their first meeting had been—, "Then wha's up?"

Out of the corner of her eye, the other members of the Survey Corps were being very unsubtle about their eavesdropping. Wren glanced over at Levi, silently asking permission to speak. He had said in her "surrender" terms that she couldn't use magic without his permission, and she had no desire to provoke him. A slender brown eyebrow went up, but then he nodded and she turned her attention back to Isabel, "I don't know. The air is-" how to describe it, "wrong. It makes my magic feel itchy."

Hanji was suddenly at Wren's feet, almost sparkling with enthusiasm, "How so? How long have you been experiencing this sensation? How uncomfortable is it?"

Wren resisted the urge to tell Hanji it was none of her business. She was technically a prisoner —until she figured out a better plan or just decided to teleport away— so she had to be polite to the scientist, "Since we entered the Wall. It's worse when I try to extend my senses, like getting too close to a bad smell."

Hanji was writing in her tiny notebook, "Fascinating … I wonder … are you reacting to the wards that are said to be imbedded in the Walls? It might be a side-effect of being a magic-capable ti-" Farlan, who had been limping over, nudged Hanji's ribs hard enough to knock the wind out of her for a few seconds. Hanji recovered, held a staring contest with Farlan, then resumed with a sulky correction of, "Magic capable person of unusual size. I've never seen that kind of magic before, not that I get a chance to see magic much, is it a type specific to your kind? It might be reacting badly to the wards, especially if you have some kind of sensory ability with them. Do you? How does that work? Is it an instinctive trait or one you learned-"

"One question at a time, Hanji." Scolded Farlan with a tone that held zero surprise or hope for obedience.

All of the scouts were listening openly now as they sat a relatively safe distance away and ate their rations. The sight made Wren's stomach decide to roar and scare several members into falling over in their rush for their weapons. Pushing down the hurt the reaction caused, she instead wrote in Levi's direction, "I need to grab a ration bar from my requip."

Levi's narrow eyes went even narrower, ignoring Hanji's excited question of whether Wren really had ration bars of her own to eat in order to bark, "Your what?"

Had Wren misspelled requip again? Fighting down an impatient reaction, she spelled out, "My requip." She made sure to pay attention to the little lines that made up the letters, doing it exactly as Levy had taught her.

The incomprehension in Levi's gaze didn't fade, "What is that?"

They … don't have requip? I mean, I haven't seen anyone here use magic, but they clearly know of it so I thought- Wren shook that thought free for the moment, "Requip is … a pocket. A magic pocket. I put things in it so I can take them with me, but I won't be weighed down by them. I put my ration bars in there."

…And now everyone was giving her a stunned look again. Is it really that strange? Farlan made a low noise of dawning comprehension and glanced over at Levi, "The endless spools of wire and canisters of gas."

The shorter scout made a noise of thoughtful agreement and Isabel muttered, "So that's how they did it. Cheaters." Under her breath on Wren's shoulder.

Levi gestured to Wren, "Go ahead. Slowly."

Wren felt vaguely like a side-show attraction as she obediently scrounged slowly through her requip, making something of a show of retrieving one of her —far too few for how long this adventure was turning out to be— ration bars. She raised the bar above her head as soon as it was free, more to keep Hanji from crawling all over it than show off her prize. The scientist —who had no concept of personal space— tried to climb up her leg for a better look only to be dragged back down and forced to behave by an exasperated Isabel —who'd climbed down from Wren's shoulder— and Farlan. Wren just tried to withhold a stress headache.

Eating the thing was going to be some kind of massive production wasn't it? Pantherlilies where was a good distraction when she actually needed one?

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Sunshine. For the first time in Five. Mavis-forsaken. Days. The deck barely seemed to move beneath his gasping body compared to how it had bucked and shuddered for those five days, and Bickslow wasn't sure his stomach was ever going to stop rolling around from the sheer nausea it had caused. It certainly wasn't going to settle down until his little sister was found. If she even survived the Stor- He reached up with moisture wrinkled, aching hands and slapped his cold-numbed face hard enough to hurt. He couldn't think like that, he couldn't. Cana had said that Wren's tracking card was still active, even if she couldn't pinpoint the signal, which meant that Wren was still alive. Even if he had no idea how after she'd been swept out through the hull breach two and a half days ago.

Off to his right, Marco groaned and Bickslow heard the older Fairy Tail member drag himself upright, "Congratulations everyone, we just survived entering the eye of The Storm yoi."

Laxus's familiar, draconic growl echoed near Bickslow's thigh, "Now we find Wren and finish this Mavis-forsaken mission."

Marco's drawl had a slight edge to it, either exhaustion or worry, Bickslow couldn't tell and didn't really care, "Obviously, yoi. Though I'm not sure where she'd could have ended up that would be survivabl- ah. Never mind yoi. Found it."

Bickslow felt desperate energy flood his limbs at Marco's last words, dragging him off the deck and into a semi-upright position to pinpoint what the phoenix mage was talking about. Beyond the soaking deck railing and the sprawled forms of Raijinshū and Newgate-san's kids, was an island.

He stared at it in disbelief and desperate hope, "You think … you think she made it there?"

Haruta was the one who answered from beneath an exhausted Evergreen, "She'd have to if she survived The Storm. Nobody could survive two and a half days in The Storm without a ship of some kind. Most ships don't survive that long in there." Even Newgate-san's ship, the Moby Dick, had taken damage despite the many protective enchantments in the woodwork. Bickslow shuddered at the implication, then glanced desperately over at Cana.

Cana already had her tracking card out in a shaking hand, brown eyes filled with as relief as she breathed, "It's still active. She's alive. I still … I still can't pinpoint her location though, but it's coming from the direction of that island."

Marco began barking out orders for his siblings to get back up and sail the ship to the nearest beach, but the Raijinshū were left to slowly haul themselves to their feet, untie the ropes that had kept them from being swept overboard, and crowd around the railing to examine the island up ahead. It was a pretty flat island. Bickslow could see grasslands giving way to forests without any trouble even from their current distance, see the beaches reflecting the sunlight like strips of thin gold. He glanced over his shoulder, then around past the island's horizon line at the roiling, pitch black storm clouds and towering waves that had just a few minutes ago been trying to kill them. The Storm formed a perfect circle around the island about two miles off its shore, like some kind of lethal protective barrier, held in place by an invisible line-

He felt something akin to static —but not, he knew static after spending so much time around Laxus— roll over his skin and gaped as The Storm disappeared before his eyes, leaving nothing but endless clear skies stretching out to the horizon. He tugged frantically on Laxus's ragged shirt sleeve, "Laxus! Laxus it's gone!"

The others turned and stared. "What in the name of magic?" Cana pointed at the suddenly cloudless horizon, "It was right there just a second ago! Giant killer storms don't just disappear!"

Grey eyes narrowed, "No," muttered Laxus, "they don't. Bickslow. Figure Eyes."

Bickslow dredged up enough magic for Figure Eyes. Immediately wished he hadn't. His back slammed against the railing in an instinctive bid to get-away-get-away-get-away- that almost sent him overboard. He was dimly aware of Laxus and Mest grabbing his shoulders and holding him steady, of their concerned voices in his ears, but he couldn't hear them.

The world was black. Black and red and rotting green that hurt just looking at it. It painted the skyline and the water like poison and congealed ink. Coiled over his head with magic that whispered of lies-sunshine-calm-lies and burned his eyes with a sensation of wrong-wrong-wrong- on the same kind of visceral level as seeing a dead, mutilated body.

This place wasn't the eye of a storm, it was a trap, a stranglehold of hunger and death and despair that wanted to warp everything inside to its own darkness. Desperate to look away, Bickslow jerked his head around to stare in the direction of the island. Then he threw up what little he'd managed to eat since Wren went missing over the side. He was dimly aware of someone holding him up, of someone else yanking his hoodie off his head just before bright, worried colors that flickered like butterfly wings —Mest's colors, always flickering and jolting, ready to teleport at a moment's notice— covered his eyes, cutting him off from the strangle-hold of the rotting colors all around.

Bickslow wheezed, his throat hurt —had he been screaming? It felt like he'd been screaming— and he didn't dare close his eyes even with Mest covering them. If he did, he knew he'd see it again, tattooed to the back of his eyelids like a twisted circle of hate and lies and death. Mest began to take his hands away and Bickslow grabbed Mest's wrists with a sudden desperation, "Don't-" he rasped, "Please. I can't- I can't-"

Static trickled lightly over his skin, reassuring in its familiar discomfort and arms wrapped tighter around his shoulders, "Bickslow?" Laxus's voice, right by his ear, dragging him out of the twisted panic that had been consuming him.

Heavy footsteps shook the deck —Newgate-san, had to be, but Bickslow didn't dare lower Mest's hands to look— and ringing concern, "Bickslow-kun. What happened?"

"I … I saw…" The words got stuck in his throat, and he slowly released Mest's wrists. He blinked, opened his eyes again —not Figure Eyes, not here, not after that—, and stared helplessly at the crowd of concerned Fairies around him. He stared back up at the sky almost against his will and saw that it was blue and cloudless, brimming with sunshine and fresh air —lies, all lies, the sky above was blood and death and despair, he had seen it—. Laxus squeezed his shoulders so tight it hurt, but the pain was grounding. He looked at his leader and whispered, "This whole place is a trap."

Freed hovered nearby, "You mean The Storm-?"

"No. The Storm is a … a side-effect. A symptom, like a disease. This- This place, that island … it's a trap. There is no sunshine above us, or blue sky. It's all a lie to keep people from running away before- before it-" He shook his head, unable to put into words what the colors hidden all around them were —ageless hatred, fathomless hunger for what could never be regained, heart-rending despair that it could not stop—.

He couldn't force himself to speak about how that, now that he knew they were there, he could feel the colors itching across his skin, burning in the back of his throat like a bad smell, "That island … It's a place where people go to die." He could feel the blood flee his face as he realized something, "And Wren's right in the heart of it." Oh sweet Mavis, his little sister was somewhere on that island, right in the jaws of this cursed place. Alone.

Nobody moved for what felt like an eternity. Then Newgate-san was rumbling out orders like a contained earthquake, ordering everyone to make full speed for the island so they could find Wren and leave, job request be hanged. Bickslow shuddered in the arms of the Raijinshū, his tikis whining a terrified, skittish note as they slunk across the wet decking. Laxus's grip was tight and when Bickslow glanced up at him, he could see gold smoke twisting off his shoulders even without using Figure Eyes. Grey eyes locked with red, then swept over the rest of the Raijinshū. When Laxus spoke, his voice was low, tinted with a double-edged tone Bickslow had learned was his dragon lacrima acting up, "We're going to find Wren and bring her back. Whatever is on that island can either get out of the way or be destroyed."

All of them nodded. Job or no job, Newgate-san's orders or no orders, they were getting their Littlest back in one piece.

Or that island was going to burn.

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Review Response: Dear RedWolf Lover, hi there! Aw, sorry for the delay. RL and all that. But I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one too!

Dear aoi588, greetings! (tips hat) I'm glad the chapter helped you feel better, I hope this latest one found you in an already good mood. It will, it's been getting better, really, but stress makes her fumble and yoda-speak again. She's actually very legible now in non-terrifying situations. It might seem a bit weird, but she DID refrain from harming them and saved their lives. Plus, people in the Fairy Tail universe trust and bond really fast compared to here, have you noticed? It's not just in Fairy Tail, but all the people they meet just kind of ... either trust them within minutes or swear revenge for no reason other than the FT member is breathing. It was, I'm still too spooked to PM these review responses. Maybe next chapter.

Dear TheBloodDragon HQ, hey there! Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Dear Therashae, hiya! Thanks! (cackles) Hold onto your hat though, because there's more plot twists on the way!

Dear de junco, hello! Yeah, poor Wren is going to need cuddles after this arc. Hm, it might have weirded them out, or they might have assumed that titans age faster than humans and just asked more awkward questions. (laughs) Bickslow being there would have been a disaster, he's much too loud and overprotective even if he can talk. Hope this chapter was satisfactory!

Dear Aech, hello there! (tips hat) Thank you for your patience and your review! I hope you enjoyed!

Dear ScarletSea, hi! Well, in my defense, I could have left you on a worse cliffhanger. I almost did, actually, but I managed to bribe my muses to extend it until the rescue happened rather than leave it with Wren being bitten by a titan.

Dear cl9763, hey there! Hmm, at the current chapter? Yes, she could. But back then in chapter 3-4? She wasn't skilled/practiced enough to pull off something like that and keep running at top speed. Good idea though. Yes, I know about the telepathy magic idea. I have plans for it, but Warren hasn't joined the guild yet and it hasn't occurred to Makarov because kids her physical age usually don't have the concentration needed to learn the spell. It'll happen later though, promise.

Dear Slushy8668, hello! You're welcome!

Dear Guest, greetings! (laughs) he came close to it!

Dear beingajacksonakasquisher, hello! Was there ever any doubt? He's LEVI.

Dear Malavita, greetings! It's okay, we all have days like that. Hope you enjoyed!

Dear Oldwinterfang, hey there! Thank you, I'll try!

Dear Squishy4953, hello there! (Hides face with hat) it is so flattering that you read my other works too ... Yay! So far most people have really enjoyed my cameos/crossovers, I'm glad you like the flavoring.

Dear L'ceil, hey there! You know, I don't think she ever does? I'd have to check the future chapters. Wren reuniting with the Raijinshū is gonna be good when we get there though.

Dear AnerianJames, hello! Thank you, I try. Hmmm, do you mean Eren's titan appearance? Or just Eren in general? Because Trost hasn't happened yet, and either way in this universe Eren is not a titan shifter. This is after Shiganshina and after Eren goes into training to join the Survey Corps if that helps?

Dear rarae aves, greetings! Did that help answer your question? If not, don't worry, there will be more reactions in the next chapter or so.

Dear darkvampirekisses, hiya! Yeessss the cabbages. Poor Cabbage-Man though, this wouldn't keep happening to him if he wasn't so funny about it. Blame Cana's nerves, poor thing. And Gildarts for not holding still 10 more bloody seconds. Awww, here, (offers tissues) thank you, I loved writing the Christmas chapter, but I didn't think it would make so many people cry. While I am incredibly flattered you stayed up so late reading my story, please don't, that isn't healthy and I like my readers too much to wish sleep deprivation upon them.

Dear Sbush99, hello! You aren't rude, but as I outlined in my author's note, I don't see why it makes it so much less enjoyable? Because I'm not really using any of the world building, just the characters, some of the monsters, and one town/city. How is that different from OCs and a original location beyond people recognizing the names from another source? Plus, I do state in the Author's Notes that this stuff shows up, so if people read those they get fair warning at roughly the beginning of each arc this happens in. Thank you for your opinion/advice, I hope you can still enjoy this story at least a little!

Dear Kittywoof, hiya! Wren doesn't carry the map, she used to, but that's Freed's job now. They're okay at not getting lost so long as Laxus or Bickslow isn't in charge of the map. Because Bickslow doesn't know how to read maps and while Laxus has a spectacular inner compass and always knows which way is north, etc, he is horrible at translating that onto paper or into his surroundings if he's in a city. Like, he'll know which way is north, but is place he wants to go north FROM HIS CURRENT POSITION, or did he accidentally bypass it and needs to go south instead? Honestly if he hadn't been raised in Magnolia and walked to the guild building every day of his toddlerhood from all different corners of the city, he'd never find the bloody thing. Hmm, Loke should show up sometime in X782 and we are currently in X776, so you'll have to wait a while for him to show up, sorry. I'm not sure if he'll realize Wren's from another world? I mean, he didn't know that Mystogan was from Edolas so...

Dear Gerbilfriend, hello there! (laughs) Pretty much! As a dimensional hopper herself, she seems to be drawn to the counterparts of people from other dimensions. She has yet to actually hop out of Earthland's dimension though (Edolas is going to be so much fun for her. Not.)

Dear Dragon Lord Draco, greetings! I do my best! 7th time? Seriously? That is ... really flattering you have no idea.

Dear Stormfast Prime, hi there! Really? Aw, man, and I looked them up on the wiki and everything... Thank you for telling me! I'll try to catch that in the future chapters. I hope Levi's reactions were acceptable in this update?

Dear ShadowMuse88, hello! (offers tissues) In my defense, isn't the point of reading a story to be afflicted with Feels?

Dear thatgirl221b, greetings! Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this update!

Dear Ori Heartlyng, hi! Aw, you aren't a bad person, everybody gets busy, I don't mind. Hope you enjoyed!

Dear BooksandBrownies, hiya! Yeah ... yeah it kinda of is, isn't it? Poor Wren. I honestly never followed AoT canon to begin with, I just took a look at the titans and decided they fit perfectly with an arc I was planning in my head, so it turned into this. Yeah, it is a miracle, and also partly because Wren is Not Amused when they fight in the lighthouse and makes them take it outside before they destroy anything. That and Freed put defensive/strengthening runes all along the foundations. I'm glad you like Family!Raijinshū for poor Cana, and yeah, I'm going to try to get Cana to spill the beans earlier than in canon because I love Found Family too. Not sure how soon it will be, probably not for a while, but it won't be left unsaid all the way to the S-Class exams like last time. Gildarts may end up getting punched in the face by an UnhappyDragonLaxus™.

Dear xPricefieldx, greetings! Don't die! Or you won't get to read the chapter after this one!

Dear Mads-Chikistorm, hello! (chuckles) Merry Christmas then! Here's a New Years gift!

Dear mimichacha768, hi! You may say it as many times as you like! Don't mind me, I'll just be blushing in a corner that someone liked my story enough to binge it.

Dear sacke110, hello there! Can I just say that I love chapter by chapter reviews? I can't answer most of the questions in them because later chapters do that, but I love reading chapter by chapter reactions. In some ways, Wren if going to change a lot, and in other ways, the plot will stay the same. Don't worry, Cana will spill earlier than in canon. Won't be immediate, but it will happen. Hmmm, she might change her mind someday, or who knows, maybe circumstances will force a confession. Definitely never talking about the anime, but the rest ... who knows? We'll have to wait and see.

Dear SumCheeze, heya! Go Levi! Yeah, this arc was actually kinda fun to write, if only for the sheer crazy. Hope you enjoyed!

Dear Guest, hello! Hope you enjoyed the update!

Dear Guest, hello there! You have no idea how much I love hearing that. Hope you liked the update!

Dear KyraReid, hiya! Thank's for your patience! I hope this chapter was worth it!

Dear masimagine, hey there! Hopefully this chapter answered a few of your questions! Tune in next time for more plot twists!