Disclaimer

This is a yaoi (BoyxBoy) story, so don't like, then don't read. I don't claim to own any of the characters portrayed in this work of fiction, they are under the ownership of Hiro Mashima. That doesn't necessarily apply to my own characters, however I am aware that these are again based on the work of Hiro Mashima. Please support the official Fairy Tail release.

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Chapter 1 – A 'Friendly' Hello

Magnolia, Summer time,

Year X792

The town of Magnolia was peaceful and quiet, a stark contrast to its last few days of unrest. There had been activity around the Fairy Tail guild hall, the comings and goings of Sabertooth Mages who were bringing messages from their own guild to the native guild of Magnolia, and then to top it all off the enormous raid of both the newest local bar, and the nearby casino.

With all of the ruckus, the people of the busy town were glad of some quiet, and so were the Mages of Fairy Tail. Well, most of them.

"I'm booooored!" Natsu complained, his head slouched on the table in front of Lucy. The Celestial Mage pouted and folded her arms.

"Natsu… if you're bored then GO PICK A JOB!" she growled, not for the first time that morning. The blonde had been the object of Natsu's complaints for the first hour since the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer and his exceed companion had entered the guild, and now she was sick and tired of his whining.

"But there aren't any!" Natsu moaned. Lucy pouted, glancing over at the pretty full-looking request board.

"Sure there are, you've just got to be less picky" she stated, before going back to reading the book she had been failing to earlier. Natsu eyed the blonde wizard up for about three minutes, before he sat up and let out a sigh, resting his head on the back of the chair and looking up at the ceiling. Happy flew over to his partner.

"Hey Natsu" he called out, landing on the table in front of his best friend.

"What is it buddy?" Natsu asked in a mildly interested tone, hoping for at least something to kill his time with. The Exceed smiled.

"Mira just said she's put up a few more jobs fliers, so maybe there's something we can do" the feline relayed. Natsu's face brightened up hearing the news, and he jumped up from his seat. Watching from over the top of her book, Lucy silently thanked whatever deities there were that the pinkette had found something to distract himself with.

"Natsu bothering you?" a voice asked after a few moments of peace and quiet. Lucy looked around to see Gray standing, practically naked, beside the table. Lucy sighed and closed her book.

"Yeah, there's been no jobs so…" she trailed off, hoping to quickly get through this conversation and get back to her reading; the chapter had finally got interesting and the Celestial Mage was dying to know what happened next.

"Ah, he was bugging me earlier wanting to train, however I kinda skipped out on him" Gray stated, sitting down in front of Lucy. "Although he has a point, ever since that incident a week ago, we haven't had many fight-based jobs coming in. They all seem to mostly be those more 'thinking' jobs, or collecting jobs" Gray added observationally. Lucy pouted.

"Really, I never noticed" she said, before shrugging, "Then again, I don't just see the words 'FIGHT' or 'MONSTER' and immediately pick it out as my next job to do" she added, smirking a little at the Ice Mage. Gray frowned.

"Hey, I do other stuff too!" he barked in defence.

Lucy rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book. "Suuuure you do" she purred with a sarcastic tone, accompanied with a slight giggle as her book began to become increasingly more interesting. Gray pouted and, realising she wasn't going to continue speaking to him, stomped off to the bar.

"Hmph, what's her problem?" he muttered as Mirajane came over to where he was now seated.

"What can I get for you, Gray?" the Take-Over Mage asked with a polite tone.

Gray shrugged. "Just get me something to drink, water'll do" he said. Mirajane nodded and went to get Gray his water. When she returned, the Ice Mage was not alone.

"Hey Mira" Natsu asked with a little bit more of an excited tone than earlier, "Can I take this job?" the Fire Mage slammed a piece of paper down on the space on the counter in front of her. Mirajane gave the flier a quick look over. "Yes, it doesn't seem like anyone else has wanted that job" she said, "It's a monster-hunting job near what used to be Clover Town" she added. Natsu nodded.

"Sound's great" he said, before turning around and looking back at Lucy. "Hey Lucy!" he shouted across the guild, gaining both the anger and the attention of the blonde simultaneously, "Me and Happy are going on a job, wanna come?" he asked her. The blonde shook her head.

"I'm good" she said. Natsu nodded, however before he could turn around to confirm his acceptance with Mirajane, a conversation floated into his audible range; it was between Wakaba and Maccao.

"They've been seen all over town, haven't you heard?" the Smoke Mage asked his age-old partner. Maccao shook his head.

"No, you'd think I would've heard about a massive group of shady guys in town. Especially after what went on last week" the Fire Mage replied.

Wakaba shrugged. "Seems like they haven't done anything… yet… although, I did see a couple of them, and I thought they might be wizards, so they could be here to cause trouble with us" Wakaba commented.

Natsu heard these words and his interest was piqued. Turning back to Mirajane after a moment, he smiled. "Er, Mira?" he asked.

"Hmmm…" the Mage-waitress asked, after depositing Gray's requested glass of water down on the counter-top.

"Can I get you to hold this job for me for a little while, there's something I gotta check out?" the Fire Mage asked. Mirajane shrugged, and gave a polite smile.

"I can, but only for a few hours, otherwise it wouldn't be fair on the client or the other guild members" she informed Natsu. The pink-haired Mage nodded in understanding.

"Okay" he said, before looking to Happy. The Exceed was puzzled as to what had his normally excitable partner suddenly asking for a job to be put on hold. "Come on Happy, I'll explain on the way" he gestured for the cat to follow him. Equally as confused as the Exceed, Gray downed the rest of his drink in one, and followed Natsu out of the guild, inquiring into what had caught the other Mage's interest. Also, observing from the wings, Lucy, having finished the interesting chapter of her book, frowned at seeing the Fire Mage and Ice Mage leaving, and with her interest piqued also, she decided to trail the two.

/

After about half an hour of searching, Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Happy found no trace of the supposed 'suspicious people' that had been sighted around town, and were now just sitting on the edge of the river outside Lucy's apartment. "Man, that was a waste of time" Gray complained. Natsu nodded, resting his head on his arm as he lay down, looking up at the midday sky.

"Yeah, I thought they'd be easy for me to find, especially if they actually were wizards, their smell would give 'em away" he stated with mild annoyance. Lucy shrugged.

"It was only a rumour, maybe there was just a couple of thugs and people got a little scared?" she suggested. Natsu pouted.

"Yeah maybe…" he agreed, trailing off. After a few minutes of silence the three all decided to get up and return to the guild. As they started down the path towards the guild, Happy chirped up with something.

"Hey guys…" he muttered. The three human wizards stopped and looked to the Exceed.

"What is it Happy?" Natsu asked. The blue cat frowned.

"I'm not sure, but… do you think maybe those are the people that you heard about?" he asked, pointing discretely to a pair of black-suited individuals leaning against the wall of an old building on the opposite side of the river. The pair were chatting, and didn't seem to even notice the Fairy Tailers presence.

Natsu beamed. "Good eye, Happy" he cheered. Lucy frowned.

"How do you know they're suspicious, they could just be businessmen or something?" the blonde asked sceptical of Happy's suggestion. Gray smirked at her statement.

"You've spent time around business people like that with your dad, do you think businessmen would just be hanging around an old house like that one with nothing else to do?" the Ice Mage queried. Lucy frowned, and placed a finger to her chin in thought for a moment, before sighing.

"Well no… but…" she had no counter argument. Without any debate the trio decided to discretely walk the length of the river to the next bridge along, before circling back, and hiding in a nearby alleyway to overhear the 'suspicious' duo's discussion. Unfortunately, they were too far away for anything major to be listened-in on, however Natsu used all of his enhanced Dragon Slayer hearing to gather what he could.

"They're talking about… um… some people… aaaaand… I guess some of their friends or something" the Dragon Slayer communicated, "Oh, wait… now they're saying something about the time, and… yeah, they just said, wait… they just said they'd be late for their 'reception'… at the guild?!" Natsu gave a surprised expression, with a puzzled pout on his lips. Lucy and Gray poked their heads around the corner. After a few more words the black-suited pair both ran off, before any other information could be gleaned.

Looking to each other all four members of the group wore faces of confusion. "The guild?" Gray questioned aloud, "Are you sure about that Natsu?" he looked to the pink-haired Mage for an answer. Natsu nodded confidently.

"Of course, I am" he replied. Lucy gave a pouty look as she tried to work out what could be going on. After a moment, something struck her.

"Wait… they said 'reception' right?" she asked for confirmation from the pinkette. Natsu nodded, which made Lucy frown. "Aren't we supposed to be having a reception for Sting later, to talk about that joint job we did for the Magic Council?" she voiced. Natsu looked to Gray.

The Ice Mage could already tell the Dragon Slayer had forgotten, and sighed audibly. "Yes, we are" he confirmed for Lucy "But why would that be important?" he added in question. This confirmation made the Celestial Mage give off a more worried expression.

"This is just a hunch, but… I think those guys might be here because Sting's coming" she said apprehensively. Natsu frowned, and looked to Gray.

"If that's true, then they might actually be looking for trouble" he said to Gray, his hands balled into fists as the thought of a fight popped into his head. The Ice Mage echoed Natsu's enthusiasm, however he was also apprehensive like Lucy; the guild really couldn't afford another major incident, and many people were out on jobs so if an attack on the guild occurred, they would be less likely to survive. "We gotta get to the guild" Gray stated at last. Lucy, Natsu and Happy nodded.

"I'll go on ahead, it's quicker for me to fly there, and then I can tell them what we've found" the flying blue cat stated. Natsu nodded to his partner.

"Okay, we're counting on ya little buddy" he called out as Happy began flying up and then towards the guild.

"Aye Sir!" he called back one last time, before flying over the buildings and out of sight.

Once Happy was gone, Natsu looked to Lucy and Gray. "Come on, let's get going" he gestured for them to start running. The three then began bolting towards the guild at high speed.

/

It didn't take long for the trio to reach the street that the guild was on, however they stopped just short of the large building. "Why'd you stop Natsu?" Gray asked, looking behind to the Dragon Slayer, who seemed paused in thought.

"I can… smell something" he said, sniffing at the air. The street was emptier than usual, and so it was easier to pick out particular scents. After a moment, Natsu found what he was looking for and pointed it out to the other two; spikey blond locks.

"Over there!" Natsu called out to them, before dashing forward. "Hey! Sting!" he called out, as he barrelled towards the White Dragon Slayer, come Guild Master.

Sting, who had just been carefreely browsing a nearby stall, whirled around at the sound of his name, his usual bright smile on his face. "Hiya Natsu, I was just going to the guild" the blond said as Natsu, shortly followed by Gray and Lucy, stopped in front of him. "What's up?" Sting asked after a moment, taking in the confused-yet-panicked looks of the trio.

Natsu frowned. "Err… we think there could be some trouble at the guild" the pink-haired Dragon Slayer explained. Sting furrowed his brow in question.

"Really? What makes you think that?" he asked. This time Lucy answered his question.

"There have been rumours of suspicious people around town, so we decided to follow them up. We found two people and overheard some of their conversation… when they mentioned the guild… we figured they could be here to start some trouble" the Celestial Wizard clarified. Sting nodded in understanding.

"Okay, so what do think we should do about it?" he asked; this wasn't his guild so he couldn't make the call like he would for Sabertooth.

Gray shrugged. "It was just chance we ran into you, but if these guys do mean trouble, we didn't want it to affect you so we were coming to warn people. Luckily, you're here, and not there, so if you want to, we can escort you to the guild, just to make sure it's safe" the Ice Maker Mage stated. Sting shrugged.

"I can understand your worry, being Guild Master has taught me a lot about what affects a guilds reputation, so I'm fine with letting you escort me" Sting said, "Although… you do realise that I can more than easily take care of myself" Sting added with a wry grin. Natsu patted Sting's shoulder friendlily.

"We know that, although I did beat you at the Grand Magic Games" the pinkette laughed, making Sting pout in mock-upset.

"That was just for show, I could take you on if I really wanted to" he defended, making Natsu laugh even more.

"You can try if you want to later" he said, "Let's get to the guild first though" he pointed in the direction of the guild building.

Sting nodded, and the four Mages set off towards the guild.

/

At the entrance to the guild, the four stopped, Natsu holding his arm out in front of the other three to prevent them from entering. "What is it now, Natsu?" Lucy asked with a worried tone of voice.

The pinkette shrugged. "I can smell other people inside, different people" he stated in a very matter-of-fact tone. Sting frowned.

"If there really are people here to cause trouble, then we should probably deal with them. I mean… Let's just go inside. If it's me they want, then I am more than happy to let 'em try, not that any of them could beat me" Sting smirked confidently.

Natsu scented the air again. "There's a lot of them in there, are you sure?" he asked, seeking confirmation of a decision from the blond. Sting nodded in confirmation; as he was the visitor, his decision made it final.

Natsu then nodded, and the four Mages prepared to enter the guildhall.

Inside they were met with deathly silence, an eerie lack of noise that belied the quiet exterior of the building. On one side of the guild hall, with all the Fairy Tail Mages backing him, was Makarov, and on the other, seemingly in a staring contest with the Mages, were about fifty men and women, all of varying ages, but all wearing the same black suit combo that the other pair on the street was wearing. They also all wore sunglasses despite being indoors.

"What are you people doing here?!" Makarov barked, "Explain yourselves this instant!" he added, magical energy flowing around his short form in order to back up his threatening tone of voice.

The crowd of dark-suited individuals all smirked wickedly. In reply to the Guild Masters declaration, four new characters all walked out from amongst the crowd; four significantly younger individuals. The Guild Master eyed each of these four children with intrigue and wary contempt. "Master Makarov…" one of the four said; a young man with blonde hair around the age of twenty. "We are very sorry to intrude, however… it was a necessity".

"Yes, a definite necessity. And a bonus!" another of the four stated; this time a younger boy around the age of fifteen. "Master Eucliffe, I see you over there!" he called out, waving his arm over to Sting, who stood still at the entrance alongside Natsu, Gray and Lucy. Happy floated over from the group of wizards behind Makarov to join the other four.

"I'm sorry, they were already here when I arrived" the cat apologised to Natsu. The pinkette smiled at his friend.

"That's okay buddy" he said, before looking back to the four newcomers, all standing a short distance in front of the large cohort of suits. "Who are you!" Natsu called out to the four. Makarov glanced at the Fire Dragon Slayer, but made no move to silence him just yet.

A third member of the party, a young lady of eighteen years, laughed openly at the statement. "Who are we, are you really so naïve. That's so sweet!" she said in a sickly-sweet, condescending tone. Makarov looked down at the woman.

"Just answer the question" he demanded.

The women gave a scornful expression at the demanding tone of the older man. "Hmph… impudent old man, you should treat us with more respect" she scolded.

"That's enough Medea, we aren't here to pick a fight… yet" the older male stated, silencing the younger lady, before looking back to Makarov. "I apologise, we should have stated our name and business first" he gave a bow of apology, "We are the Zollzero Family, and we are here to collect on the debt this guild owes us" he stated, shooting the older man a smirk. "Arthur Zollzero at your service" he added, with another little bow.

The old man seemed taken aback at the statement. "What?!" he barked in surprise. Arthur, and his compatriots, laughed loudly.

/

"What debt?" Makarov stated in bewilderment at the sudden announcement, "Maccao, I thought we dealt with all the debts?" he looked for the Fire Mage in amongst all the other Fairy Tail Mages.

Maccao pushed his way to the front "We did, I swear we never took out any kind of loan or debt with these people" the former Fourth Guild Master stated. Makarov nodded, returning his gaze to the four individuals before him.

"If that is true, then you four must be mistaken, we have no debt with you people" the old man barked. "Now leave our guild".

Arthur shook his head, "I'm afraid that can't be done, and you are the one who is mistaken. This debt is not some longstanding loan, it is the result of yours, and your allied guild's, most recent joint enterprise" he explained. Makarov furrowed his brows in thought.

"You mean the stuff my guild and Fairy Tail did last week, right?" Sting asked from his place at the entrance.

Instead of Arthur, or the woman named Medea, the third boy spoke up. He was blond like Arthur, and with sparkling emerald-green eyes. "You are correct Master Eucliffe" he said, "The job your two guilds completed at the current Magic Council's request has earned you an outstanding debt of eighty million jewel for damages to privately owned businesses, property damage, destruction of goods, miscellaneous destruction, interruption of business, and…" the boy took out a flip pad, "the harm of no less than two hundred and fifty-two… no, fifty-three employees" he stated, before hiding the flip pad away again.

Makarov and Sting, along with almost every other mage in the guild hall, all jaw dropped at this figure. "That can't be right!" Sting remarked, with an almost pained look.

"I can assure you it is, isn't that right Edric?" Arthur stated nonchalantly.

The boy identified as Edric nodded. "Of course, my twin brother did the figures personally" Edric said, gesturing to the fourth and final member of the group, who coincidently looked identical to Edric, albeit with more casual attire. "Didn't you, Tom?" Edric nudged his quieter brother, who shrugged.

"Yeah. And please call me by my real name, its Thomas, not 'Tom', got that?" he said in a quiet and distant tone.

Makarov looked at the four children for a moment. "We can't pay that, it's a ridiculous sum. You'd have to win the Grand Magic Games three times over just to pay it!" he stated in an incredulous tone. Arthur frowned.

"And you're point is?" he asked sarcastically, "This isn't a matter of believability, your guilds destroyed our property, and so you must pay. Look at it this way, between you and Master Eucliffe over there, you only have to pay half, that's a much more reasonable forty million jewel each" Arthur smirked wickedly.

Makarov grew angry (literally) at the tone of voice that the eldest of the four children used. "We cannot pay that amount, and you will not be able to force us!" he barked, his size now triple that of Arthur's total height. Despite the growth, the blond boy did not seem fazed.

He just smiled. "I'm open to a little arrangement, perhaps we could speak in private for a moment?" he asked, his body still relaxed, with not even the slightest hint of fear in his voice or actions. Makarov looked down at Arthur.

"Who are you to make such demands to me in my own guild hall?" the giant man demanded. Arthur shrugged.

"Who indeed?" he said, again sarcastically, before his gaze swept over the angry faces of the wizards assembled. "In fact, who are we at all. Who here knows anything about us, the Zollzero family?" he voiced. The wizards all looked confused at the question, however eventually one stepped up to answer.

"I've heard of you" Gray shouted up, this drew the attention of the four. "When I was with Avatar, there were plenty of rumours going on about you and your family. You're some kind of mob, right? Doing illegal things for profit, and you have your own private guild to do more legal things with assistance from the Magic Council" Gray stated.

Edric clapped his hands. "Well done… er… Gray Fullbuster, correct?" he said. Gray pouted.

"Maybe" he replied, narrowing his gaze on the younger boy.

Makarov looked to Gray with intrigue on his wizened features. Shrinking back down to normal size, the old man approached Gray. "Is that true?" he asked. Gray nodded.

"I'm afraid it is" he confirmed.

Makarov shrugged. "Regardless, you still have no right to be here" he argued, although with a slightly less vindictive, and significantly more wary tone of voice.

"Well, there's always the other option of levelling this guild until there's been an equal amount of damage, you know" Medea chirped up. "An eye for an eye and so on" she smirked. Makarov seemed confused by the threat, however after a moment he looked to Sting.

"What do you think Sting, since this affects your guild too?" he asked.

The blond Dragon Slayer shrugged. "I guess it can't hurt to talk?" he muttered; normally he wouldn't have given in to demands such as these, however the situation seemed unavoidable, and from what he could smell radiating off of these people, they were most definitely wizards, powerful ones too.

"I'm glad you see it our way" Arthur stated. Makarov frowned.

"We can speak in my office, everyone else, you stay here. No one is to throw so much as a punch until this is resolved, understand?" the whole guild gave a muttered agreement. "Good. Now follow me" he said, directing this last part to both Arthur and Sting.

The other three children remained where they were, leaving this up to their elder brother. There was an intense feeling in the air, and neither side even moved so much as a millimetre in the five minutes that the two Guild Masters, and Zollzero representative, were gone; they just stared at each other from their separate corners.

After the five minutes had passed, Arthur, Sting and Makarov returned, the latter two with grim looks on their faces. "We've come to a decision" Arthur announced.

"This is going to be decided by a simple tournament. Going from records of the job, the three candidates who achieved the most damage from this guild, along with myself, are going to have a little duel with these four individuals to decide whether the debt should, or shouldn't, be paid" Sting declared.

"A duel?" Erza asked sceptically at the announcement.

Arthur nodded. "It's only logical, after all, if you are able to prove your worth against us, then by our own family credo, we must wipe your debt" he stated. The Requip mage nodded; if she only understood one thing it was honour, whether that be the honour of a warrior, or of a family such as theirs.

"A duel sounds fun, but who's fighting?" Natsu asked; the fire in his eyes already told everyone that he was raring to go, and based on Sting announcement, the candidate for most damage out of all of Fairy Tail would be the fiery pinkette.

Makarov cleared his throat. "Everyone needs to remain inside the guild, save the following three people; Natsu, although I think most of us figured that one out, Gray and Erza" Makarov declared. The Fairy Tailer's nodded, as Arthur re-joined his cohort.

"You all just stay here and keep watch. No trouble until after this is resolved, understand?" Arthur commanded. The suited army all nodded in understanding.

"Yes sir!" he cried out in uniform respect. All that was missing was a salute and people could have actually mistaken them for some military force, rather than a band of thugs.

With that confirmation, Arthur turned back towards Makarov and Sting, who were now standing to the side, along with Natsu, Gray and Erza. "Shall we take this outside, just to avoid unnecessary damage?" he asked, with a slightly cocky tone.

Natsu narrowed his eyes at the four; these were definitely people who he wanted to punch, and at least he was being allowed to do it.

Yet little did he know what he, and the two guilds of Fairies and Tigers, were about to get themselves mixed up in.

End of Chapter 1

Chapter Hint; Tournament

Author's Note; Hi hi, it's me WLGYLAY with a new fic for you all to enjoy. If you haven't already, please read my other fics "The Secret Trick to a Dragon Slayer's Heart" and "Fortress of Ice". This is just the first of many chapters, however I hope that with this I've managed to interest you all to continue reading and supporting this in the future. For now, I'll just sign off and say that this is gonna be one fun thing to write :)