Kazro shifted his weight in front of the request board and brushed his hair out of his face and behind his ear. He gazed at the papers littering the wall in front of him and sighed. Most of the jobs posted were dealing with simple retrievals no more than a day's walk away from Magnolia. He almost turned away to go sit at the bar when one of the many sheets of paper caught his eye. He carefully removed the job posting from the board and studied it for a moment before smirking slightly and making his way to Mira to get her to sign off on it. He approached the white haired woman behind the bar and placed the request on the bar in front of her.

"So you finally found something?" Mira asked with a smile. Her brow furrowed and she continued "That one's been on the board for about a month now. I honestly don't know why nobody's picked it up yet." Her eyes finally drifted down to the reward that was offered. It was cheap, barely enough to cover the expenses it would incur.

"Well it shouldn't be too hard to finish. I know that area fairly well and I've usually had good luck when I've been through there." Kazro replied.

"Well either way, I'll let Master know you're taking this job. You'll have to tell Erza first, though." Mira's trademark smile was still on her face as she spoke.

Kazro recoiled slightly at Mira's statement. He searched her face in an effort to find out if she was kidding. She gave no tells or changed her usual tone. Kazro sighed and scanned the guildhall for the redhead. She had been sitting at a table with a blonde-haired girl with keys hanging off of her hip and a spiky pink-haired man who was making a lot more noise than was necessary. He looked back at Mira with confusion.

"Is there any particular why I need to tell her?" He asked as he motioned his head towards the redhead on the other side of the hall.

"It's one of Master's rules that a new member's first job has to be supervised by an S-class mage." The same smile was still on her face. "But don't worry. She'll only be observing and won't intervene unless she absolutely has to."

Kazro let out a sigh of exasperation. He wasn't used to traveling or even working with someone else. He had grown used to being alone for the two years spent tracking down and eliminating the members of Twilight Flare. Something began clawing at his thoughts, begging to be let in to his inner dialog. He had been wanting to get to know his new guildmates better in the week since he had taken up Makarov's offer of joining, but he had been wanting to introduce himself in a climate outside of work. That idea was thrown out the window when he learned that most of the members were out on jobs and he had been spending most of his time tracking down a place to live. He shook off his disappointment and made his way to where Erza had been sitting. The noise being created by the pink haired man grew louder as he neared. He pulled a chair up to the table and sat down at the end of it, effectively putting an end to whatever conversation they were having.

"I was wondering where you had gone a couple weeks ago." Erza was the first to break the silence and her deep brown eyes trailed to the side of Kazro's neck where she noticed parts of a black mark peeking over the collar of his shirt. "And it looks like you decided to join us as well." She added with a smile.

Kazro nodded. He turned his head to his left and made eye contact with the pink haired man who looked as if he was trying to peer into the silver-eyed man's soul. Kazro glanced back at Erza with an inquisitive look on his face and then back at the pinkette.

"So you're the new guy I heard gramps talking about the other day. I'm Natsu." He said with a grin that showed off his sharp canines. He motioned to a blue cat sleeping on the table beside a plate covered in fish bones. "That's Happy."

Kazro gave a token smile to Natsu and shook his hand. His attention immediately shifted back to Erza and he placed the job on the table in front of the armored redhead.

"Mira said something about you having to supervise me on my first job." He said flatly.

"That is correct." She responded with a half smile while looking at the job details before continuing. "This looks simple enough. Go into some ruins and retrieve an artifact, right?"

"Almost. I'll explain on the way to the train station."

"When do we leave?"

"Now. Pack light. We'll need to be able to move fast." Kazro stated as he rose from the chair and putting it back where it belonged.

Erza nodded and rose as well, grabbing a small backpack sitting beside her at the table and following Kazro out of the guild. The walk to the train station was mostly silent and almost completely mirrored the time the two had walked through Clover several months earlier. Erza glanced at the black haired man walking a little in front of her. His boots were barely making any sound on the cobbled roads. She noticed that he was tense about something but she had no idea what the reason was. She finally decided to break the silence.

"So what is it that needed to be explained?" She inquired.

"The job calls for the artifact to be destroyed as soon as it's recovered." He replied. Erza could barely hear the tension in his voice.

"Destroyed? Why?"

Kazro glanced over his shoulder at the knightess and noted the clear confusion playing across her face. He pulled out the job details and handed it to Erza. She took it and examined it closely. Her eyes widened slightly when she reached the last paragraph containing the contact's information. It was a job from the Fiore branch of the Magic Council.

"The Council? Why would they request the destruction of something belonging to an ancient civilization?" Her confusion had only deepened when she finished reading the paper again.

"It's simple. The artifact needs to be destroyed because it can disrupt the balance of nature and flow of time."

"It makes no sense but if that's what the job calls for the so be it." She was starting to get somewhat annoyed at Kazro talking in circles and she was used to people coming straight out with information whenever she asked.

The knightess sighed and handed the creased sheet of paper back to Kazro, who then folded it neatly before putting it in a shirt pocket. The two made the rest of the way to the train station in relative silence. Once they arrived, Kazro bought the two tickets needed and joined Erza on a simple wooden bench. When he looked over at her, he could tell there were still traces of bewilderment on her face.

"Something's still eating at you isn't it?" He asked, breaking the silence between them.

"Yes. I still don't know what the artifact can even do." She replied.

"I've heard rumors about it when I was roaming around the country. Legend holds that it can resurrect the dead."

Erza's eyes widened in shock. As far as she knew, there was nothing that could fully bring the dead back to life. She knew one of the dragon slayers in Fairy Tail could commune with the spirits of the dead, but it was just that; spirits. She scrunched her brow and pinched the bridge of her nose with a gauntlet covered hand. She couldn't help but think that a job like this should have been classified as an S-class job.

"Couldn't they have just asked for it to be brought to them for testing?" She asked, letting some hints of worry in her voice.

"Even if that were the case, it still needs to be destroyed. Something of that nature cannot be allowed to exist in any way, shape, or form." He said as he rested his hands on top of his head. "Besides, this is one of the few times the Council is asking for something I actually agree with."

Erza blinked at the last statement. Kazro had made no attempt to hide his disdain. She looked him over. His eyes had hardened and his mouth had twisted into a slight scowl. His jaw had also clenched slightly, moving the cross-shaped scar on his cheek ever so slightly. The first thought that entered the Knightess' mind was that the man beside her must have had some sort of dealings with the Council in the past and that they had most certainly soured his feelings towards them. She quickly pushed the thought aside. Mages from independent guilds tended to not think highly of the council to begin with but that scowl indicated something else. It felt as if the man flat out despised the council.

"So where exactly are we going?" She broke the silence that had just started to settle.

"A small outcropping of Nirvit ruins in the Worth Woodsea. If the information is right, we should be in and out after a couple days, tops." He replied while pulling a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and using his magic to light it.

Kazro inhaled sharply then exhaled and watched as the smoke was lazily buffeted around by the breeze passing through the station terminal. As he was finishing his cigarette, a train pulled into the station and blared its horn. The two of them winced at the same time as the noise reverberated across the platform. They rose from the bench and made their way aboard, picking the first empty cabin they could find. Not long after they had settled into the cabin, they were joined by the same blonde and pink-haired man from the guildhall. Kazro remained silent as the pinkette sat next to Erza and the blonde shuffled in beside Kazro.

The blonde was the first to speak. "I can't believe we almost missed the train. You really need to just get over it, Natsu." She exclaimed with exasperation.

Kazro raised an eyebrow at the two that just entered the cabin. He glanced over at Natsu and saw a face full of dread. He looked over at the blonde and almost felt dirty for looking at her. She was wearing a pair of shorts that barely covered anything and a tank top that stopped at her midriff and looked a couple sizes too small. Kazro leaned his head up against the window. He glanced over at Erza as if he were asking if this was all normal and the redhead merely chuckled.

The blonde then turned to Kazro. "Hi, I'm Lucy. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself back at the guild." She proclaimed with a beaming smile.

"Kazro." He smiled weakly as he spoke.

The train lurched forward into motion causing its occupants to shift with it. Natsu began complaining about motion sickness almost immediately and was met by a metal clad fist to his stomach, knocking him out cold. The blonde beside Kazro yawned and rested her head against the partition that separated the cabin from the rest of the car and nodded off soon after. Kazro looked out the window and observed the scenery blazing past the window. In between thickets of trees were rolling hills covered in swaths of golden wheat that had just started to make itself known to the world. He snuck a glimpse at the redhead across from him. Her eyes were locked on the landscape as light danced around the crimson strands framing her face.

"I never got the chance to thank you for saving me from those bandits." Erza stared at Kazro as she made the comment.

"From what I can remember, you dragged me into Magnolia a couple weeks ago, so I guess we're even." He flashed a smile.

Erza was about to open her mouth again but stopped. The smile she had just seen was a genuine one. It wasn't one of the several she had seen Kazro use on the few occasions she saw him talking to somebody else in the guild. Most of the others she had seen were the kind of smile that hid annoyance. She finally opened her mouth again, but this time a question followed.

"Those bandits. It seemed like you knew them in some way. How?"

Kazro's smile faded almost instantly and was replaced by an expression that showed a mixture of emotions. Erza waited intently for an answer, the whole time analyzing his face for some kind of change in mood.

"That conversation is for another time, Erza." Kazro snapped then paused. "Just, not now. Maybe some other time." He tried to force a smile but the subject was still a sore one for him.

'The nerve of this man.' Erza thought with a scowl. 'Looks like Master was right about him. He seems like he isn't afraid of much, if anything at all.' She then chuckled to herself.

The two mages that were still awake shifted their eyes back to the horizon that began to bleed into night with the setting of the sun. It was replaced soon after by the moon as it begun to assume its mantle in the night sky. Kazro felt his eyes getting heavy and tried suppressing a yawn. He rubbed his eyes and looked out the window again. The rolling hills were bathed in the soft glow radiating from the full moon through the patchy clouds still hanging in the sky. Sleep's full assault finally brought down Kazro and he felt himself drift off into unconsciousness as the light reflecting off the moon filled the cabin.


"Burn!"

Kazro was jolted awake from his sleep by a voice that had been haunting his dreams for a while. His eyes darted around the train cabin that was softly illuminated by a green flame covering his fist. His eyes did a once over again and he let the flame die out. The moon was lower in the sky now and the early rays of morning were starting to gnaw away at night. His eyes adjusted to the soft light pouring in and he glanced at the three other bodies in the cabin. Sometime during the night Lucy and Erza switched places. The blonde and the pinkette were leaning against one another and both had slight smiles on their faces. He felt a weight shift on his right side and looked over to see Erza resting her head on his upper arm with the rest of her body curled up on the seat.

The train slowed and lurched to a stop, gently jostling its occupants awake. The other three mages in the cabin woke and groggily wiped their eyes and began to stretch. Kazro was the first to rise and slung his pack over his shoulder and waited for Erza to do the same. She followed suit and the two made their way to the platform, leaving Natsu and Lucy behind. Kazro inhaled the cool morning air sharply and rested his hands on his head. The Knightess and the Exorcist began walking at a steady pace out of the station and into the sleeping town of Cypress.

"Do you know where we need to go?" Erza asked in between yawns.

"It's about a two hour walk from here to the ruins we need to get to. The swamp surrounding the ruins should be enough to have kept the scavengers from picking it clean." He replied flatly.

Erza raised an eyebrow at him. She had traveled through swamps in the past but it was not really something that she enjoyed doing. She looked ahead at their path and chuckled. The man leading the way seemed to be phased by little, if anything short of an apocalypse. The sun finally broke over the horizon, giving way to a brilliant mix of oranges and yellows. The two mages veered onto an overgrown path branching off from the main road and into the outskirts of the swamp holding the target of their job.

After what seemed like an eternity of making their way through the unchecked growth and ponds of stagnant water, the two mages finally reached what appeared to be their destination. A pyramid like structure rose from the earth and stood defiantly against the elements. Parts of the stonework had been eroded away or broken off from the ravages of time. The main entrance stood agape, leading into the darkness within the structure.

A slight grin began to tug at Kazro's face. He had been in a handful of structures like this before and had always marveled at the inlaid carvings and workmanship that had gone into their making.

A chuckle escaped from Erza. "I think this is the first time I've seen you smile."

Another one came from Kazro. "I found my way into several of these when I was hunting down a dark guild and a handful of their subordinates. The ancient civilizations are far more advanced than you would think. Most of them were able to erect monuments that still stand to this day and they had a high affinity towards bending magic to their will."

A small ball of fire leapt from his hand and onto a torch he had pulled out of his pack. He made a silencing motion to the redhead as he took point to lead the way. The two entered the vestibule and quietly delved further into the ruins. Kazro had an idea as to what would be waiting further in and had no desire to disturb anything that could trigger any of the traps that its previous occupants had left behind.