A/N: Dear readers, I am alive. And perfectly happy. I also hope that you'll be happy with this chapter. Arigato to everyone who had reviewed, favourited and followed. Please continue the support! Without further ado, I present the fifth chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Although the capital of Fiore was an extremely large and busy city, it nevertheless was still a majestic and magnificent place. Also known by the epithet Flower Blooming Capital, Crocus had a vast number of bright buildings and several shops, and limitless amount of flowers adorning the streets with citizens traveling along the routes. It was no surprise that the city was so hustling with people, being the capital of the country and also famous for the Grand Magic Games.

Nonetheless, in the center part of the town, away from the busy part of the city, situated a lake with an island where Mercurius, the magnificent palace of the King of Fiore, was sitting on. The many tall towers rose dramatically as a part of the king's castle; in one of the many rooms in a highest tower, a man was standing on the balcony, gazing down at the splendid view below. He was particularly tall, muscular, with spiky blond hair, and a distinctive lightning-shaped scar on his right eye, donning a long fur over-coat and a pair of magic headphones over his ears.

At the moment, Laxus was taking a short break from the sickening paperwork he had been doing for the past hour, trying to enjoy the incredible residence of the King he was temporarily staying at. Being an authority figure wasn't easy - he had been given piles of paperwork to do ever since he had been appointed as guild master.

"Laxus."

Hearing his name called, the lightning mage cut off his thoughts and turned around to saw a familiar red-haired woman standing. The Titania was wearing a formal elegant dress instead of the usual armor; even after all these years, it was still rare to see her without wearing those iron-clad suits. Of course, Erza still remained a strongest mage in Fairy Tail, and the most intimidating woman as she had always been.

"Erza," Laxus spoke, changing the attention on his guild-mate, "what is it?"

"Nothing, just reminding that the meeting is going to start in about an hour." She added, "And it's in the Grand Hall this time, so you won't have trouble finding it."

Laxus scowled at first, but then his lips twitched upwards - he scoffed, "Seriously, I am not that forgetful, I do remember the place now, but thanks for the concern anyway," he chuckled. The Wizard Saint Conference was held by the Magic Council every year - according to Jellal, it was something like a boring gossip session of the Wizard Saints. It was used to hold in Era, but the King had obliged to let the Council use Mercurius for the conference... and at the meeting the year before, Jellal and Laxus managed to get lost in the enormous building, even managing to make their ways to the dungeons entrance. So, Erza was making sure that the same thing won't happen again to her idiotic husband and friend.

"Well," she sighed, "just don't get lost on the way again like last year."

"Hey, it was your husband that led us down the wrong corridor. We wouldn't have got lost if I had chosen the path. Besides, this place just has too many rooms."

Smirking, Erza rolled her eyes, "Yeah right. Like it was Jellal's fault when you also didn't know the direction, did you? He only took the liberty to pick one, otherwise, both of you would be stuck there." She smirked more when Laxus glared at her but said nothing since she was after all telling the truth. He sighed heavily again before returning his attention back to the view across the city - Laxus had learnt to appreciate the outdoor scenes more, especially as splendid as this one, since he was usually stuck indoors doing boring paperwork, but another thing was that this city had plenty of memories for him and all members Fairy Tail. The Domus Flau could be seen clearly from the balcony - it had been over twenty years since their guild regained the name of the strongest guild in Fiore, and had never lost it since. But Laxus had never imagined that he'd be watching over the guild as the Master like his grandfather had, after all the things he had done to the guild.

The two mages stood in silence for several moments, when Erza spoke, "It's drawing nearer," she looked at the blond man, "the S-Class Trials for this year."

Laxus nodded and smiled, "You'll be lending us a hand as usual, I hope?"

The red haired woman chuckled, "You don't even need to ask that. Of course, there's no way I'm gonna miss such an important event for the guild."

"Well, it's just that you're no longer staying at the guild, and always following Jellal wherever he goes..." Laxus grinned mischievously and elbowed his friend; Erza glared at him and started, "Idiot, shut your mouth."

"Now now Erza, don't call your guild master an idiot," an amused voice appeared - Jellal Fernandes was standing behind them; the blue haired man swiftly embraced Erza into a kiss, catching the Titania off-guard. He smiled at his wife, "I am in time as promised, my love."

Blushing, Erza pushed away her husband, "Jellal! Are you crazy?" He chuckled at the glares Erza was sending at him, "Perhaps. I'm crazy about you."

"Really romantic," Laxus interrupted, looking amused and slightly disgusted at the same time, "but if you two are going to do mushy stuff, please do it somewhere else."

"I said shut up," Erza snapped, her face still as red as her hair. She sighed, "The meeting's going to start. We should be going now." Shooting another glare at Jellal, she started walking towards the door; Jellal leaned near Laxus and whispered into the blond's ear, "She's really cute when she's shy, isn't that right?" Laxus stared back blankly, "Please tell me I don't have to comment on that..."

"Hurry up, you two!"

"We're coming!"

xXx

Meanwhile, somewhere in the woods near to the outskirts of Crocus, a young man was sleeping soundly on a tree. The boy had a handsome face, with a strange mark across his right eye, and his messy hair was the colour of blood red. His head was resting on an arm as he slept, while the other was clutching onto a long, thin stave. The surrounding of the forest was peaceful and quiet, just the way he preferred since he was never fond of crowds or fancy places, and had purposely came down all the way into the forest to take a nap - a strong branch and a shade under a tree was all he could ask for.

However, suddenly, a loud explosion rumbled out from within the woods which snapped the boy up from his sleep. Alarmed, he immediately sat up on the branch he was sleeping, and looked at the direction the sound came, wondering what it was. It was quite rare to hear an explosion out of nowhere, and it also sounded not very far from his location. I'd better go and investigate.

Jumping from a tree to another (he was not a ninja or a monkey), the red haired boy followed the direction which he had heard the explosion. He was just simply curious at the cause of the sound. However, when finally arriving at the spot, he was quite stunned by the scene awaiting him - there was a huge crater in the ground, the trees as well as the soil were severely burnt around the area. What on earth happened here?

The only possibility was that some sort of battle occurred in this place... and if that's true, then whoever caused this wouldn't be very far away yet. The young man's curiosity only rose higher - he immediately closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, then surely, he felt some magical presences only about a few meters away... which were also extremely familiar to him.

What a coincidence...! It's been a while since I've met them the last time.

He opened his eyes again, smiling at the direction of the magical presences, "Long time no sees, Dragon Brothers."

Garry

The four of us were taking a rest on the ground, after the short battle with Felix and Rosalyn. The atmosphere around us had settled down, though we were left with bad hunches that there was something serious behind the ambush. None of us were badly injured, though Hiken was still upset with the fact that his spell was utterly useless against Rosalyn. Anne was staring around at us confusedly, Night was all quiet and musing while I was still assessing all the thoughts going around in my head.

"That darn bitch..." Hiken muttered angrily under his breath for the umpteenth time, "I'll beat her up for good if I meet her again..."

Anne started, frowning, "I still don't get it though... our spells clashed, and I felt that hers wasn't anything extraordinarily strong," she continued as we listened to her, "But the power in Hiken's spell was really strong, she should've been seriously hurt since she took it head on."

Hiken just kept glaring at the ground, clenching his fist; Night and I understood that it wasn't only because that his spell didn't work, but also that Hiken took a lot of pride in being a dragon slayer and being the son of Salamander - Rosalyn happened to have insulted both of them.

Night looked up at us and said, "That was the same thing that happened with me also... I might have a theory about it." However, before Night could continue, Hiken interjected, "Wait wait... what do you mean by that it happened to you also?"

The blond dragon slayer blinked and stared, "Haven't I told you that already?" I felt like smiling while reminding him, "No, I was the only one who heard your story. Hiken was sleeping at that time, and Anne wasn't even with us back then."

"I see, " Night nodded, rubbing his chin, then looked back at the two pink headed mages, "well, the very reason we're going to Crocus was that..."
He started recapping his encounter with Felix and how he felt that he needed to report about it immediately to Master to Hiken and Anne; both were really surprised by the story they missed.

"...so that's everything," Night finished. "Of course, I'd told Garry already... does it make things clearer for you?"

"More or less," Anne shrugged, "though we still have no idea about their true motives behind their actions. Why would they just randomly attack us?" I looked at Night, wondering whether he had any idea, though he sighed and confessed, "I'm afraid I have no answer ever for myself... however, as I was about to say, I do have a theory on why Hiken's and my attacks didn't work."

He frowned a bit before continuing, "This might sound a bit odd... but I'm sure they were using some magic that absorb Dragon Slayer Magic..." We were all listening intently on his words, waiting for him to explain further, "I used two dragon slayer spells while fighting that Felix guy and Hiken used his Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame - our spells are quite strong, and there's no way someone could just resist them like that. Even though they appeared unscathed, I observed that the environment around us were more or less destroyed, meaning that it was not that our spells were weak, but of the fact that they absorbed much of it. In addition, they only battled or targeted the dragon slayers either purposely or accidentally, so that they can absorb our magic."

"But," Hiken interrupted again, "what if they're just strong enough to resist our spells?"

"That's impossible..." Night shook his head, "Because I sensed that neither of them had enough magic power to do that. Also, I don't know about Rosalyn, but Felix wasn't willing to take on my normal lightning attacks. If he really had endurance to fully resist a Lightning Dragon Roar and a Lightning Dragon Heavenward Halberd... then he wouldn't need to worry about my normal Lightning Magic. But he was all evading my shots with the annoying black smog of his."

"You know, Night..." I spoke, smiling at him, "what you said is pretty possible too. For me, what I thought was that they could trying to develop a magic that deletes Dragon Slayer Magic, and were using us like test subjects."

Night shrugged, "That's also another possibility. If you say like that, we can't leave that option too... good thinking, Garry. They could just be experimenting this magic, and wasn't still successful enough, which could explain the craters."

"Uh... guys," Anne said, "I think we're neglecting something important what that Felix said... about the greatest treasure of Fairy Tail. What was he talking about?"

Silence filled us again, as Night and I frowned back into musing - personally, I had no idea about that case, and thought that it was just a bluff or fluke... And he said that it was a message to Master Laxus from their master...

However, we were broken out of our thoughts when Night suddenly stood up, saying, "We can only find out so much by guessing... but for now, our priority is to meet with Father, and deliver this message to him. This is a challenge, and Fairy Tail will not back down from any. Now, enough resting - Crocus is near. Let's get going!"

"Heh... howling mad as usual." Grinning, I stood up, dusting the sand off of me; Hiken also hopped up to his feet, and shouted determinedly, "I don't really understand what's going on, but I swear, I'll seriously kick that woman's ass!" He's still obsessed with it...

So... our journey to Crocus finally recommenced; I turned at Anne and smiled, "Well, Anne, there's a great mystery waiting for us. Still wanna join on the adventure? It can be grueling, you know." The pink haired girl stared back for a moment before grinning widely and shouted, "You bet! There's no way I'm gonna miss such fun!" She showed her left palm, the yellow insignia glittering, "I'm also a Fairy Tail member; I have the right to enjoy the adventures, right?"

"Of course, now let's go!"

"Yay!"

But none of us could've guessed to meet another person that we were not expecting at all.

"Hiya, fellas."

Adam

What are they doing all the way from the guild? Following after the magic trail, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the magic sources were really my dragon slayer friends - I still recognized their magic signatures even though it'd been ages since the last time we met.

Oh, how rude of me; allow me to introduce myself. My name is Adam Fernandes, son of Jellal and Erza Fernandes, though I'm sure you might've already guessed it. I'm 21 years old, same as Night... I like solitude and strawberries, I dislike crowds and coconuts. And I'm also the youngest S-Class mage in the guild, though it's only been three years since I'd passed the exam.

To tell the truth, I haven't gone back to the guild at all in these three years. The reason's that I wanted to follow Dad on his missions with Crime Sorciere... and as soon as I passed the S-Class trials, I had been traveling with Dad ever since. I had rarely met my guild mates since then, except for Mom - she would often come and meet me and Dad; it's even like a family picnic while crushing down dark guilds at the same time.

Anyway, at the moment, I was still up on a tree, crouching on a branch and was eavesdropping on what my friends were saying - obviously, seeing Hiken explained the large crater with charred soil, and Night was acting serious as usual, Garry looked like he's a little hurt... and I suppose the girl is a newcomer... by now, the guild must be full of new members I don't know. However, clearly, they had been involved in sort of a battle before I found, and I can hear a discussion going on... something about a Felix and Rosalyn and Hiken's spell not working... what on earth was that about secret treasure of Fairy Tail?

I saw Night stood up and said that they had to get to Crocus to deliver the message from this Felix character to Master Laxus, and a moment later, all of them were striding off towards the city. Well, that was informative. One thing I was sure that they'll not be allowed into the palace even if they could prove the guards that they're from Fairy Tail, and the Wizard Saints Conference wouldn't be over until at night. Undoubtedly, they'll get kicked out if they just go into the palace.

Hmm... not if I can help. Because, you see, I was kind of staying at the palace to be honest - Dad and Mom were invited for the Wizard Saint Conference, so we followed them to Crocus... and all of us were given these deluxe rooms and king-sized beds. But I hated these luxuries, and that's the reason how I ended up sleeping in the woods. Well, never mind that, but since I have the permission to enter the King's palace, I could be more than of some help for them, especially if they were planning to barge into the palace.

Time to meet my old acquaintances...

It didn't take that much time to go ahead of them, considering them walking at a normal pace, and I was still traveling

overhead on the trees - they still hadn't noticed me yet. Thus, I jumped down from the branch, and landed right in front of Hiken.

"Hiya, fellas."

"Yikes!"

Who wouldn't be startled when something or someone falls suddenly in front of them? Well, Hiken was no exception - I caused Hiken to stumble back and nearly fell down, but the pink haired girl caught him quickly.

"What the..."

"Hey!"

Umm... may be that wasn't such a good idea... Night and Garry tensed up, and took a battle stance - do something quick, or get into a fight! I raised my hands and shouted fast, "Whoa! Guys! It's me, Adam."

They stared at me for a moment - Night seemed to have recognized me immediately. His eyebrows went up into the air, "Adam?" Garry also was surprised by my sudden appearance, "Huh?"

"Did you guys say Adam!?"

Hiken seemed to have recovered from his initial shock; the fire dragon slayer bolted up and laid his eyes on me - his eyes also widened up, but quickly cracked into a crazy grin. "It really is you... heh. FIGHT ME, YOU RASCAL!" Knowing Hiken, this was not much of a surprise, trying to engage in a battle as soon as he saw me; it was his way of saying 'hello'. Count on him to charge with his fire at a guild mate he hadn't met for three years as a sign of greeting.

Of course, I would have loved to spar with the dragon slayer, but since there were more pending matters to attend, I decided to postpone the fight for another time. He's going to challenge me again anyway. So, I simply evaded his flaming punch, and then briskly whacked on his head with my stave, a loud 'thud' came up.

"Ouch!"

"Nice try, Hiken," I smiled, "but now's not the time for fighting. We have more important things to do at the moment."

"Bastard..." He slowly got up, wincing and massaging his head, "that hurt!"

"Adam, what are you doing here?" Garry asked, frowning. "Aren't you supposed to be with your parents and Crime Sorciere?"

"Actually, I am with them - Mom and Dad had to come to Crocus for the meeting. And we're staying at the King's palace currently."

"You're staying at the King's palace?" Night asked disbelievingly. I nodded and smiled, "I think I can take you guys there so that you can meet Master and tell that message." They were again greatly taken aback, their mouths parted, "Wait wait... how on earth do you know about it?"

I chuckled, "Honestly, I had been listening to your conversation about the encounters with this Felix and Rosalyn for like ever since. I was just up on a tree above you, no one just noticed me."

"That's impossible," Night gawked, "we should've at least detected your smell, even if not your magic." He was looking at me like he was seeing a ghost, "Just what kind of training had Jellal-san put you in?"

"Heh, let's just say my stealth seems to be excellent enough that even you guys can't detect me," I beamed, annoying my friends. "Anyway," I promptly placed the stave on my shoulder, "I think we should get going to the city. It would take about an hour... so I don't think the meeting will be finished by then. But at least you guys can wait inside the palace."

"Looks like we won't have to stay in a motel this time," Night smiled at the others, then turned back to me, "lead the way then, Adam."

So, that was how I reunited with my old guild mates and joined them in their group. It was even kind of nostalgic - Hiken made me promise that I'd have to fight him once we get back to the guild. We talked a bunch of things as we moved on, mostly about how everyone was doing back at the guild. I also told them about some of my adventures with Crime Sorciere, hunting down dark guilds and criminals while surviving in the wild.

"It really sounds awesome!" Hiken exclaimed, "May be I could come along too next time." I smirked, "If you can beat me, then I'll vouch for you personally."

He glared at me, "Believe me, I will. Heh... I'll kick your ass really hard once we got back to the guild." Smiling, I looked back and noticed the stranger girl walking beside Garry - I remembered that we hadn't spoken yet. May be I should introduce myself...

"Hello," I greeted, "I am Adam. Are you a new member of Fairy Tail?"

She smiled sweetly, "Yes, I am. My name's Anne Valentine. Nice to meet you, Adam."

"Charmed. How long have you been in the guild, by the way?"

She thought for a moment, "Only for a few days... I think." That made me surprised. Wow, she's a total fresher then. How could she be travelling with these three troublemakers? "By the way," Anne went on, "Adam, do you know that you're the no. 1 mage on Sorcerer's Weekly's Top Mages I Want To Be My Boyfriend list?"

"What?" I blinked at her blankly, "What is that?"

"I'm no. 8," Garry said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm no. 2," Night shouted back over his shoulder.

"I'm not even on the list," Hiken grumbled and pouted.

"Is there anyone in Fairy Tail who reads Sorcerer Weekly..?" Anne sighed. "So... by the way, can I get an autograph, Adam?"

xXx

"At last... we've finally fueled the Dragon Lacrimas... Master will be pleased."

"I still don't understand why we have to do this... he's a crook, he's unworthy of this power," Rosalyn glowered, "why would Master want to use such a low life as a sacrifice?"

"We do not question Master, Roz," Felix stated, "I know that there are few chances that the plan will succeed, but Master thinks this is worth a try, so our duty is to obey him only."

The white haired woman remained silent, glancing down once more onto her palm - the small crystal was still shining with a blood red aura enveloping it. Inside her partner's hand was another lacrima, but instead giving out a red light, it was bright yellow. She clenched her fist on the lacrima. We had to go to great lengths finding these Dragon Lacrimas... and now we're just going to give them away...

Rosalyn looked up, staring at the magnificent view of the Blooming Capital once more. They were standing on the roof of a high building, watching down at the mighty city... and now, they were going to infiltrate the most dangerous place in the whole of Crocus once more... few people even know the name of the place. The Abyss Palace, the most heavily guarded prison in the whole of Fairy Tail, under the combined and direct control of the King and the Magic Council... and their target lies in one of the deepest cell within the prison. If the two were discovered infiltrating, they would either be instantly executed, or tortured for information. Rosalyn felt unnerved at chances of failures and dangers awaiting them...

"It is time. Let's finish this mission."

xXx

"The Wizard Saint Conference will commence now. Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats."

As he sat down on his chair, Jellal glanced around the room they were using for the Conference. The hall was slightly dark, compared to the other rooms inside the castle - he noticed that the curtains were drawn, relying only on the lamps. People were placed around a large, grand table with the Chairman's seat at the farthest. He counted the people present at the meeting - the Chairman and the five councilors, Erza, Laxus, Jura and etc... Hey... there's one seat missing...

Although everyone had taken their seats, the Chairman remained standing as he addressed them, "Good morning. Wel-" At that moment, the door to the hall suddenly opened loudly... and a person stepped into the room. A man, not older than 30, donned in a dark robe was standing at the door - he had shoulder-length silvery white hair, a narrow face, and his right eye was blinded with a scar crossed over it.

Everyone had laid their eyes on the new person; he waved his eye lazily around the room, a cold smile appearing on his face. "Good morning, everyone," he gave a swift bow before walking up to the round table, then promptly sat down on the empty seat, ignoring the stares which were directed at him.

The Chairman cleared his throat before continuing, "Ladies and gentlemen. Before the meeting starts, the Magic Council would like to make an announcement," he said, gesturing towards the unknown person. "We have chosen a new Wizard Saint as a replacement for the former Wizard Saint, Walrod Cken."

Some people were murmuring, discussing under their breath about the new Wizard Saint, clearly curious about his sudden appearance. However, Jellal noticed that said person was acting oblivious to everything around him... except that he was eying everyone else one after another, a small grin on his face. Who is this guy..? There's something abnormal about him...

"Everyone... please welcome, Osiris."

A/N: Good? Bad? Boring? Review please! By the way, the next chapter will be an omake, and I hope it doesn't take too much time to finish...

Jump Manga Contest: If I am lucky enough, then you'll be seeing Hiken and gang in their original story in no time!

Dragon Lacrimas: Let's see how things turn out. Who would want these valuable and powerful crystals?

Adam and the magic stave: It's just one of the staves Jellal was carrying in the GMG. Of course, it's also a Mystogan reference.