The fifth chapter! In this chapter, we meet a character some of you may know. It may confuse some of you, but there will be an explanation. I'm actually really excited for this chapter. Anyways, here's the chapter.

Near Lamia Scale

The trail of bodies was substantial, stretching across forests, and fields of Fiore. Reports of several victims, entire cities ravaged, and most recently, an entire dark guild killed off. People were getting scared. The citizens flooded guilds, asking for help. Lamia Scale was one of the strongest guilds, and naturally, people wanted help. The guild answered the call, sending mages to try to find this murderer and to guard the city borders.

It was a terrible mistake. Whoever the killer was, they liked a challenge. The mages patrolling the neighboring forests, fields, and abandoned ruins was like a challenge to the murderer. One by one, the mages started to disappear, found days later, dead. Their eyes reflected great Fear, the horrible look still on their faces. Nobody was safe in Fiore…nobody.

"You'll never get away with this." growled the mage who was pinned to a tree, several cuts on his face and a large bruise on his cheek.

His dirty clothes were covered in dirt, and his guild tattoo was muddy, but it was still visible. He was a mage from Lamia Scale. The mage was facing a man with black hair, the man smiling. He was dressed in a white toga and a mess of black scarves that wrapped around his body. The man grabbed the mage's neck, the Lamia Scale mage letting out a whimper as he did so. The man smiled at the mage's fear.

"You pretend to be strong, but you're very weak. You are a member of that pathetic guild, Lamis Scale, no? Do you know how many of your friends I have killed? Five, six, ten, twenty? Did you even find the bodies?" asked the man darkly as the mage squirmed trying to get away.

"P-please…please don't do this!" shouted the mage as the man raised his eyebrows and then laughed.

"You mages are the scum of the earth. You believe your magic is superior, but it's just a false sense of security. I won't even bother devouring you. My name is Hudson, by the way. I thought I would at least tell you my name before you died!" shouted Hudson as he grabbed the mage's neck.

"Hudson, stop."

Hudson suddenly loosened his grip on the Lamia Scale mage and looked to his right, revealing a man dressed like a solider. He was wearing a Prussian Blue military coat that extended to his knee with a black pickelhaube*. He had brown eyes, a handlebar mustache, and was looking disapprovingly at Hudson. The scarlet eyed man just smirked and squeezed the mage's neck, a sharp cracking sound coming from the mage's neck as he fell to the ground, dead. The man with the handlebar mustache sighed and closed his eyes. Hudson gave him an annoyed look.

"I don't get you, Bauer. You know that I enjoy this, so why make me feel guilty by giving me that look? Why do you even bother? You're the fifth, always watching us." laughed Hudson as Bauer looked up at him and frowned.

Bauer narrowed his eyes at Hudson. The scarlet eyed mage was always like this, but his violent nature seemed to evolve even more now that Lamia Scale had challenged him. He was getting out of control, and as the fifth, his responsibility was to control the other members of the court.

"Calm down, Hudson. You'll have plenty of time to eliminate mages when the court meets. So far, we haven't seen any other members of the court-"

Bauer was in the middle of his sentence when a knife suddenly hit the trunk of the tree next to Hudson, the trunk bursting into flame and being reduced to ashes in seconds. There was a happy laugh as the two mages turned in the direction the knife came from to see a man wearing a brown leather jacket, his sword resting on the armored plate on his shoulder. He was wearing black dress pants, his brown hair well groomed, and he looked smug.

"Well, well, well. Looks like you haven't changed at all, Hudson." smirked the swordsman as Bauer nodded to him, the swordsman returning the gesture.

"How did you find us so quickly, Fahmak?" Hudson asked sarcastically as Fahmak smiled and swung the sword into the ground, the tip of wide and flat blade sticking in the ground.

"Well, that was easy. You left a trail of bodies that was so easy to follow, I could have followed you through the night blindfolded!" laughed Fahmak as Hudson growled.

Bauer looked at the two other mages and he smiled in the inside. Fahmak would keep Hudson in check, for the time being. Only two members of the court were missing. Once they met, there would be no stopping them.

Near Magnolia

Karis and Garret were making good progress, having fought through the windstorm near Bermin. The roads were strangely clear towards Magnolia and they had moved faster than expected. The Tsubasa twins were very close to Magnolai, the Fairy Tail guild appearing in the distance, when they saw a horse drawn cart ahead of them. It wasn't moving very quickly, and the Tsubasa twins were shocked to see that the cart was being driven by a girl that didn't even appear to be eleven.

She was short, had green eyes, and had hair like Karis, down to her knees, although it was blue like Levy's. She had a happy expression on her face and was dressed in a black cloak, a cattail sticking out of her mouth as she drove the cart forward. Karis and Garret decided to speak to her because they were curious about the young girl driving the cart. Who was she? Karis and Garret ran so that they were right next to the slow moving cart, and the girl looked at them and smiled.

"Hello there, stranger." said the girl cheerfully as Karis and Garret returned the greeting and introduced themselves.

They talked with the girl for a while and found her to be very friendly, polite, although a bit strange. They eventually found out her name, Malice Southerland. Eventually, the conversation shifted to where she was going and how old she was. Malice responded with a mischievous look on her face, taking the cattail out of her mouth and looking at the two Tsubasas that were walking along with the cart.

"Well, if you really wanna know, I'm ten years old, but some may see me as much, much older than that. As to where I'm going, well, I have a friend waiting for me. I haven't seen them for a very long time. Say, have you seen a man with a brown handlebar mustache and wears a funny hat with a spike on the top?" Malice asked as Karis and Garret looked at each other and shrugged.

"Um, no, I can't remember seeing anyone of that description, but are you headed to Fairy Tail like we are?" Karis asked politely as Malice shook her head.

"No, I really don't know where I'm supposed to go. I'm afraid that my friends choose the strangest spots to meet," Malice explained as she suddenly looked at Garret. "Say, are you two perhaps mages?"

Garret shook his head furiously and punched the air as he fought an invisible enemy. Karis just shook her head and rolled her eyes at her brother's foolishness. Garret looked at Malice and grinned.

"Yeah, we are mages! We're members of the Tsubasa family, and I'm going to become an S-Class mage!" shouted Garret as Malice nodded her head and closed her eyes, rubbing her chin in the process.

"Hmm, Tsubasa family you say? I could have sworn I've heard that name before…" mused Malice as Garret shook his head.

"Yeah, we're the strongest family, and we helped save this world a long time ago!" said Garret proudly as Karis dragged him away, the cart stopping at the gates of Magnolia.

Malice nodded her head and the Tsubasa twins headed into the city, waving goodbye.

"I hope you do well in Fairy Tail!" shouted Malice as the cart slowly disappeared from sight, Karis and Garret looking up at the huge building.

The entire city of Magnolia was incredible, but Fairy Tail was the best part. The guild building towered over everything in the city, and Karis and Garret hurried towards the guild building. Fairy Tail was just within their grasp!

Inside Fairy Tail

Athena and Justin had talked with Mitsu more, telling him about what they had experienced up to this point. The guild was loud, and crowded as usual, but Team Natsu had returned from their mission, bringing news for Makarov. The guild master had retreated to his office soon after, and was not seen again after that.

Mitsu seemed unwilling to share any information at all about his personal life. They didn't even know his last name yet, and Athena was going to ask him when the doors to Fairy Tail burst open, an exhausted black haired boy in dark blue sleeveless vest run into the guild, the guild growing slightly quieter at the boy's sudden entrance. The boy instantly snapped to Mitsu, who stood up and looked at the boy with a surprised face.

"You!"

…

This chapter took forever to complete, but I finally did it. Anyways, I don't have much to say, so I will see you all later! FF