LOBP (Land Of Broken Promises): I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD! :.(…. The flash drive that I kept ALL of my Fairy Tail stuff on was destroyed. I had more than 50 FILES saved on it… A moment of silence, for flash drive bro. A Friend to us all… I had to rewrite everything, and I'm still not done replacing things. *Bawls eyes out, then shakily recovers* Anyway, I'm sorry this chapter isn't very exciting, but I'm planning this to be a multi-chapter adventure! Woohoo relevant s***!

Gajeel spoke first, wondering, "What kind of game or competition are we talking about here?"

Martz clapped in excitement, "I'm SO glad you asked! I had a problem, see. The difficulty of this job is too much for any ordinary mage, so I wanted the best. Not only the best, but the best of the best. So, naturally, I would need an S-class mage from the best guild in Fiore. This is where I struck my bump in the road. I don't know which guild is the best in Fiore, Fairy Tail or Phantom Lord. I asked my acquaintances, but they couldn't tell me either. My mind did its genius, and thus, the game was born! So I posted the job to both guilds, and whoever wins the game wins the money and my influential vote that your guild is the best in the country."

We waited for him to continue, and when he didn't, I pointed out, "Well that just told us a whole lot of nothing."

The duke was confused, so I explained, "You didn't tell us any rules of the game, or any details about the job that we didn't already know."

He blushed, "Oh, I suppose you're right." At this point, the maid with purple hair came in wheeling a cart full of random materials that were made from metal. Duke Martz was astonished, "Good god, Jillian! What's all that for?!"

She seemed confused, "The young man requested it, and with all due respect, sir, my name is Susan. You've never messed that up before."

The man with green hair was insulted, and the level of magic in the room rose, "Nonsense! I distinctly remember, your name is Jillian."

She quickly bowed, "Oh my, you're right, sir. I apologize for attempting to deceive you."

I was slightly annoyed at this girl's insolence. Her name was Jillian Cordera, what could she hope to gain from trying to trick her employer? A pointless game. Wait a moment, I didn't think anyone had mentioned her last name. I eyed Gajeel to judge whether or not he was troubled as well, and he shared my expression.

The metal was delivered to the iron dragon slayer, who began chowing down, and the duke continued once "Jillian" was gone, "Right, um, about the game. Whoever delivers the object I desire to my hands is the winner. Other than that, there are no rules." My opponent and I exchanged evil grins. "The job is to retrieve a painting with slight magical value from a castle up in the east mountain range. I have arranged for one of my carriages to take the two of you to the train station where there are first-class tickets waiting for you. What else do you need?"

Gajeel held up his fingers, "Two things: the location of the castle, and what makes this job S-class."

I quickly put in, "Don't forget the object, and what it looks like."

The duke nodded, "Of course. The object in need of retrieval is a painting that I've been told looks like a… a vortex, I think was how it as put, of red and black clouds, with blue lightning striking across it. the castle is in the darkest part of the range, and I've been told it is heavily booby trapped."

Gajeel was suspicious, "How do you know about the interior of the castle?"

"I have spies. I was given the information about the castle via communication lacryma, but since that call, I have not heard a whisper from my spies, or about them."

My brows furrowed, but I stood. "Thank you, sir. I believe we will be going. Phantom, any more questions for the man?" The iron dragon slayer shook his head as he stood, and we were escorted towards the door by a maid. Just before I left the room I turned to tell the duke, "You might as well send the cash straight to Fairy Tail for me to pick up when I get home, because I'll be the one to win this game." Then I caught up with Gajeel and the maid in the hall.

He commented on me, "You sure are arrogant." He eyed me from the corner of his vision, "People don't even know how you earned your reputation, so I don't see how you have one. Not to mention how I've heard you're strong, but no one can ever seem to give me an example. Don't get so cocky right off the bat, especially when you're up against me."

My eyes rolled in exasperation, "If people would just stop telling me things like that, I'd really appreciate it. Their reaction when I prove them wrong is having less and less effect on me."

He just scoffed, and went into the carriage after me. I put in my ear buds and we rode in total silence.

Once we were seated in our private booth on the train and it began rolling, we both suddenly leaned forward. I spoke first, "That duke was super shady."

The man in front of me concurred, "Totally, especially with the maid's name. Do you know her last name?"

"Yeah. Cordera."

"Me too. His back story seemed botchy to me. Just the way he said it – body language mostly – like he almost didn't remember. You would think you would have a description on the tip of your tongue if you're hiring someone to go on their own to find the damn thing."

I quickly nodded, "He even smelled wrong."

"Right!... Wait, how did you smell that? Even I could barely catch it."

My nonchalantly waved him off as I sat back in my seat, "Magic…"

His eyes narrowed, and he turned one of his ears more toward me, "What kind of magic?" I glanced at the window to the aisle, and he snatched its curtain closed.

I sighed and pulled up my sleeve, turning my fist and forearm to diamond, "I am Dio, daughter of Shintag the Diamond Dragon." The iron man's heart hammered in his chest, and I could taste the candy of excitement and the honey of hope. My head shook as I let my magic sparkle out, "I don't know anything about your dragon. Mine disappeared the 7th of July, x777. Haven't seen him since."

He was disappointed, and his head fell, but then it perked back up, questioning, "You said 7 July, 777?"

"Yeah. Natsu says that's when Igneel disappeared too. Did yours?"

"Yeah. That's really suspicious… Does the Salamander know about you?"

"No, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Why?"

I shrugged, "Won't do any good. I don't have any useful information for him, and he seems to like having a rare magic. I'll let him bask in it until I'm forced to let the cat out of the bag."

Gajeel's face softened, "You should tell him. He's probably really lonely, thinking he's all alone and all that. It's not like many people can really relate to the situation." I tried to hide a smile. Had the man with a heart of steel just discreetly open up?

We chatted about our dragons for the rest of the trip, smiling softly, sometimes laughing. It seemed to me that Metalicana was really the only person whose opinion Gajeel really valued, and I thought that kind of cute. Of course I didn't tell him that. You can't just tell a man like Gajeel that they're cute; they would rather hear something along the lines of 'manly as a bearded bearsharktopus with a chainsaw'.

The train stopped and we got off, pretending our conversation had never happened. It was dark, and neither of us had more than a half-full backpack of clothes, so we went to go scope the castle.

We wandered through the woods and mountains outside of town, and eventually came across a castle that had one side embedded into the mountain, and the other side hanging off a cliff, with only a small drive that made any kind of sensible path. We kept our distance, in case the owner of the castle had any nighttime patrol, and Gajeel began forward to infiltrate.

I scoffed, "Idiot." He stopped and turned. I explained, "You haven't even circled the place yet, and on top of that, you're trying to break in at night."

He made a face, not getting it, "Why wouldn't I break in at night?"

My eyebrows rose. I thought this guy was supposed to be one of the best Phantom Lord had, not some idiot rookie. I spelled it out for the moron, "Really? The night is when people are most on guard, and most paranoid. At night is when people expect someone to break in, and so security is usually tighter when it's dark. In the daytime, people don't jump at every little noise. Guards usually don't pay as much attention in the day. After all, who would try to infiltrate in broad daylight? The best time is midday, when nothing's happened all morning, people are looking forward to, eating, or still recovering from lunch. Jeez, I didn't realize your head was iron all the way through." He hesitantly stole a glance back at the imposing stone fortress, and I put my hands up, "You don't have to believe me, do whatever you want, Phantom. I only came because I wanted to figure out the location first." I waved and turned away, "I'll be back in the morning to scope the best point of entry, and don't worry, when I get inside I'll rescue you."

After I took a few steps back towards town, I grinned as I heard grumbling and footsteps following me. We both checked in to the same hotel, and before we split directions in the hall, he sarcastically-not-really asked me, "Any more helpful hints?"

I grinned and readjusted my pack on my shoulder, "Competition doesn't start until we can see the painting? We might run into some resistance on the way in, and I think we could use each other."

"Deal." He held out his hand and I shook it. Then we went our separate ways down the hall. I had room service steak for dinner, and went to bed right after, knowing I'd have to rise early in the morning.

The alarm clock on the nightstand began beeping, and I groaned as I smacked it to turn it off for the morning. After my morning routine, I went down the hall to Gajeel's room. (I sniffed it out.) There were fumbling noises after I knocked, and the iron dragon slayer opened the door rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. My eyes did a quick scan of him on their own. He was only in his white kapri pants, leaving his sun-kissed body free for my eyes to drink up. His muscles rippled under his skin, and I longed to touch them. He snapped, "What the hell are you doing here?"

I pushed past him, "We've got to eat, get to the castle, and choose the best point of entry." I threw clean clothes at him, "Get dressed, and don't test my patience, I don't like being up this early either." He grumbled and got dressed in front of me.

He complained as he pulled on his boots, "I thought you said the best time was midday."

I snapped, "It'll be midday once we do all the stuff I talked about." He just grumbled to himself as he half-assed a brush through his mane. Once he was done with wake-up stuff, we ate at some little café before setting off once again for the castle.