A.N: Okay so this one took me longer than usual. Writing Cobra gave me a lot of trouble. So I hope you all enjoy it! The updates may slow down a bit now that I finally have all the players together. So be patient with me!

Thank you stupidmaniac101, josiebtillotson, and CaptainKicky for reviewing!

I do not own Fairy Tail, but I do own Saphira!

Chapter 10

'Do I wish Leo was may mate instead?' She repeated in her head as she continued to meet Laxus's intense gaze. 'What if it had turned out differently? Can spirits even have children? Would I have to live in the spirit world? Forced to watch the world from the sidelines… But I would have Leo…. Would that be so bad?'

She then thought about the short time she had been back at the guild and how much she enjoyed just being in Laxus's company. He was strong, confident, and calmer than before. He was much more in control of his emotions than he used to be. She thought back to their lunch date. He was much more honest with her than he had ever been. 'Is it okay for me to keep hiding this from him? Will he be mad when he eventually finds out?' His original question popped back into her mind. Do you wish Loke was your mate instead?... The answer is…

"No…no I could never wish for that. I have come to respect the man my future mate has become." Saphira answered honestly.

Laxus's tense shoulders relaxed after hearing that. He was so relieved and he had no idea why. Like a weight lifted off his heart he felt like he could achieve anything.

"Why?" He prodded. "Why haven't you told your mate?! Why are you keeping this from him?!"

"…because of fear…."

The door opened and Gajeel walked in.

"Hey, the council sent a carriage for us. We should head out if we want to get back today." Gajeel said, interrupting the tense atmosphere.

Laxus was the first to move, saying something about informing his team that he would be gone for the day. And with that he disappeared out of the room and down the stairs. Once Saphira was sure he was out of hearing range, she whispered to Gajeel, "Don't let him near me. He's definitely suspicious…. Telling him now would do no good."

Gajeel shut the door and moved to sit back down in his original spot. "Why not? It would be much easier on you both if you told him."

"Well why haven't you told Levy yet? She deserves to know as well."

"…..I'll make a deal with you. The day you tell Laxus, I will tell Levy."

"That isn't fair! I don't want to have yours and Levy's happiness riding on what happens between Laxus and I. That isn't fair to you."

"Well then you better hurry and tell him! Now let's go. I don't want Sparky to be suspicious of me as well." Gajeel said as he rose out of his seat.

Saphira laughed and got up. "You know he would electrocute you if he heard that nickname."

"Let's hope he never does." He answered while a shiver went down his back.

(Line Break)

The carriage that was waiting for the trio outside was surprisingly large. Saphira sent a questioning glace over towards Makarov. To which he simply answered, "I may have mentioned that you would have company when Lahar called."

'Sneaky old man had this all planned out didn't he.' Saphira thought as she entered the compartment and sat down on the bench facing forward, next to the window. Gajeel entered next and sat next to her and then stretched his legs out onto the opposite bench. Forcing Laxus to sit on the bench facing them, next to Gajeel's legs. Effectively keeping him away from Saphira. Although Gajeel's eyes were closed he could still feel the intense glare sent towards him from the irritated blonde dragon slayer. The next two hours were silent, mostly due to the slight motion sickness all the slayers suffered from. Thank kami it was nowhere near the motion sickness Natsu has. When they finally reached the council, the group couldn't wait to get out and stretch their legs.

(Line Break)

Lahar met the group outside the council building, along with his partner Doranbolt. Saphira walked up the steps to greet the two as the male slayers flanked her, one on each side.

"That took a while Lahar. I was actually starting to get worried."

"Good afternoon to you as well Saphira." Lahar said clearly aggravated at the blue eyed female in front of him. "As you can see everything is as you asked."

"Well I hope so. File please." She said as she held her hand out expectantly. Lahar handed over the file in his possession. As soon as the paperwork was in her hands she opened it and scanned the first page. Looking back up at Lahar she said,

"If you gentlemen would excuse me, I have some reading to do. Gajeel…Laxus… I need you to wait here. I'm pretty sure the agreement was that I would be the only person to read this file. Am I correct?"

Lahar simply nodded his head. Doranbolt then said, "If you would like I could take you to a meeting room and you can read the file there."

"Hm… no thank you. I'll just hop back in the carriage. There is plenty of room in there. And I'm pretty sure it will be much more comfortable than a stuffy council meeting room." Saphira replied with a smile.

Not waiting for another response Saphira retreated back into the carriage and pulled out the papers in the file, placing them on the bench in front of her.

"Alright Cobra… who are you…" She mumbled as she began her reading.

'Erik A.K.A. Cobra is a mage with a danger rating of 6. All though this mage has significant power he lacks direction and the necessary planning skills to a Class A threat, so he has been placed as a Class B. The subject is a poison dragon slayer and a competent sound mage. Anyone wishing to approach him should wear the specialized charm preventing the subject from hearing your thoughts. As for the psych analysis, subject shows a higher patience level than most criminals but he has a very short fuse. Subject is prone to violent outbursts and has attempted the poisoning of several staff members…'

Saphira briefly paused in her reading to think about what she was exactly getting herself into. 'He's a little badass isn't he? His danger rating is a little high, meaning if he wanted to he has the ability to destroy a town. But apparently lacks drive? That's weird… And with him being only a Class B threat I'm sure they would have no problem placing him in the care of a Class S threat like myself. I mean come on there's no way he's that stupid to seriously fight me…'

(Line Break)

While Saphira was inside the carriage going over the file, the men outside were left to figure out how to get along. For the first ten minutes nothing was said, and that was fine but Lahar had the opportunity to talk to the possible future master of Fairy Tail. The council member wasn't going to let the chance pass by.

"So how is your grandfather doing, Laxus?" Lahar politely asked.

"He is fine. I help him with all the paperwork on his desk from time to time," Laxus answered as he glanced at the council member out of the corner of his eye.

'Surely he doesn't blame me for that? Does he?' Lahar thought.

"Though I still haven't forgiven you for infiltrating our guild and nearly firing that ethernano cannon on the guild's island." The blonde slayer added menacingly.

A violent shiver traveled down Lahar's back. Was he scared? Of course he was! Lahar seemed to have found himself on the wrong side of Laxus's ire. Makarov Dreyar was a Wizard Saint! And there was no doubt in his mind that his grandson had the same potential. 'Best tread lightly from now on.' Lahar thought.

Sensing the tense atmosphere Doranbolt thought he would try to alleviate it. They were all men here right? So surely talking about an attractive woman would help them bond…right? The poor bastard just happened to pick the wrong woman to bring up.

"So anyone know if Saphira is with anyone? She's quite an amazing woman; I wouldn't mind the opportunity to get to know her better." Said the walking dead man.

It happened fast. Gajeel knew this wouldn't end well for the idiotic man the second those words left his mouth. One second the large lightning mage was standing next to him and in the next he was gone. He turned to find Laxus holding Doranbolt by his neck, about a foot off the ground. The poor man was frantically trying to pull Laxus's large hand from his neck but he slowly turning blue from lack of oxygen. 'Well shit… guess Fairy Tail really can't go anywhere without breaking something.' He thought.

Laxus was beyond pissed. Who was this little piss ant who dared to talk about Saphira! There was no way he was going to let the council dog anywhere near his woman. "YOU. WILL. NOT. TOUCH. HER." With each word he growled, Laxus's hold on the poor memory and spatial magic user tightened to near breaking point. Both Laxus and Gajeel could hear the tiny bones fracturing under the pressure.

"Honestly… I can't even read a few pages in peace!" Saphira said as she exited the carriage and calmly walked over towards Laxus and Doranbolt.

"Laxus. Drop him. NOW."

Laxus didn't seem to hear her. He didn't even look her way, he only responded with a deep resounding growl in his chest. To which Saphira responded with an equally menacing growl.

"Drop him." She repeated. A second later Doranbolt fell from Laxus's hand onto the ground in a gasping heap. As he drew in a deep breathe he fell into a coughing fit. Saphira squatted down next to the man who was quite frankly lucky to be alive.

"Take shallow and short breathes. Deep ones will only make you cough."

Doranbolt slowly nodded his head, showing that he understood. 'Good… at least his brain wasn't affected from the loss of oxygen.' She thought as she stood up and started to walk towards the council doors. She paused and slightly turned to say one last thing though.

"Oh! And Doranbolt… you really aren't my type anyway."

(Line Break)

Laxus and Gajeel were both sitting outside a meeting room that Saphira had been dragged into after the near death of a certain big mouthed council member. They had no idea what was going on. Why? Because the damn room was sound proof that's why. All they could do was sit and wait for her to come back out.

Inside the room, Saphira sat at a desk in front of a much longer table holding six higher ranking council members. 'This is ridiculous… I just want to see Cobra.'

"Miss Saphira Dragonair. Do you know why you are here?"

"No…But I'm pretty sure it's for a stupid reason." Saphira mumbled as propped her head up with her left hand, looking completely bored and uninterested.

"This is no laughing matter young one. One of the slayers you brought here nearly killed Doranbolt."

"I understand that. But Doranbolt is not dead. I was able to nullify the incident resulting in no casualty. Your council member said something incredibly stupid… You would think that with how many slayers there are you may have taken the time to do a little research. I'm the Alpha, so any degrading comment said about me, whether intentional or not, is taken by my slayers as a direct offence. It's as good as physically attacking me. From what I understand Laxus was already on edge from what Lahar said. From my point of view this seems to be an unfortunate misunderstanding. I assure you I have full control over my slayers, as I demonstrated. But it seems that you do not have control councilmen. Otherwise this may have never happened."

Saphira calmly stated as she stared at each member. She was taking a huge gamble. Betting that no one in the room actually knew anything about how a dragon hierarchy worked. She had no control over the other slayers, the very idea sounded ridiculous! It was all about respect and power, knowing how to balance the two was the most important thing. Sure she could pound the other slayers into submission but then more than likely they would band together and take her out. Being a leader is not all about who the strongest is; it's whoever has the most respect.

"Now councilmen, I believe I should tell you what I'm here for exactly."

The head councilmen made a gesture for her to continue. 'Good, it seems my bluff worked. Now it should be easier to convince these idiots to let me take Cobra. Laxus's actions have helped me out probably more than he realizes.'

"If I decide that I am able to help the prisoner named Cobra, I want him to be released into my custody."

"That is preposterous! The criminal named Cobra is responsible for countless deaths! And many more crimes he committed with his fellow ex-guild mates. Fairy Tail was one of the guilds that stopped Oracion Seis, why would you want him released?" One of the councilmen asked.

"I'll be frank with you… Within the next year or so the world as you all know it will be threatened. Acnologia will return. The only ones capable of taking down a dragon would be the dragon slayers. I plan to train all the slayers to be ready for this threat. Cobra is essential to my plan. So what do you say?"

All of the councilmen seemed to be either in a state of shock or simply had no idea what to say next. So Saphira continued.

"I hope that I have proven that I'm strong enough to handle a mere Class B, so I'll leave you to your deliberation. I have a slayer to meet. If you will excuse me."

She got up and headed out of the room and into the hallway occupied by Gajeel and Laxus.

(Line Break)

"Laxus… you are going to wear a fucking crater in the ground if you keep pacing like that."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! How the fuck are you so calm?! We have no idea what is going on in there! She could be in serious trouble because of me! I don't even know why I wanted to crush the bastard's windpipe so badly anyway… It's all a blur."

"Tch… I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that Doranbolt was interested in Saphira." Gajeel said nonchalantly, waiting to gauge Laxus's reaction.

Gajeel watched as Laxus's eyes got brighter and the round pupils changed into reptilian slits. "If that little shit so much as looks at her I'll rip his throat out!"

"Uh huh." That was a much more violent reaction than the iron dragon slayer thought he was going to get. 'If she doesn't tell him soon, he's going to lose his mind.'

After Laxus had managed to calm himself down, Saphira walked out of the meeting room. She leaned against the door and sighed.

"That was so much more intense than I thought it would be…"

"What happened?" Gajeel asked.

"Just back and forth scolding between myself and the councilmen. Don't worry though! Everything is going to work out just fine. That I'm sure of. Thanks to Laxus it was much easier to prove my point. Lahar should be out shortly to take us to Cobra." She said with a smile.

"See, there was nothing for you to worry about thunder head."

Laxus growled and said, "Keep it up tin man and you won't be walking for a week."

Saphira jumped in-between the feuding slayers and said, "Easy now boys." Turning her head towards Laxus she continued, "I need you to trust me. I didn't come here without a game plan. I tried to anticipate any moves the council would make so that I could ensure we stayed one step ahead… It's nice to know you were worried about me though."

The towering blonde man took a step back, completely embarrassed. He never really worried about anyone… except maybe his teammates.

Lahar came out of the meeting room and started to lead them to the prisoner's chambers. Laxus's feet moved automatically as he followed Saphira. He was too lost in his thoughts to think about where he was walking anyway.

'Worried about Saphira? Why would I be worried?'

'Because you have deeper feelings for her than you care to admit.'

'Great… you again… And just what are you trying to say?'

'I am not going to disappear… I am part of you, always have been. And I am telling you that your feelings for the elemental dragon slayer are much deeper than friendship or comradery.'

'… are you telling me that I love her?...'

'You said it. Not I.'

An arm to the chest brought Laxus out of his thoughts. Apparently he had been so absorbed in his thoughts he had almost crashed into a stationary Saphira. 'Oops…' Laxus thought. Luckily Gajeel had been paying attention and stopped him before he ran into her.

'Damn I didn't know babysitting him was going to be a full time job!' An irritated Gajeel thought. He managed to catch the quick thank you glance from Saphira as Lahar unlocked the heavy steel door they had stopped in front of.

Inside was a solitary room that had two sides. One had a table and chairs, and the other had a bed and a lone figure sitting in a dark corner.

"He had to be put in solitary. Complained that the other prisoners were too loud. The charms to keep him from hearing your thought are on the table." Lahar explained as he glanced into the cell. "I'll be outside, if you need anything." And with that he left, closing the steel door behind him.

'And so it begins.' Saphira thought as she stared into the cell. Saphira didn't move to pick up one of the charms. She wanted Cobra to be able to hear her thoughts. So he would know she was serious and sincere, and that won't work without trust. As she approached the cell she could just barely make out his silhouette. But she could clearly see his maroon colored hair.

"Erik? Or do you prefer Cobra? How about you come into the light so we can talk?" Saphira said as she approached the cell.

There was a low growl before she heard a response. "Who the fuck are you bitch? You reek of dragon."

"Hm well I imagine I would smell like a dragon. My name is Saphira and I'm an elemental dragon slayer."

"Ohhh… I've heard of you. Didn't actually think you fucking existed though."

"I'm quite real I assure you. Now do I have to tell you why we are here or do you already know?"

"I fucking know. You fucking morons have made so much racket since you got here." Cobra inched out of his corner and met Laxus's gaze. "Especially you thunder head. You poor ignorant piece of shit. You know nothing do you?"

Laxus moved to lunge at the cage but Gajeel held him back. He growled menacingly at the man in chains. "Shut the fuck up! Saphira! You can't be serious about this!? Whatever you have planned isn't going to work!"

"Control your anger Laxus. Losing your cool will do no good here. He's just trying to piss you off." Saphira said as she glared at Cobra. Hopefully he would heed the warning and shut up. And before the poison dragon slayer could say another word Saphira continued.

"You know they have you listed as a Class B threat. Clearly that's wrong; you just displayed clear malicious intent and aimed to cause psychological damage to your opponent. They say you lack drive… should I give you something to fight for?"

The name 'Kinana' flashed in Saphira's thoughts and she was sure he had heard it when she saw the maroon haired prisoner tense up like a rock. She kept this conversation just between them as she said the rest in her mind.

'I have a pretty good idea what she is to you. If you want to see her again then you should come with me. I can get you out of here. A simple exchange, I need you and you need something from me. But if you know about me then you should know I'm the Alpha. You will listen to me. Otherwise you end up back here.'

"…I don't like you."

"I don't need you to like me; I need you to trust me. Do we have a deal?"

"How do I know you aren't lying? You are lying to other people…"

"Other people can't hear my thoughts."

Cobra was silent as he thought about what the woman in front of him was offering him. A life with Kinana means a life with Fairy Tail and with this dragoness as his Alpha. Could he live with that? Being a fucking fairy for the rest of his days? He watched as she extended her hand out and in between the bars that have been his view for nearly seven years.

'Yea I think I can live with that.' Cobra thought as he brought his hand up to shake Saphira's.

"I'll have you out in a few hours Erik." She said with a calm smile.