GUILD MASTER

"LISTEN UP." She took a deep breath. "The past two missions have been tough on us and despite us finding two artefacts, we've suffered many heavily because several of us ended up injured. It's my duty as Guild Master to ensure your safety and I have failed. I hereby step down as Guild Master."

"What?" Natsu frowned.

"Erza, what're you doing?" Lucy's brow curved, mixed reactions spreading through the hall.

"Awesome, maybe I can finally be Guild Master again." Macao smiled determinedly.

"You've had your turn; it's my time to shine!" Wakaba grinned.

"Well, you can count me out on successor." Laki folded her arms.

"Who's supposed to lead the guild then?" Gray sat back.

"I was planning to give it to Laxus, but seeing as he's not here, the decision will be made with the contest. Whoever's able to assemble a team and collect the remaining artefacts will be declared Guild Master. The person who's gathered the most will receive the remaining two from me after the contest's over." Erza sat at the counter.

"Don't you think that's a little brash?" Mirajane winced.

"Really?" Jet's face lit up.

"Well, sign me up for that!" Macao smiled smugly.

Seeing many of the wizards chat amongst each other, Natsu walked up to Erza. "Erza, what've you done?"

"I've made my decision; I've proven to be an inept leader, so the guild's next master shall be decided via the competition. Winning it will take teamwork and whoever can accomplish that is a better than I am." Erza ordered a drink from Mirajane.

"But this won't prove anything." Natsu frowned. "You're the best person qualified for this."

"I'm sorry; Natsu, but I've made my decision."

Romeo stood from his seat. "So, where's the next mission located?"

"WHO NAMES this stuff?" Lucy shook her head.

"Devil's Gorge? Seriously?" Gray frowned as he turned to Erza.

"I'm not the one who names these places." She shrugged.

"Wouldn't be surprised if the next island's called 'You're Gonna Die' island or 'Screw You, You're Dead' island." Gray crossed his arms.

The guildmates stood at the rim of a massive gorge overlooking a lush forest, the distance between shrinking them to the size of broccoli. Moving to the edge of the cliff they stood upon, Erza turned to the others and fished out trackers from her backpack, holding them up for the others to see.

"Fairy Tail has five trackers, but since no teams have been declared yet and there aren't enough for each of us, you'll have to qualify to obtain one right now or find them in the gorge below."

"And how do we do that?" Lisanna walked up to her.

"Well, you'll have to steal them from me." Erza wiggled one. "Just know that I won't go easy on any of you."

"Alright! Bring it on!" Natsu ran up to her with a huge grin, his hands aimed at her breasts.

"Not you!" She thrust her palm in his face, halting him and tossed the trackers into the gorge as her face flushed.

"Hey! We didn't have a chance yet!" Gajeel frowned.

"Huh?" Erza turned to the gorge, seeing the trackers plummet. "Sorry." She pushed Natsu aside. "Well." She glanced around uneasily. "Go get 'em."

Rising to his feet, Natsu chuckled as he dusted himself off and watched Erza walk past, seeing the blush on her face. The wizards dispersed and began their trek to the gorge below, leaving Erza, Lucy, Lisanna, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel, Panther Lily, Wendy, Carla and Levy in the area.

Composing herself, Erza shook her head. "You guys are staying with us?"

"Don't see a reason why we should fight amongst ourselves." Levy shrugged. "We're a team and we're backing you, Erza."

"Never expected you to do something so incredibly stupid, Erza." Carla frowned. "Thought you'd be wiser."

"You're expecting too much from her, Carla. She's the one who's keeping the team named after the wizard with the lowest brain cells in the guild. Team Tablecloth would have a higher IQ." Happy shook his head.

"Hey!" Natsu growled then heard Lucy giggle. "What're you laughing at?" He turned to her.

"She probably recognizes one of her own from her recent behaviour." Carla shut her eyes in irritation. "Birdbrains of a feather flock together, I suppose."

"She loves him." Happy teased and Erza stomped on him.

Gajeel chuckled then shook his head and turned to Erza. "So, what's the play, Erza?"

"We're gonna help Lucy in her investigation. If there's something going on with the treasure hunt, then it has to do with the artefacts themselves." She walked up to the blonde. "So, where're we on that?"

"I." Levy drew Erza's attention. "Have been analysing the two artefacts we've gotten since the last mission." She fished them out of her backpack. "The book's been hell to translate, but I've managed to decipher the hieroglyphics on the book and the artefact."

"So, what've you found out?" Erza turned to her.

"Well, the book has an incantation on it that makes it completely impossible to translate until all the artefacts are gathered."

"But, weren't you able to figure out that it was both ancient Chinese and Egyptian?" Lucy's brow curved.

"Ancient Chinese and who now?" Lisanna frowned.

"Yes, but there's an enchantment that makes it all seem like gibberish. If I were to try and rewrite it without the artefacts, it'd definitely take a month and we obviously don't have that kinda time or the Mark of the Moon guild would take it for themselves." Levy's brows furrowed.

"Wait, how can a book be written in two languages? More impossibly, ancient Chinese and Egyptian?" Lisanna walked up to her.

"Actually, they don't seem to be all that separate. It's like they've merged into a single, new language."

"That's still ancient." Lisanna crossed her arms, receiving a shrug from Levy. "You do know that doesn't make much sense, right?"

"It's still possible; we haven't discovered absolutely everything there is to discover about our world, so this must be an undiscovered language." Levy paced around. "Though it is still amazing that languages that are so different managed to work together the way they seem to in this book. It's as if they were a single language originally."

"So, what you're saying's that we need to collect all the artefacts in order to break the enchantment?" Erza frowned.

"Yes."

"Geez, Levy, couldn't you have said that before Erza went and made this competition for Guild Master?" Gray groaned.

"Sorry, everything just happened so fast." Levy rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, guess we have our first order of business." Erza turned to the others. "We'll have to split up and obtain all the artefacts before the other guilds and our guildmates do so."

"Without the trackers?" Gray's brow curved and the others groaned in anger. "What were you thinking?"

"I." Erza sighed. "I've screwed up, okay? But we can't wait around assigning blame –,"

"Cuz it's you to blame?" Gajeel chuckled.

"Yes, I'm to blame, but we don't have time to waste; we'll have to go out and find our trackers before it's too late."

Yellow lightning struck the forest behind them, drawing their attention and causing birds and animals around to disperse in a panic. Stepping out of the bushes, Laxus pulled his satchel over his shoulder as he walked up to the others and pocketed his hand.

"Seems you've made a mess of things, haven't you, Erza?" He moved over to her.

"Laxus?" Natsu grinned.

"What're you doing here?" Erza frowned.

"Consider it a favour." Laxus put his satchel on the ground, fishing five trackers out of it.

"Whoa, where'd you get those?" Panther Lily walked up to him.

"Stole them from the other guilds on the way here." Laxus handed them to Erza.

"How'd you get here anyway?" Natsu raised his brow.

"Mirajane told me."

"Of course she did." Erza muttered.

"What?" Laxus turned to her.

She cleared her throat. "Okay, this changes things." She walked over to the others. "We'll split up into teams of two and find each of the artefacts. It's a race against time, so we'll have to have as many people on the field as possible. So, which teams will it be?"

"I'll go with Levy; we'll still need to study the artefacts in case there's something we missed." Lucy took a tracker from her.

"I'll be with Gray." Juvia grabbed a tracker.

"I'll go with anyone." Laxus crossed his arms.

"Me then." Lisanna took a tracker.

"Guess it's me and Gajeel then." Wendy shrugged.

"Okay, then that leaves me and …" Erza gave her a tracker. "Natsu …" She glanced at him. "Yeah, that leaves me and Natsu."

Happy looked at Panther Lily then Carla. "Is it just me or did they skip us?" He folded his arms.

"We'll just go with our partners then." Panther Lily flew over to Gajeel, followed by Carla who walked up to Wendy.

"Now that our teams are decided, we'll head out." Erza pocketed her tracker. "I'll fire the signal flare on one end of the island and we'll rendezvous there."

"Got it." Gray nodded.

"Then let's head out."

The group dispersed and headed towards the gorge, each going in their teams as Carla and Panther Lily followed their partners. Looking around, Natsu turned to Happy who stood nearby and glanced around, uncertainty evident on his face.

"You coming, buddy?"

"Nah, I'm going with Carla." Happy flew off. "Carla, wait up!"

"Oh, okay."

"Be careful, Natsu." Lisanna waved at him as she headed off with Laxus.

"Yeah, you too."

"Come on, Natsu, we don't have all day." Erza walked into the forest.

"Yeah, sure."

ERZA SLASHED a large leaf in their path, brandishing her blade as she walked on and Natsu followed, keeping a safe distance from the sword. Cutting down another obstacle, she glanced at him, seeing him look around in worry as they proceeded through the dense forest in the middle of the forest. Having had no conversation for nearly an hour, she sheathed her weapon and turned to him.

"You seem quiet, is something wrong?"

"No, no, it's nothing." He frowned. "… Just thinking."

"About what?"

He sighed. "… I just wonder what this whole treasure hunt's about, y'know, what we're really looking for."

"We'll only know when we find all the artefacts." Erza pushed a leaf aside.

"But, what do we do when we find them all? Lucy said that Levy thinks it's meant to awaken this Sethos or whatever. What if he's some kinda demon from the Books of Zeref or something?"

"All the more reason for us to find it." She turned to him. "You wouldn't want a dark guild to get their hands on it, would you?"

"No, I'm just wondering." He pocketed his hands.

Walking up to the edge of a sloop, the two looked onward, seeing a narrow, rocky pathway leading toward another forest on the other end. Jumping down, they skidded down and entered the barren patch, looking around as they saw a jackal run off and some snakes slither into clefts in the rocks.

"… So, you're gonna step down as Guild Master and give it over to Laxus?"

"Yeah."

"Then, why didn't you mention it when he came back?"

"I don't know, I." She huffed. "I'm still debating on it."

Natsu sighed and looked around him, turning to her. "Do you remember back when we were kids? When a huge fight broke out in the guild hall and you managed to stop the fight when gramps wasn't around?"

"You're saying that's a good reason why I should lead? We were kids back then."

"That's my point; even as kids, you always took charge. On every mission we've taken, you assume the position of leader when everyone else's too busy arguing." He walked up to her.

"And what about the times I join the fights? These days I only hold out for a couple of minute before jumping in and fighting all of you."

"That's because you know us. You know all of us; you can't really expect us to stop fighting."

She chuckled. "Yeah."

"But when it matters most, you take charge unlike anyone else I know. You know the guild and you know how to put everyone in line."

"What about you? You're telling me this much – you know something about leading."

"You're joking, right?" He raised his brow.

"You've got leader material too, Natsu; you just need the right push. The way you care about everyone else and put everything on the line for your friends is something even I can't compete against. When the dragons attacked, you fought one head on and Makarov didn't stand a chance."

"I didn't do anything there."

"You're underestimating yourself."

"No, I can't be Guild Master; I'd hate to see people get hurt when I'm leading them. You'd handle it far better."

"Guess I'll have to think it over." She sighed.

Natsu shrugged then chuckled. "So, you've been holding down the fort even while I was gone, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"You still kept the name Team Natsu even after I'd left. Gotta agree with Gray, there's a lot you can do as Guild Master, yet you make it seem like I'm in charge." He smiled smugly.

"No, I don't." She frowned.

"Maybe I should be Guild Master."

"That's my job." She growled.

"Thought you said you were stepping down."

"Are you trying to piss me off?" She clenched her sword sheath.

"Is it throwin' ya off?" He smirked. She punched at him and he moved his head aside, letting her hit a tree behind him. He chuckled. "Guess it worked."

She huffed. "Why're you such an idiot?"

"Kinda in the job description." He shrugged. "Dragon slayer, food lover and idiot." He frowned. "Wait."

She chuckled. "And you're saying you want to leave Fairy Tail? We're gonna miss you."

"I just don't think we can't protect ourselves without extra help. If things go bad, we'd need Igneel."

"We wouldn't survive if we helped each other? The guild might lose sometimes, but we always pull through. We need to stick together."

"You think the guild can get stronger?"

"I know we can, but we need you." She smiled warmly. "I'll support you with whatever decision you make. There's no reason for you to throw in the towel."

"Yeah."

A screech echoed as bushes rustled, drawing their attention as large, centipede like creatures moved in on them, surrounding them from all sides. Unsheathing her weapon, Erza took a fighting stance and Natsu's fists went on fire.

Natsu grinned. "I'm fired up now!" He charged at the creatures.

"YOU TAKEN care of surveillance?" He listened for a response. "Okay, moving in."

Going off comm. a masked man in a car gestured to another standing at the front door of a large building across from him. Entering the lobby, the second man moved up the stairwell into a hallway and cocked his rifle as he trod on and looked around apprehensively. Reaching a corner, he turned when he bumped into Jellal who punched him out.

"Guess you were right, they do break in during the same time period." He went on comm. "Just took one of them down."

"Seems I was right." Meredy responded.

"Try to see if there's any evidence on 'em." Ultear's voice came.

"Sure." He searched the downed man, picking a card out of his pocket. "I've got an ID."

"Of who?" Ultear's voice came.

Jellal pulled the mask off the man, looking at his face then at the ID card. "He's an employee here."

"What?"

"It's an inside job."

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