Night turned into morning and Craig's eyes opened up again to see the sunlight piercing through the windows, making him very annoyed and growl. After a couple of minutes, he got fed up as the sun's power was too strong and he sat up. He groggily cracked his neck bones and looked to see Cana yawning and stretching her arms.

"Well morning, sleeping beauty." Craig groggily said.

"And morning to you too, Cranky." She responded.

Craig got up and moved about through the cabin. "Don't make me throw your precious booze out the window." He warned, his agitation as grand as ever.

Cana raised a brow. "I see we're as crabby as ever. Seriously, are you ever a morning person or a nighttime person?"

Craig turned to her. "The only kind of person I am is someone who'll make a mess out of ya if ya step out of line. Now come on." He walked on over towards her. "I can see the train station coming up."

Cana peered over to see that he was right. They were gradually pulling into the station, and they watched as the train started to slow down. Craig, still irritated as ever, hauled Cana up and supported were with his arm over her shoulder.

Cana smirked. "You could at least look happy when you're close to me."

Craig's eyes narrowed. "I hope you trip along the way."

The duo soon found themselves leaving the train station, walking out and heading on one of Magnolia's main streets. Craig took it nice and slow, much to his annoyance. He honestly couldn't wait to drop her off so he could go back to being a solo man. It was more of his forte to begin with. He can't lie when he admits that the small adventure he had with Cana was interesting to say the least, but saving her bacon a multitude of times started to get old.

"So how's your sprained ankles?" He asked, still hauling her.

The brunette looked at him as she limped along. "I'll hold up fine, but I don't think I'll be going on another job for quite some time."

"For the record, that's still your fault." Craig reminded her.

Cana took offence and grew a tick mark. "For the record, I was trying to save myself, Cranky."

Craig shook his head and groaned. The duo pressed on for a little longer. The sunlight began to strengthen and Cana saw something far ahead. It was still one heck of a distance, but at the end she could spot the bustling guild hall of Fairy Tail.

"Well, that's it up there." She stated. Craig stopped for a moment and took notice of the large guild hall in the distance. It was as grand as a castle; suited for the number one guild in Fiore.

Still, he had to admit that it did seem quite appealing in its own way. "Hmph, not too shabby." He pressed onwards, supporting Cana. "Guess we gotta talk to a Master or someone, right?" He asked in regards to the situation with Cana.

The Card Mage gave an obvious look. "Guess so. Trust me, he'll be easy on ya."

Craig's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, well we'll see who'll go easy on who."

"As expected." The brunette sighed.

As Craig approached the guild hall, its lustrous appeal began to…dim. Getting a closer look, he saw it was still the same as he saw it from far away, but back there it seemed more grand. Looking up at it, he could compare it to everywhere else he's been to, and as far as he was concern, to some structures, if not most, this one didn't necessarily hold a big enough candle.

Quite the picky person when you've been wandering about for four years.

"Meh." He shrugged.

Cana narrowed her eyes when she looked at him. "Oh really?"

"I've seen better." He commented.

"Well the next thing you'll see will be stars." Cana warned, having the guild hall offended.

Craig raised a brow. "Last I checked, you have two sprained ankles."

Cana looked away with an irritated scowl. "Just get me inside so I don't have to deal with your yammering."

Craig made way inside. "Fine by me." Of course he reached the open doors, where he saw a mug flying over his head. He stopped in his tracks and blinked, and then blinked again, and the whole scene before him began to unfold.

What he was seeing was none other than a typical guild brawl, Fairy Tail style. Elfman was seen doing a manly throw, tossing a tale into someone's face. Mira was seen behind the bar, having a big smile as she turned just in time as glass struck the counter. Booze was seen flying around, splattering all over. People were using random spells and punching each other in the face, some dust clouds all about, and all Craig could do was just stare with a mildly surprised expression.

Cana smirked. "Did I forget to mention we get into daily guild brawls?" She rhetorically asked.

Craig's eyes narrowed as he continued looking at the scene. "I hate you even more now."

"Come on, don't be shy. Let's go, Cranky." She teased, only wanting to agitate him even more, earning a harsh growl from Craig as they limped inside.

As they made way inside, the fight intensified with fire spells and lightning spells lighting up the place. Craig carried Cana around and closer towards the bar. "You do realize that your little brawls are borderline gladiator cage fighting, right? No, make that a warzone on an apocalyptic level."

"Does it look like I care?" Cana asked. She pointed at the bar, where Mira and Master Makarov was. "Look, just set me on one of those stools okay?"

Craig approached the bar and he disregarded the few stares from Makarov and Mira. They watched on as Craig hoisted Cana's arm off of his shoulder and began to help her down onto a stool.

"My word, Cana. What happened to you?" Master Makarov asked.

"You look like you had a small struggle if you needed help." Mira figured.

Cana kept a grin on her face as she finally met the stool with her butt. "Yeah, well, things didn't go as planned." She admitted. She rolled her eyes and sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it…" She put a hand on Craig's shoulder. "This guy helped me out."

Makarov spectated Cana's sprained ankles. "I see." Then he looked directly at her. "You can fill me in on the details later on, but let's worry about your ankles, shall we?"

"I'll go get the first-aid kit. Be right back." Mira turned and walked off somewhere, miraculously avoiding every spell, flying body, and mug thrown practically everywhere.

When she left, that left Cana, Master Makarov, and Craig. Craig crossed his arms as he looked at Master like does with everyone else – with utter annoyance. "Some place, huh?"

Makarov nodded with an upbeat grin. "You got that right!" His eyes opened and stared into Craig's, but the latter didn't seem all that fazed. "Anyway, you helped Cana, right?" He sounded more serious and glad, which made Craig lighten up some. "I thank you, for I wouldn't know what I would do if my children were harmed."

Craig scoffed. "No trouble, old timer. Just be sure to watch over her ankles, she won't get around much without them." Craig sarcastically asked, as if expected them to get the message.

Mira soon returned with a red box. "Okay, let's take care of your ankles Cana!"

Craig scoffed and turned away. "Guess this is where I take off." He looked over his shoulder down at Cana. "Not nice knowing ya. See ya, Brownie."

Cana's eyes twitched. "Well not nice knowing ya either. Thanks anyways, Cranky." Craig scoffed at her and turned back to walking away, progressing out the guild hall. Cana looked down and watched with annoyance as pain shimmered about when Mira tried to see where the sprain was at. After her long wincing, the brunette grunted. "Honestly, I just…"

"Cana." Master asked. "If I may ask, who was that man who helped you?"

"Oh, him?" Cana turned to see Craig getting closer to the doors, not bothering to look behind as a table hit the wall. The sight of him agitated her some. "Him? He's just a wandering independent guy named Craig. And let me tell ya, despite his terrible attitude…" She remembered his four-sword technique and how he saved her so many times. The remembrance made her smirk. "Let me tell you this: Even when moody, he's a serious ass-kicker."

Makarov turned to watch Craig go. "I see. Well Craig has my gratitude."

Mira sat up and looked at Cana. "They look pretty bad. Come on, let's get you to the infirmary so we can properly treat those ankles."

"Okay." Cana was supported by Mira, who helped in getting the brunette towards the infirmary, miraculously avoiding a few mugs of booze and flying furniture that had hit walls.

Craig had hands in his pockets and nonchalantly walked out with a plain frown. He completely looked disregarded and didn't turn around to see a small group heading into guild hall as he was gone.

"WE'RE BACK EVERYBODY!"

The voice belonged to none other than Natsu Dragneel, accompanied by Happy, Lucy, Gray, and Erza of Team Natsu.

The guild brawl inside came to a screeching halt, as though time had frozen, exclude the few mugs that fell out of individual hands. Everyone there blinked, and then blinked again, before giving off a few cheers to them being welcomed.

"YEAH! WITH THEM HERE, IT'S BECOMING SUPER MANLY!" Elfman exclaimed.

Evergreen swatted the back of his head with her fan. "Enough with the real man talk! It's annoying!"

Team Natsu entered the guild hall and Natsu was the first to rush into the stopped fray. "Hey, did I miss a beat down?"

Everyone sweatdropped. "Uh…no?" They all new full well that when Natsu enters a guild brawl, things can get very much out of hand…not that they are anyway.

However, Natsu didn't buy it in the slightest. "What you guys mean?! You started a fight without me?!" He angrily ran into the fray, where he thus punched a few guys just like that, sending them crashing into other guys. This lead to the same guys angrily punching the other, which bumped into other guys, until the battle started up all over again.

Gray was suddenly seen shirtless as he stomped on in. "When are you gonna learn not to start picking fights Natsu?!" He angrily shouted.

"Since when did you care?! You wanna stop me, come and try!" The Dragon Slayer challenged.

"You're on!"

Gray and Natsu thus became the heart of the punching and kicking that had rattled the guild hall left and right. Everyone was so into the fighting that they didn't realize the few broken tables here and there.

Lucy sweatdropped and facepalmed. "Geez, Natsu always goes for a fight."

"Aye sir!" Happy agreed.

Erza just laughed briefly and smiled at the guild brawl, but primarily Natsu. "Well it wouldn't be as interesting without him around. That's for sure."

"True." Lucy, Happy, and Erza all made way around the escalating brawl, to which was much more intense with Natsu being the start of it all once again. The three made way towards the bar, where Master Makarov was.

"Hello Master." Erza greeted.

He turned his head towards the redhead and blonde. "And how did the mission go?"

"It was great!" Happy enthusiastically chimed. However, he was given a suspicious look from Makarov, which made him sheepishly add on. "Unless…you know, we destroyed a church in the heart of the town."

Lucy looked at Happy with irritation. "Natsu just had to go and blast him straight through!" She put her head down and sulked. "And we hardly got much from that job!"

"Oh well, there's always next time!" Happy said, keeping positive.

Erza kept her soft smile as she turned towards the bar to order a strawberry cheesecake, but that's when she noticed something misplaced. She turned about to see that Mira wasn't present. "Master, where's Mira?"

"Mira?" He looked at the Infirmary door on the other side of the guild hall. "She's treating Cana's wound at the moment. She'll be out shortly."

Erza looked surprised. "Never took Cana to get hurt that badly on a job."

Makarov slowly raised a mug. "She can fill us in on what happened later on." He took a long moment to sip a few gulps and gave a heaping sigh. "But for now, let's just relax."

Mira was slowly wrapping bandages around Cana's ankles while the brunette grunted from the ice applied and the medicine added into it. Mira deduced that some ice applied daily will help as long as she also keeps the bandages on as well.

"Oh dear, what happened to you?" The barmaid asked.

Cana turned her head away as she laid back on the soft bed, her lower body sticking out for Mira to tend to. "I…I was trying to get out of a trap, but I fell back and my ankles just didn't take it well." She confessed.

"I see." Mira continued wrapping more bandages around her. "So that guy…" She smirked. "Did you thank him properly?"

Hearing her implication, Cana sat back up to face Mira with a questionable gaze. "I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'thank him', but all that guy will ever get is a finger pointing him to the opposite direction."

Mira kept her smile, regardless of Cana's answer. "Well whether or not you believe it, everything comes in full circle."

Cana raised a brow. "What are you saying?"

"Oh nothing~." She chimed. "Just that you two will meet up soon."

Cana just stared out at Mira and pondered about her sentence. Taking in some deep breaths, the Card Mage slowly slumped back and let out a sigh.

"Maybe, but I ain't putting all of my eggs into that one basket." Her eyes closed. "But maybe you're right." She opened them up, seeing the ceiling. "Guess we will meet up again. Hopefully he'll have a better attitude."

Walking through the streets of Magnolia, Craig put his arms over his head. He let the sun rays light up his face, making him take in a very deep breath. As he kept on walking, a soft smile crept itself onto his face.

"Guess I gotta stop taking naps on such beautiful days if I wanna enjoy the sun more, huh." He told himself as he nonchalantly walked through the streets.

"Stop! Please!"

The sudden cry caught Craig's attention. It wasn't some cry of a love one leaving for another or anything like that, no, this cry was the cry of someone who was just robbed. He sharply turned around to find his suspicions and instincts were dead on.

There he saw a carriage filled with trade goods being pulled by horses that had three individuals, all clearly thugs. Behind them was an overweight and medium-sized tradesman, desperately trying to stop them.

"Stop! Give those back!" The tradesman shouted, his pacing slowing down. "My tools of trade are in there!"

"Hehehehe! Well sucks to be you~!" One taunted as he looked back.

"It sure sucks when you're alone! Ha!" Another shouted. He looked back ahead with a victorious smile. "Oh man, this was too easy!"

"You got that right!" The third robber agreed. "This is better than-!" He stopped when he saw something up ahead.

"Hm? Better than what?" The second robber asked the third. Confused, he looked ahead to find someone standing in the middle of the road. The three robbers were startled to find Craig standing in front of them.

The old tradesman was panting as he was trying his best to catch up, but he wouldn't make it. He thought his goods and tools he worked to achieve were gonna be gone, but he saw Craig up ahead too.

Craig's gaze was sharp. Very sharp. "Stealing from innocent old tradesmen…" He slowly cracked his knuckles. "Especially ones who work hard to trade, someone who puts their life into providing others…" People nearby were listening full-heartily at Craig's words of wisdom as the carriage came closer to him.

"To have something stolen by petty thieves…" He glared savagely, baring his fangs. "It's unforgivable!" He jumped as the carriage horses almost charged at him. The robbers all watched in awe and sheer shock as Craig jumped over and landed on his feet on the driver seat as the carriage went on.

Without hesitation, he kicked the robber who was driving in the back of the head, making his lights go out and Craig immediately snagged the ropes and hauled the horses to a stop. The steeds all raised their hooves and came to a stop fully.

The remaining two robbers gawked at Craig before they were struck by elbows from him, and were barely able to process their heads being grabbed and then brought together, headbutting each other catered by Craig and they fell unconscious like the driver robber.

The people around were caught surprised at first, but when they saw Craig knocking them out, they all gave a light applause for his heroic actions. The tradesman was caught startled as well, but when he saw how his goods and tools of trade were safe, he burst into a joyous smile.

Craig piled up the unconscious bodies and jumped off the carriage, disregarding the claps he gained. He turned to find the tradesman that was smaller than him approach him with sincere gratitude.

"Y-you sure! Thank you! Thank you for saving my business!" He thanked in the most sincere manner, and Craig could tell by the eyes. He's seen many eyes in the past. The eyes of deception. Greed. Joy. Bloodlust. Monstrous. But this one was not of trickery.

The tradesman clasped his hands together. "I can't repay you enough for your help."

Unlike his first impression with Cana, Craig looked less aggressive, but still unnerved. He grinned as he looked down at the tradesman. "Don't mention it. I was just doing what any right-minded guy would do."

Reaching for one of the pockets in his jacket, he pulled out a hefty sac and placed it on the carriage. "Here, a little something for your troubles." He turned away from the tradesman and walked off, seemingly in a rush, or as though he was trying to avoid something. He did, however, wave back. "Happy travels."

Curious, the tradesman peeked into the bag Craig set on his carriage seat. Looking inside, his eyes widened. "3…30,000 Jewels?! I-I can finally get those goods I've always wanted to try!" He turned towards Craig. "Sir, really! Is this necessa…huh?"

But when he looked, Craig was gone, as though he became a shadow and blended away. He was left heavily confused, but he was in no position to turn down the money so he kept a grateful grin as his life's work was saved, and was given some extra cash.

Nearby, a girl with white hair was present throughout the entire scene. She saw the carriage being taken, and saw Craig stop them, and also saw him leaving a large sum of Jewels for the old tradesman.

"I gotta go tell Mira." With that, she made haste for Fairy Tail's guild hall.

The fight soon came to a close, and everyone had calmed down. Elfman and everyone went back to what they were doing beforehand, Gajeel went back to napping, and everything broken was fixed up.

Talk about fast recovery.

Natsu was currently sitting with his team, stuffing his face with food, disregarding how messy he was. Happy sat right next to him, munching on fish.

Erza whacked Natsu. WHAM!

"OW!" Natsu screeched. He looked up at Erza. "What did I do?"

"You need to slow down." She lightly scolded. "You're leaving a mess everywhere."

Natsu blinked and looked down to find that a large fraction of the table was covered in either dipping sauce or various pieces of meat. Seeing as to how it was his fault, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"Whoops. Sorry." He apologized.

Gray and Lucy groaned and Happy minded his own business and happily munched on his fish.

Erza softly smiled at his silly behavior and resumed to her cheesecake.

"So, anyways." Gray steered the conversation into another direction. "So how's about getting back to a job?"

Natsu, in the middle of having a large piece of meat in his mouth when Gray asked the question, looked up with some interest. "Mm, work? Ya, why not? I'm ready!" He muffled as he chewed on some chicken leg meat.

Erza chuckled softly. She always did admire Natsu's enthusiasm. It was contagious, and she didn't mind in the slightest. His gun-ho attitude and no fear was something she thought were his greatest attributes, and she had nothing against it. Sure she also hates that attribute because it shows how reckless he can be, but it also shows how brave he can be and stand up for others.

She wiped her mouth with a napkin and smiled. "Yes, I think another job would be quite nice. It's such a lovely day out."

"Let's just hope we can get a job with full pay for once." Lucy groaned.

It was then that Lisanna came running through the guild doors and looked to see Mira at the bar, and Cana was seen drinking up the booze as always, the only thing out of place being that her ankles were all wrapped up and crutches were right beside her.

"Mira!" Lisanna rushed to her sister.

Mira turned towards her younger sister. "Oh? What's the matter Lisanna?"

"There was an incident on one of the main streets of Magnolia. Some old shop owner was being robbed!"

Natsu, overhearing what had happened, shot up. "Say what? When did this happen?!"

Lisanna and Mira turned towards Natsu. Lisanna spoke. "Just a few minutes ago. Fortunately he was saved and the culprits were stopped." Mira tilted her head in confusion.

Makarov overheard and looked at her. "Oh, and did you save him?"

Lisanna shook her head. "No, but I saw who did it." She looked down at the ground, her eyes fixated on Craig's demeanor. "He was like a half monster – half saint. It was weird. He was so strong that he knocked out a gut in a single kick, and he had a thin gray jacket with gray sleeves wrapped around his waist."

The description caught Cana's attention as her eyes widened as she sipped her mug. She was so distraught that moment that she thought she heard Craig saving a fellow shop owner. She didn't even notice the booze falling out of her mouth like waterfalls.

"Oh? He sounds like the guy who helped Cana get here." Mira confirmed.

Natsu clenched his fists as he held it up. "Sounds like a tough guy. Wonder if he'll be around so that I can challenge him."

Lisanna continued gazing down and put a hand to her chin. "Yeah, and the most peculiar part about him is, that he just left a big sum of Jewels for the shop owner, like compensation for what he'd been through almost."

Cana almost choked on her booze and swallowed hard. She heaved and coughed in a hazardous manner, trying to catch her breath. When she coughed enough, she turned towards Lisanna.

"*cough* Cranky?! *cough* Actually giving part of his bounty away?!" She just couldn't believe it. The description fit perfectly, but hearing how he was being an actual good guy was just unreal, especially with how he behaved. "Okay, I must have missed something, because last I checked, he would be as rude as they can get!"

"Well…he did seem placid, but he did seem kind of off a little. After giving the sum, he took off, as if to run." Lisanna explained. "Still, if what you say is true, and that he has an attitude, then what provoked him to act in kindness?"

Natsu remained standing as he smiled confidently. "Well whoever this guy is who helped Cana out, I'll take him on the next time he shows his face!"

Lucy sighed. "There he goes again with the fighting."

"Geez." Gray groaned, which was followed by Happy's signature 'Aye Sir'. Erza just smiled and chuckled lightly at Natsu being as bold as ever, and then resumed to her cheesecake with little worries as the pink-haired Dragon-Slayer is as pumped as ever.

Cana slowly turned back towards the bar, resting an elbow on the top and sat her mug down. She looked confused. Hearing Craig, or cranky as she'd call him, giving an old shop owner a large sum of money for compensation didn't add up. Personally, if she were in the shop owner's shoes, she'd be so happy with Craig saving her goods, and she'd be happy with the money provided, but this was so out of character. Or maybe…there was a motive Craig didn't tell her.

Having enough confusion to give her a headache, the brunette groaned and drank her worries away.

Craig strolled himself through town, apparently growling at something. One would think he's growling at thin air; but no, he was actually growling at the recent incident. He just exposed his decent side, to which he hurriedly took off.

The way he saved that tradesman's goods, it reminded him of the exact same thing that happened a long while back.

3 ½ Years Ago

It was six months after the incident, and through that course of time, Craig has been getting into quite a mess, though he always comes out as a victor, but not without some scratches here and there. He was getting around fine, and as he strolled along, he met a tradesman that was being robbed of his life's work, and he saved them.

Craig and the tradesman, later known as Hakubi, had gotten acquainted, and Craig tailed along for a few days, but within those few days, massive hysteria broke out throughout Iceberg.

Iceberg was a country northeast of Fiore, and at the time, there was a weaponry that was capable of literally freezing all of Iceberg. Craig was stained in blood from head to toe as the tall mastermind was lying several yards in front of him, dead. He was seven feet tall and tan, with a thick, tattered green coat and short, indigo hair.

Craig fell to his knees over the enormous plateau that looked over a massive city in Iceberg. He panted heavily as he had taken so much damage from that fight. He disregarded how bloodied his knuckles were and his eyes were still constricted to the two-hundred foot fall behemoth known as the Icebreaker was a quarter of a mile away.

Apparently the weapon was gathering negative particles in the air and surging at the core, which was the bright red center. In simple terms, the whole weapon was a red sphere surrounded by spiraling black snow. You could possibly picture it as a sideways black hurricane.

Craig stumbled to his feet as more wind was being drawn in, and watched the spiral of black snow gathered. The bright red core had light blue electricity. From the brawl he won, he learned that the weakness of the weapon was that the core was sensitive when charging.

The only problem was that he will freeze to death.

"Damn. How am I gonna break it, if I can't…" Craig lost his footing as the chilly air as passing him. He was rendered unable to move and watched as the twenty-foot core shined brighter and the black snow got colder and colder, literally freezing the ground and slowly making way towards Craig.

'N-No. At this rate…I'm gonna…Iceberg's gonna…'

"NEVER!" A sudden roar from an overweight tradesman with short legs and small moustache rode his runaway wagon of material right past Craig. His eyes widened when he saw Hakubi letting a cry as he rode his wagon into the weapon. "YOU WON'T TAKE THIS COUNTRY TO THE FREEZING HELL!"

"H-Habuki…WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Craig screamed in shock.

Habuki looked over his shoulder. "I'm doing what must be done! To protect Iceberg, and everyone else who has a chance at living a prosperous life!" He could feel the temperature drop drastically and he was shivering, but the old man didn't care. He turned around and used whatever muscle he could to push the top off, revealing a bunch of lacrima stored in the cart.

Craig's eyes widened. "Wait…Explosive Lacrima?" He was confused. He remembered Habuki saying he sells lacrima and various hardware since Iceberg had quite a few mining areas and constructive areas all around, but he never mentioned having so much Explosive Lacrima.

"It's a good thing I still have these! Now to put them to good use!" Habuki screamed and let out a battlecry as he and his cart went through the cold winds. He soon reached a point where the wheels got on the spreading ice, and bits of the cart were freezing up on the spot.

Craig's eyes shook. "HABUKI! DON'T!"

Despite what was to be done, Habuki didn't have regrets. The only regret he really had…was not seeing his friend get his life back someday. His whole life, Habuki had been a tradesman, and he's come across various people from all over. Granted, he had some rough times, but he still went on with his business, and meeting Craig a few days back was the most peculiar journey he took in his life.

Habuki never thought he'd be caught up in the crossfire of a weapon known as Icebreaker, but it was even more interesting that his friend has been 'looking for something' for six months. Despite all that's been done, Craig has been a great influence.

As he rode into the storm, his hands got so cold that they began to go blue. He turned with a smile back at Craig. "Young boy! You told me something! Something that made me see that lives are meant for others!"

Craig's eyes widened and he gasped.

Habuki's ears and nose became blue as the air was far below the negatives, and the small tears he had going froze. "You told me, that you lost your entire life in a flash! My entire life has always been this carriage!" He turned with bravery at the red core. "I now see, that losing your entire life is far worse than my own, AND YOU MUST GET IT BACK WITH WHATEVER YEARS YOU HAVE!"

"HABUKI! YOU'RE GONNA DIE! STOP!" Craig screamed.

Habuki was getting closer and he used what leg strength to give his cart a good kick as he rode it, making all of the Explosive Lacrima inside glow bright. Habuki thought back to how if he lost his carriage, he would have nothing. Yet if you lose everything at such a young age like Craig, then it's clear who would have it rough.

Habuki was never rich, he's always been rather poor. But when offered a lot of money to turn over friendship, he learned the hard way, and with all greed for riches gone, he rather valued the life of friendship than wannabe money.

"CRAIG! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING! PROMISE ME THAT YOU WILL FIND YOUR LIFE AGAIN SOMEDAY! HRRAAAHHHHHH!"

With one last cry, Habuki was covered in frost and ice as he finally reached the red core, and the Explosive Lacrima went off on contact, and a bright flash engulfed everything.

"HABUKI!" Craig screamed as tears fell before the bright light engulfed everything before him.

The memory was as though it happened yesterday. That day, the entire country was saved, and the entire plateau blew up like a volcano eruption. Craig obviously made it out alive, but Habuki sacrificed himself; one of the many friends Craig made during these four years who gave his life for his own.

Craig learned several things that day that he knew Habuki learned: Friendship trumps greed; never turn your back on a friend, even to the end; the young must survive; and the last one that's more personal than any other: Never turn down a final promise.

Craig swallowed a lump as he walked through an alleyway leading out of Magnolia. Helping that old shop owner brought back the exact moment how Craig met Habuki, and not wanting to go through that again, he gave a bit of money on hand away and ran off, so as not to get involved.

He'd be damned if he ever got greedy. That'd be disrespecting what'd he'd been through. With every bond established, a new lesson and experience was passed on to Craig…sadly, he never had a happy experience.

A small tear was wiped away and he pounded a thick wall as he passed on by, leaving a deep imprint as he walked out of Magnolia, away from people, and the aggressive demeanor on him thickened.

On the shores of Fiore, a large ship was reaching a desert shoreline. Solidaster was one of the more hotter regions of Fiore, and it was quite large, as it was an oceanic city. It was known for its beaches, and how gorgeous they were. The white sand would tickle your toes.

Reaching shore, many of the population on the beach grew weary as they all saw an eight-foot tall, dark tan man. He had white hair in a bald cut. He had tan pants and black boots. He had a black sleeveless coat with the phrase 'TITANIUM' written on the back in silver letters. What was peculiar that his abdomen had a deep black bruise that seemed permanent.

He narrowed his eyes and spectated the city, seeing his prestige castle near the cliffs. "Alright…" His hand was extended out, where the fingers were lined with sharp, thick blades that jutted out. His multitude of men roared with excitement. "Let's go on a hunt."

Like I said, I added some small Natza into the story, as I intended. I figured that this time, aside from an aggressive Craig, you'd all get to see a small, soft side of him, if you call it soft. Now you saw a bit of his past after the incident.

I'm accepting OCs for the story. Various OCs would lead to various foes for Fairy Tail and Craig especially. If you have an OC idea, please PM me, and don't leave it in the Review. I'm hoping for mainly antagonist since I could use those, but I also decide that since this is part Natza, I can accept possible OCs for Lucy and Mira, since I can see them with OC pairings of their own. I'll consider what fits them, but don't hesitate to share your ideas!

Not many people read a lot of OCxCana stories, considering there's so few out there. But I'm trying to spread the idea as best as I can. Show support for the pairing, and Natza, if you care! Thanks for reading another chapter! Till the next one! :)