Ultear and Meredy run into Gray and Juvia who are fighting against Lyon and Sherry and decide to warn them about the upcoming danger. Thinking they can't be seen once the fight stops, they are discovered by Doranbolt and Lahar, who recognize their crest.

.:: Diclaimer ::.

I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does, I just like to imagine weird pairings involving characters who - apparently - don't have anything to do with each other :3

Doranbolt and Lahar knew there was something weird as soon as Gray and Juvia had stopped fighting. Most of the audience were following Laxus's battle against the lightning mage from Sabertooth and Jura, who were probably the strongest male mages left – except maybe Sting, but this one hadn't made a move for a long time. And Doranbolt and Lahar were more interested in finding the place where Jellal was, so they had decided to keep an eye on Fairy Tail, who was, for some unknown reason, hiding him. They didn't really care about the fights but when Gray carried Juvia on his back, they couldn't really take their eyes off the screen that was showing their battle, wondering if he had gone crazy, forgetting about their mission for a while. But they suddenly stopped, and once the white-haired guy from Lamia Scale withdrew from the fight, they decided to look for them to see what was really going on.

However, they didn't expect them to meet with the second most wanted illegal guild of Fiore.

"This was a stupid idea..." Meredy whispered.

"Meredy, leave," Ultear told her via telepathy. "They only saw my face, not yours."

"There's no way I'll leave without you."

"It's useless anyway," Doranbolt said outloud. "I can hear you when you use telepathy."

Meredy and Ultear froze. Gray was getting prepared to fight, while Shelia obviously had no idea what was going on.

"Before you start fighting, can I say something ?"

Everybody turned to see Lyon, who had just talked. He seemed quite angry.

"Could you, please, tell him to put her down?"

He pointed his finger at Gray, who was still carrying Juvia. He blushed, while Juvia had a bright smile on her face.

"I tried, but she won't let me go."

"It's too comfy..."

Meredy giggled. Juvia unwillingly let him put her down.

"Gray..." Doranbolt said, a sad look on his face.

Gray looked surprised.

"Who are you? Do you know me?"

"I do, but you can't remember me. I was there on Tenrou Island. I infiltrated Fairy Tail, I even fought against you with Wendy, during the exam."

"What do you mean, with Wend..."

Gray tried to remember his fight when he was competing to become an S-class mage. He and Loki had to defeat Wendy during the exam, but there was no one else. He had vaguely thought that having to pass that first step was too easy. Was that guy from the Council really with them?

"You not remembering me isn't surprising, I modified everyone's memory so that you think I'm part of the guild. But as soon as I was discovered, all of you forgot about me, as well as my cover. But it's not important. Right now, what's important is that I am on your side. So please tell me you're not with them," he said, showing Ultear and Meredy, whose face was still hidden. "Because if you are, it means we'll have to fight you."

"We're sorry, Fairy Tail," Lahar said. "But they are dangerous fugitives."

"Nineteenth."

"What?" Doranbolt asked.

"Nineteenth," Meredy repeated. "I remember you. You're the nineteenth."

"How do you... What do you mean, 'nineteenth' ?"

"Don't tell me..." Juvia said, starting to understand.

"You were the nineteenth Fairy Tail member I had to exterminate. Back then on Tenrou Island. I had a specific scheme. The first ones were those I absolutely had to defeat. The last ones were not as important. I, or the other Kins of Purgatory, could easily handle them."

"But..." Gray said. "We were eight contestants, plus their partners, which is sixteen... There were also Master, Gildarts, Erza and Mirajane, which makes twenty. If he's the nineteenth, then he should be easy to defeat, right?"

Doranbolt seemed a little hurt.

"And who was the first one?" Gray asked, curious.

"Gray Fullbuster. I wanted to crush you with my bare hands," Meredy answered casually.

"S... Scary..."

Instinctively, Juvia slightly moved forward, as if to protect Gray. She didn't notice him blush.

"Who was the last one?" she asked.

"The blue cat." Meredy said, smiling.

This time, Doranbolt really looked offended, and Lahar frowned, wondering why his partner had such a reputation.

"I'm in the same category as a blue cat who can't use magic? I'm not that weak, you know!"

"Well, according to the information I gathered, you never took any jobs, never fought with anyone, and were qualified to participate in the exam every year, but never passed the first part." Meredy said. "Apparently, you didn't even have any real friends in the guild, because no one ever got close to you. I thought you were too weak to be considered a true mage."

"It... It's because I wasn't really part of the guild! I'm not weak!"

Ultear started laughing.

"So weak..." she said.

"It's not funny! Lahar, tell them I'm strong!"

Lahar tried not to laugh as well.

"That's it! Show me your face and let's fight."

"Meredy, no!"

"It's okay, I can handle nineteenth easily," she said, taking her cloak off.

"Stop saying that! I'll show you I'm not nineteenth material..."

He stopped.

"You-"

"Maguilty Sodom!"

The attack hit Doranbolt, who was thrown a few meters behind.

"See?" Meredy said. "Told you he's weak!"

"He is, indeed..." Juvia said, sorry for him.

"I'm kinda disappointed..." Gray added.

"What's wrong, Doranbolt?" Lahar said, helping him get up.

Doranbolt looked at Meredy with mixed feelings.

"Me too," he said. "I know you too".

Seven years ago

"He said Acnologia..." Doranbolt thought. "What will I do?"

He was petrified. If he heard well – and he knew he did, even though he wanted to believe the contrary – whatever would happen between Fairy Tail and Grimoire Heart, even between them and Zeref, none of that would matter. Because they were all going to disappear.

At that moment, he felt so weak and useless that he hated himself. Hiding behind a tree, he hadn't even tried to save that blond-haired mage from Grimoire Heart, despite knowing what Zeref was about to do to him. Hopefully, the two girls were safe, as Zeref just said. Because if they were dead as well, Doranbolt wouldn't forgive himself.

He would try to stop Zeref before he left. He should.

"I'm going to stop him, right now," he thought. "Now."

But he couldn't move, and Zeref was soon out of sight.

"I can't stay here," he whispered, trying to ignore that guilt feeling that was growing inside of him.

He didn't want to move, because it would mean leaving them - Wendy, Natsu and the rest from Fairy Tail - behind. But he also knew he had to act quickly. A few minutes had passed, when one of the girls coughed.

"Shit! They're waking up!"

He looked carefully. Apparently, the pink-haired girl was the one who coughed. Without really thinking, he stood up, got closer and knelt down next to her. She was wearing a cloak with the symbol of Grimoire Heart on it.

"Ul..." she murmured, still unconscious.

Doranbolt saw some tears at the corner of her closed eyes.

"She's barely an adult, how could they make her join their guild?"

The world was full of sick people.

"I'll save you," he suddenly said decidedly.

He looked at the other girl. It was Juvia, the water mage from Fairy Tail. They were both soaked by the rain. He got up, took the pink-haired girl in his arms and carried her to put her down under a tree. Then he took her cloak, dried it using magic, and covered her with it. He did the same with Juvia, putting her down next to the other girl, and used the same cloak to cover them both. He looked at them for a while, a sad smile on his face.

"Don't be sad," he said to the younger one. "Stop crying. I'll come back."

And he left.

Back to year 791

But he hadn't come back. The fact is, once he talked to Lahar about the danger represented by Acnologia, he realized coming back was impossible. The black dragon of the Apocalypse could have come at any time, and not leaving would have led everybody on the ship to a certain death.

Since what happened with the Celestial Spirit mages, when he saved that girl who looked like Wendy, he almost managed to forgive himself. But this pink-haired girl of back then represented his incapacity to save Fairy Tail, and meeting her without being prepared made him feel consumed by guilt once again.

"Meredy, is that your name?"

She didn't answer. He didn't have the courage to look at her.

"You're right. I am weak."

Still no answer. The others didn't move, not knowing what was happening, why Doranbolt had silently surrendered.

"You're my weakness", he thought.

"Ugh..."

Doranbolt raised his head. Meredy was crying, to everybody's surprise.

"This must have been... snif... so hard..." she said, sobbing. "Feeling that guilt, for... for seven years..."

He looked at her, dumbfounded. How could she sympathize with him? But, more than that, how did she know about it? Was she able to dive into his thoughts, his memories? Without realizing it, he started to cry as well.

"Why am I..." he started to say. "Why am I crying right now? I'm familiar with that feeling, why is that..."

Why did it resurface as if it were the first time he was feeling it?

"You're sharing your emotions," Ultear explained.

She pointed at his hand. A seal, looking like a bracelet made of hearts, had appeared on his wrist. Meredy moved forward towards him. Once they were a few inches away, she looked up to him and caressed his cheek, wiping his tears.

"Don't be sad. Stop crying. We are fine, now!"

Meredy was still crying when she said that, but she looked at him with a big grin on her face. Doranbolt's heart skipped a beat. He smiled as well.

"Doranbolt."

It was Lahar, talking to him through telepathy. Doranbolt already knew what he was going to say.

"I'm not arresting them," he told Lahar outloud. "And if you want to, you'll have to defeat me first. Please," he added, looking at him. "In the name of our friendship."

Lahar didn't look surprised.

"I didn't take any risk to save them back then, and I'm still regretting it. I won't make that same mistake again."

He was desperate.

"You understand how serious the consequences will be, don't you?" Lahar whispered. "This conversation is recorded, and even if, by any chance, they didn't realize which guild those two are from, this is too suspicious. If we let them go, the guards will come right away."

Doranbolt was thinking very quickly. If they acted as if they were arresting them, would they have the time to escape later?

"Then take us," Meredy said.

"What? No! I don't want-"

"It's okay. We only have one request: we want to be judged by the King. Not by the Magic Council."

Doranbolt understood they had some ulterior motive. He didn't know what to do: letting them escape was one thing, but helping them achieve some plan that could endanger the people of Crocus was a different matter. However, he knew Crime Sorcière had not done anything to harm innocent people for the seven years that guild existed. He stared into Meredy's eyes, trying to tell her that he trusted her and that it would be okay.

"Then we will take you to Mercurius. Let's go."

Hello everyone !

First of all, thank you for the reviews ! It's great to see you like my story, because, as I said, I really enjoy writing and imagining the stories, and your reviews make me want to try harder !

It took me some time to finish that chapter because I didn't really know how to justify the fact that two guys from the Council could let Crime Sorcière escape, and then it hit me : why don't they arrest them anyway? So it changes what I imagined for the next chapters, but it's better this way (now that Ultear and Meredy are going to Mercurius, I don't need to make them stay with Gray and the others, and it's more logical to have them leave the competition).

This chapter is longer than the first two ones, and as I already said, this story was only supposed to deal with a particular pairing so it's only normal for me to write a longer one as it's the "original story", so the next ones could be shorter. According to the reviews, none of yoou had imagined Meredy x Doranbolt, I hope you still liked it, because I really find them cute, and even cuter together :3 I know there's no way it will happen in the manga, unless I have the same power of precognition as Carla... But still ! Two of you suggested Ultear x Lahar as a pairing, so it gave me some ideas, maybe I'll write a oneshot or include some parts about them later ^^ And as you seemed to like the piggyback ride, I added some Gruvia parts in this chapter (which partly explains why it's longer), also, you can still read my other fanfic about Gruvia "Let's make a wager" (I reaaaally like that couple).

I realize I'm too chatty, and the chapter was supposed to be less than 2000 words... Well, I'll just say this : as usual, don't forget the reviews, tell me if you have some suggestions, and more importantly, tell me if you liked Meredy x Doranbolt !