Hello everyone. Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. Some stuff kept happening at home, including blackouts from the way the weather was. Anyway, hope you all enjoy what I have this time. Also, there was apparently some issues involved when I posted the last chapter, so no one was able to read that for some reason until a few hours had passed. If anyone hasn't seen it yet, I recommend going back to see what you might have missed.

Review responses

Pokeheroaadyn: Glad you share my sentiment. The armor is one of my favorite things, but it's way too early to give him something like that all the time. The earliest I'll let him use that at will be around the GMG arc. Still, happy to hear you liked it, and hope you continue to enjoy what I write.

Taniano 3000: Glad you liked it, and I hope not to disappoint when I get to there.

After a week of painful interrogations and Sora having to explain his role in all this as a legally non-guild mage, they were let go with the promise that their punishment would be doled out later. Now, everyone was busy at work rebuilding the guild hall, even grander than before.

With a roar, Natsu lifted up a large pile of lumber, intending to carry it all the way to where it was needed, only for the pile to collapse on top of him and leave him trapped. Happy and Mira, the latter of which carrying a tray of drinks, looked at him as he got trapped. Gray then walked by with a single piece of lumber. "That's what you get for trying to carry so much, moron."

"What'd you call me?!" Natsu's anger allowed him to launch all of the lumber on him away.

At that moment, the two of them had braced their foreheads against each other, Gray dropping his lumber in the process. "You wanna fight?!"

"Quit carrying them like a wimp!"

As the two glared at and argued with each other, Sora simply did some writing with the sheets in front of him, glancing at the two with an almost bored look. "Man, those two really never stop arguing do they? If they don't stop soon…"

"That's enough!" A large piece of lumber then swung down, treating their heads as nails and plunging them both into the ground. Erza then lifted the lumber back onto her shoulder while dressed as a construction worker. "Work your bodies, not your mouths! We need to rebuild Fairy Tail as quickly as possible!"

The two of them simply wore dazed expressions as a lump formed on the top of their heads with smoke coming off of them. "Aye…"

Sora shook his head with a smile as he looked back down. "There it is. They should really have figured out a system for getting into fights and avoiding Erza at this point if they plan to keep arguing like that." Sora did some more work on his sheets and tuned a few things out, but stopped long enough to catch a few words that held his attention from Macao and Wakaba.

"But y'know…" "Isn't it a little too big?"

Mira then walked up to them holding a piece of paper. "We decided to remodel it while we're at it! This is a concept sketch of the final version!" She then held it up for them to see. Sora inwardly smirked, curious what the reactions would be and watched with baited breath as the two of them were joined by Natsu and Gray, who had just dug themselves out of the ground.

Macao looked at it negatively. "Wow…"

Wakaba tried to look at it positively. "That's… Something else…"

Natsu and Gray just looked at it confused. "I-I don't really understand it…"

Gray leaned in trying to make sense of it. "Man, this sketch sucks. What idiot drew this junk?"

Mira kept up a sunny smile on her face, before turning and hiding her face behind her hands as she cried. Gray then looked at her in a panic as he tried to recover. "O-Oh, it was you, Mira?!"

The other three just deadpanned at him and spoke in synchronicity. "You made her cry again."

"That's Gray for you." Happy stated while sitting on the table Sora as working at, the entire debacle getting him to laugh a bit.

As he calmed his laughing fit, Sora then turned to the crying model. "Hey, Mira, it's okay. Your drawing isn't that bad."

Mira sniffed a little, before turning to him with a few tears still in her eyes. "R-R-Really?"

"Of course not. Like you said, it was a concept sketch. It doesn't matter how the quality is anyway, so don't worry about it."

Mira then wiped away the tears that were left and looked at him gratefully. "Thanks Sora. I guess it's a good thing then that we have you working on the final product."

They all looked at Sora in surprise, including Happy, as they made their way over to the table he was working at. Macao looked about the sheets, trying to make sense of the lines and numbers across the pages. "Wait, you're the one designing the guild hall? I thought you were a crystal shaper?"

Sora kept making adjustments to the numbers as he spoke, while also fiddling with a crystal abacus as me made calculations. "Well yeah, but before you shape something, you need to make sure you know what you're making and that you have the supplies for it. Sure, I can probably do all this with crystals without even really thinking about it, but I still do it out of habit when making something new. It wasn't as easy for me back when I started, and since no one else at the guild has any practice with stuff like this I figured I'd give this a shot. Makarov and Mira talked with me until we got to a general layout they were happy with, and I made sure the dimensions of the structure would be sized properly to hold what they were asking for."

Gray looked about the papers curiously. "Oh yeah? What kind of changes are being made?"

"Well, we've got an outdoor café, a stage in the main hall for performances, a pool behind the bar, the basement getting a large game room, and a few other things that are mostly cosmetic and look nice and such."

As Sora calmly talked about the things that were being put in, everyone but Mira looked at him in shock at what was being added, with Natsu also looking a little grumpy. Wakaba rubbed his head in surprise as he thought about all this. "Man, this place is seriously getting reworked. How much is going into rebuilding this place?"

Sora then grabbed one of the papers and handed it to Wakaba. Not looking up, but feeling the inquisitive look from him, he responded. "That is the estimate for what it will take just to build the main hall with the material costs. I also got good at math and business in order to make the most profits I could as a craftsman, so I'm also figuring out how much material would be needed and how much they cost, as well as preparing the orders themselves with the suppliers."

Wakaba nodded slowly in understanding, as he and Macao looked at the numbers on the sheet to see what they were working with. After a few seconds, their eyes bulged from their skulls. ""HOLY CRAP THAT'S A LOT!""

Sora shrugged. "Maybe, but don't worry about it. I'm taking care of a portion of it with some of my own funds from the years of freelancing I did while Makarov deals with the rest. He tried to argue with me that I shouldn't, but I told him I wasn't going to be using too much of my personal funds and was just going to make the burden easier on him."

Mira looked at the other five sunnily. "It was a really interesting conversation. Makarov tried to keep Sora from spending a good chuck of his money on us, but he finally caved after hearing how much Sora actually had to his name."

Happy tilted his head in curiosity, before turning to Sora. "How much is that?"

Sora looked at Happy with a smirk, before pulling up a blank piece of paper and writing a few numbers down. "Well, I plan on using this amount to help the guild's reconstruction, so it may give you an idea."

He then slid the page over to Happy, who then had the other 4 looking over his shoulder to see what he was doing, and they all paled at the number that he wrote down, all of them being unable to move or even make a sound while getting a chuckle out of Sora and a giggle out of Mira.

A while later, Sora was taking a break from the paper work and was happily surprised when Mira came by and placed a glass of Lemonade next to him. "Here. Thanks for all your hard work with the logistics of this."

"Not a problem." He then took a sip of the drink and let out a sigh of contentment. "Man, this stuff is good." He then got up off the table and put the papers in a box that was nearby. "I'll be taking a break and go looking around, see how everyone's doing."

"Of course. Feel free to take all the time you need to take a break."

"Roger that." He then walked off as Mira looked for other people who might need a drink.

As he was walking about, he saw a surge of water hit Natsu and Happy, passing Gray and leaving a bento in his lap as a result. Blinking away his surprise, he looked in the direction the water had flown and used his X-ray vision, helping him get more used to it, to see where the culprit was and was surprised to see a somewhat familiar face watching the trio from behind a wall.

Staying quiet, he walked up to and behind the spy, and spoke when they were right behind the culprit. "Can we help you, Juvia?"

The water mage of Phantom Lord jumped from the surprise, then turned to him with her back pressed against the wall. As she saw him, her face reacted in shock and recognition. "You! You're the one who hit Juvia and vandalized the base back before the Phantom Headquarters was mobilized!"

Sora nodded. "And you are the Phantom mage that kidnapped Lucy." The water mage flinched slightly at his tone. "Mind telling me what you're doing here?"

Juvia kept looking over her shoulder to the opening in the wall that showed Gray inspecting the bento with Natsu and Happy watching. "Um, uh, um, Juvia is, um…"

Sora raised an eyebrow, noticing the pink on her cheeks, then took another glance over at the others, before coming to a realization. He then looked back at Juvia. "Tell me…" She then snapped to attention at that. "If I left you alone, would you cause any harm to Fairy Tail?"

Juvia shook her head rapidly with her hands held up in front of her. "No! Juvia no longer wishes to fight Fairy Tail! Juvia merely went along with the master's wishes before because he and Phantom accepted Juvia, but Juvia doesn't want to do anything bad to Fairy Tail anymore! Juvia promises!"

Sora looked at her sternly for a little bit, before nodding at her. "Okay."

Juvia looked at him in surprise at that statement. "Okay?"

"Yup. So long as you don't cause any problems for the guild, I'll leave you be." He then walked off taking a sip of his lemonade. "Oh, and good luck."

Juvia blushed at having been found out so quickly, before sneaking another glance at Gray and seeing what he thought of the bento she made him, seeing him trying some after Erza had taken a bite.

Sora then walked up to the guys as Gray was trying a bite, acting as if nothing happened. "Yo. How you guys doing?"

They all looked at him, Erza sternly. "Oi, Sora. Why aren't you doing anything?"

"It's called a break. Doing logistics isn't as easy as some people may think it is." He then rubbed the side of his head with his open hand. "I swear I might start seeing numbers in my dreams if I keep this up much longer without a break."

Natsu threw his arms behind his head. "What's so hard about doing numbers?"

Sora grinned maliciously at the challenge and put down his lemonade.

A few minutes later, after giving Natsu a "simple" word problem, Natsu was curled up on the ground muttering with both hands on his head as he tried to think about how much material would be needed for the stairs, and how much those individual materials would cost down to the last board and nail. Gray, Erza, and Happy looked at the duo in shock, surprised at how much Sora was actually doing, how easily he was able get that out, and how much he might actually be figuring out.

Sora himself then stretched his arms above his head as Natsu continued his torment, then picked up his lemonade again. "And that, is why you don't underestimate numbers. I made that mistake a few times too many when I was freelancing, so I made sure I wouldn't again."

"I don't know whether to be impressed, or frightened by that." Gray looked at them cautiously, Erza and Happy in silent agreement with that statement since they all had trouble with the words Sora had said to put Natsu like that.

"Natsu, Gray, Erza, Sora…" They all turned their attention to the voice, Natsu forgetting about the mental pain from thinking so much, and they saw Loke holding keys in his hand. "Could you give these to Lucy for me? They're her keys."

Gray and Natsu walked up to him, Natsu taking the keys. "I was wondering why you hadn't been around lately!"

"You were looking for these this whole time?"

Loke adjusted his glasses and Happy flew over to him worriedly. "Are you okay? You look really pale…"

"Thanks. I'm fine." Sora narrowed his eyes at Loke's blatant lie, knowing he was just as bad as he looked. "Whew. Being a gentleman is tough."

"Lucy doesn't seem to be here. Maybe she still hurts too much to be up and about." Happy stated.

Natsu put his hands on his sides as he looked at Loke. "We can go pay her a visit then. You should come too, Loke."

"I'll pass. You know I'm no good around celestial wizards." Loke then turned to leave at that.

"Really? Even though this is Lucy we're talking about?"

Sora stared at Loke's retreating back as Erza calmly reminded Natsu. "Natsu. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Don't pry too much."

Sora however, decided against leaving him be and went after him. "I'm gonna make sure he's as okay as he says. You guys tell me how it goes with Lucy."

After hearing words of confirmation, he jogged after Loke, catching him standing still and looking off into space. "What happened?"

Sora's words snapped him out of it and he turned to Sora in surprise. "S-Sora?"

"My ring should be keeping you from being like this for at least another month. That is the WORST case of what I've made your rings capable of. So. What. Happened?"

Loke looked down for a few moments, before looking at him with a sad smile. "When Phantom attacked, I went to go make sure Lucy was okay. When I got there, it was when Gajeel was taking her away. I did everything I could to try and stop him. Meaning… I left my rings alone."

Sora widened his eyes at that. "You gotta be kidding me… You used your Celestial Spirit powers?! You idiot!" Sora then looked around and kept his voice from rising any higher, before turning back to Loke. "You might as well have poked a hole in a bucket before trying to fill it with water! A REALLY BIG HOLE! You already don't have much longer, and now you've gone and lowered your time even less! I get why, but come on!"

Loke looked back down at that. "Yeah… Sorry for making your efforts pointless."

Sora face-palmed at that with his eyes closed. "Son of a…" He then removed his hand and looked around, before grabbing the guy by the shoulder and dragging him along. "Come here you suicidal bastard."

"H-Hey, what's…?

"Just don't. I'm not going to let you die on your own. Not before you make things right by Lucy at the very least." He then found them a secluded area and pushed him into it, then pulled Loke's wrist out and made a band of Citrine around it. "You said before that your power lets you wield light like Natsu can fire, right?"

"Uh, yeah, sort of."

Sora then did the same with the other wrist. "Then in theory, I can use my Citrine to fill you with more light, thus extending your lifespan… Probably." He then glared at Loke, putting chills down his spine. "And you can bet your shiny ass I'm reinforcing your ring again, but this time I'm going to be weakening the wind magic and pouring the excess into your stabilizing magic. So don't do anything too crazy just yet, you got that?!"

Loke looked at him nervously, almost seeing a second Erza in front of him. "Y-Y-Yeah, you got it…"

Sora nodded sternly as he began to work on the bands and rings, Loke giving him an appreciative smile as he worked.

"Haaah…" Sora was now walking down the path, looking to meet up with the others. "Really, that guy is just a pain." He then looked up to the sky. "How can he be ready to throw his life away just like that…? Nothing gets solved trying to get yourself killed over something you couldn't control."

He then shook his head as he let his thoughts once again go back to his fight with Jose, still wanting to know what exactly happened. Even now, he had no idea what he had done, or how he had done it. He remembered hearing Jose's demented thoughts, remembered being incredibly angry, and then… his body just moved on its own, as if he were merely an observer. It was still him fighting, but he had thought himself to have too little magic left to fight, let alone to wield THAT kind of power. It almost felt like his heart was being supercharged by… something.

His hand absentmindedly reached up to his heart at that, feeling the smooth crystal beneath the cloth. 'Just what the hell am I capable of…? Nothing like that was ANYWHERE in the notes I took and the stuff I memorized. Then again, my eye and heart weren't mentioned either, so who knows what else I'm capable of. Still… What the hell even was that back there?' After a few more minutes, he found himself outside the apartment complex that Lucy was staying at, and went to open the front door.

Only for it to open itself right in his face and have the force of it knock him into the canal. As the door opened to reveal a confused Natsu, Erza and Gray walked out from behind him as Happy flew up beside them. "Huh? What was that?"

In answer to Natsu's question, Sora popped his head out of the canal and coughed out some water, before glaring at Natsu. "Oi, what the hell man?! Be careful when opening doors!"

Natsu grimaced as he realized what he did. "Oh, man, sorry about that." Happy then went over to pull him out of the canal.

When Sora was back on the street, he thanked Happy and started to wring the water out of his clothes. He then turned an irritated look at the others. "So, you guys were in a rush. What's going on?"

That got all 4 of them to re-adopt looks of panic as Happy flew in front of his face. "Sora! Lucy's not here! She's leaving Fairy Tail to go home!"

Sora blinked for a moment, then said the most intelligent thing he could think of. "… Eh?"

A train ride and a lot of running later, and it was evening when they were now on the Heartfilia estate running to find Lucy. After a while of looking around, Sora managed to use his eye to find her location and guided them to a graveyard. As soon as she was within normal sight, they all called out to her. "Lucy!"

Lucy was startled at hearing her name like that, then turned in shock at seeing them there. "Why are you-?!"

Happy flung himself into her chest while crying. "Lucy!"

Natsu and Gray ran right up to her while Sora and Erza hung back. "What the hell Lucy! Why would you leave Fairy Tail like that?!"

"Seriously, after everything we went through to make it so you could stay, you could at least come to us before you up and left."

"Wait, guys, I wasn't leaving Fairy Tail!"

""Huh?""

When Gray and Natsu looked at her confused, she explained further. "I only came back to give my dad a piece of my mind. I know I left a note saying I was going home, but I never said I was leaving the guild. I was just coming by to make sure I had no regrets and to make sure Dad wouldn't try something like this again!"

Natsu and Gray looked at her in shock, while Erza held back some laughter and Sora sighed from the overreactions that they had. "You guys… You all really blew this out of proportion didn't you?"

Gray then began to sulk while Natsu went off angrily, as Lucy laughed at their antics and hugged the happily crying cat to her chest.

After a quick goodbye from Lucy to the staff that worked the estate, the 6 of them began their trek back to the train. A while later, they were walking down a dirt path when Lucy spoke up. "I am truly sorry for making all of you worry."

Sora smirked at her. "Don't worry about it. These guys freaked out a little when they thought you weren't coming back, but all should be good now."

Natsu looked at the cat flying next to him with a frown. "Happy cried the whole time."

"Natsu was sobbing as well!" Happy retorted.

"A-As if…"

"Really? I am sorry…" Lucy looked at them both nervously.

Gray looked around at the houses around them. "But for crying out loud, this town is really enormous."

"The tranquility is simply remarkable." Erza looked to the sky, enjoying the quiet scenery.

"Oh, this isn't a town. This is part of our garden." Lucy said as if it were normal. She then pointed over to a mountain in the distance. "Our land reaches all the way to that mountain over there."

Natsu and Gray looked at the mountain in question, paling as they thought about how much money Lucy was born to, as the girl in question looked at them in confusion. "Huh? What's the matter, everyone?" The two of them then saluted straight forward, almost looking like statues at this point, freaking Lucy out.

"RICH GIRL OVERLOAD!" Gray exclaimed.

"CASUAL BRAGGING OVERLOAD!" Natsu cried out.

Happy then flew over to Erza, saluting to her like a soldier, as the duo were dancing around, now officially broken in the head. "Natsu and Gray are done for. Captain Erza, your orders please!"

Erza simply looked to the sunset. "Haaah… The sky sure is blue…"

Happy then flew up in a panic. "Medic! Captain Erza is out of commission!"

As they all continued their wacko routine, Lucy looked at them all nervously as Sora whistles next to her. "Wow. I think you really broke them this time."

Lucy then turned her head to Sora a bit cautiously. "Y-You aren't about to freak out too, are you?"

"Nah, I already knew the extent of the Heartfilia fortune before I even met you guys. I even worked for a few people who had large fortunes of their own, though this is still the largest estate I've ever seen." Sora then held a hand over his eyes as he looked at the mountain she pointed at before. "You sure you don't own the mountain too? Or does it just stop there?"

"Oh, we have a bit of the mountain too, with a lodge for hunting as well."

"Nice. Not so much for the fellas that get hunted, but still cool."

They both then looked back at the varying freak-outs by the others, then laughed a bit. They then went back to heading for the trains as the group managed to recover from their shock.

Several days later, Sora was sitting at the new make-shift bar next to Lucy as Mira made an announcement behind the counter. "Everyone! The request section is now reopened. Even though it is just a temporary counter, please take up as many as you can!" The entirety of the guild in earshot cheered and went to see what sorts of jobs were available as Lucy and Sora watched.

Lucy looked on with amusement. "What's with them? Usually they are just slacking around and refuse to do any requests."

"They're probably hoping to use it as a chance to not need to work on the guild hall. It's one thing to sling magic around and another to do manual labor like this." Sora's joke got the 2 girls laughing a little.

Lucy then looked around the area. "Oh yeah, I haven't seen Loke around lately…"

Mira looked at Lucy smugly. "Ah, so Lucy has finally fallen for Loki's magical charm." Sora nearly choked on his lemonade at how he laughed at that.

"That's not it!" Lucy shouted comically at Mira, not helping Sora recover. She sat back down and sighed before she continued, pulling out her gate keys. "I heard that he was the one who tracked down these keys for me, so I want to thank him properly."

"Sure. I will tell him if I see him." Mira said, as Sora turned to her after finally recovering.

"Same here. I'll even drag him over to ya if I have to." Lucy nodded, laughing a little at the mental image of Sora dragging Loke around.

Mira then placed her hands against the counter as she looked at Lucy inquisitively. "Come to think of it, were your Spirits angry at you? For dropping the keys."

Lucy straightened up at that, then looked away sheepishly. "'Mad' doesn't even begin to describe it…"

Sora looked at her cautiously. "How bad was it?"

Lucy closed her eyes as she relived the memory of how Aquarius was, then reached back and rubbed her behind. "Just thinking about it makes my butt hurt again…"

"Oh my…" Mira said nervously as Sora shook his head at the Spirit's behavior, silently wishing he never meets the one that was so angry… at least not at a bad time.

Gray then walked up, preparing some ice magic in his hand having heard the last bit. "Need me to cool it off?"

"That is casual sexual harassment." Lucy deadpanned herself, not even looking at him.

Happy then flew over, a mischievous look on his face. "Lucy, show me your bright red butt."

"That is unadulterated sexual harassment!" She exclaimed.

Natsu then showed up holding some fire in his hand and looking at Happy mischievously. "I wonder what her facial expression will be if I sting it even more?"

"WHAT ARE YOU, THE DEVIL?!" Lucy shouted at him, Sora laughing at the entire spectacle.

Suddenly, a large barrel came flying out of nowhere and smacked right into Natsu, taking all their attention away from the comedic moment. They then heard an angry shout from Erza. "Do you dare to repeat that?"

Looking over, they saw her looking at someone furiously as they sat on a bench in front of her. Sora noted the blonde spiky hair, the spiked headphones over their ears, and the coat resting on their shoulders. The blonde sneered at Erza. "Then this time I will be blunt. Weaklings deserve no place in this guild." He then looked over at where Jet and Droy were. "You guys are pathetic. Getting humiliated by Phantom in such a manner. I'm glad I never bothered to learn your names." The two of them looked down in frustration at those words.

He then turned his attention to where Lucy was. "Oh, and there is the main cause, Miss Stellar Spirit user. You are the one-"

"Laxus!" Mira interrupted him as she and Lucy looked at him with hate. "The matter is closed. No one cares whose fault it is." Laxus then stood up from the table he was at and crossed his arms. "You have no right to say such things when you weren't even around to help us. Those are Master's words!"

Laxus smirked at that, before responding loudly. "So what? That has nothing to do with me! Though if I were around, you wouldn't be in such a pathetic-" He stopped as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, and raised his arm in time to catch a spherical object, then sneered at the one who threw it. "Oh…? So the new guy has some guts."

Everyone turned in shock as Sora stood back up from throwing his projectile and glared back at Laxus. "Well, it's easy to stand up to someone when you don't have an ounce of respect for the other guy."

Every one of the onlookers held their breath, as Laxus looked at Sora darkly. "What was that, you little punk?" He began to spark with his lightning magic as he finished talking.

"Oh, you didn't hear me? Well then, you might want to check what I threw at you. It should tell you exactly what I think of your attitude."

"Hah?" Laxus raised an eyebrow as he turned his hand, looking at the purple crystal in his palm. Before he could even process it, the crystal exploded with a shock wave, sending him flying through an unfinished wall. Everyone present then looked on in shock as they saw Laxus go flying, looking between where he went and who sent him there.

"No freaking way…"

"Did he just send LAXUS flying away?!"

"Does that guy have a death wish!?"

Sora ignored the voices of even his friends as he watched the way Laxus had gone, dropping a pair of crystals on the ground as he waited. With a strange feeling in the back of his head, he didn't even need to turn around to know that Laxus was now right behind him, about to try and punch him into the ground.

In response, he made the blue crystals on the ground spin, creating a twister of water at his feet that carried him up and above the attempted strike which simply plowed through the twister. While up in the air, he formed his usual gauntlets and greaves and faced the S-class mage when he landed a small distance away.

Laxus looked at Sora appraisingly, as the rest of the guild was both motionless and silent. "… So… this is the mage that helped Erza defend against the Jupiter weapon. I'll admit, I'm surprised that you were even able to push me, though you're smaller than I thought you'd be."

Sora mock grinned at him as he held his hands out wide. "I live to surprise people. Including arrogant pricks who think they're better than others and look down on everyone else."

"Is that so?"

"Big time. Especially someone who doesn't even care if their guild is threatened and nearly wiped out." Sora once again glared at the man in front of him. "What kind of person turns their back on their friends when they need him?"

"Hmph! Why should I care about the people in this guild? The majority of these people are weak beyond comparison. I figured this whole thing would weed out the weaklings, but I guess they hung around a little better than I hoped."

Sora's eyes widened as he took in those words. "… What was that?"

"This guild is weak, but when I inherit it, I'm going to kick every one of these weaklings to the curb, along with everyone who would dare to rebel against me! I will create the ultimate guild! The strongest guild ever that no one would dare look down upon." He then clenched a lightning coated fist. "Maybe I should start with you?"

A shadow covered his eyes, as Sora crossed his now glowing gauntlets across his chest, many of the mages worried about the fight about to break out. Sora then threw his arms to both sides…

And his constructs disappeared in a flash.

Even Laxus looked at Sora in confusion, as Sora looked at him with a bored expression. "I'd rather not cause more damage to this place than we did already, and I no longer see the point of fighting someone as arrogant as you."

Laxus glared at him in anger. "What?!"

Sora then turned and walked back to his seat at the counter, going right past Laxus without a care in the world. "I said I won't fight you. You wouldn't be worth the damages the way things are right now."

As he sat down and started to drink his lemonade again, Laxus looked at him in fury as he moved to punch him again. Several of the others tried to warn him, but the attack was moving too fast for them to do anything themselves.

Without even turning around or lowering his drink, Sora raised his open arm perpendicular to the ground as a band of yellow crystal formed around his wrist and a large magic circle formed behind him, stopping Laxus' strike just before he would hit.

Laxus stepped back in anger as the circle dropped, and Sora put his drink down and spoke, not even looking at him. "I told you, I won't fight you. That said, I will prevent any attack you attempt at me, so don't bother. After all, it's no fun to wail on someone who won't fight back."

Everyone once again held their breaths as Laxus glared at the back of Sora's head. After a few moments of silence… "Hmph. Guess you really do have guts. That, or you're a coward who is scared of a fight."

"Say what you want. I've stopped caring about you, like you've stopped caring about this guild." Sora then took another sip of his drink as he continued not looking at Laxus.

"… Whatever. I'm outta here." Laxus then walked away in disdain and looked at the gathered mages. "You all better get ready for the new management coming this way. It's only a matter of time." With a flash of his magic, he was gone.

The guild was torn between looking at where Laxus was in anger, or looking at Sora by the counter in shock. After a few minutes, everyone else calmed down and began to go back to what they were doing, Lucy taking back her seat at the counter. "Man, that was intense!" She looked over at Sora who was just finishing his drink. "I seriously thought that guy was going to kill you ya know!"

Sora shrugged as he put the glass down. "Meh, I've seen scarier back when I was dungeon delving with my family." Mira then came over to him with a refill. "Oh, thanks Mira."

"You're welcome!" Mira then curiously peered at the band that slowly faded from Sora's arm. "So, what was that?"

Sora smirked at the question. "Something I've been experimenting with for a few days. Only good for blocking physical attacks, unless I also have time to prep it to guard against someone's magic. That's why the sphere I threw at Laxus didn't blow up at first; it was getting a sample of his magic. Once it blew, I prepared to create this band to guard against his magic, and kept talking to keep him stalled. But it takes a bit too much time and effort to put together so far, so I'll need a lot more practice before I even think about using this frequently." He then frowned. "Though his attitude really did make me not want to fight anymore. Really, how much of an asshole can you be?" He shook the thought from his head and took another sip of his drink.

Lucy sighed. "Seriously though, what was that nonsense he said about inheriting the guild?"

"It isn't nonsense." Lucy looked at Mira in confusion. "You see, Laxus is actually the Master's grandson."

Lucy processed that for a few seconds, before raising both hands to her head and looking back in shock. "EH?!"

Sora finished his next sip and looked at the drink as he recalled what he knew. "Laxus Dreyer, grandson to Makarov Dreyer and a Lightning mage. S-class. Really strong, and apparently really arrogant."

Mira nodded at the description, and looked back at Lucy sadly. "That said, it's very likely Laxus will be the next Master when he retires."

"Y-You can't be serious…" Lucy looked at her in sorrow, thinking about the guild being run by him. "But I don't like the idea of someone being our Master when he treats his fellow members like that…"

Mira nodded sadly at that. "People say that's why our Master is having a hard time retiring…"

"O-Oh…"

Sora shook his head at that. "If I were in his shoes, I'd be having the same issue…"

Natsu looked back at where Laxus had gone and felt pissed again. "That bastard. I was this close to going and hitting the guy myself." He then rounded on Sora who wasn't even looking at him. "Oi, Sora! Why'd you have to go and be the one to attack him?!"

Sora shrugged, still not looking. "Because it was my first time meeting the guy and I was already pissed. Also, his face looked like it was begging to be punched or something. Good enough for ya?"

Erza put a hand on Natsu's shoulder to calm him down. "That's enough. You'll only tire yourself out that way." She then showed him a smile. "Anyway, what do you say? Feel up to a job?"

"Huh?" Natsu turned to her in surprise.

"With Gray and Lucy too, of course." She turned to look at the mages in question as she spoke, surprising the both of them.

"Huh?"

"Wha…?!"

Mira looked at Gray in amusement. "Gray, where are your clothes?" That got Gray to look down in shock.

Erza put her hands on her hips and smiled at them. "It feels like we've always been together since the Eisenwald incident."

Nearby mages were listening in on this themselves. "'Feels like it'? She noticed only now?" Wakaba asked.

"It was pretty obvious to anyone. Was she not paying attention?" Macao stated.

"That's Erza for you." Cana said.

Erza then looked happily at the others. "What do you say we form an actual team? It'll be the 4 of us… Oh, five counting Happy!"

As the 4 others gave their own reactions, Sora looked confused and turned to Mira. "Wait, were they an unofficial team this whole time?"

"Uh-huh. Before, it was just Natsu, Happy, and Lucy, with the other two coming along. But now it looks like Fairy Tail's strongest team is about to be official!" Sora sweat-dropped at her cheer, as he watched them interact.

Lucy looked down sheepishly. "Are you sure you want someone like me though?"

"Not 'like' you!" She looked up in confusion at Natsu's voice as he leaned in excited. "We want you specifically!"

"Aye!" Happy popped in, adding his two cents.

"It just wouldn't be the same without you, you know?"

Lucy looked at his cheerful face for a few moments, before adopting a happy look of her own. Cana then looked back at the older mages. "Then it's official. Say hello to Fairy Tail's strongest team."

"This is great!"

"But is Lucy actually that tough?"

Al cut in with a few others behind him. "I don't think I'd stand a chance if she sicced Aquarius on me!"

"She's got a sharp mouth too." Droy said.

Jet grinned. "She's the best in many different ways…"

Sora then turned his attention to the fire and ice duo to see them about to go at it.

""Me, teamed up with him…?!"" The both of them growled under their breath.

"Have a problem with that?" Erza cut in, making them both back up in fear.

""No! We're ecstatic!""

Sora laughed at their expense, as Erza turned to him. "Say, Sora. What do you say to joining our team as well?"

Sora looked back at her with a blank look, then waved his arm dismissively. "Sorry, but not yet at least. I still need to work out a few more numbers, and I still have yet to get my guild mark anyway. So I'll sit out for now." He then grinned at them. "Besides, you guys are already fully equipped to break through anything in your way."

Natsu looked over at him dejectedly. "Ah, come on man! It'll be fun!"

Sora just looked at him suspiciously. "You just want to eat more of my Ruby flames, don't you?"

Natsu widened his eyes, then looked around with a slightly sweaty face and a guilty look. "I-I don't know wh-what you're talking about!"

Sora laughed a bit more, before giving Natsu a calm look. "Relax man, I'll think about joining your guys' team later. For now, I'll stick to helping around here until they don't need me to do it anymore. And once I've gotten my guild mark."

"The Master should be getting back from his summons soon." Sora looked at Mira as she spoke happily. "And he should be bringing a newly issued stamp with him, so we can probably induct you later today."

"Oh, sounds awesome! Can't wait." He then turned back to the others. "Anyways, you guys go have fun with your next assignment. I'll stick around here and make sure everything goes smoothly."

They all nodded and looked to Erza, who told them the job was for rooting out a Dark Guild operating out of a town called Lupinas. After a quick discussion with the others and a farewell with the assembled mages, they headed out.

Sora chuckled, then got lost in his own thoughts for a bit, before a piece of information he heard about sometime back popped up, causing him to look at Mira. Catching his look, she turned to him in question. "Oh, do you need something?"

"No, just had a question that popped into my head."

"Oh. What is it?"

"… Are you the same Mirajane once called the "She-Devil", S-class mage of Fairy Tail?"

"Oh! Yep. That was me!" She looked at him with a sunny smile as she said those words.

"… I just can't see it." Sora shook his head as he looked at her, trying to see how this cheery girl could possibly be called a devil of any sort. "How can someone as nice as you have once held a title like that?"

"Well, that's a bit of a long story."

Sora raised his hand as if to stop her. "Then forget it. If it's about anything painful, then you don't need to tell me."

"No, it's okay. I'm alright with telling it. You see, I joined Fairy Tail when I was little with my brother and sister."

"Sister?"

Mira nodded at that. "Yeah. The three of us were Taken Over mages. Elfman used Beast Soul, our little sister Lisanna used Animal Soul, and mine was known as Satan Soul. Because of my magic, and my slightly embarrassing past of being a bit of a bully, I became known as the She-Devil."

Sora's eyes widened at that. "No way… You? A bully?"

Mira giggled a little at that. "Yup. I actually scared as many people as Erza does now. Not too surprising, since we saw each other as rivals back then."

Sora leaned back at that, almost spitting out the lemonade he had just taken a sip of. "No freaking way… Rivals with Erza?! Exactly how bad are we talking here?!"

"Hehehe, let's just say we were both little terrors, and I used to have a bit of a mouth on me."

Sora shook his head to get rid of the shock in his head, before looking at her hesitantly. "So… Why aren't you like that now?"

Mira looked down sadly at that. "Well, it was about 2 years ago that everything changed. I had taken my siblings with me on a job. It was a year into me being an S-class mage. We went to help subjugate a creature known as "The Beast". Me and Elfman went to take care of it while Lisanna went to evacuate the townspeople nearby. Everything was going well for a while, until I let my guard down. The Beast was about to kill me, when Elfman tried to do something he wasn't able to do up until then…"

Sora then remembered something Erza told him during the battle against Phantom Lord. "That was the time he tried for a full Take Over, wasn't it?"

Mira nodded. "Elfman had trouble using Take Over magic on his whole body back then, and could only do a single arm at a time. But he still attempted it, and absorbed the Beast into himself to protect me. But the Beast's power was too much for him and he lost control. I watched in horror as my little brother's body was set against me, too terrified of hurting him. After a while, I was wounded and cornered against a cliff. That was when Lisanna got back, and I told her what had happened."

Sora realized where this was going, and didn't have the courage to have Mira stop telling her story. "When she realized what had happened to Elfman, she went and tried to help him regain his senses and take back control of his body. She walked up to him, confident that he wouldn't hurt her..." Tears welled up at the corners of her eyes. "The image of her being struck hard enough to launch her into the woods far away became etched into our eyes…"

Sora reached out and put a comforting hand on her own, surprising her with the action as she wiped the tears from her eyes, giving him a grateful smile. "Thank you." She then took a deep breath and pulled up a stool so she could sit down behind the counter before continuing. "The attack led to Elfman regaining control over himself, pushing the Beast and its wrath deep down within himself. But the damage had already been done. That day changed us both, me more so than him. The shock of what happened not only took away my will to fight, but led to me losing access to a large amount of my magic. So now here I am. Ex-She-Devil of Fairy Tail, gone from a terrifying figure, to the person you see now."

Sora looked down as she finished her tale. "… Sorry, for having you tell me this. It must be painful to think about…"

Mira raised her hands complacently. "No, it's okay. We're both moving forward, one step at a time. In fact, Elfman finally managed to perform a full takeover during the incident with Phantom and managed to make the Beast's power his own. And even if I can't be as helpful to the guild as I used to be, I'm at least still doing some good."

Sora shook his head. "Maybe, but still. I know how hard it is talking about lost family, so I shouldn't have made you tell me about this."

Mira looked at him in surprise. "You know? What do you mean?"

Sora looked down at his now empty glass, and raised it to Mira with a sad smile. "Hand me a refill, and I'll tell you a story of my own…"

After Sora had told his own past to Mira, she was bawling herself. "Oh, you pour thing! I had no idea something so bad had happened to you!"

This time, Sora was the one trying to placate Mira. "Easy, it's okay. I at least have a chance at getting my family back. It's nothing compared to what happened with your sister."

"But it happened to your ENTIRE family! You had no one left to comfort you after you went through all that! No one should have to lose their entire family to such a tragic fate!"

Sora chuckled nervously at how quickly and dramatically their positions had been reversed, then offered her a proposal. "A-All right, how about this. The two of us are equally tragic, and we move on from here, okay?"

Mira sniffed a few times, before wiping the tears from hers eyes and giving him a solemn smile. "Okay, I guess that's fair enough." Sora sighed in relief, glad no one had seen him making Mira cry. He was fine watching what happened when Gray caused that, and didn't want people looking at him that way.

"Oh, I see someone is adjusting to Fairy Tail quite nicely." Sora turned around and saw Master Makarov walking up to the bar, still in his Wizard Saint robe from the hearing.

"Oh, Master! Welcome back!" Mira warmly welcomed him as he took a seat at the counter. "How was the hearing?"

"It actually went better than I expected. Not only was Phantom held responsible and disbanded, but Fairy Tail was found completely innocent!" He then let out a sigh with his eyes closed. "Honestly, I was rather worried about what they might do to us, considering our history."

Sora laughed at that. "Gotta say, your guild is definitely a lively one."

"Hahaha, I wouldn't have it any other way. Though if these brats could at least control the amount of damage they cause, I would have to worry a lot less."

Sora raised an eyebrow at him, smirking at him. "Oh? So you have no problem with Natsu, Gray, and Erza officially being on the same team?"

Makarov flinched at that, remembering what happened during the Eisenwald incident, before looking at Mira in his chipper voice with his chipper face. "Mira-chan! Ale!"

"Yes, yes, coming right up Master."

Mira then moved to get some booze as Sora chuckled at his reaction to the news. He then turned to him with a grin. "Well, Lucy's on the team too, so they might manage to hold back the amount of damage they cause."

"Haah… I can only hope so." He then took the mug Mira placed in front of him and chugged it, releasing a satisfied sigh. "Ahhh, that hits the spot." He then had a face of realization, as he dug around in the pocket of his jacket. "Oh, that's right! I almost forgot!" He then pulled out a stamp for placing Guild Marks on members, catching the attention of both Mira and Sora. "Finally got a new one! I think we ought to make sure it works, what do you kids say?"

Sora grinned, as Mira picked up the stamp and looked over at him, asking him where he wants it. Taking a few moments to think about it, he stood up and lifted his shirt just shy of revealing the hunk of crystal acting as his heart, and Mira placed the stamp on his left abdomen. After a slight tickle, Mira removed the stamp and a bright light shined off of the mark, before becoming a gold mark of Fairy Tail.

Mira smiled at him brightly as the mark settled. "Welcome to Fairy Tail, Sora!"

Sora smiled at her and the Master. "Thanks." He then got up and stretched. "Well, since I am now an official member, I had better get to work on finishing up the numbers as quick as I can. Anything else you want to discuss about the future guild hall?"

Makarov nodded his head in thought. "Actually, there are a few things I have thought about…" The three of them then spent some time talking things out, either for the guild's reconstruction or just idle chatter.

A/N: Aaaand scene! What'd you guys think? Took me some time to feel satisfied with this, especially with how I should deal with the scene with Laxus. Was tempted to leave that to Natsu like the canon, but this was more fun. And making Sora in charge of resources just made a sort of sense with me, since Maker mages tend to be good at making things and he already has a somewhat similar experience to call upon.

Anyway, the next chapter will be about Loke then after that will be the start of the Tower of Heaven arc. Hope you guys enjoy what I have planned, and hope to see some reviews letting me know what you think. See you guys next time.