The next morning the door to the infirmary opened and Gray strolled in, hands in his pockets. Seemed that everyone was finally awake and if Natsu did his job, they'd be mostly filled in.

"Yo." He said, the temperature in the room dropping ever so slightly due to the nature of his magic. "You guys feeling better?"

Yang leaned back and let out a long, low yawn. Cracking her neck, she grumbled, "If yesterday was like getting hit by a truck, today is feeling more like... glomped by an over-enthusiastic sister." She shot Ruby a joking wink, which the younger girl countered by childishly sticking out her tongue.

"If she's making jokes," reasoned Blake, a small smile pulling at her lips, "then she must be feeling much better." As far as she was concerned, she was ready to keep on going with their mission. Though there was a wrench or two in their plans, which Weiss happened to voice.

The former heiress sat with her legs folded in the center of the bed, quietly meditating. It was an exercise her sister taught her to help draw out her Semblance's power when she had struggled with it as a child. In this case, however, nothing was helping. "I haven't been able to summon a single Glyph and I've been at this for hours. Is it really true that all of our powers are gone?" Well. Perhaps not 'gone' in the traditional sense. Their bodies were filled with magic now, not aura. So the plumbing was different. If that made any sense. Ruby would probably make sense of it.

"It's entirely possible for you to relearn your abilities with magic instead of aura." Gray said, having been filled in by Natsu. "But it'll take a lot of hard work. Especially due to the way things work here."

"There are all sorts of different magic types. For example, I use a type of Molding Magic called Ice-Make."

He placed his right hand, now a fist, into his outstretched left palm.

"Ice-Make: Floor!"

He slammed both hands into the ground and it was instantly coated in a layer of ice.

"It's easier to show it to you first hand than to explain it. I can also melt the ice at will."

He looked up at them. "That's just one example of the many different types of things I can make with my magic and even that's just one type of Molding Magic. Most mages stick to one branch of magic, but it's entirely possible to learn a variety of magical skills. Some even bend all four elements to their will."

"Sounds like its similar in some ways to our world. Using a magical powder we call Dust, we can apply a bunch of elemental effects to things. I've got some bullets that explode in fire, shock enemies in a radius around the impact point, gravity-enhanced piercing bolts- a buncha different options. But each person has their own special power born of their Aura. We call them Semblances." Ruby had taken to being the one to explain the differences and similarities to their world, which neither of the other girls felt like doing. Truthfully, Ruby had the widest knowledge of combat usage of pretty much anything, while they were all more focused on their specialties.

Part of being a strategist and team leader, Weiss reasoned.

Ruby continued, "My Semblance gave me enhanced speed, Blake could make afterimages, Weiss could make magical glyphs, and Yang could stockpile power by getting damaged. Some of us could even combined our Semblances and Dust. I've seen Blake and Weiss both add elemental effects to their powers using it."

"I see. That explains a lot then." Gray said as he scratched the back of his head before making the ice on the ground dissipate. "Anyways. I think it's time you guys met the rest of the guild. They've been interested in your situation, especially the Master."

He turned around and opened the door behind him before facing them again with a smile.

"It's time to meet your new family."

What he meant by that, who knew. But maybe he had discussed something with the Master while they were asleep.

Upon exiting the medical ward, they'd find themselves on the second floor of a mostly wooden building, overlooking a main dining area filled with all sorts of different people. Every single one of them brimming with magic and every single one of them laughing and smiling.

"Yo!" Gray called out. "Our guests are awake! Let's give them a warm welcome!"

The sheer volume of magic struck Ruby like a bright light. Wait, light? Blinking several times over, she realized that yes, she was actually seeing their magic. While she could sense their magic in much the same way she had sensed aura back home, she had never actually seen a brightness inside them. Here, she was almost overwhelmed by the blinding lights of all kinds of colors covering each of the members of Fairy Tail's guild.

"Ruby?" Weiss' gentle hand on her shoulder drew the silver-eyed girl's attention. For a brief moment, she could see a haze of blue energy wishing off of her before all the lights faded. "You alright there? Not light headed or anything?" The concern and care in the former heiress' eyes always brought a smile to Ruby's lips. While Weiss always claimed she was merely doing her job as a partner, it was clear to Ruby that she was doing far more than necessary. Like that time Ruby had been sick in bed for two weeks and Weiss spent every minute of her free time caring for her. Getting her soup, fluffing her pillow, talking to her... It was nice. When Weiss showed how much she truly cared...

"I'm... I'm fine," the Rose mumbled, sliding her hand over to the white-haired girl's and grasping it lightly. It was a silent exchange. She would need her support to deal with meeting all these new people. Something that Weiss never needed to hear aloud. Ruby honestly meant the world to her, she would go to hell and back to keep her safe.

Yang was in her element. Definitely the partier of the group, she saw the large swath of people before her laden with laughs and libations (Big word, yeah. Weiss gave her word of the day toilet paper as a joke) and couldn't help but join them in smiling and waving.

Blake was a fair bit more reserved, spending her time looking over the crowd. Some members seemed a bit more prominent than others, while some almost blended in with the background. A redhead in the crowd seemed to command the most attention. The Faunus decided to keep an eye on her- might be useful to get to know the armored amazon.

"I can only imagine that you must be feeling overwhelmed after such a massive change." An old man's voice said suddenly as a small figure walked up to them. Standing a few feet away was an old man with his hands behind his back, a big fatherly smile on his face.

"I am the Guild Master of Fairy Tail, Makarov Dreyar. Gray and Natsu have filled me in on your predicament. While there isn't much I can do for you now, I can assure you that I will do my best to help you out."

His eyes locked on Ruby.

"And you. I wish to talk to you in private. You are your team's leader, no? It's only natural for a leader to speak to another leader."

Silver eyes grew wide with shock. He wanted to talk? Alone? She supposed his logic made sense. You know, the whole leader-to-leader thing. And she kinda was the highest ranking representative of her dimension. While something like this would have normally made more sense with Ozpin (or, rather, Oscar) talking to Mr. Dreyar, Ruby herself was the closest thing to a school headmaster they had available. Taking a deep breath, she let go of Weiss' hand and locked eyes with her team. "Go have fun and get to know the others. I'll be back when I finish meeting with the guildmaster, okay?"

The other three nodded, and the blonde sister of the leader accompanied it with a cheeky grin. Her little sis was growing up so well! Sure, they had gone through hell and worse several times over to get where they stood, but Yang was amazed with how naturally Ruby took to leading them. She truly was a leader she could trust, and not just because they were sisters.

Makarov would lead her to his office where he would turn to face her, hands still behind his back. "Words cannot describe how much my heart goes out to you." He said suddenly. "Natsu told me everything that happened. To lose your family like that. It is perhaps the worst thing that could happen. But at the same time, I do not blame the actions of those around you. To protect one's children. That's the job of a parent, is it not?"

He sighed. "But that's not the reason I want to speak with you. No. In fact, there are two far more important reasons. The first is . . . I would like to formally welcome you and your team to join Fairy Tail. I could not bear to turn such bright youths like you away, especially when you are in such dire straits. As far as I am concerned, you are already my children."

"And the second reason is-" He took a moment to gather himself. "-I believe I may have met your mother in the past."

Makarov Dreyar had this odd charm to him that had made Ruby like him almost immediately. He had this grandfatherly air to him, but a certain bit of playfulness to. Really, she felt like he was a bit like her father in some ways. Both looked like they could be the life of the party while also being serious enough to talk about dangerous matters in a way that would make even someone like her comfortable discussing them. Her esteem for him rose even higher when he spoke to the toils they had gone through, and how he saw them as his kids already. The offer to join the guild was not a surprise at all, frankly she had been waiting for it for the last few hours. This place was like Beacon hopped up on Dust. Everyone seemed so cool and interesting with a variety of interesting powers and abilities. She absolutely loved hearing about other people's fighting styles- the more about any of them she knew, the better she could combine them when tasked with creating battle strategy.

No, what had surprised her, and slowly drew the growing smile on her face into an odd mix of hope and concern, was his last reveal. "You mean... she was here?"

"That's correct." Makarov said with a nod. "It was about ten years ago, when the youngin's here were still children. A young woman who looked much like you came to my doorstep. She was on death's door, gravely injured. I naturally brought her into the medical ward to get treated. When I asked her questions however, she mentioned that her memory was mostly a haze. All she knew was that she had a family she had to get back to. But she didn't remember where she was from or what her name was."

He stroked his mustache.

"I offered to let her join my guild, but she refused and set off as soon as she had recovered. Another member of the guild who travels a lot, Gildarts, has supposedly seen her in passing, but other than that, there's not much word on her. And I'm afraid, for now, that's all the information I have for you."

The wall right behind Makarov Dreyar seemed all too interesting to her by the time he finished weaving his tale. Slender fingers looked for something to do, anything to do, to beat past the growing sense of awkward. If this woman that had suddenly appeared was in fact her, then she didn't even remember who she truly was. Where could she even be? Heck, she could have gotten herself killed in the ten years for all she knew! Clack! Her wayward thoughts were brought to a halt when her nail tapped against the shining silver cross holding her mother's old cloak together. It was a simple piece, a broach with a cross laden with silver rose blooms. Dad had said that that was the emblem Summer had chosen to represent herself as a Huntress. All Huntsmen and Huntresses had something like that. Even Ruby had her own silver rose bloom. But something had always felt a bit different about this one. She had never been able to place why, but it felt like she had a piece of her mother with her no matter where she went. Different from what the cloak as a whole meant- the cloak reminded her of her mom, reminded her of her dream to be a hero like her. But the broach... when she held it, it felt like holding mom's hand... So when her fingers brushed the broach again in the frantic attempts to pave the awkwardness, a thought occurred to her.

Mom couldn't be dead. And mom hadn't completely forgotten about her. She was out there. If anything had happened, Ruby would know. She'd feel it. The cool dampness of tears streaming down her face was less of a surprise than it usually would've been. Something told her that emotional outbursts weren't uncommon here. "Wait for me, Mom. I'm sorry I took so long... but I'm coming to find you. I'm taking you home."

Suddenly a hand found itself on her head. Standing behind her was none other than Natsu. "And we'll help you find her." He said with a grin. "You said that cloak reminds you of your mother right? Then I think I can help you chase her down."

Makarov sighed. "Natsu, what point of 1 on 1 chats do you not understand?"

"Sorry, gramps! I couldn't help myself. Besides, I happened to overhear that she and her friends will be joining Fairy Tail. So I got a bit excited!"

"I see. Well. Take her down to see Mira and have them all get their guild marks."

"You got it!" He said as he looked down at Ruby with a smile. "Shall we go?"

"What do you-" Her surprised yet quietly delivered question was swept up in the enthusiasm of Natsu's reaction, an excitement that she could honestly get used to. It was so different from Beacon. At the school, everyone seemed to be against each other, unless you were friends already or wee part of a team or killed some massive Grimm together. Sure, some of her views may have been skewed by Cardin's actions back then, but she knew that it wasn't an uncommon setup in a school. Natsu's earlier claim that Fairy Tail was like a big family was seeming more and more accurate. Waving off his interruption and tabling her question for later, she merely nodded and looped her arm through his. She hoped he was okay with it. She felt a little... clingy... sometimes, when dealing with new people. "Let's go."

"Step on up." Mirajane said with a smile as she faced the soon to be new members. "My name is Mirajane Strauss and once you get your marks, I'll be filling you in on how things work around here. Just indicate where you want your guild mark and what color you want it it and I'll apply it with this stamp."

"Look at you. Recruiting for the guild. Trying to responsible for once, Salamander?" Gajeel asked Natsu with a grin.

"Like you're much better!"

"Gihi, how about we take this outside?"

Mirajane suddenly cleared her throat, her smile now far more threatening than any glare. "Our new members need to get their stamps and you boys are causing a ruckus. Do I need to . . . discipline you?"

Both Natsu and Gajeel immediately stopped bickering and backed away, content to let things keep moving.

Damn. This Mirajane gal had some kind of glare. One that honestly reminded her of Summer's. She had used it all the time on Dad when he'd do something stupid behind her back and try to hide it. Oh how often he was put in the dog house for it- why did they have a dog house anyway? Zwei never used it. Still, seeing her dad shoved into the small thing about once a month was funny. Honestly, Ruby's glare had started to get just as intimidating as their mom's. Something she really hadn't expected, since Rubes was always such a quiet kid. Well. When she wasn't geeking out about weapons or the abilities of certain well known Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Being the good leader that she tried to be, Ruby took her place next to Mirajane first. She had a wry smile plastered to her pale face- how could she not? The energy and enthusiasm in this place was so contagious that even the two bickering boys being subsequently cowed into submission didn't kill the mood. "Right shoulder, please. In red." It was her color, after all.

Each of the girls likewise indicated a place and a color, with Yang taking just over her left hip in yellow, Blake taking her right bicep in black, and Weiss taking the spot just to the left of her neck over her collar bone in white.

Mirajane smiled. "Now that you're officially members of Fairy Tail, I can explain to you how a guild works. We mages are sort of, warriors for hire. People post jobs to the job bulletin and we can take them on to reap the rewards. Some are as mundane as taking part in a theater act while others are as crazy as liberating an entire village from monsters. The currency here is known as Jewels and it's what us wizards work for. Sure, some of us may work pro-bono, but you'll need to pay your rent if you intend to live in your own place.

There are also ranks within the guild. Mage, S-Class Mage and Guild Master. The Guild Master naturally has the highest authority, with the S-Class mages acting as his most elite. An S-Class mage is chosen every year after undergoing an exam. The exam is different every time, so you're never sure what to expect. I myself am an S-Class mage, hehe. Though I don't really fight much anymore."

At a shared glance amongst the four world foreigners, Ruby piped up. "This system isn't entirely different from the Huntsmen and Huntresses of our world. Though I do admit that their efforts are generally devoted more towards slaying monsters, they still have to deal with bounties, occasionally doing a bunch of work for free, and paying rent. Though I gotta admit, this whole S Class exam is new and sounds like a great way to display any competitors' talents." That said, any attempt to display their own talents so far had proven difficult. Their bodies had just switched over to magic, after all, so regaining some of their old abilities would be more difficult than they expected. Ruby had already personally noticed that the lack of Aura left her significantly more open to attack and diminished her strength. She had enough reason to suggest that Yang was also struggling with getting used to the fact that she didn't have the same degree of super strength she once possessed. But given time, she had no doubt they could regain what they had and get even stronger. And once they were, they'd all go and find Summer Rose and take her home.

"Where do our ranks fall then, as newbies?" came Yang's playful tone. Maybe it wasn't the most tactful, but she was all full of nervous energy and itching to get a fight in. Hell, she'd be content with a single punching bag at this rate.

"I'm also interested in seeing how we could compare. That said, perhaps it's better waiting until we have some of our powers back..." Weiss certainly sounded a bit dejected, which made sense to Yang. Her whole fighting style relied on her Semblance- not unlike the blonde's own- and to suddenly it have access to it left her pretty damn neutered.

Ruby's lips curled into a smirk. "I was thinking about that. I've got hours of battle videos saved on my Scroll. I'm pretty sure I can still use it here. Maybe if we show the others what we were able to do back in Remnant, they could point us toward a magic that works the same way."

"That's probably a good idea." A deep male voice said suddenly. Standing behind the girls was a tall man with spiky blond hair and a scar shaped like a lightning bolt across his right eye. "We don't know what to expect from you after all."

Natsu's jaw dropped. "Laxus! How long have you been here?!"

"Since the very start. I've been observing from afar. Someone had to keep an eye on you two idiots while you were duking it out."

He turned to the girl's. "In return. We have footage we can share as well. That'll make it easier for us to work together in the future. Name's Laxus Dreyar by the way. S-Class Mage."

"Woah..." If Ruby had thought that Natsu had big muscles and Gray had nice abs, this Laxus guy was like an Adonis or whatever the heck that ancient Huntsman's name was. She had heard the term 'beefcake' thrown around in the dorms before, but hadn't exactly gotten the definition of it until now. This man looked like he could break some of the largest Grimm over his knee like a gosh darn twig. And a cursory glance to her sister proved it. Ruby knew that Yang had a type. And that type was incredibly fit people. For guys, it generally meant musclebound badasses. For girls, it generally meant the ones that were extremely toned and flexible. Like Blake, which The younger sister consistently teased the older about. Their potentially more than friends connection had been deemed the 'Bumblebee Ship' during one of Ruby's late nights hanging out with Nora and Jaune from Team JNPR. Ruby had actually lost a bet early on in the war, claiming that Yang and Blake were going to kiss after taking down a big bad together. But she'd been wrong. If the two were together, they were doing a great job of keeping it secret.

But, more importantly, Laxus had said the magic words. Footage they can share. "Ooo! Gimme gimme. I wanna see all this cool magic in action!" Onlookers might see the Ruby's silvery eyes had somehow turned into stars. It wasn't that different from the first day she arrived at Beacon and freaked out over every last weapon she could find. Heck, sometimes she knew more about a weapon than even the person who wielded it.

Laxus nodded. "Oi, Penny. Get the movie player ready."

Sitting at a nearby table was a young girl with messy orange hair, green eyes staring down at what appeared to be a mess of metal. It almost looked like she was building something. "Would it kill you to say please?" She muttered as she stood up, a green guild mark clearly visible on the back of her right hand. "But sure, sure. I'm the only one who knows how to work the thing after all."

She walked directly past the gang and rummaged in a cupboard for a few minutes before busting out a device that was compatible with lacrima film.

"Here we are. Might take me a bit to turn the thing on. It's always been fickle."

As she placed it down on a table, she could feel someone drilling a hole into the back of her head with a stare.

She whipped her head around, an eyebrow cocked as she locked her eyes with Ruby.

"Can I help ya?"