I am the worst writer on this planet. I admit it, it's a fact. Jesus christ, what was it, 3 months? Give or take a week? For anyone that cared, I'm sorry, but I was kinda stuck in a rut for awhile because of...personal reasons, plus I also just moved into a new town/school and school started in general. So, to summarize, a lot of shit happened. But now this chapter is here, in before 3 more months (hopefully not). I hope you guys, nameless internet people, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters, nor the title, Fairy Tail. My only property in this story is Calem.

Happy

Confusion was the understatement of the week the way Happy saw things play out. First the stone cage in front of Lucy's apartment, then some weird guy with weird magic that kept on being unnecessarily cryptic, and finally a smack happy old guy who is actually their employer, but also kind-of creepy and definitely strong.

'What is wrong with people? Why can't anyone just be honest with each other?' Happy mulled over the recent events in his head again and again while he fluttered along following the old man, looking for something that would help him to understand literally anything about the past half-hour he just witnessed. Nothing really helped.

Happy took a look back at the cloaked wizard, now with his hood up and looking off at the canal, lost in his thoughts. He didn't seem like that bad of a guy. A bit mysterious, for sure. And beyond antisocial. And intimidating, sometimes, but other times not. Those other times he was a bit of an ass, and obviously hiding something.

In fact, this stranger reminded Happy of Gray, albeit he wasn't as straightforward, and had more control over his emotions. He wasn't sure how he felt about this observation.

'Maybe this guy is just a traveller. We could help him out if that's the case.' As soon as he thought it, Happy knew that he was deluding himself. There was an off-putting vibe he gave, and his reaction to Romulus's 'soul mage' comment left plenty of questions. Too many for even him to ignore.

Happy realized his was staring, so he quickly looked back forward to the rest of the pack before he got noticed. They were all just as quiet, deep in their own takes on the strangers. Especially Lucy, who woke up just a few minutes ago. She look the most conflicted of them all, if not all that confused.

Happy's gaze fell lastly on the leader of their company, the old man, who was in good spirits, waving to passerbys and everything.

'I spend time with the wierdest bunch. I should hang out with Carla and Wendy more. At least they don't go looking for people like this.' Happy hovered in between Natsu and Lucy, which eased his anxiety but didn't quell it.

"So," he started, barely whisperring, getting their attention, "what do you lovebirds think of all this?" Happy couldn't resist the jab, but he was legitimitely curious of their takes on the matter. Plus, he noticed Gray chuckle. That was worth something.

Natsu, ignoring the comment, answered his question.

"What is there to think about?" He said, not as quiet however still lowly toned. "We've got our job, and this Romulus guy hired us. As for the other guy, well, next time he hits, I'm gonna hit back. There's nothing to worry about."

Happy knew Natsu well. He knew that Natsu preferred to move past his problems in the simplest manner. Happy also knew that he was lying, and was just as curious, if not more, about what to do with their newfound +1. But Happy kept quiet about his train of thought. He found some things were best not said aloud.

"How 'bout you, Gray?" Gray collected his thoughts for the moment, then laid out his plan of action.

"I'm just gonna follow the directions old guy, complete our mission, and keep an eye on our tagalong back there. I've got my suspicions about the punk." It was left at that, simple, clear, and extremely potent, if he was implying what Happy believed he was.

"How about you, Lucy?"

"Yeah Luce," Natsu added, "you were in the middle of that mess. What's your take?" There was a hit of edge in Natsu's tone as Lucy's gaze faded, looking not what was ahead, but at the memories she held. Happy could see something didn't add up in her head.

"I don't really know what to make of this."

"Lucy, don't trust anything this guy says or does." Gray said, sensing her turmoil, as they all did, and spoke up ever so slightly, still sure to keep his voice low. "He has motives we don't know. So until then, this guy should get no sympathy."

"Amen to that." Natsu and Gray pumped fists, thinking they had the situation handled, if not figured out, and therefore eased all their minds. Everyone was labeled appropriately: who to protect, who to listen to, and who to hurt.

But Happy failed to stay as convinced of those labels, and by how the three of them stayed tense, he knew they all had the same gnawing feeling in the back of their minds.

Something big was afoot, and while Fairy Tail would be caught in the storm, this stranger was at its center.

"So much for an easy mission today."

Lucy

'Natsu and Gray are right,' Lucy repeated this phrase over and over in her mind, 'Calem is actually not a good person. He just has an adversion to quick deaths. Or something.'

Lucy remained unconvinced. The facts of the matter were Calem saved her. She could have died. Just like that. But his quick actions prevented that fate.
And yet he also attacked her friends and an old man. What compelled him to do that? Rage? Frustration? Pleasure?

Desperation?

Lucy began to try and put the pieces the best she could. 'Calem must've lashed out at everyone to escape, if what he said is true.'
Which brought Lucy to one more bullet in her list of ponderings: Calem had warned her, all of them, that he was essentially a bad omen, and someone, or someones, were following him.

It clicked. According to Natsu, Fairy Tail had gotten a mass hiring by one flier, which was a warning about oncoming genocide. Calem was hiding and running from something dangerous, so dangerous that knowing about it made you a target, and knowing him made you an accomplice. So the end of the Magnolia must be this...*itl* thing *end itl*...that relentlessly follows Calem.

Spooky.

But there were loose ends there too, and Lucy racked her brain to answer them. How did the old man, Romulus, fit into all this? How did he know about the suppossed coming genocide, and about Calem? And what was then the whole point of those hitmen?

'Uhhhh, I don't have enough brain power to solve this condundrum alone.' She looked back at Calem, wishing once more Levy was there to help solve the puzzle that this situation was. In the midst of it, sshe couldn't help but sympathize. The poor guy. He had wandered into town apparently alone just to be sucked into this mess, and antagonized because he held some secrets. She could relate.

Lucy shook herself out of it. This was no time to be soft. In all of her books, the best villians were the ones she had sympathy for. Calem could be just like that. It wasn't smart to be letting her guard down.
"And here we are folks!" Lucy, along with everyone else, snapped back into reality at the sudden announcement of their arrival at what appeared to be an old, slightly larger toolshed.

"Here? Are you sure, guy? This place seems..." Natsu, always free with his opinion as Lucy had come to learn, caught a very threatening glare from Romulus, causing to straighten out like he was a soldier waiting for permission.

'If looks could kill, that one would wipe out acres.' Lucy almost chuckled at her joke, but remembered how possible genocide was unless they played their cards wrong, baring if Romulus was telling the truth. That thought blew away all traces of a smile from her face.

Gray and Happy had no such stipulations, their guts bursting at the prospect of Natsu, seasoned dragonslayer and combatant, being intimidated, almost bullied, by man looking thrice his age with a wooden cane.
'Somehow, Lucy thought, 'Romulus truely makes his appearance daunting.'

"Got something to say about my home? Better out than in." Natsu, choosing physical over mental health, kept his mouth shut, much to the elder's delight.

"Good." He turned on a heel with grace that should've left him years prior and opened the door into his wooden home.

"Now inside gentlemen, lady, and cat. Its better we speak in private." Lucy shrugged and continued her lazy walk towards the door behind the rest of her Fairy Tail bretheren, only to be halted abruptly by Calem, who wore a very menacing glare.

Lucy only pretended not to be frightened, keeping on her brave face and staring the wizard who was the source of all her questions. So Lucy she figured she'd ask them.

"Alright, Calem," Lucy unwittingly taunting him with her knowledge of his name as well as immeadiately turning the tables on him, "I've got more than a few bones to pick with you." Calem frowned and closed the door leading into the shack.

"No questions. I am only stopping you for one reason: Do NOT, under any circumstance, reveal to them my name. This whole situation is getting worse by the second."

Lucy lost her mask at the comment. Orderring her to keep information from her most trusted comrades? And this belief that he was the cause of this mess? The nerve of some people.

"You narcissist!" Lucy smacked the fool without remorse, deciding it was now or never to lay down the law. "Here is the situation, whether you see it or not. This place, my home, my entire way of life, could be in danger, and I don't plan on taking any chances. You think you can just tell us to ignore all this, cause I for sure can't!"

The longer she went, the more extravagant her arm and head movements became. Calem was helpless against it.

"So, *italics*Calem*end italics*, the way I see it, if you are the type of guy that isn't a total ass and saves others like you saved me, you'll help us. Keep your secrets for all I care! As long as that information doesn't *italics*remotely*end italics* effect this situation. If I find out you are withholding something crucial, so help me, damn it." Lucy took a few breaths and stuck an erect finger under his chin as Calem raised his palms and stretched his neck away, surrenderring against the lividness of the lecture he was being given.

"Ok. Fine. I swear I'll work with you and your guild to solve this problem of yours." Immeadiatly after it was said, Calem looked like he regretted it, but Lucy didn't care. She got the answer she wanted out of him. And a promise was a promise.

"Good. Then since you're working with us for however long, the others deserve to know your name, if nothing else." Lucy savorred his reaction of utter shock before flinging open the door and strutting inside, leaving Calem in her dust, realizing that she completely tore his attempt at intimidation apart.

'He shouldn't have been so...whatever he was. This is where it gets him.'

"Wait..." she heard him stammer out, but there wasn't any hope for his anonymity. Lucy was determined to see to that.'

The shack, while not appealling on the outside, Lucy found pretty nice in its interior. Cozy was the first word that came to her mind. A simple living room, with a small table, a few chairs, a rug on the floor, and a door in the corner was all that the room held, but all it needed.

Lucy shook her observations away. There would be time for decor admiration later. Right now, she should address her reasons for slamming open doors to her now curious cast of onlookers. She took another breath.

"Guys, I want you to meet Calem. He is gonna be helping us with this whole genocide thing." Romulus seemed to understand, and continued about his business of collecting scattered papers, but Natsu, Gray, and Happy all kept wearing their puzzled expressions.

Lucy sighed, slightly hunching over out of habit, and half-heartedly gestured to the slowly enterring figure that Calem was, instantly transforming all of the confusion into a mix of realization and surprise.

"You got him to tell you his name?! When?! How?!" Gray stood, after a stagger, from his seated position on the floor. If he had a drink Lucy would've swore he'd have spit it out.

"He decided to tell me in dire circumstances, I guess."

"Worst. Decision. Ever." Lucy shot Calem the stink eye for his undertone comment, who shuffled slightly from his leaning position against the wall.

"Wanna say that again, guy?" Natsu, never to be the gentle one, a quirk that never ceased to annoy Lucy, got right up in Calem's face, which appeared to bother him greatly, his forehead growing creases. But despite that he didn't flinch at the verbal assault.

"Careful. You don't know what your dealing with."

"That right? How 'bout we test that theory of yours, hm?"

Lucy sighed at the growing ordeal, thinking a basic question as the tension grew. 'Those two won't mesh well, will they?'

Her answer came in the form of Natsu's fist igniting spontaneously, while Calem held a glare that she felt posed just as big a threat, though it was unclear why. She could assume that the situation was synonymous to a straightforward no.

Lucy shot a look at Romulus, who didn't seem at all concerned about what was happenning, instead tending to a ball of crystilline lacrima levetating above the wooden table. Where it had come from was a thought string she didn't care about.

Gray seemed to care even less about the possible destruction. At least he showed no sign of wanting to stop the possible outburst.

Which, in her role call of able bodies, Happy not included, left her.

'Lucky me.' Nevertheless, Lucy took action, stepping gently into Natsu's peripherals, with a firm grasp on his shoulder and deep sigh for effect. Natsu fiercely whipped his head in her direction, while Calem merely flicked his eyes over the same way.

"Natsu," Lucy quickly recognized the anger in his eyes, and wondered how he could get so worked up over something so little, "let it go. Work with him for a week or 2, let this fiasco clear up, then we all move our seperate ways." Lucy, while she would never fail to let anyone know this, prided herself in being able to reach Natsu no matter what mood he was in. But after a quick glance at his would-be adversary, Lucy was having trouble thinking she could keep him from murderring the fool before the day was up.

And the more she thought about it, the less likely it was that any of them could even have a straight conversation with Calem, let alone work with him.

"Alright, dumbasses," Romulus drew all attention over to him, striking a tone like nothing remotely hostile was happening around him, "gather round the crystal ball and shut up for once in all your lives. Except you, Calem. You just stay as quiet as you have been." Calem, like all the rest of them, prodded in front of the small wooden table inside the small wooden room which accompassed most of the small wooden shack. All the while his gaze never left the elder man, who didn't seem to notice.

It didn't take much for Lucy to figure Calem was suspicious of the guy. But why? That was the million dollar question. She shook it off, though. Now was the time for listening to what this old man had brought them here to say.

"hrmmph. Ok. I guess I start with the simple explination: I can see the future." Natsu fell backward from his seated position in front of the lacrima, and immeadiately Happy fell ontop of him. Gray and Lucy went from looks of curiousity to ones of disbelief. Calem only seemed to tighten his glare.

"Ok, now that the initial shock is gone, I'll explain further." Romulus waved his hand over the smooth lacrima ball, close to, but never, touching it. "I am one of the few remaining Seers - which is essentially just a person who can percieve the future. It isn't very percise, or have very good timing, and they are never complete events, always fragments." Romulus gave them a pause for that to sink in. "To counter the imperfection and fleeting moments of our visions, Seers like myself use this special, but very dangerous lacrima-"

"Doesn't look so dangerous." Natsu reached a palm to grasp the crystal, but was instantaneously, and rather viciously, swatted away.

"DON'T TOUCH THE LACRIMA, FOOL!" Romulus, let out an ear splitting yell while shielding, but not touching, his precious crystal. Natsu had shot up and leaned away from the defensive elder, while everyone else just raised curious eyebrows. After the initial moment of shock, Romulus, as well as the rest, returned to their original seats.

"This crystal is special." Romulus began slowly, clearing holding in his temper as Lucy noticed and noted. "If someone were to place a hand apon it, the results could be catastrophic for the individual." His hand shot up to signal he knew the incoming questions. "If a non-Seer, their mind would either break, turning them into a drooling moron, or wipe completely, sending them back to the ripe mental age of infancy." Another hand, more silence. "Seers are able to handle this lacrima due to their training and development of psychic blocks and mental magic resistance, as well as good old fashioned experience. It helps contain, collect, and project what we see so that the vision is cleaner and more focused, and so others can see it."

Another exasperated pause, and Lucy couldn't contain her disbelief.

"Th-that's impossible. The future can't be...told. Read like it was out of a book." The rest, she noticed, continued to try and get over the idea of knowing exactly what was gonna happen at all times. Needless to say, as Lucy knew what they were going through, it was a bit unsettling.

"Oh, really?" Their senior appeared all too delighted to correct her and flaunt his knowledge. "What about Tarot Cards? If I remember, one Cana Alberona is the Fairy Tail Guild's resident fortune teller, no?" Lucy scoffed, the question of how he knew that front-flipping over her head.

"That's different. It's prediction, not straight fact." Lucy sputtered out lamely, immeadiately remembering that they were there to alter said 'fact'.

"The idea of the future," Romulus explained slowly so the less intellectual members of the company could keep up, "is that there is one for each and every situation. If our lives would continue as they were now, my percieved future would come true. However, by actively attempting to change it..."

"Something new is created." finished Calem, whose stare never faltered, but his brown eyes gave away his thoughts. At least, what Lucy thought his thoughts were.

"Exactly. Would you all care for a demonstration?"

"For sure, old man!" Natsu bellowed with his usual levels of enthusiasm when trouble brewed. "Just show me what I need to hit, then this whole future changing thing will be good!" Before Gray got the chance, Romulus clocked the Fire Dragon Slayer back down into his seated position with a fresh bump on his head.

"Things are never that simple. My visions are vague at best, and calling forth a Sight isn't exactly as easy as when they spontaneously show themselves. Now shut p and let me focus."

Romulus placed both hands on the crystal, and many tense moments passed for everyone as they all wondered and waited for what they might see, what they didn't want to see. Eventually, the lacrima as well as Romulus's eyes began to glow with a deep green and black light: displaying what Lucy could only assume was a Sight, as he had called it. The room began to fade from existance, being replaced with an unwanted future:

Fires burned all around the city, across primarily vacant streets. What was once buildings was now piles of rubble and debris. There was few bodies, but the ones that remained were torn, bloodied, and broken. It was utter chaos, and Lucy wanted none of it to be true.

The picture altered, zooming to the top of the valley that Magnolia was holed in. The once green, lucious grass was now dead, dry, and brown, the valley had not taken its beating lightly.

Nor did Fairy Tail, as several members laid strewn about ontop of the dying lip of the valley. Lucy cringed at the sight, but never once looked away. The unconcious bodies of her friends was terrifying, but her curiousity and will to see the entirety of the vision overpowered the terror of seeing her guildmates in this state.

The picture kept flashing forward and forward, sometimes inches, others a few feet, always focusing on a body of Fairy Tail for barely a moment before flashing to the next.

Gajeel was broken in several places, his iron skin failing to hold together his many bleeding scrapes and slashes, nor the fracture he had in his left leg and arm. Levy was nowhere to be seen.

Wendy, the youngest of them all, was missing her right hand. It had not come off clean, and the sight of her kneeling there with Carla, unable to move from the pain of her hand, and in general her entire body, brought tears to Lucy's eyes.

Gray was propped up against a stump of a tree, his body letting off a light steam from a bleeding wound lashed across his bare chest that Lucy knew for sure would scar. Juvia sat next to him, whimpering for her one sided love to return from his unconciusness, not without her own injuries.

Erza struggled to stand, but looked like she was in the worst shape of all, having a multitude of obvious fractures in her legs and arms. She wore no armor, just the simple firery pants and wrappings, and held only a single broadsword, using it as a means to stand rather than to fight. But still she stood, hunched with her right arm limp, her spirit defiant as always.

Despite the upbringing the sight of Erza was, Lucy couldn't help but gasp at the sight of herself. She was also barely concious, and broken, and was beside her, unable to fly but just hold his meager standing position next to her. The worst part wasn't her own injuries, though - it was the state of her keys. All of them, from Plue's silver key to each and every Zodiac keys were all broken or cracked. Some snapped in two, other were outright shattered in 4+ ways. Lucy, like the self she saw in this Sight, collapsed and began to cry.

But she didn't look away from the next shot. It was Natsu, also extremely beaten, but standing with dragonfire surrounding his entire body and a look in his eyes that showed he meant to kill. The darkness crawled around him, some of it seeming almost physical in form. And Natsu stood unyielding in its center, a light in the shadow of a blacked out figure. Lucy failed to make out his face, only that he was thinner, somewhat tall, and wore a long hooded cloak.

Natsu launched himself straight at the mysterious enemy, but was batted away, seemingly without much effort exerted, as he flew aside into a nearby tree. Lucy heard a haunting laugh, before a beam of concentrated magic blazed white and black down into the center of Magnolia, and the following explosion tore through the entire area, consuming them all.

The magic of the vision broke, and all of them were left in a state of shock with a mix of tears, agony, and frustration. Lucy checked her keys only to find them all safe and whole. Gray patted his chest, not feeling the long, smoking lash that he saw just moments ago. Natsu's hands were in fists and on fire, light tears in his eyes, and Happy hugged his leg, bawling.

Calem just stood, leaning back but with obvious discomfort and as much shock as the rest of them. His discomfort seemed to get worse when both Gray and Natsu snapped his direction to give accusing stares that lasted several seconds.

The silence broke from Romulus's coughing fit, and the rest of light in his eyes faded from the room. Before the room fell back into it's tense quiet, Natsu acted, launching himself forward and grabbing Calem by the collar of his shirt.

"What's the big idea, pal? Have you been planning this for a while, or is it a recent idea?" Natsu leaned close, fire escaping from his nostrils, but Calem kept a cool that was obviously not as together as he let on. Nevertheless, his hand lashed from its position on his side to break the hold Natsu had on him, only for him and Gray to grab hold of both his wrists and pin him against the wall.

"I'm not here to hurt anyone!" Calem yelled at them all, which was the largest he had raised his voice all day, and it went unconvinced by the two emtionally unstable mages that had pinned him. "If I'm honest, I'm begginning to regret coming here at all!" That too fell upon deaf ears, and Lucy saw the fight coming. Romulus smothered the idea though, with a few wacks of his stick.

'How'd he get over there so fast?' Lucy thought, but the answer didn't come nor did she care about it. An all out brawl was nagated, and that was fine in her books, no matter how it got done.

"Fools, the both of you!" Romulus said over the now kneeling Natsu and Gray. "We don't know who or what that figure could or couldn't be! For all we know, any man or woman, excluding present company, save Calem and I, could be our downfall."

"Exactly, old man. It could be, and IS, this asshole," Gray jestured to Calem, who scoffed in disbelief, "because we didn't see him all beat up AND that man who shot the damn beam-thing wore a cloak like his!" Romulus narrowed his eyebrows.

"By that logic," Romulus retorted, "I could be the murderer of Magnolia. A black cloak isn't exactly something exclusive."

"Well, we do know one thing," Lucy chimed in, sure of this as she was sure the sky was blue, "it isn't a member of Fairy Tail, cause none of them would do something like this." Romulus looked like he wanted to retort that, too, but changed his mind before speaking, seemingly agreeing to the statement. "So what do you want us to do against an enemy we don't know, nor when he will hit?" Lucy finished by crossing her arms and slightly tilting her a beat, the elder, self-dubbed Seer answered.

"Watch. Listen. And be ready at all times. Act with total caution and awareness but don't LOOK like you're cautious or aware, just in case he is already in the city and biding his time. Pass the word onto your guild, but go on with business as usual. Just with a bit more of a watchful eye." Romulus's orders were clear, direct, and logical, and Lucy didn't disagree with his plan.

"What about this clown?" Natsu growled at Calem, who looked lost within his mind, not noticing the jab.

"He promised to help, didn't he? He stays until unneeded, then he can go, or do whatever he chooses. Watch him 24/7 for all I care, but keep him around. I've a feeling he will be quite useful." Natsu nodded and grunted, obviously disliking the answer.

"No more questions? Good, now get out and spread the word to your guild. I'll inform you if I have another Sight. GO!" So they did, with an unfortunate 5th member of the group trailing behind them.

Again, sorry. I hope this chapter makes up for it, but it probably doesn't, and I should get the next one out ASAP. So, I'll try, but I don't really know how to phrase the next chapter. It's meant to develop Calem's abilities a bit further, but I'm just...stuck. The next chapter, at this moment, is titled Sharing, but that is subject to change at any moment. R&R, and I'll try to update soon.