Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Chapter 9: Goodbye, Magnolia! Hello, Rustboro!

After leaving the Fairy Tail guild, Lucy walked down the dirt path that led into the town of Magnolia. She had gone back to her apartment to pack up her things since she wouldn't be living in this town anymore, and Lucy knew that she had to go to Rustboro Town for the chance at receiving her guild mark from Sting to officially be a member of Sabertooth. She had wanted to see him with a happy smile on her face, showing him that their day for a date had gone great, but Lucy would have to tell him about what happened earlier in her previous guild that was known as Fairy Tail.

She had given her old friends a pretty stern speech while she had parted ways with them, but Lucy could not even see them as her friends anymore. If they actually wee wanting to care about her, they would've put aside Natsu's promises for them to tell Lucy about what had been going on. The fire dragon slayer had been cheating on her with Lisanna, and Lucy knew that a real friend would've actually told her something about it. Someone who was truly her friend would not have just watched the blonde mage get played day after day by Natsu, and no one had even tried to help.

If Lucy had still been gullible while dating Natsu, then she would just continue being used by him. Luckily, that was not the case. The fact that he fought her earlier was reason enough to sever her ties to that jerk, and the fire dragon slayer had been the one to initially admit that he was cheating on her with Lisanna. It was pretty sad to see that Natsu thought so lowly of Lucy to have never even cared for her while they were dating, and he had even bought Lisanna gifts while going with her to fun places. He had never been so loving towards the blonde mage, thus showing his true colors.

Even if people in the guild had wanted to praise for Lucy for the impressive way that she took down Natsu, their cheers still would not be enough to make a real apology. They were at fault in this matter, playing a big role by sneaking around behind her back while openly telling lies to Lucy, and that really wasn't cool. Even if they thought that she would be sensitive about hearing it, would it not be the best move to tell Lucy the pure truth instead of letting her deal with false love from a cheating jerk that saw as the lesser girl of his two relationships? Really, they could've at least been nice enough to break the news to her in a gentle way.

Speaking of people that had been involved, Erza was one of the people that Lucy felt the most betrayed by. The scarlet-haired mage had been one of Lucy's best friends for a long time, making the user of the golden keys feel like she could discuss anything with her, but the trust between them had been broken. On that day when Lucy caught Natsu kissing Lisanna, she could not believe that even Erza had kept Natsu's affair a secret from her. If Erza would now be sad about the fact that Lucy departed, then it would be karma showing her that she should've been a much better friend.

While Lucy had known that she had to distance herself from most of those people, the only person who had really not been on Natsu's side was Gray. He had not seen any reason to respect Natsu's secret, since he found cheating to be very unethical, and the ice mage also found a reason to really dislike Natsu. He had pretty much started a fight with Lucy, losing to his own element, and that was clearly karma at work. Gray had also looked disappointed about the fact that Lucy had to leave, but he had also known that she would become stronger than Natsu. He had seen the power of her Fire Magic, seeing those flames burn hotter than Natsu's, and they had burned brightly with that desire to show the fire dragon slayer that Lucy was far from weak.

While she was also set on starting a new life, Lucy could not forget about informing her young friend Wendy of her departure. The two girls had been like sisters, ever since Wendy joined Fairy Tail, and parting ways like this would be kind of heartbreaking. The girls may not see each other until the Grand Magic Games or whenever a much less dramatic event comes around for the country of Fiore, but Lucy knew they would still be friends. Wendy and Carla had not been in the guild for quite a long while, since Lucy's letter to the sky dragon slayer had still remained untouched on the desk, and Lucy just thought that were out on a pretty difficult job somewhere.

Lucy had packed some casual clothes into a small black suitcase that she had, and she also made sure to pack some bathroom supplies for when she needed to bathe or do her hair. The Sabertooth guild probably had all the soap and shampoo types that Lucy had ever dreamed of, but it might not have had all the furniture in her apartment. Despite that minor setback, knowing that Sting was the master of that guild, Lucy could tell that things would begin to get better for her. She did have her keys with her, too. As a way to show loyalty to her new guild, Lucy also packed the yellow flag with the Sabertooth emblem on it.

Seeing that there was nothing left for her to do, the blonde mage slightly giggled while running out of the apartment with her spell book in her right hand while her left hand pulled the handle on her pink suitcase. She had managed to close the door behind her, though, making sure that no thieves would try to get in and be a bad surprise for the next tenant. As her cocoa brown eyes caught sight of the last boat heading out to sea, Lucy knew that 2:00 p.m. was when the last boat always left Magnolia. She did not want to run on the water again, since that might attract her friends to know that she truly was going to the rival guild, so how could Lucy reach Rustboro?

Suddenly, the blonde girl's problem was solved when she noticed that a certain blue cat with wings was flying through the air above her. This blue cat was known as Happy, the Exceed that Natsu had owned, and Happy had gone on many missions with Lucy. He had not seen her around lately, being pretty worried about the fact that Natsu had let his secret slip out, but Happy truly did feel bad for Lucy. They were really great friends, even though Happy sometimes made perverted jokes about Lucy, and she smiled softly while loudly shouting his name. Her voice got his attention, and Happy flew down to be in front of Lucy.

"Hey, Lucy! Today is a beautiful day for us to spend some time together! I haven't seen you in about ten days, and I was hoping that Natsu's secret affair with Lisanna for six months had not caused you to do anything that involved self-harm. Oh, no! I just told you the big secret! Please don't make those guys from Aqua Kyogre come to find me!" Happy told her in a cheerful manner when he had seen her while joyfully smiling, before looking scared at the fact that he let out a secret that wasn't so secret anymore.

The brown-eyed girl replied while smiling softly, knowing that this might be a bit difficult for her flying friend to hear, "I know about the secret, Happy, so there's no need to freak out. Anyway, I have to leave Magnolia behind. You know, everyone in the guild is really misjudging me. They thought that I was too sensitive like a crybaby for them to tell me about Natsu being a two-timing jerk, and I just hate how they all kept saying things behind my back while saying lies to my face. The Sabertooth guild is in the town of Rustboro, and that's where I'm headed. Please don't tell anyone, Happy."

Her departure came as a bit of a shock to the blue Exceed, but he shrugged it off when she had mentioned that people in the Fairy Tail guild were giving her a hard time. Happy could tell that Lucy's discovery of Natsu's affair with Lisanna had really caused the tension to increase, making him really wish that the fire dragon slayer had picked a much better strategy than prolonging his relationship with Lucy, and the blue Exceed felt bad for not saying anything about the affair to her. Since he wanted to find some way to make up for all of this, since Lucy deserved compensation, Happy easily lifted Lucy and her luggage off the ground to take her over the sea to reach the town of Rustboro.

Meanwhile, at part of a certain hideout in an unknown location...

Shelly had been in the shower room of Aqua Kyogre's hideout, using her own personal shower that was fit for a top commander like her, and the black-haired woman had been thinking about what Marina had told her a few moments earlier. Lucy Heartfilia was heading back to the guild of Sabertooth, clearly going to get her new guild mark from Sting, and Shelly could only wonder why her guild also needed to keep an eye out for the other light guilds. Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale weren't planning anything, so people would just be wasting their time. Shelly clearly knew that, but her boss was kind of paranoid.

The blue-eyed woman had secretly been observing Fairy Tail the most, however, and the people in that guild did have quite an interesting array of abilities. She had written down the strengths and weaknesses that she noticed in each person, whether it was from the cameras or the files that kept track of the jobs that each person was doing, and Shelly was really glad to have teammates who could use the Water Observance Technique like how she could also use it. That technique allowed the user to see anything they wished, and they could see everything mainly through puddles or the ocean.

As Shelly used a blue washcloth to wash her body, sighing in pleasure while she scrubbed her large rear, she could not help but smirk at the fact that Lucy Heartfilia had left her old guild to join Sabertooth. Compassion was never something that the tanned woman could really ever have, and she was glad that Lucy was smart enough to leave a cheater like Natsu behind. Not only had Marina told Shelly that Natsu got beaten down by flames, but she also told her that the fire dragon slayer was really dense when he had to deal with the topic of women.

Shelly knew that getting cheated on was a really horrible thing, and that's why she had used her Water Magic to create a move that would freeze its enemies from the inside when her lips made contact with theirs. It was not used very much, however, since Shelly liked to save it for guys that she found to be really attractive, and the flirty woman narrowed her blue eyes while remembering how he was so weak. Whatever Lucy saw in him that her want to defend him, Shelly just could not understand it. She could only say that two pathetic people deserved each other, but would Shelly say that when she and Lucy would have their rematch?

She began to wash her stomach now, scrubbing in a slow manner while feeling the warm water from the shower head land on her body, and Shelly felt the warm beads of precipitation latch on to her skin. The steam fogged up the glass door while she was in the shower, and the tanned woman continued to smirk excitedly while she remembered the fierce look in Lucy's eyes when they had first fought. Those were the eyes of someone who sought power, wanting to become much stronger, and Shelly could tell that this was going to be fun. If Lucy had discord with Natsu, interfering with the ability to control her emotions, then the conflict had to subside for a while.

"Natsu Dragneel, you very dense boy. You made quite an enemy out of Lucy, cheating on her while wanting to have an affair with Lisanna, and you never even took her feelings into consideration for one moment. You can get very hotheaded with Fire Magic, but fighting is your only good point. Based on how you treated Lucy, it looks like your bad karma shall soon begin to come. Even if Lucy has left the guild, your actions have decided either the ascending of your ego or the descent of your reputation." Shelly spoke aloud in a calm manner while still smirking evilly, knowing that those two basic outcomes could cause many complications for Natsu.

Even though Shelly had seen Lucy to be pretty weak right now, the blonde girl just would not leave her thoughts. Marina had even brought up the suggestion to make Lucy join them, but that was a pretty bad idea. It was never good to bring total tension into a person's life, and Lucy was probably feeling great joy from being with Sting. If that happiness could make Lucy fully turn on Fairy Tail, then she would become much more focused on becoming a stronger mage. Lucy would also become more busy on the other side of Fiore, making her old guild wonder where she would go. Hopefully, they would never find her.

As Shelly turned off the water to end her shower, she heard a soft knock at her door. The black-haired woman looked a bit curious while she had to wonder who could possibly be wanting to see her, and she opened the sliding glass door while stepping out of the shower. She put the aqua blue towel around her body while she walked out of the bathroom, and Shelly was standing directly across from the aqua blue door to her dorm room at the guild. (The room's description will be talked about later on in the story, so there's no need to worry.)

She looked a bit miffed while hoping that it wasn't some grunts causing problems again, and Shelly unlocked the front door to see a little girl with blue hair standing there with a large brown bag in her left hand that looked like it was from a fast food restaurant while she had a large cup of Coca-Cola in her right hand. Shelly looked a bit curious at first about what was going on, but then she smiled a bit while remembering that she had sent out a flyer that requested for someone to get her something to eat because she had been too busy with checking out files.

The little girl at the door was Wendy Marvell, the sky dragon slayer from Fairy Tail, and she was on this job with her white Exceed named Carla. Shelly had heard of this young girl, since the file on Wendy let her know that she had been evenly matched with Chelia when they had battled on the third day of the Grand Magic Games last year, and she had probably guessed that Wendy told the grunts outside at the guild's entrance about the delivery for her. Shelly had also included 8,000 jewels with the flyer beforehand, and that was because she never felt like giving tips to anyone.

"Here you go, Shelly Izumi of Aqua Kyogre. Seven large double cheeseburgers with two boxes of large fries, and an extra large Coca-Cola. I'm glad that we got this job done for you, but it's too bad that your guild is so far away from Magnolia. At least the close restaurant was worth this three-day trip. Enjoy your food, Miss Shelly." Wendy told her with a happy smile on her face while handing the food to Shelly, before walking away with Carla to find the warp panel that would take them back to the entrance of Aqua Kyogre as they heard the hideout's music playing on loop through an intercom. (It's the Aqua/Magma Hideout music from Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, just so you know.)

While Shelly quickly closed and locked the door to her room, she really could not believe that those grunts let a little girl from Fairy Tail enter into the guild's secret hideout. She would definitely have to fire them, especially if Wendy picked the wrong warp panels and ended up in a few places where unauthorized people were forbidden to enter. Running to the window of her dorm room, not even caring that her towel fell off, she could see that Wendy had been escorted out of the guild by some grunts from the research and development part of Aqua Kyogre. Shelly could tell that they were from that section because of the white lab coats, making her sigh with relief while she was glad that Wendy did not enter the snack room that had her private supply of brownies hidden from everyone else.

Meanwhile, at the Sabertooth guild...

After Happy had gotten Lucy to the town of Rustboro, as well as flying away after she gave him a thankful hug, Lucy entered the guild of Sabertooth with a kind smile on her face. The place smelled sweet as always, smelling like the taste of sugary mochaccinos because of Sting selecting that option from a machine that could spray various scents into the air. Every scent smelled simply wonderful to all of the members, and the great smell of the guild had worked well with the delicious taste of the food. Quite a good combination, was it not?

Lucy smiled happily while walking over to a table where Sting was sitting with Rogue, Yukino, Lector, and Frosch, so she decided to sit in the white chair next to the guy who she was attracted to. Sting's good nose had allowed him to quickly detect the scent of Lucy, and the white dragon slayer joyfully hugged his blonde girlfriend while lifting her off of the chair to hold her in his arms. Lucy blushed a light shade of pink while feeling Sting's comforting warmth, loving how he had such great muscles, and he held her in such a gentle and affectionate way.

Due to Sting not telling them what had happened while they were out on a job together, Rogue and Yukino both looked curious about what was going on. Frosch smiled a bit while guessing that Lucy was now Sting's wife, but Lector confidently smirked while telling the green Exceed about how Lucy and Sting had kissed back at Cafe Kawaii. The confident cat was the first friend that Sting had told about his very first kiss, and he gave a thumbs-up to white dragon slayer while winking at the fact that his strategy for flirting with Lucy had paid off in the biggest way.

Rogue just smiled kindly while Yukino kindly smiled at the fact that another couple was formed, and Sting had asked Lucy about how her business went with Fairy Tail. The blonde girl frowned a bit while telling him that she did not have the chance to get her guild mark removed because of Natsu interfering with her, and she had beaten him down with his own type of magic. She had now found herself able to access Fire Magic in the spell book, and its molding properties were also playing a role in why Natsu couldn't eat the flames. The fourth spell had been created by Lucy, but she had not used it because three spells was enough to defeat her jerky ex-boyfriend.

Sting chuckled a bit at the fact that Lucy defeated Natsu through what was probably a good battle, and the satisfied look in his charming blue eyes let Lector know that the newspaper trick had worked. After all, how else could Natsu have found out about Aqua Kyogre being at the Oceanic Museum? Even though he now knew that they had been stopped by Lucy, Natsu might just give the grunts a good laugh. He was a real jerk for cheating on Lucy, even making her think that stabbing herself had been a good option to make the pain go away, but Natsu was nowhere near Sting. He was not a gentlemen like the blond male, and Sting was much hotter.

As Lucy blushed happily while she was about to kiss Sting's cheek, a person shouted in a manner that sounded mixed with heckling and shock while they read the newspaper from last week, "You have got to be kidding me, Sting! What in the world were you thinking by taking on those guys from Aqua Kyogre? Man, those people are powerful enough to make my lightning fizzle out! You took on Shelly Izumi at the Oceanic Museum, and you got totally whupped by her! No wonder you came back smelling like blueberry air freshener two nights ago!"

The blonde girl turned around slowly to see that the voice belonged to Orga Nanagear, the lightning god slayer of Sabertooth, and he walked towards the table with the Memory-Make mage known as Rufus Lohr. The green-haired male was reading the newspaper, his eyes going down to the part where Sting had chased after Shelly throughout the nearby town of Celadon during the night while Lucy had been asleep in Magnolia, and the black-haired woman had distracted the blond male by throwing a blue smoke bomb at his feet. It released blue smoke, smelling like blueberry air freshener, and that would explain why he was getting derided by the reader of the media.

Sting shouted loudly while looking defensive, narrowing his blue eyes, "Be quiet, Orga! I don't see you trying to take down any infamous thieves, so give me some credit for trying! Unlike you, I actually kissed a girl! Lucy is one of us now, and I have been waiting for this moment."

Before anyone could ask what was going on, Sting pulled out the color kit and stamp with the Sabertooth guild insignia on it from the left pocket of his blue vest. He knew that this was where Lucy would become an official member of the Sabertooth guild, so he asked her to stand up. Lucy did as she was instructed to, and she smiled happily while Sting asked her about where she wanted her new guild mark to be. He also asked her about what color she wanted it to be, wondering if she would be the first person to ever have the guild mark in orange.

Lucy joyfully told him that she'd like to have the guild mark in melon green, and she would love to have it stamped on her left waist. Sting gladly smiled at the request of the girl who had given him a pretty good date today, and he stamped the Sabertooth insignia on her left waist. While Lucy cheered happily at the fact that she was now officially a member of Sabertooth, Sting had thought of something good that he could do for her tomorrow. He did not know if Lucy was the type of person who enjoyed having tons of fun, but he would make tomorrow be a good day for the kind girl. After all, Lucy deserved a day that was full of fun instead of having half of that day be a farce with fairies.

How was the 9th chapter? Did you like it? Lucy has now officially joined Sabertooth, and now she is much closer to Sting! The StiCy shall build up from the attraction, and let's just say that our heroes shall meet the enemy of Shelly! This will be interesting, especially when it's the enemy of an enemy! How shall tomorrow turn out? Standby for the update!