A/N: CHA! A new chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 38: Join My Guild!

April 16, X792 – Midday

Rin stared down at the concoction in the large glass in front of him with a deep look of disgust. He still didn't understand how he had been the one to get stuck with drinking it. He looked back towards the other four men waiting for him to complete his mission in order for them to gain the last puzzle piece, "Can we not just have Gordon do this as well?"

"Hell no we can't!" Gordon shouted.

"He did have to wear a dress," Isaak smirked.

"And you pushed me into that well," Jean said, still clearly upset with the well incident and the fact that he had to run around town in dirty clothes, "You have gotten out of doing everything else, so you are going to do this. Besides, you chose the shortest straw."

"But I do not even know what is in this," Rin said as he turned back towards the glass that held a murky pink substance in it.

"It's probably better that you don't," the owner of the restaurant they were in stated, "Otherwise you wouldn't be able to down it at all."

Rin only made another disgusted face as he poked the glass, prompting Gordon to start shouting at him.

"Just chug the damn thing so we can get this over with! You've been staring at it for ten damn minutes!"

"Quiet!" Rin hissed at him, "I have to work up some courage here."

Rin finally took a deep breath, picking up the glass and plugging his nose. The others watched him, all of them making their own faces of disgust when he finally started drinking the thick, pink liquid. Even with his nose plugged, it didn't help much with the taste of it, Rin still making a few gagging noises as he chugged the glass. It took him a few good minutes to get through it all, but eventually he slammed the empty glass down on the counter. Everyone was quiet for a moment, waiting to see if he would throw it all back up, but Rin managed to keep himself composed.

"I can say that I'm rather impressed," the man behind the counter said before pulling out the large, red puzzle piece they needed to finish their collection, "Here you boys go."

"Thank you very much," Isaak said as he took the puzzle piece, "Looks like we have everything we need, so let's head back to Bahir now."

"That was pretty impressive!" Seth said, smacking Rin on the back, "I don't think I'd ever be able to do something like that!"

Rin had barely been holding himself together, so when the smack was made to his back, it seemed to break the control he had over himself and he went running out the front door, making a beeline for a grouping of bushes towards the side of the building and promptly emptied his stomach there.

"Whoops," Seth said as he rubbed the back of his head, "Didn't mean to smack it back out of the poor guy."

"Well, it was bound to happen anyways," Isaak said as the group made their way outside to wait for Rin to finish his business. When they stepped outside, they saw Kasra approaching them, a smile playing at his lips, "You look to be pleased with yourself," Isaak said, looking up at the man, "Did you beat Atlas then?"

"Yes, I do not believe he will be getting back up this time," Kasra answered, "So we should be in the clear for the time being."

"Aww, I was hoping to at least catch a glimpse of your fight," Seth said.

"Well, you may just get to be able to see that sometime in the future. He is the champion after all, right? And a champion must protect his title. He will be back at some point to reclaim it."

"Sounds like fun," Seth smiled.

"Now then, what happened here?" Kasra asked, pointing over towards Rin.

"The idiot got what he deserved," Jean huffed.

"He got stuck with getting the last puzzle piece," Isaak explained, "And well…let's just say you should be happy that you weren't here when we drew straws for it."

"I see," Kasra said, "So was that the last puzzle piece?"

"It was, so we should be heading back to Bahir now," Isaak said as Rin finished up with his business and walked over towards the group with a queasy look on his face, "Are you good to go?" he asked, earning a small nod from Rin, "Then let's go."

The group made their way through town, heading back towards the antique shop where they had left the spirit. Upon returning to the street, they turned just in time to watch Bahir attempt to make a move on an unsuspecting woman, his hand moving to grope her butt. This elicited a loud scream from the woman and a hard smack across his face. He landed on the ground with a darker red mark across his naturally red skin, but he had hearts in his eyes and blood trickling out of his nose nonetheless.

"It was worth it," he mumbled as the woman huffed and stormed off.

The group of six men walked up to the fallen genie, staring down at him in slight shame.

"Are you quite finished?" Jean asked.

Bahir looked up to see the group of men around him before jumping back to his feet, "I did nothing wrong! It would have been wrong to not give her a squeeze!"

The men only stared at the genie flatly in response.

Bahir coughed out in embarrassment before speaking again, "Well then, did you collect all nine pieces of the puzzle?"

"We did" Isaak answered, "We can put them together now, can't we?"

"Wait!" Bahir called out when they all started moving the pieces around to fit them together, "Not here!"

. : + : .

"As I said before," Jean began as the six men were once again staring flatly at Bahir as he ran up onto the guild with a child-like excitement, going on about beautiful women and their assets, "Of all the genies we had to find, we found the perverted one."

Isaak sighed before he spoke, "Well, it can't really be helped right now. He is kind of in charge of this clue."

"Girls, girls, girls!" Bahir said as he flitted about the guild, "Teenage girls and fully bloomed women everywhere! It's been so long! What shall I try first? Simple groping or some skirt flipping?! Ohhhhh! If they have a women's bath on board it'll be like a dream come true! Ahahahahaha!" he continued, his eyes becoming hearts again at the thought of it all. His eyes soon landed on a busty, blonde beauty and he stopped all movement for a moment.

The emerald green eyes of Zhuue landed on the red skinned man, causing her to cock her head to the side at the odd sight. She was even more surprised when the man zipped up to her in a second flat, her eyes wide at the sight of him before her rather than the feeling of his hands on her chest.

"It's perfect!" Bahir said, practically crying over the weight in his hands.

Zhuue finally looked down to see her chest being groped by red hands, causing a heavy blush to cross her cheeks. She quickly jumped back away from him, throwing up a hand to stop him from coming near her again as she blew on a whistle loudly.

"Stranger danger!" Haruna shouted as she came flying down on the top of the genie along with Squall, the two girls landing right on top of his back and smacking him down onto the deck. The blue haired teen looked up at Zhuue with a bright smile, "Looks like the whistle worked, neh Sho?!"

"I told you there was a reason I wanted you to get them when stopped in that port before all of this started," the little, maroon Exceed said as he flew above the two young girls.

"And since we had three, Zhuue got to have one too!" Haruna said, her smiling widening when Zhuue bent down to hug her and nuzzle her cheek against her mocha colored one.

Haruna then felt a tug on her shirt, the nature mage looking down to see Squall was the one to gain her attention. The smaller girl pointed down at the genie, having a confused look on her face. Zhuue quickly released Haruna and yanked Squall away from the spirit, holding her tightly as she shook her head to tell her to stay away from him. Squall simply sighed in response as she patted the blonde's head.

Haruna began hopping on top of the spirit as she began to question him, "So what are you? And why is your skin red? What are those bands on your arms? And why were you being a pervert? You know that's not nice, right? That's not how you get a girlfriend, neh Sho?"

"Hell no, that's not how you get one!"

"What do you mean, what am I?!" Bahir shouted, finally getting up off of the deck. When he stood back up, a bright, red light expanded all around him as he struck what he thought was a powerful looking pose, "I am the great and all powerful Bahir! I am the spirit of wishes filled with cosmic power beyond belief!" he began, catching both Haruna's and Sho's attention, their eyes growing wide with wonder, "I am also the skirt flipping champion! I can tell you every style of panty there is! And I can tell you a woman's measurements from a mile away!"

While Haruna's eyes stayed wide in wonder, Sho's face instantly fell into one of anger as he hissed at the genie and quickly scratched him several times before dragging Haruna away from him.

"You are never allowed to go near genies ever again!" Sho shouted.

"But Shooooooo," she whined, "He's a genie! He can wish me all the food I want!"

"Yeah, and then he'll try to feel you up! It's not happening!"

Bahir only stayed standing like he had been, but now there were dark red scratches all over his face, "Woe is the life of a lover!"

"You mean pervert," Jean huffed as the group of men that had been on the island walked passed the genie, "Now get moving! I am certain our guild master would like to have the clue once we get this puzzle put together."

A sweat drop fell down the side of Bahir's head before he quickly followed the group, his eyes still constantly gazing over all the women on the guild.

"Oh, and I'd suggest you keep your hands to yourself when you're around her," Isaak said as they made their way up onto the deck of the middle ship.

"Her? Ohhhhh! Your guild master is a woman!" Bahir said, picturing what she would look like, "Wait? Are you trying to threaten me? Don't tell me you all are going to beat me up for laying a hand on your pretty guild master."

"No, no," Isaak smiled, "She's quite capable of taking care of herself. I'm telling you this for your own benefit."

"Plus, if Eli's with her…" Seth said, the rest of the group making a face along with him.

"Well, I am nothing if not faithful to my religion!" Bahir said.

"Religion?" Rin questioned.

"Yes! I follow the path of beautiful women!"

The six men only sighed in response as they rolled their eyes.

The group soon spotted Cordelia sitting at one of the bars playing a game of tic-tac-toe with Gamu with a glass of whiskey in one hand. She hummed lightly and enjoyed the alcohol as she waited for the man to take his turn. Though, she had been waiting a good fifteen minutes already as he kept on getting distracted from his perched spot on top of the bar. Eli sat next to Cordelia, leaning back on the counter as he strummed along on his guitar.

Bahir moved the men out of his way, parting them to the sides as he looked like he was practically undressing Cordelia with his eyes. The wind caught her hair just right, sweeping it back enough to show off the sparkle of her blue eyes, instantly pulling in the genie. He slowly made his way up towards her, his fingers moving in a jittery fashion at the prospect of getting a handful of her backside. Just as his hands came within inches of her butt, a light click stopped him. He suddenly found himself looking down the barrel of a silver gun.

"I'd suggest you keep your hands to yourself if you don't feel like getting a bullet through your head," she said, keeping a sweet smile on her face. She stayed facing the game she had going on with Gamu while taking a calm sip of her drink, "But you know, I don't really feel like wasting bullets and getting everyone all riled up," she added as she recalled her gun.

Bahir looked uncertain for a moment, but shrugged before moving his hands forward again. His fingertips barely grazed her pants when a flame engulfed fist hit him in an uppercut. It sent him flying across the deck, leaving behind a burn mark under his jaw as he landed flat on his back.

"But that doesn't mean I don't have an attack dog on the side," Cordelia said with a smirk, "Sick him, boy," she added, glancing over at Eli.

"Gladly," he answered, cracking his knuckles as he smirked darkly and made his way over towards the red man. He soon launched himself on Bahir while the other men walked up to Cordelia.

Cordelia turned to face the men with her smile still intact while Gamu completely forgot about the game and jumped from the counter to perch on one of Seth's shoulders, "I think he's been waiting for you to come back," she said with a light chuckle.

"Much better," Gamu said as he settled into his usual spot.

Seth laughed in response, "I'll remember to take you with me next time then!"

"So!" Cordelia began, the entire group ignoring the fact that Eli was beating up a genie in the background, "Did you manage to complete everything successfully?"

"That's what we actually came here for, angel," Isaak said with his own smile, "We just have to put these puzzle pieces together and then the genie the buffoon over there is punching will give us the next clue to the map."

"I see. So then it probably isn't a good idea to let Eli keep going like he is."

"Probably not."

Cordelia turned her attention to the one sided fight going on, smiling widely as she let it go on for another minute before finally deciding to stop things. She whistled loudly, managing to catch Eli's attention, "That's enough," she said, causing him to drop the beaten and swollen genie to the deck, "Now bring him here," she said. Eli did as she said, dragging the genie across the deck by a leg and dropping him in front of Cordelia, "Good boy," she said with a pat to his head.

"I ain't a dog!"

"But you listened so well like one!"

"Tch," was all he replied with as he returned to his spot next to her at the bar.

"Let's put that puzzle together then!" she announced, watching as the group of men set to work and placed all the pieces together to create a large, red square. Once the last piece was in place, the square began to glow along with the bands around Bahir's wrists. The runes began to move along them quickly until they all disappeared and the bands broke off his wrists, clanking down onto the deck.

Bahir jumped back up to his feet as soon as the bands were off, "I'm feeeeeee!" he said, his words muffled by his still swollen face.

"Uhhh…maybe you shouldn't talk with your face swollen like that…" Cordelia said.

Bahir quickly shook his face, using his returned magic to get rid of all the damage, "Once again, I'm freeeeee! And in return I shall give you the next clue to the map!"

Isaak quickly handed over the map to Cordelia, the guild master rolling out the paper and held it before Bahir. He held one hand over the map and soon a drop of red landed on the map and uncovered the next clue.

"What was that?" Cordelia asked.

"Liquefied genie magic! You won't find anything purer!"

"At least something about him is pure," Jean mumbled.

"Ohhh! He's a genie!" Gamu said, not really having been keeping up with everything going on, "Do we get wishes then? Wishes! Wishes!"

Bahir opened his mouth to answer him, but Cordelia quickly cut him off.

"Nope, we don't need any of his wishes," she said, a confident smile on her face, "We'll make them all happen on our own."

Bahir smiled in reply and he bowed in respect towards her, "If that is what you wish," he said. Though, he started moving his hands towards her again in his bent form, but he didn't make it very far when Eli slammed a foot down on his hands, "Just let a guy have some fun already!"

"Hell no!" Eli shouted.

"There's a world of women at your fingertips now," Isaak said, "I think you can have any number of them aside from our angel of a guild master here."

Bahir watched him for a moment before he gave in with a sigh, "I suppose you're right. There are plenty of beautiful women in the world just waiting for me to flip their skirts! I must protect my title of champion!" he shouted, his nose beginning to bleed again from thinking about all the women he could now peep on, "So on that note, I once again thank you for my freedom and good luck in your treasure hunt!" he said as he began floating up off of the deck. Before he completely flew out of sight, he stopped to smile at Cordelia, "Oh, and if you happen to see Blackstroker, give him a good punch for me!"

"Don't worry. I've already got one lined up for him," she answered.

"Good to hear!" he said before disappearing up into the sky.

"Ah, angel," Isaak said, looking down at Cordelia, "You do realize that you could have wished for Bahir to bring Blackstroker here to the guild, right?"

Cordelia froze up for a moment before she dropped to the deck in defeat, thick streams of tears rolling down her face, "I could have had that damn pirate handed over on a silver platter…"

"What the hell, you four eyed loser?!" Eli shouted, "Why'd you have to go and make her all depressed for?!"

"I couldn't help but point it out. It'll be good for her to remember things like that for the future."

While the two men continued arguing, Gamu jumped down from Seth's shoulder to poke Cordelia in the arm, "The map," he said, "What does the map say?" he asked before he began playing with the loose strands of her hair.

"Oh right!" she said, completely forgetting about the wasted wish as she sat up Indian style and rolled out the map in front of her, "So you got Bahir to work with you? Wonderful! Although, I do hope that he didn't get to too many of your women if you have any aboard your ship. He was so upset with me when I locked him away. Something about ugly man hands…" Cordelia read off, hearing a few of the men around her start laughing while Gordon only huffed in response, "Now then, for the next clue! It'll be interesting to how quickly you can get to this clue as it's all about timing! So I continue to wish you luck with your hunting! William Blackstroker," Cordelia continued as she moved down to the next clue, "On an island of perpetual rain there are two sisters. One gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. You must name these sisters and find where they reside in order to unlock the next clue."

"Well, it is fairly obvious that the next island we need to go to us Pluvia," Jean said. It was common knowledge to most people that Pluvia was an island that was almost always under a constant downpour of rain, "But as for what these sisters are, I am not sure on that."

"Then it looks like we'll just have to figure it out when we get there," Cordelia said, "I'll let Matilda know which way to head here in a bit, but thanks for your hard work today men! Go get yourselves checked out by Jack if you need it and then I'll buy you all a round of drinks!" she said, namely looking at Seth since he had the most scrapes and bruises out of anyone in the group, "And Gordon," she said, stopping the metal mage from leaving.

"What is it now?" he grumbled at her.

"I really mean it. Thank you for helping out today," she said as she stuck out a hand towards him.

Gordon stared down at her outstretched hand, trying to figure out if he should answer the handshake or not. He started to hesitantly reach out for it before shaking his head and shoving his hands in his pockets, giving her his usual grumpy face, "Yeah, yeah. Just don't be asking for my help all the damn time. You gotta remember how much I fucked up the last three years, right?"

Cordelia frowned and dropped her hand to her side as she watched him leave the deck. Though, she soon felt a heavy hand on top of her head, causing her to look up and see Seth smiling down at her.

"Don't look so worried. He'll come around in time," he said, "I thought he would be hard to deal with today, but he was a decent sport about things, even when he had to wear a dress."

"What?"

"Haha, never mind. That's not the point," he answered, "But Gordon isn't one to change so easily, so it'll take time. But I think you can do it. You're a good guild master, Cordelia."

A light blush crossed her cheeks at the compliment, "Thanks."

He patted her lightly on the head with a smile, "One day you'll be able to shake his hand," he said, "Now then, to go hunt down Jack! My side is really killing me!"

"Ah, it looks like we have a visitor again," Kasra said, a wide smile crossing his face again as he pointed down onto the island.

Everyone turned to see Atlas standing on a spot on the island where everyone could see him. They noticed how badly he had been beaten since he had first appeared before them, but he wore his own wide smile nonetheless.

"This guy is amazing!" Seth said with a laugh, "How is he even still standing?"

"He fought all three of you, right?" Cordelia asked, looking over at Seth and Kasra.

"Indeed, he did," Kasra answered.

"Well then," Cordelia said with a smile as she walked towards the edge of the deck she stood on to face Atlas, "I must say, I'm impressed that you fought three of my men and can still stand and walk!"

"And I must say that I am more than pleased with the men you sent out!" Atlas answered, "They were all wonderful! The champion couldn't ask for better opponents!"

"It's sad to think that you couldn't make us marvel at your strength!"

"Oh, I do believe we marveled," Kasra said, causing Cordelia to laugh in response before she continued speaking.

"But I am happy to actually see someone with honor from your crew! At least assuming you aren't here to fight some more or to demand the map back!"

"No, no," Atlas shook his head, "The champion knows when to step back...for now anyways. You have earned that map in my eyes. So enjoy your glorious victory!"

Cordelia smiled brightly at him, "I know I haven't gotten to speak with you much, but I quite like you already. You should join my guild!"

"WHAT?!" the group around her shouted.

"I second that decision," Kasra said with a glint of excitement in his eyes.

Atlas was unsure of how to answer her proposition. He had already sworn to be part of the Black Skulls, but something about the woman's smile and her open attitude towards him made his loyalty falter.

"I…I cannot," Atlas said with an unusual frown, "The captain has already promised me consistent, amazing fights!"

"I can give you better ones! This is a legal guild! We have exciting missions all the time! And not to mention all the bad guys that attack us like that captain of yours! And the people on the guild make it an adventure every day! You could spar with someone every day too!"

Atlas only continued to frown at her response, knowing for certain that what she was saying was true, but he still had given Madmartigan his word to be a part of his crew.

"And I can give you a family!" she added, smiling warmly down at him now.

Atlas's eyes grew wide at that simple answer. He may have been part of a crew now, but knew for certain that it was no family. Not with the way that Madmartigan ran things. Her offer continued to tug at him, the wrestler wanting nothing more than accept it. Without knowing who he really was, she opened her home to him, promised him excitement and adventure, and he knew that all of it would be true.

"The champion is flattered by your offer!" he finally answered, "But he also has to honor his words given to the captain!"

"I understand," she said without her smile disappearing, "But whenever you get tired of that ridiculous captain of yours, my offer will still be standing! If you really want to know what living is like and feel some real excitement and know what a real family is about, then come join my guild!"

"The champion will remember that! Thank you!" he said before turning towards Kasra with another large grin while managing to pose for him, "And I shall be looking forward to a rematch with you! You shall know the champion's true glory one day!"

"And I will very much be looking forward to it," Kasra answered with a devilish smile.

"So with that, the champion bids you a fond farewell!" Atlas shouted, striking a new pose as lights began to flicker all around him once again and heavy music began to play in the background, "And remember to make all your opponents marvel at your wondrous strength! Show them the true fighting of a champion! And have them all meet their failure at the end of your almighty fists!" he said before fireworks shot up from behind him.

Cordelia smiled in appreciation, "He'll be a wonderful asset to the guild."

"So you already know that he will be joining then?" Kasra asked, looking down at the woman.

"Of course! He's perfect! He truly has a heart of gold and I refuse to see that go to waste in some shitty pirate crew!" she said as she turned to fully face Kasra with a knowing look in her eyes, "And you seem quite taken with him. I haven't seen you smile like that since Kiernan," she said, knowing it would have the man tensing up slightly. She continued once he had relaxed again, "You deserve happiness too, Kasra. As much as you give me trouble, I still want you to be happy. I think Atlas might be that happiness for you."

Kasra stared down at her in silence, vaguely hearing the fireworks and music in the background. He wore a straight face for a long moment before a warm expression crossed his face, "You are quite the lovely guild master, Miss Murdock."

Cordelia responded with her own warm smile as the two turned back to finish watching the fireworks show.

A/N: And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it!

Just a quick note today since I'm actually updating this at work on my break and I don't have a lot of time right now. But I immensely enjoyed this chapter for many, many reasons! And I probably would have had it up last night, but…well…I was drinking a bottle of wine while I was writing and yeah…I eventually fell asleep towards the end of it, haha! But I do think the wine helped me with Bahir in this chapter quite a bit! So if he seemed even more…well…ya know, lol…then that's probably where it came from. But I really enjoyed that ending a lot too! So I hope you all liked it too!

And as always, your reviews are appreciated, liked, loved, enjoyed immensely, and all the other lovely compliments that I could give in between! You all are just so wonderful as always and I'm glad you all are enjoying reading this story!

And with this chapter, that makes it four characters for Storm's Helm and one team for Thunder Stone! CHA! Oh! And speaking of XLil MEkoX here, I would like to thank them for their help in the clue we just finished and the new one we just got in this chapter! They sent over a couple of clues a while back and they greatly helped me in moving things along, so I just wanted to say thank you again!

That should be it for this time around.

I'm hoping to have at least one more chapter for this story up, but we'll see how things go!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson