When Helen walked into the guild the next morning, she was greeted by a silence so deep it unnerved her. Everyone was staring at her open mouthed, and Helen was wondering why- until she realized her sweater was around her waist, leaving her arms bare. She looked at the members in silent defiance, her eyes daring them to laugh.

She stopped by Mirajane and whispered in her ear. "Can I join Fairy Tail... if you want me?"

Mirajane smiled at her kindly. "Of course," she said. "Follow me."

She led Helen past the staring members to a short man with white hair. He looked at her critically and then said to the guild members. "Stop staring."

The hall started up again, and the pink-haired boy Natsu ran over to another person. His hair was dark blue-black, and Natsu started fighting with him. The man sighed and said "So you want to join Fairy Tail, eh?"

"I do," Helen said quietly.

"Can you do magic?"

"Yes."

"This is the guild master Makarov. Could you show us your magic?" Mirajane asked.

Helen gnawed her lip, then reached inside her for the magic she knew was there. She had used it the night before, after noticing she had a strange feeling inside of her.

Her leg markings started to glow faintly, and then the tips turned white. The color raced up her body, turning all of the marks pure white. Her hair become silver and her eyes gold. She had looked in the mirror and gasped when she first saw herself. She looked younger and happier.

Mirajane and the guild master stared at her, and then Mirajane said, "Well, you can use magic, that's for sure. What kind of magic is that?"

Helen shook her head. "I don't know."

"What color do you want your stamp?" Mirajane asked a little while later. Helen, who had turned back to her normal self, debated before saying, "Gold, on my shoulder."

Mirajane put the stamp on, and then said in awe, "Look, Helen."

Helen looked at her shoulder to see the marks curling around the golden stamp. It was as if the stamp had been part of the design all along.

"That's strange," Helen murmured. "It didn't even hurt..." She didn't get much time to contemplate this though, as a girl with golden hair walked over to her.

"Hi! I'm Lucy," she said, taking a seat next to Helen. "Who're you?"

"My name's Helen," Helen said. Lucy studied her critically for a moment and then said, "Would you mind if I fixed your hair for you? Short hair doesn't really suit you."

"Sure." Helen had no idea how Lucy would regrow her hair, but she had to agree- short hair wasn't her favorite. It just looked so strange... Lucy pulled out a ring of gold keys, and suddenly a man-crab thing appeared by her. Helen started.

"Hey, Cancer," Lucy said, completely unconcerned. "Could you fix Helen's hair for her?"

"Of course-ebi," Cancer said. In one second, he did something with his scissors to Helen's hair, and it became longer. Cancer disappeared, leaving Helen to stroke her long hair.

"Who was that?"

"I'm a Celestial Spirit Wizard. Each of these keys summons a spirit, and they all have constellations in the sky. That was Cancer, the giant crab. He likes doing hair, and he's one of the twelve Zodiac gates. They're really rare, and only appear once a year for a month." Lucy explained.

"Whoa! I never knew that. Thanks for the hair by the way," Helen said, blushing.

"Ah, no problem."

"Here at Fairy Tail we're one big family," Mirajane said as she cleaned the bar with a blue towel.

"I've never had a family," Helen said sadly. "Not that I can remember."

"Well, you do now. And it's going to be really fun having you here, I can tell," Lucy said, giving Helen a grin.