Chapter 4

Cronus was never very good with trains... or transportation. In any way shape or form. To say he got motion sickness would be an extreme understatement. Now he lay on the train floor, clutching his stomach as it roiled and squelched with the shaking and rumbling of the train. Lucy looked down at him from her seat by the window, with a small smile on her lips. The madness found it funny, but there was a sadness to her eyes as she remembered what made this situation so familiar.

"You right there, Cronus?" The madness taunted, to which Cronus replied with a groan. It found his pain and discomfort funny. Somehow he wasn't surprised.

Hours later, they arrived at the Magnolia Train Station. Struggling to stand up Cronus was jerked forward as Lucy grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him, rather violently from the train, all the while muttering something about "Dragon Slayers being so fucking pathetic..."

Once off she was greeted by two large men who decided to escort her back to the guild.

"Hey Bunny, heard you kicked ass." Said the one with dark, long hair that hung down mid- back

"Yea... it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was supposed to take 3 days at least... it took be two to get there and back." Lucy sighed.

"Cheer up, Blondie." The other blonde grinned, He's knows he's blonde too right? Cronus sweat dropped. "Me and Gajeel are plannin' on goin' on a mission together later. Wanna tag along?"

"Sorry Laxus. I don't tag." By this time Cronus was standing at the back of the group, listening intent on their conversation. Laxus... Gajeel... where do I know those names...?...!... NO FUCKING WAY! With wide eyes he gaped at the two of them.

"Hey Luce..." I muttered, coming up behind her and putting a hand on her shoulder, only to remove it when she stiffened and reached for her whip. "You never told me you knew the Laxus Dreyer and the Gajeel Redfox!"

"How many Laxus' and Gajeel's to do know..?" She eyed him, slightly amused. Cronus was turning into a fan girl, and the madness was finding it hilarious. To be honest, so was Lucy.

But it didn't go down well with the two guys who had noticed him touch her, they growled their distaste at his mere existence and jogged to catch up with the still walking Lucy.

"So what if we make a deal?" Laxus suggested, much unlike himself. Lucy had been acting weird lately, and she smelled different, it interested Laxus in a way that kind of made her hotter. Eyeing Laxus from the corner of her eye, Lucy said;

"I'm listening."

"Lets make a bet, if you come on the mission with us, and you knock out more people than I do, I'll give you half my share." A grin spread on Lucy's face as she stopped walking and turned to Laxus.

"Are you sure about that, Blondie?"

"Course, I don't make a bet I don't mean." He said, regretting it a bit.

"Then you have yourself a deal." She said, and they shook on it. He's going down so hard he won't even know what hit 'im. "So what's the mission?" She asked, turning back to walk to the guild.

"Dunno yet. Figure we'd ask the weakest link before she got hurt." Gajeel piped in.

"Trust me, metal-head. You've got nothing to worry about on this end." She assured as the madness began to writhe behind her eyes.

Storming through the doors to Fairy Tail brought a great satisfaction to Lucy. She didn't care that no one turned to look or greet her. She was here for a milkshake and another job and that was it. But when she went to the bar, the guys didn't leave her. They sat on either side and ordered their own drinks. Great... she thought while rolling her eyes, now I've got Laxus and Gajeel instead of Natsu and Gray. Not much of a switch.

"So what's with the guy you brought home?" Gajeel asked after a moment of silence.

"Found him." Lucy shrugged.

"Oh yeah? And what were you doing when you found him?"

"I was killing his team..."

"Lucy, it was meant to be a track and capture, not a track and slaughter." Laxus sighed.

"Awww! But Laxus-nii-san! It was so much fun!" She giggled. Only Cronus didn't react.

She was bored. Not just a little bored, really really bored. She had been leaning against a tree for the past thirty minutes waiting for the guys to get back from scouting the dark guild they were supposed to obliterate.

And she was bored.

"Fuck it..." she muttered, pushing herself off of the tree to stand and walking towards the large wooden metal doors of the dark guilds head quarters. She raised a fist and pounded it against the door. Usually she would come up with a plan, draw them all out into the open so she could attack. But the boredom had clouded her mind, so now her only plan was get in there and get the job done. The doors swung open and she walked in as if it were the most natural thing in the world, closing the door slowly behind her.

"Oi, Gajeel. Where'd Blondie go?" Laxus asked, taking hold of Gajeel's shoulder and angling him to the tree she was supposed to wait by.

"She wouldn't..." They gasped, turning on their heels and running to the large building they had been scouting. It was louder. There was screaming. Raising their hands to the door the slowly pushed it open. They couldn't see anything, it was so dark that Laxus lit up like a light bulb to get a clear view into the room. Scanning the room, the took in the gruesome sight, body after body lay mangled and broken, piles were placed all over the room and on the back wall stood a bar, with a blonde mage covered in blood and guts drinking a vanilla milkshake like it was an everyday occurrence.

"Hey Laxus?"

"uh?" He grunted, still shocked at the sight.

"You owe me half your share." She grinned from ear to ear, her pupils shrinking to tiny pinpoints from the light.