"_remind me why you are here again?" asked Sting for the hundredth time.

"_who? Me?" replied Nox. "Bah, I am here coz I don't have anywhere else to be and it gets lonely sometimes. Even if I do like some quiet."

"_are you sure it is not like you want to get some money from the attack?"

"_money is the last of my worries, don't fret! You are the first two humans I have a conversation with, that is not one-sided I mean, in something like eight years. So I have absolutely no use for jewels."

"_eight years?! No wonder you couldn't recognize Rogue and I! We are pretty famous though."

She shrugged.

"_why were you alone so long?" asked Rogue.

"_I was on that wretched island with those... fairies." She spat the word like poison. "Had a round to fix with them but I didn't get the chance to kick their arses. Fucking first master got in the way. Then I spent a year just tidying up loose ends I had left behind. I didn't really expect to leave for so long."

"_you don't seem to like them."

"_they killed my family."

The two dragon slayers stopped in their tracks.

"_they what?!"

"_I thought Fairy Tail was one of the few guilds that did not execute their opponents."

"_they executed these ones. Oh, we have arrived!"

She was right, the trees had suddenly given way to a clearing and a city could be seen in the distance. Nox looked up to the sky. It was around seven in the morning.

She let Rogue drag them to the town hall. Apparently, Sting had an awful sense of direction.

.

The mayor had been, in her opinion, very generous. He had given the two dragon slayers enough money to last her a lifetime, but she quickly understood that in this world, money did not stay long in the hands of one person.

They were currently sitting in the booth of a restaurant, Nox having been invited by Rogue since Sting was too busy wondering with what awesome food he was going to stuff his face. She hadn't ordered anything and her simply watched with disgust the guys drown mountains of food. She could not understand how they managed to keep all that down. Finally, once Rogue had finished his titanic meal he asked her a few questions:

"_where are you going to go now?"

"_most probably Oshibawa, there is a relic around there I need to destroy. Maybe I'll go to the forest after that, to rest a bit. And then I'll just carry on until I cross paths with Fairy Tail again and kick their arses once and for all."

"_Oshibawa? That's not a friendly place. It was where the book of chaos was before being moved to wherever."

"_Tenebris."

"_huh?"

"_Tenebris was the name of the village the book was transferred to."

"_how do you... oh right." She sent a crooked smile his way as Sting finally finished with the food.

"_so basically, you don't have any plans?"

"_hey! That Stings..." she said, pouting. Rogue laughed.

"_nice one."

"_I like it as well." Sting's fist balled and fake punched her as she replied to his friend. She arched an eyebrow at him.

"_bring it on matee. Bring it on."

.

Nox had dragged Sting and Rogue into the forest, arguing that if they were going to do damages, then it would be best not to have to pay for the reparations. Seeing the logic behind it all, Sting and Rogue had brought her to where they had set up camp the night before. Sting got ready to battle, whilst Nox merely formed her trusted sword out of the air surrounding them. Vazeriel. She was a beauty in the eyes of her holder. The sword was black, made of mythril. The handle was made of onyx and the blood of her victims had polished the blade to a point where it reflected the light of the moon. The whole sword was a deadly weapon, from the platinum hard handle, to the razor edged blade. That weapon was deadly. It was not ostentatious like Titania's swords were, nor was it a basic weapon. It was a deadly weapon for a night assassin.

Because that was what she was.

Nox had not meant to keep Vazeriel. The sword was a dark relic created by a wizard long ago and could only be wielded by one person of its choice. The wizard had made the blade in an attempt to unify the dark guilds together, a bit like the legend of Excalibur. Chaos had ensued when none could raise the sword, and it had lain forgotten in the darkest forest of Fiore, Mirkvyd. Nox had gone there to destroy the black stone that casted a whole shadow over the forest and had ended up drawing Vazeriel from the stone. The boulder had shattered, broken into pieces that soon vanished into the air alongside the ever-present darkness in the undergrowth. Nox was about to draw the magical power away from the sword when she held it in her hand. The sword fit there like an extension of her arm and she felt whole. Shaking away the feeling she did not like, Nox had put Vazeriel down and immediately felt the loss of the weight of her sword in her hand. She had stood there, dumbstruck, wondering what to do. The forest around her had lost its darkness, and she felt the urge to keep the sword with her. With a heartless chuckle, she had kept the sword. She had never regretted it.

Vazeriel had been with her ever since and was to the woman her most trusted weapon as Vazeriel and her had such a bond she felt as if the sword was part of her body. Vazeriel and her were one, and it went fine by both.

Sting was watching the hooded person intently. She had drawn a sword out of thin air, which would not have impressed him had that sword not emitted the aura it did. It felt like the sword in itself was alive. He saw Nox as she had called herself drag her finger down the edge of the sword with such care he suddenly doubted he had made a wise choice by provoking her to a duel. Rogue gave the signal of the start and Sting attacked.

The dragon roar he had started with drilled its way toward Nox and the woman stared at it with utter and complete boredom. Raising Vazeriel, she sliced clean through his magic. Sting stared, dumbstruck. That she could avoid his attack was not something extremely rare, but that she could slice through his dragon slayer magic as if it was nothing was not something he expected. He readied himself for another attack when he felt the cool touch of metal under his neck.

"_seems like I won."

.

"_when do you plan on leaving for Oshibawa?" asked the light dragon slayer. To his friend's relieved surprise, he had token his defeat rather well and him and Nox were now getting to know one another, which greatly surprised his Exceed.

"_in all honesty, I am not quite sure. Oshibawa isn't a pressing matter, and even if it was other guilds could take care of it as well."

"_I guess so, but they would need to create and alliance, which would take ages whilst you could just barge in a kill everyone."

"_are you flattering me?" asked a laughing Nox.

"_maybe..." all five of them laughed, glad the tension that had come after the fight was finally eased.

After a while, Nox got her calm back and said, more serious.

"_to be frank, being alone is, as much as I love it, sometimes a huge pain. Sure I get to move at my own pace and I can do my shit, but when the night comes and you are alone, there is no need of a monster to be afraid of the darkness of your own minds."

Rogue looked at her. Her eyes were forlorn and she was looking into the fire though she gave him the impression she was looking past the flames. Into the embers of her own heart. Into the flames of her own hell. Her hatred.

"_Frosch wants to go with Nox. Frosch thinks Nox is very nice." And his Exceed seemed to have thought the same. Rogue grabbed the little cat.

"_do you, now?" he asked softly smiling at the frog costume. She nodded. He gave her a soft hug as Sting just shrugged.

"_I don't mind, Nox seems strong enough to be good to Sting." Added Lector.

"_would you mind if we joined you?" asked Rogue.

"_I would be glad for some company." She replied with a soft smile.