"There you are."
The little girl sniffed, running into her twin's arms as she cried, frantically waving her hands all over the place. "Mia! I was so scared!"
"What kind of idiot would get them lost into a mall?" Her sister poked her forehead and rolled her golden eyes exasperatedly. "Come on, Mom and Dad have been worried."
"B-but it was so scary, Mia-"
"No." Mia poked her forehead again. It was an action that the elder sister often did whenever Ava would cry, so she was used to it. Even so, the action distracted her enough to make her stop talking as she listened to her older sister. "Stop crying. If you cry, that'll worry others and make you look weaker. Instead..." The black haired girl grinned at her, her amber eyes sparkling as she spoke. "Smile."
"S-smile?"
"Yes, Ava, smile. Haven't you ever heard that word?"
"Obviously yes!" The girl puffed up her chest proudly. She had always been the best in things like reading and writing: Dad said she could even someday become a cool Mage just like him and Mom. Maybe even a Card Mage like him, he had said. "I just don't understand why-"
"Frowning makes other people sad too."
"Okay…" Ava gave her a half-hearted grin. She wanted her sister to be proud of her. Mia was her role model: the brave elder twin who always had to take care of her crybaby little sister. She wanted to be like Mia…
"At least try. Anyone can tell that smile is fake. Act, Ava, act, or you won't be able to survive in life. You need to be strong, and never show your emotions. It's kind of like dancing: you always need to smile during the whole dance, even if your heart is crying inside. Understand?"
"Sometimes I wonder if we're really the same age…" Ava mumbled before beaming brightly. "But okay! Hey, hey, Mia, can you play with me later?"
"I can't." Mia's golden gaze turned distant, a strange smile coming over her face that almost looked like a smirk as her eyes glazed over in thought. "Mom needs to teach me how to dance more." Their mother was a mysterious woman: she had one day just appeared in the small rural town on the outskirts of Magnolia and captured their father's heart as soon as he saw her. According to him she had gotten into a fight with her family about a matter and ran away, which was why they never had visits from their grandparents (Dad's parents had died a long time ago).
Their mother was a dancer that had been part of a dancing troupe when she had retired to marry their father, and she wanted her daughters to continue her legacy. Ava, however, wasn't skilled enough to dance to her mother's liking which was why Mia was the one who was being privately tutored by their mother.
"But ever since Mom started teaching you, Mia, you haven't been happy as much!" It was true. Every day, Ava and their father would hear three knocks on their door to open it and find a completely exhausted Mia alongside their mother, who looked as prestigious and elegant as always.
"I love dancing." That was true enough: even before their mother was teaching Mia, the energetic girl had always practiced by herself with Ava as an audience and critique.
"Then why are you crying inside?"
"How do you know if I am?"
"I'm your twin, Mia. I know exactly how you feel and act. It's a twin thing."
Her sister's gaze turned cold as she turned around, grabbing her twin's hand and dragging her in a specific direction. "Let's head back to Mom and Dad."
"No, Mia-!"
"Let's go."
"Me?" Ava pointed a finger at herself in surprise, shock filtering through her face as she registered what had just been spoken to her. "Master Bob, I'm honored and all, but should it really be me leading this important investigation? And where do the Rune Knights fit into all of this? Weren't they supposed to be the ones dealing with this kind of stuff?"
"The Rune Knights came here because they couldn't figure it out. It seems like the magic signal disappeared every time they approached it. They specifically asked for you to lead this quest: they said that you might know something about this." Master Bob replied, his eyebrows crinkling kindly. "I'm sure that if I ask I can hand the leadership to someone else."
"It's fine," Ava spoke. If they specifically requested for her and Master Bob declined, it might strain relationships between Blue Pegasus and the Rune Knights, and possibly the Council. The drawbacks and risks were too huge. "But I'm not sure how exactly I can help."
"They must have seen something in you that you don't see in yourself then." Bob patted the girl on the head. "Gather mages that you trust completely and begin the investigation. They don't just have to be from our guild: many other guilds have talented mages as well. However, I suggest to not bring too much attention to the mission only take a few from each guild."
"I see…" Ava looked thoughtful for a moment. "Thank you, Master."
Different guilds...several faces flashed through her mind as she thought about it. She wouldn't want to bother Fairy Tail's training (if possible) because of their severe training gap behind the other competitors. Even so, she knew in her heart she would come to the guild for help. But the rest, well…
"Hibiki-kun, can you come here for a second?" Ava called across the guild, and the blonde mage came flaunting towards her.
"Yes, Ava-chan?"
She pulled him closer, not to the point that the fangirls would grow rabid (they once had when Ava had accidentally tripped and hugged Hibiki), but to talk. Her voice was lowered an octave, near a whisper. "I've been issued a quest by the Council. Well, more like the Rune Knights can't do a certain job and they need me to do it. Will you help me?"
"Of course. When do we leave?" Hibiki said immediately, his eyes cool as he ignored the many feminine pairs of eyes on him.
"I'm going to meet up with the other members of our quest. We'll meet at Magnolia's town square a week from now at noon."
He nodded. "Understood."
First stop: Lamia Scale.
"Ooba Babasaama." Ava bowed before Lamia Scale's guild master, or in this case mistress. The old woman was quite eccentric...with her little unique quirks, according to Lyon. However, the woman was strong and had the guild's interests at heart, just like most of the other guild's masters. There were always the exceptions, however, Ava thought as she remembered the first time she had met Sabertooth's master, Jiemma.
"What is it child? Eh? Never seen you before." The woman peered closer before her face lit up in recognition. "It's that girl who was with Lyon!" Ava sighed. Was that really what she was known as in Lamia Scale?
Several of the guild members' turned at the loud voice and Ava waved a nonchalant hand to tell them it was nothing as they turned back around. "Ooba Babasaama, to be frank, I need Lyon for a mission. And possibly someone else if he trusts them enough. The Rune Knights have assigned me to a mission that I need to complete."
"Eh? You're a Rune Knight?" The lady squinted at her. "I hate those people! I'll make them spin, spin!"
"I'm not." Ava waved her hands frantically. "I just am...related to the mission somehow and they need my..help?"
Ooba Babasaama stared at her for a little, and even Ava had to admit she sounded suspicious (even though she was telling the truth). A girl, from an opposing guild, asks for one of their guild's key members just a month before the Grand Magic Games for a supposed 'mission from the Rune Knights? Ridiculous!
"Lyon will still be training during the mission, and this is a great opportunity to spy on the other guild's members," Ava tried to persuade. "I promise I'll make sure he doesn't slack off."
Ava suddenly brightened as she realized she had forgotten to show the woman the letter she had received from Master Bob with the official seal of the Council on it. She pulled it out of her purse: something she kept on her at all times since the disastrous situation in the mountains. Even though they had managed to sort things out, that sort of situation made her keep on her guard at all times. The lady eyed it before nodding.
"I see...LYON~ COME HERE BEFORE I SPIN YOU!"
In a mere matter of seconds (and that was quite an achievement considering the man was all the way across the guild), the blue haired mage was there, panting and wide eyed. He straightened himself, clearing his throat as if he had not just zoomed across the way. "Yes, Ooba Babasaama?"
…
…
…
Both Ava and Ooba Babasaama stared at him for a moment before both looked away and sighed exasperatedly.
"You…" The woman pointed at him. "...will go with this girl and do whatever she needs you to do for her. You are excused from training, but make sure to get back in time for the Grand Magic Games. I am confident you have already trained enough that you won't make a complete fool out of our guild."
"Who-" He turned to see the familiar figure of Ava, her midnight black hair framing her tanned face as her golden eyes glinted while she lifted a hand in greeting, her bracelets clinking together and making a metallic sound from the motion.
"Yo. I'm surprised you didn't notice me beforehand."
"Ava…" His feet moved before his mind reacted as he wrapped his arms around her. After a few seconds, the Ice Mage seemed to regain control of his body as his eyes widened and his cheeks were dusted a light pink, pulling back from the girl and studying her. "How have you been? I wasn't able to talk to you much the last time we met."
"Good." The girl seemed amused by his unusually flustered expression she had only seen twice: once when the girls at the hotsprings had accused him to be a pervert (in reality the mage had been destroying a monster disguised as a female client), the other when he had first met Juvia during Fairy Tail's return. Although, she couldn't deny the slight blush coming across her own face as his arms held hers. "I need you for a mission."
"A mission?"
She nodded in confirmation. "I suspect it won't be an easy breeze, but I trust that you'll be able to help. If you know anyone else you can trust, you can bring them too. Not too many. We'll meet 6 days from now at Magnolia's town square. Are you up for it?"
"Do you really need to ask?" He raised an eyebrow.
A broad smile began to take its way over her face. "Thanks, Lyon." She knew that she could count on him to be the easiest
Next stop: Fairy Tail.
"What do you mean you can't find them?" Ava slammed her hands against the table as she glared at the poor Alzack who was currently receiving the brunt of her temper, the rest of the Fairy Tail members looking on and giving the man their looks of silent support. The Guns Mage looked at his wife for help, but Bisca just shrugged and muttered something like not wanting to get involved as she patted a happy and oblivious Asuka on the head.
"They've seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. Last time we heard from them was Erza's report that they were going to the Celestial Spirit world for a while."
Ava slapped her hand against her forehead as she sighed. "And do they realize that the Celestial Spirit world is not the ideal place to train?"
"...they might not have been there to train?" Alzack said sheepishly, the statement coming out more like a question as the Fairy Tail members behind Ava shook their heads and made an 'x' sign with their arms.
"WHAT?! I swear, when I get my hands on those people…" Ava growled, her fury beginning to rise as she started muttering inaudible curses and threats towards her former teammates. "I ask them one thing, one thing: to prove Fairy Tail's strength, and they go on partying? The next thing you know it they'll get some kind of instant power-up that makes them super overpowered."
(If only she knew that she would jinx it, Ava would have never said that.)
"A-anyways," Mirajane-bless the poor sweet woman's heart for trying to start a decent conversation with the girl- said, "You can use someone else for your mission." Alzack gave her a thankful look behind Ava, to which the white haired woman nodded to in acknowledgement.
"But there is no one else!"
Mirajane's kind blue eyes scanned the guildhall until she suddenly brightened and beamed at Ava. "Then would you allow me to pick?"
"Uh...sure." Ava seemed to calm down a notch as she looked at the watch she was wearing. She had promised Eve that they would go out and eat at a cafe at noon, and including the time it took to get back to the guild, she needed to leave in a few minutes. "Just make sure that you send them to the town square five days from now. And can you try to pick only two mages? Particularly powerful if possible?"
"Don't worry, don't worry." Mirajane waved her hand, her sky blue eyes glittering mischievously like they usually did whenever she was coming up with a tricky scheme and Ava was already starting to regret letting the woman pick her teammates as she walked out of the guild, waving as she said her goodbyes.
O_O
Five days later, in the middle of Magnolia's central square, Ava was definitely regretting her decision of letting Mirajane pick her teammates as she stared at the most suspicious and traitorous guild members of Fairy Tail, completely open mouthed as she ignored Hibiki and Lyon who were standing beside her.
"Ghihihihi, I bet you weren't expecting us." Gajeel crossed his arms over his chest as he gave her a wide smirk, chewing on some scrap metal as if it were gum easily. "Nice to see you again, Princess. We couldn't really catch up the last time I saw you."
Ava twitched at hearing the endearing nickname (the only other ones who called her something other than her name was Eve and Ren-the latter of whom she had often reprimanded and told she didn't want to be called 'sweetheart'). "It's nice to see you again too, Gajeel."
The Iron Dragon Slayer and herself had a somewhat tolerable relationship: they had a mutual understanding of as-long-as-you-don't-piss-off-me, I-don't-piss-off-you going on when she had been a part of the guild. She had sometimes paired with him for missions-much to the man's reluctance-and she supposed she respected the man.
Turning to her left, she nodded in respect and acknowledgement. "Laxus."
"Ava." The blonde mage had no inclination to talk, so she did the same. He usually ignored her-whether it be because he deemed her unworthy to talk to, or simply uninteresting she didn't know-and only interacted with her a few times (and that was mainly just so he could piss off Natsu and Gray for taunting their teammate). Despite that, she still had not-so-fond memories of him during the Battle of Fairy Tail (in which she had gotten pathetically knocked out by Freed after getting trapped in one of his runes), but she pushed the memories away and reminded herself that according to Lucy, he had saved the team when they were about to be defeated by Hades.
…
…
...
This was what Mira considered trustworthy comrades who could help her own her mission? The guild's number one traitor and worst enemy-turned-good?
Ava resisted the urge to bang her head against a wall.
"Uh, I hope you don't mind me tagging along." Cheria tugged at her skirt shyly, startling the black haired girl out of her thoughts and Ava smiled. The girl reminded her of Wendy, and most likely if the two girls met they would become good friends.
"It's fine." As soon as the words left her lips, the pink haired mage's teal eyes widened as she fell and tripped quite extravagantly to the ground, pulling herself up as she muttered 'ow...'
"Are you okay?" Ava asked, tilting her head slightly as she extended her hand for the Sky God Slayer to take, which the girl did gratefully.
"T-thank you. I'm fine."
"Well, I'm glad to see there's at least one other girl on the team." Ava laughed, rubbing the back of her neck embarrassedly. "When I'm just with my regular team, they're just a bunch of playboys." Ignoring Hibiki's indignant 'hey!', she continued, "I hope we get along well."
"M-me too, Ava-san! I really look up to you!"
"Now, let me debrief the mission." Her golden eyes turned serious as she straightened herself, motioning them to follow her as she led them outside of town and near the outskirts of the city limits. "Recently, there's been an upsurge of Eternano and Dark Magic near the coast of Favorack, a small beach town to the East of Magnolia. Apparently a Worshipping Cult of Zeref or something along the lines of that has been forming there around the same period these surges of magical energy have been happening."
She paused for a moment before continuing, "In particular, there's been one magic signal that keeps on moving and emitting Forbidden Magic, but whenever the Rune Knights try to approach it the signal disappears. They suspect that the Worshipping Cult might be doing some kind of ritual using Forbidden Magic to 'bring Zeref to his full power' once more. We're being sent there to check things out. Understood?"
"Yeah…"
A/N: And that's a wrap! A mini-arc ensues. *bows in apology to those who wanted the GMG* But trust me, we'll still have some subplot stuff that leads into the main plot. The flashback in the beginning of the story is just a small hint to what's going to happen on this mission.
And about the whole Rune Knights asking Ava to help thing...well here's my supposed justification. Skip this paragraph if you want to. During the 7 year timeskip before Ava joined Blue Pegasus, she was helping out the Rune Knights as a Solo Mage for about five years (which you'll see in future flashbacks). There was one particular nasty incident where she helped them stop an uprising and in actuality the Rune Knights sort of wanted to recruit her. Of course, Eve and co. came at the right time and got her instead but even now she's considered someone they can call on when they have other things to do. I assume that the Rune Knights must have a lot going on, patrolling and getting ready for the GMG and they can't be bothered with just something like a random Dark Magic signal in a small beach town. So they'd use their power to make other people do the work for them. And the reason that Ava didn't want to just bring the Trimens was because then they wouldn't get as much training in, plus she'd like to scout out the other guilds. The reason there isn't any other guildmembers save Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail is because this authoress is a lazy ass and doesn't want to write a thousand characters.
Anyways...yeah. My logic is weird.
Here's our question of the chapter: How do you think this team is going to interact with each other? Hibiki, Ava, Lyon, Cheria, Gajeel, and Laxus. LOL total destruction.
Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, follows, and reads! I read every single review I get and I'm always smiling at the end.