A/N: Now, this chapter is really short because it's just a transition chapter, and short too. But nevertheless required and I hope my sense of humor hadn't dropped because my mind's currently filled with laws and formulas. Also, thanks to everyone who favourited, followed and reviewed. Please continue your support. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Night

*YAWN*

Sleepy... That's all I know, for drowsiness was filling my senses. It was totally boring riding a train; I always use my Lightning magic to travel from place to place when I'm on solo missions (it's also an excuse to avoid motion sickness). But now, the rhythmic sound from the train engine is making my eyelids heavy... I wish it was raining...

BOMP!

"Ouch!"

Wincing at the pain, I started, my sleepiness gone in an instant. Apparently, Hiken had already fallen asleep, snoring, and kicked me accidentally in his sleep; I had to suppress the urge to push the pink-head off the seat.

"He's out to challenge you even in his sleep, Night," said Garry, glancing up from the thick book he was reading.

"Tell me about it," I said, sitting up straight.

"So," Garry closed his book, and placed it beside him. "Why are we really going after Master?"

Ah, yeah. I was supposed to tell them about that... "See, I was back from my mission..."

I recounted my encounter against the mysterious man, and Garry was greatly intrigued about my experience. He placed his hand on his chin, his eyes narrowed, thinking.

"This guy... none of your attacks worked against him?" he asked, frowning.

"Seemed like that. He didn't actually block, he just stood there and took on the spell," I said. "It even seemed like he deliberately let himself got hit."

"But what would have been the point? He provoked you into attacking him, got himself hit by a spell and then just disappeared away?"

"Fishy," I shrugged. "And he said he had a message for Dad. Whatever it was, I thought that I needed to tell him about it as soon as possible."

Garry said nothing but stared out of the window, musing.

I didn't feel like I wanted to use my energy on that matter at the moment; I took out a deck of cards from my coat's inner pocket. Now, I don't really use or know Card Magic, but Mother had taught me the theories, and I always had a personal interest in playing cards. I'd mastered all possible tricks I could find (mostly from Magician Impossible). It's also my favorite way to waste my passing time.

"Wanna play poker with me?" I asked innocently.

"No, thanks," Garry said, "not after I lost all our money to you last year." He picked up his book and returned his attention to it.

"Heh, those were good times," I said, shuffling the cards. I picked out one and focused on it.

"Mmm..," Hiken shifted in his sleep, and asked in a sleepy tone, not opening his eyes, "Are we there yet?"

"No, we just left Magnolia, and it'll be a long time before we reach Crocus," I replied.

"Not to mention we have to stop at Alyssum for a night before continuing to Crocus," Garry added. "Tough luck for us."

Alyssum was a town near Crocus; when we arrived at the Magnolia Station, it turned out that tickets to Crocus had been sold out, so we had to first go to Alyssum, then only to Crocus. It wasn't that much of a hinder to our plan though.

"Hiken, don't you want to do something productive instead of wasting your time, snoozing off?" I said. Garry gave me a 'look who's talking' look; I smiled, fanning my cards.

"No, let me enjoy my sleep..." Hiken muttered, "I never knew trains can be so good to sleep on..."

"Well, Wendy wouldn't have cast Troia on us if it wasn't for Night, then we'd all be suffering," Garry said.

"He's asleep," I said, and sure enough, loud snores escape from the fire dragon slayer.

xXx

It had been about 15 minutes when the door of our compartment slid open and the ticket collector entered. "Tickets, please."

I took out the tickets and handed them over to the ticket collector. He punched holes in the tickets, gave them back to me, and left the compartment.

"Man, this is boring." I stretched my arms lazily, "I'm getting sleepy again."

"Then sleep, perhaps on the floor."

I ignored Garry's comment and returned my attention to the cards. "How about some fortune telling?"

"I'll pass."

"Come on. Don't you wanna know your future?"

"No."

"The card says..."

"I don't want to know."

Suddenly, the compartment door slid open again, and both of us looked up in unison.

Anne Valentine stood there, beaming in her usual style. "Hi, guys!" She stepped inside, and sat in the free seat beside Garry.

We stared, and stared, and stared; Hiken let out a loud snore.

I sighed, pressing my temples.

"Does Sarah know you followed after us?" Garry and I asked at the same time.

"No, I thought she wouldn't be very happy if she knew I followed after you. But I left a note at the guild. And look," she raised her left palm; a yellow Fairy Tail insignia glittered. "I'm an official member now, so I guess I have the right to go on missions I want, yes?"

Garry looked at me, "What do you think?"

"Well," I looked at Anne who was giving me the puppy dog eyes; I felt both amused, and irritated. I sighed. "I guess she's gonna have to come along now since she already got herself here." Though Sarah's gonna freeze her for not listening.

At that moment, Hiken stirred from his sleep and sat up, messing up his hair. He looked around sluggishly, laying his half-opened eyes on Anne.

"You... look familiar... Aren't you the girl who was with Garry yesterday?"

"Ah, you're Hiken Dragneel, right? Hee, I've read alot about you. There's always a special article about you in Sorcerer Weekly," she said, smiling. "I'm Anne Valentine, newest member of Fairy Tail, I suppose."

"Pleasure," he looked at Garry and then at Anne. "Are you two dating?"

Anne blushed slightly, Garry looked up from his book, eyes widened. I hit Hiken on the head.

"Oww!"

"Idiot. Don't go around asking things like that."

"What? I was just wondering... they're sitting together!"

"Oh, then are we dating just because we're sitting together?"

"All right, all right... I get it," he paused, "I'm hungry."

I was about to say that it was still too early for lunch, but Anne interrupted. "Ooh, I've a treat for you!" She clapped her hands and said, "Fire Make-Candy!"

Flames erupted from her hands, then she held out her palm to Hiken, a pile of small balls made of fire sitting on it.

"Whoa! Awesome!" The pink headed dragon slayer exclaimed, taking the flame balls and putting into his mouth. "Mmm... Delicious!"

"Really, Anne? Fire Make Candy?" Garry asked, sweatdropping.

She shrugged, grinning. "I'm creative. Tee hee."

"So, you can use Fire Make Magic," I said, amused and impressed, "Amazing, really. Where did you learn it?"

"Well, my adoptive father taught me." She added, seeing the looks on our face, "I was an orphan."

"Where's your father then?" I asked.

"...He passed away when I was 15."

"Oh... Sorry.."

"It's okay," she shrugged.

"Hey, tell us how come you wanted to join Fairy Tail," Hiken requested.

"Yeah, we all want to know that. Can you tell us?" Garry asked.

"Sure. Well, I was an independent mage... and it never actually came across my mind about joining a guild. But one day, I was attacked by a dark guild, and they nearly got me, but a strange woman appeared and took all of them down singlehandedly. She then asked about me, and told me that it was too dangerous for a girl like me to be living as an independent mage alone and advised me to join a guild."

"Who was that woman? Did you ever met her again?" Garry interrupted.

"No. She just left after telling me to join a guild, and I forgot to ask her name. But I remember that she had very beautiful and long pink hair, like mine." She continued, "After that, I thought to myself that she was right and I was also fascinated by the idea about being part of a group. So, I started researching about guilds in the country, and I chose Fairy Tail. I've already heard a lot of interesting news and rumors and I thought it'd be my kind of guild, and I was correct."

"I'm sure you came to the right place," I smiled. "Fairy Tail is not just a group of mages, it's a family, we're family, who cares for each other. And we take pride in being a part of Fairy Tail."

Anne stared at me for a moment before beaming, "I understand... Thanks, Night."

xXx

"Anne, what kind of things could you make with your magic?" Garry asked.

"Hmm," she thought for a moment, "I can do many things, it depends on my creativity."

"So, you mean you could make a fire turkey or chicken if you want to?" Hiken asked, mouth watering.

"Well, I've never really made those before... but I could try."

"No," I interrupted, "it's abuse of magic. Let him stay hungry, Anne."

"Oh yeah? What about you, using your Lightning Magic to avoid transportation?" Hiken snapped.

I ignored him, instead turned at Anne. "You wanna play poker?" I asked, showing my cards.

Anne opened her mouth, but Garry interjected, "Don't do it. He'll trick all your money."

She smiled at the iron dragon slayer, "Thanks, Garry, but I don't know how to play cards. Sorry, Night."

"Too bad," I shrugged, shuffling my cards again.

"Hey, Night, could you show me your magic?"

I looked up at the girl, "My magic?"

She nodded, looked at Hiken and Garry also, "And you two too. I showed you my magic, and I wanna see yours too. Please?"

"Well," Garry said, "we don't think we can show you our dragon slayer magic since they are mostly offensive. But we can show you our other magics."

"What do you mean other magic, I thought you're dragon slayers?" she asked, frowning.

"Heck, just because we're dragon slayers doesn't mean we can't use other magic," Hiken said, grinning. He put his hand inside his pocket, and took out a shiny silver key.

"Is that..."

He pointed it out and said, "Open, the Gate to the Canis Minor, Nikora!"

"Oh my God!" Anne gasped, as a small, shivering white creature with a golden horn for nose appeared. "Hiken, I didn't know you could summon celestial spirits!"

"Heh, this is the only spirit I could summon," he said, picking up the small spirit, "His name is Plue. He was my mom's spirit, but she gave his key to me. Here." He handed Plue over to Anne.

"Aww, he's so cute!" Anne squealed, hugging Plue tightly (Plue said, "Punu-Puun!"). "I forgot that your mom, Lucy, is a celestial spirit mage, Hiken. And she's also my favorite writer."

"You've read Mom's books?"

"Yup. Haven't you?"

"Don't ask that nuthead about books, Anne," I said. "Okay, time for my little show." I've been itching to do this!

I picked out my cards again, and shuffled roughly; Anne was watching curiously. "Hmm..." I stared at the cards intently.

"What're you doing?"

"I'm going to predict your future," I said with a straight face. (Hiken chortled, Garry shook his head slowly, Anne exclaimed "That's so cool!")

"Okay. The card says..." I paused and glanced at the cards, "...you're gonna get eaten by a polka dotted vampire who can do backflips and stand on his tongue."

I stopped.

"...Wait. That can't be right..." I checked the cards upside down.

Hiken burst out laughing, rolling on the seat, pressing his belly. "AHAHAHA! Help...! Ahaha! I can't stop...! AHAHAHA!"

Anne raised her eyebrow (Plue said, "Punu-Puun!"); Garry turned to her and said, "See, Night is the best at whatever he do. He's the strongest among us, he has knowledge about several exotic magic; he could even be called a living arsenal." He paused, grinning mischievously. "But there are two things that he's totally terrible at. Alcohol, and card fortune telling. And he hasn't give up on either yet."

"Yeah yeah, I suck," I grumbled.

Garry cleared his throat, "My turn." He moved his hands in a complicated manner. "Solid Script: Silent."

The word 'SILENT' appeared and hit Hiken who was still laughing; instantly, no sound came out from him anymore. Noticing that his voice had gone, he glared at Garry, waving his finger, apparently mouthing several curses.

It was Anne's turn to laugh. I grinned at the irritated, wordless dragon slayer. "Interesting effect. I didn't know that spell could do that."

"Ahaha! It's so cool!" Anne said, giggling at Hiken; he mouthed several words more angrily. "Sorry. I can't understand you."

Hiken fumed and facepalmed.

"Don't worry, it's only temporary," Garry told him. "Maybe you could take another sleep."

Hiken mouthed the word furiously, which unmistakably followed the lines "I'M HUNGRY DAMMIT".

We all burst out laughing (Plue said, "Punu-Puun!").

What a fun ride... with my friends beside me...

My sleepiness had long gone without even saying goodbye.

A/N: Short... and nothing exciting. Next chapters will be more mysterious and action packed. By the way, I didn't described the appearances of the characters coz I suck at that field. So, if you are interested, you can contact me at the gmail address night-kaminari and I'll send the pictures of my characters.
Also, who can guess the woman who saved Anne and advised her to join a guild?

Adults: Most of them are on missions -long ones- and they won't appear in the early chapters yet. And some of them had retired from being mages, or rather stay peacefully at home. Mostly new generation mages occupy the guild.

S-Class: Twenty two years passed and Fairy Tail has more S-Class mages: Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Elfman, Cana, Juvia, Freed (yes, everyone from the trial). Plus an OC; guess who's child?

Guild Master Laxus: I like Gildarts, and I really considered about Gildarts, but he was already the Fifth Guild Master, and he purposefully gave the title away; he's more of a person to roam the country than do paperwork. So, I chose Laxus instead.

Night the living arsenal: He's a favourite OC, and one of the first characters I created. In this story, he happened to be related to four strongest mages in Fairy Tail when I paired Laxus and Cana. So, he learnt many types of magic, mostly theoretically, mainly from Makarov. He can play around with cards, do Thought Projections etc. He's a jack of all trades, though he's mastered the two Lightning Magics.

Please continue your support!