Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters; they belong to the one and only Hiro Mashima.

I do own the idea for the fic though.

AN: Not much to say, honestly. I'm switching between this story and A Change of Scene, so the update intervals will be a bit stretched in between chapters *sweatdrops*. The last update to this story was about 2 weeks ago or something. Damn. *sighs* It's also a thing of finding inspiration to write these chapters so... yeah, we writers are complicated, you don't need to remind me. *chuckles awkwardly*

Onto the story…

Stargazer.

Crocus's Central Station…

That same afternoon, they were standing inside the train station of their destination. It was a quick trip to the capital city of Crocus thanks to the blue-haired man insisting on them to take the train there instead of walking, despite the pink-haired man's protests and teases from the feline of the group about why the first guy was so adamant in getting away from Magnolia as soon as possible.

"For the last time, I'm not afraid of her." Jonah murmured as they set foot on the train station of Crocus, carrying a dizzy pink-haired with him. He took a long look at their surroundings, remembering the other sight he had of the city in his mind, and shook his head. 'It's so different from that time.'

"Suuuuuuuuuuure~!" Happy answered with a roll of his tongue, nibbling on a fish he pulled out from the green bag strapped to his neck, walking next to the pair to the streets. "She scares you~!"

"She… you… forget it." The blue-haired sighed and walked forward, paying more attention to the bustling streets with narrowed eyes. There were a lot of people in the city, so many in one place alone. It was something new to him; there weren't that many people alive in his own time, only devastation. Endless battlefields of times he was too young at the time to remember, or even wonder their relevance. 'I cannot remember… who fell here…'

"Hey, new guy…" He heard the voice of the pink-haired next to him, a slight poking on his ribs too, and he turned to see what the guy wanted, seeing him standing on his own feet now and getting ready to meet their contractor. "Sup? You're spacing out."

'Natsu Dragneel… Salamander…' Jonah stared at the man in the eyes and thought of his person, of what he could manage to remember about him. There were many stories about him, several awe-inspiring, but he couldn't remember the important details. 'Why cannot I remember those things?' He shook his head and returned to reality; he was spacing out again. "Nothing, let's go to the client's house."

"Great! Let's go then!" Natsu cheered and led the way down the street, ignoring the curious looks of the passer-byers and chatting with the blue cat next to him, the blue-haired man following them silently a few steps behind. "Yup! This job is just what you need!"

The man quirked an eyebrow in curiosity; the only reason he accepted the offer was so he could get away from the interrogation back at the guild. "Just what I need? What do you mean?"

"Duh, the reward, slowpoke." The Dragon Slayer said with his hand searching inside his vest, pulling out the job request and showing it to the new guy with a bright grin, using a finger to point at the reward. "See? 500,000 jewels and a magic sword! I'm sure Erza will forgive you if you show her that!"

'I seriously doubt she'll overlook what I did because of some nice gift.' The wizard thought grimly with a small smile and nod to show support for the other's idea. It was pretty childish, honestly, but he didn't have the heart to throw the guy off his cloud. 'But he's doing this for my sake… I better follow through with his plan.'

So they went down the path leading to the client's house.

Somewhere between Crocus and Magnolia…

They were currently unaware of the many people following them and their ill thoughts towards them. Not truly something that one could interpret as they being seeking blood as revenge but more like, you know, beating the hell out of them for the stunt they pulled.

One hell of a beating, that is.

"Damn that numbskull!" Gray growled for the umpteenth that day, still mulling over the fact the Dragon Slayer left them behind in the job he himself invited them to do with him. It was supposed to be an opportunity to talk some more with the new guy and confirm a few things but… it all went down the drain. "Going ahead to the job…! Tch! Fuckin' idiot!"

"I can't believe Jonah let him do this." Lucy grumbled quietly, sitting across the Ice wizard with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, wondering how the blue-haired, who they thought was a bit more mature than the pink-haired, let this happen. She eyed to her right subtly and trying to remain in covert, guessing the person going with them might be a part of the reason for such a hurried departure. 'Did they fight again or something?'

Erza remained quiet, arms folded over her chest and glaring at the seat opposite to hers, her mind remembering the happenings of that morning and how the guy left without answering her most important question. She now had a closer idea of who the man was but she still needed confirmation, something from the young man to directed her, and exchange a few words with the other blue-haired man who resembled this new member of Fairy Tail the most.

"Once we find them, I'll give a piece of my mind to those morons." The Ice wizard kept on rambling, glaring holes at the glass between him and the landscape outside the train. If looks could kill…

"Gray." He heard a chilly voice calling his attention, making him snap out of his anger momentarily and turn his head robotically to address the woman of scarlet hair with them. She gave a simple glance in his direction and he felt like dying on the spot. If his looks could kill, hers would be pretty much able to destroy the world. "Calm down, you will do no such thing."

Lucy heaved a sigh of relief; finally someone thinking and speaking like a grown person. "Jeez, Erza, I almost thought you-"

"There will be nothing left of them for when I'm done." The Titania continued with the same icy tone, returning her eyes back to the poor seat in front of her and leaving a scared Gray and Lucy to pale at the implications of her words.

She was mad indeed.

"S-sure, Erza, whatever you say." Gray nodded dumbly and went back to gazing at the landscape, silently praying for her wrath to not be as she showed it to be. He was sure she would regret it later when the answers were presented to her.

"C-cannot we calm down and think of this slowly?" Lucy asked nervously to the group, receiving a pleading look from her male teammate to shut up and let it slide, and a threatening glare from the woman sitting with her. She scooted closer to the window out of instinct. Survival instinct. "I-I mean, I'm sure they had good reasons…?"

The woman with her narrowed her eyes and she yelped, quieting down in less than a second with her own brown eyes eyeing the landscape outside the window. Gray gave a shaky nod of understanding and sympathy to her through the reflection of the glass, and did the same.

It would be better if they were alive to see how it was all going to end.

"Well, aren't we lucky?" A young woman sitting a few spaces down the train car asked in a singsong tone, giggling lowly to the man sitting next to her and keeping an eye on the wizards. "You rush out to check on her and we just happened to find her in the same train? Lucky lucky, Jellal."

"Keep it quiet, Meredy." The man with her, hidden under the shadow of his cloak, whispered to the young girl, at the same time wondering what was doing the woman he was looking for in the same train as them but heading towards Crocus. "It's good for us they didn't notice our presence here."

"Well… if you're looking for a reason to that," she eyed the atmosphere around the mages and how the woman of scarlet hair was glaring at the seat in front of her. She sweatdropped at feeling the cold aura from that part of the train car and how the other mages with her backed away from her spot. "S-she's obviously mad about something… so she didn't notice we got inside in the last station."

'Does it have something to do with that lookalike I saw in the picture?' Jellal thought quietly, feeling a bit irked over what that picture showed to him. Why would she be eating together with someone who looked exactly like him? "We will follow them…"

Meredy snorted in amusement. "Suuure, captain."

South of Crocus…

"So the man didn't have much to say…" Jonah said after leaving the client's home, taking a last glance at the place and the person looking at them from the window next to the door, waving a hand in sign of goodbye while all they all left to the place they had to guard. He looked forward, shoving his hands inside his pants' pockets and threw a questioning glance at his partner. "Natsu-san? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Natsu answered shortly, not bothering to share his thoughts with the new guy. There was something weird in that house, something his nose picked up and he couldn't shake off even now when standing outside. There was a familiar scent in there and he was troubled in between letting the young man know or keeping it to himself. He decided to keep it to himself in the end. "Let's go, the caravan'll be here soon."

"…right." The blue-haired nodded quietly and followed the Dragon Slayer, internally wondering what was wrong while they walked through the still bustling streets to the outskirts of the city, trying not to bump into people and reach their destination before the other could catch up to them. 'I wonder if they-' He suddenly felt a chill down his spine. '…w-what was that?' He looked around and found nothing. The weather of the day was perfect and it didn't seem to be chilling down any time soon. '…is someone talking about me?'

"Jonah~!" He heard the cat calling for him, making him notice that he was staying behind. "You look smaller from here, Jonah!"

"I don't look smaller… you're just faraway." The man whispered to himself, sweatdropping at the cat's logic and hurrying in his steps. The sight of the city was still keeping him enthralled, like a kid watching a set of bright lights. He couldn't adjust to this many people, not even in the guild back in Magnolia. His head went left and right with the crowd, seeing the different faces and overall happy atmosphere of the place, finding to be like a dream of sorts. One of which he wished he didn't have to wake up from. 'It's… truly peaceful…'

"Alright, we're here!" Happy chirped… happily? …that doesn't work, uh. Oh! Happy chirped merrily. Yes, he chirped merrily, pointing one of his tiny paws to the gates of the city and the group of guardsmen keeping control of the entrance and exit of both objects and people.

The group walked past the control point, giving short explanations to the guards, and walked down the road to the last place where the caravans were struck, finding remnants of the last strikes and several pieces belonging to carriages and more, even some weapons from the last group of wizards that tried to help with the job.

"It's more desolated than I thought." Jonah spoke, breaking the deafening silence, stopping at one point of the road where the destruction was more noticeable, which meant it was the original spot of the attacks before the caravan ran off at full speed towards the city. The skid marks said that much at least. He knelt next to a part of the road full with footprints and counted the amount of them, narrowing his eyes in worry. "It's a large group… we should be careful… Natsu-san?"

Receiving no answer, the youngster turned his head around and found the Dragon Slayer keeping his gaze fixed on the top of a certain tree, glaring at him with his utmost attention and not moving his eyes from there. Happy remained quiet, having picked up the presence like his foster-father and waiting for the person observing them to come out of their hiding.

"What is it?" Jonah stood up and walked to stand next to the pink-haired, eyeing the same tree but not feeling or sensing anything from there, not even a slight movement of the leaves or the branches that could confirm there was someone with them. He gave his partner a side-glance and slipped one hand out of his pockets, quickly summoning a gun just in case. 'Who's there?'

"Didn't I tell you to stop following me?"

The pair of wizards, and the cat, brought their guards up. Natsu bringing his fists to the sides to counter anything while Jonah aimed his pistol at the crown of the tree, a small droplet of sweat falling down his brow when he thought of how familiar that voice sounded just now. It was a female voice, icy to the core, with no emotion creeping to the surface except hate. A cold burning hate that sent shivers down the wizards' –and cat's- spine.

"I really hate your insistence."

"Natsu-san…" Jonah called lowly to the wizard with him, catching glimpses of things, maybe people, moving around them in the forest, trying to surround them with their large numbers. While paying attention to this, he tried to discern with whom they were talking now, feeling the eerie familiarity of the voice and wondering if this was the person he was looking for. 'Why cannot I remember the name…?'

"Aye…" Natsu answered dryly, still keeping his attention to the person in the tree. The scent was the same he smelt when Gray, Lucy and he went to inspect the last place the new guy used to sleep back in Magnolia. A foul scent with not a single peck of good in it, the very same he could smell now and that was making his nose scrunch up in disgust. "You stink like rotten food."

"Why thank you, you don't smell so good either." The voice answered shortly, snickering hollowly to the joke, letting the two wizards be surrounded by her people. The guys stood back to back now, realizing that their speaker wasn't going to attack them herself and instead sent her people to do the dirty job for her. "Keep them entertain, my dogs."

"W-wait! Where are you going!?" Jonah yelled hurriedly to the person speaking to them, now seeing movement at the crown of the tree, whoever was standing there leaving the place to do something else. He tried to move to follow her but a shadow to his front forced him to stop and raise his gun to block, finding one of the many thugs staring at him blankly while forcing his spear against the young wizard. "W-what the hell?" He kicked the man away and stood back to back with Natsu again. "These guys… they are not acting on their free will."

"Watch it!" Natsu warned with a hand shoving the guy out of the way of an attack, seeing a blast of wind passing between them and passing all the way to hit another of the thugs surrounding them. The pair looked at their attackers in surprise. "What's wrong with these weirdos?"

"T-they don't care if they hit their companions in the crossfire…" The blue-haired straightened up and walked back slowly, keeping a close eye on their foes, witnessing the one that was hit standing up again with no reaction to the wound on his chest caused by an ally. "They're not even reacting to the pain."

"Hah! Doesn't that make it fun then?" The pink-haired grinned and hit his fists together, looking at the enemies with anticipation, for any one of them to make a move like before so they could start the fight. "Let's see how much they can handle!" The thugs moved again and prepared another barrage of attacks for them, seemingly not caring for the power they were putting in their spells and just focused on dealing damage to the wizards when firing them. The man stared wide-eyed at the wave of spells heading his way. "W-wow! That's insane!"

'Dammit!' Jonah clicked his tongue and spread his arms to the sides, a glowing golden light in his hands that soon expanded around them in the form of a sphere and blocked the incoming wave of magic. He clenched his teeth at the power hitting the barrier and remained focused on keeping it up. "Nebula!"

"Ah! Shiny!" Happy exclaimed in awe, seeing the barrier keeping them safe from harm, every single attack bouncing off the barrier in another direction and leaving a wave of ripples as the only sign it was touched. It was of the same golden light as the other spells of the blue-haired and it was translucent enough to let them see what was beyond its protective layers.

"Happy, take us out of here!" Natsu yelled hurriedly, seeing that the barrier wasn't going to last long and knowing that they would not be able to handle that many attacks at once. The cat nodded and in a second he was behind the man with his little paws holding onto his vest, his wings sprouting from his back and taking them up to the skies when Jonah lifted the barrier and used Meteor to follow their lead. He looked at the explosion underneath them and sighed in relief. "Okay, that was close…"

"Natsu-san, look out!"

"Huh? C-crap!" He heard the youngster with him yell and he looked down, seeing another barrage of spells heading their way. The cat behind him flew around to dodge the strikes and the pink-haired blocked those that were close to hitting them, swatting the last one and taking one large gulp of air to roar a massive amount of fire to their attackers. "Leave us alone, dammit! Fire Dragon's Roar!"

The thugs below them stood their ground and let themselves be consumed by the flames, much to the wizards' shock and surprise, falling to the ground afterwards with no more energy to stand back on their feet. The ones that weren't hit though, they continued to send spell after spell to the wizards with not a bit of worry for their fallen comrades.

"They won't give up…!" The blue-haired teen groaned, feeling one of the spells gracing his left shoulder. He glared at the thugs and then looked at his companion, nodding to him when an idea popped in his mind to stop the enemies without having to kill them or do something that could hurt them mortally. "What about a beat down?"

"Hell yeah! I like that idea!" The Dragon Slayer shouted with a wide grin, calling for his friend to take them down and landing in the middle of the thugs' formation, using their slow reaction to land a punch to one of the closest ones and then a kick to the one standing next to him. He jumped a slash to his back and took hold of the attacker's head, lifting him off the ground easily and sending him towards the blue-haired speeding in their direction, the guy only kicking the thug aside to the forest and landing close to Natsu to cover his back. "Wanna see who kicks most butts?"

Punching a man away from him and backing away from a slash to his face, Jonah threw a quick glance over his shoulder and smiled in mild excitement. "Is that a challenge?"

"Jonah is like Lucy so we'll have to save him later." Happy told them with his merry tone, annoying the blue-haired man who blinked a couple of times before freezing him still with a death glare.

"…I'll make you swallow those words." The blue-haired man uttered acidly before engaging on Meteor again and flying through the open spaces in the thugs' formation, punching and kicking everything on his path with little effort.

"Yep! He's definitely like her!" Natsu chuckled at the scared look of his feline friend and, after patting his head to comfort him from the scary sight, lunging to strike at the enemies around them with flaming kicks, punches and head-butts.

Unbeknown to them, the person who they encountered before the bandits got to surround them was still in the area, watching them with little interest on the fight as a whole but keeping a close eye on the blue-haired man. A small smile came to the spectator's face when it caught up to something important during the small exchange of words they had earlier.

"So you don't remember everything, eh, Jonah?" The person said with the same icy tone of before, snickering quietly in between the dense mass of trees, turning her attention to the city in the distance when it felt a couple of presences entering the capital, two of them calling most of her attention. "Oh? These magic powers… feel… familiar…"

She grinned and walked in the direction of the presences, casting one last glance to the fighting duo on the road.

"You just made my job easier, thank you for that."

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" Natsu yelled one last time with feet taking him against the enemies at full speed, producing a large stream of fire from each of his arms that he swung at the thugs, burning them and at the same time sending them flying away behind him due to the blunt force of the produced fire. He heaved the breath he was holding and looked around the area, seeing both him and the blue-haired man managed to get rid of their respective opponents. He grinned in the direction of the young man and gave him a thumb up. "Good job, new guy!"

'Strong hits to the head or overall damage to the body… it was a long shot…' Jonah looked at one of the thugs on the ground, seeing him twitching a bit and trying to get up again, only for him to kick him on the side, completely knocking him out of the fight. 'But it worked.' He raised his head to the Dragon Slayer and waved a hand in answer, giving a small smile of his own. "Thanks, Natsu-san."

"So… what now?" The Dragon Slayer asked curiously, walking to stand next to the youngster with his arms crossed behind his head and his glance directed to the last place where he could smell the scent of the leader of these people. "Should we go after her?"

"I don't know… should we?" The young man asked in thinking, scratching the back of his head in wonder. He still couldn't recall why the voice sounded so familiar to him or why it sent shivers down his spine with every word. More so, he now could feel a strange anger whenever he thought on who the owner of the voice could be. 'Anger…? Why…?' "We should return to the city and get our reward…"

"Yeah, but…" Natsu gave a glance to the forest, his nose scrunching up in disgust again before returning his gaze to the blue-haired man. "She was the person that you fought in Magnolia," Jonah's eyes widened. "Are you sure you don't want to follow her?"

"T-the one I fought…? You mean the one that left me unconscious?" The Dragon Slayer nodded in answer, prompting the guy to frown and look down in thinking. The same person to left him with his memory in shambles, aside some pretty bad wounds. Would it be wise to go and follow that person now? Even though he had still plenty of magic left and his wounds were mostly healed, he thought it wasn't that much good of an idea. He raised his head and shook it in negative. "No… let her be for now."

"Uh? Really?" The Dragon Slayer insisted with a curious stare, blinking a couple of times after the guy shook his head again and leaning back to look at the sky in thinking. "Okay, if you say so… though Erza would've followed her…"

Jonah stared at the pink-haired in silence, a single question appearing in his mind. "…why would I do – nevermind."

"Oh, you know~."Natsu grinned in amusement, lowering his head to look at the guy, the blue cat on his shoulder doing the same when remembering what they found the day before. "Because she's your-hmpf mpf!"

"Yes, okay, I get it, but I'd like for that information to remain a secret." The blue-haired teen said quickly, using his hands to cover both the wizard's and the cat's mouth from saying anything else. It was okay that they knew, but he didn't want to be reminded of that fact every single time. Especially here in the open; who knows who could be eavesdropping on their conversation? He let go of their faces and stood upright. "Please, don't say it aloud next time."

"Uh? Why? It's pretty obvious, y'know?" The pink-haired continued after his mouth was released, sharing a look with his companion resting on his shoulder. He brought a hand up and started to lift fingers as he counted. "Lucy knows, Gramps knows, Mira knows, Cana knows, Laxus knows, Gajeel knows, Juvia knows, Alzack and Bizca know…"

"Lisanna knows, Elfman knows, Macao knows, Wakaba knows, Nab knows, Kinana knows, Romeo knows, Warren and Max know…" Happy went on too, much to the blue-hair's shock.

"Reedus, Freed, Bickslow, Evergreen, Vijeeter, Laki, Levy, Jet and Droy…" Natsu finished counting the people that knew about the supposed secret, not so secret now, and returned his eyes to the appalled youngster with him, seeing him staring agape at this revelation. "Even that idiot Gray knows."

'Why the heck did I try to keep it a secret if everyone but her knows by now?' He didn't know how many members the guild had at the current time but hearing so many names, so many people aware of who he really was, it truly was shocking and depressive. He was a really bad liar. Closing his mouth slowly, he coughed on his fist and addressed the man as if nothing had happened. "…i-is that true?"

"Yeah… we knew about it after we picked your stuff." The Dragon Slayer explained with a finger lifted in the air, pointing at the imaginary bubble floating above his head and that showed how the story went. "Happy found your bag at the top of the tree, Lucy searched inside it and found your photo, and then we looked at it for like… a lot…"

"And the others heard the news from Mira." Happy told with a small sigh and his pawn moving around in a circling motion.

"Yep, she noticed on her own and then told the others." Natsu said with a firm nod, tapping the palm of his left hand with his right's fist. He grinned brightly and patted the once again appalled young man on the shoulder, trying to lift up his spirits after everything that was said. "All you have to do now is tell Erza about it and you're good to go!"

"G-good to go…? G-go where?" The discouraged wizard asked in curiosity, raising his head a bit to look at the pink-haired in the eyes.

"Didn't you say you're here to protect someone?" The guy asked him in confusion, keeping his hand on his shoulder. "You're here to protect Erza because she's your family, right?"

Jonah kept their eyes locked as he wondered; nodding slowly when he figured it was pointless to be playing dumb with someone who already knew. "…yes, because she's my family."

"Well, she and that other guy." Natsu chuckled in mischief and patted the guy one last time, now turning around and walking towards the city with his hands joined behind his head. He was idly remembering the incident that happened not too long ago in the same city of Crocus, which let them know of many things to come. "If you're like that Rogue from the future, then you're here because something happened and you wanted to see them again… or protect them, like you say, because they're your family."

"M-my family…" Jonah repeated slowly, feeling a warm feeling spreading from his chest to the rest of his body, stinging his eyes a bit when a certain memory flashed in his mind. He flinched and brought his head down, suddenly scared of that feeling he had just now.

"So, the sooner you tell them, the better!" Natsu, unaware of the effect his words were having, grinned and gave a side-glance to the guy. "Once the secret's over, you'll get to enjoy your time with them like a real family! Isn't that great?"

"A-A real family… huh…?" The blue-haired man repeated again, not believing the words he was hearing from the supposedly hard-headed pink-haired man and feeling the warm sensation invading him again, not retreating this time. Was it perhaps one of those people who had strange moments of enlightenment and knew what to say from out of nowhere? Maybe so, he didn't know, all the information he had about this time was blocked after that hit he got the other night.

His head tilted down a bit.

Yet…

"Good job... you did great again." A tall man said after seeing what he asked for being done, patting a young boy's head and turning around towards a door. "Come with me, you earned yourself a reward."

"Yeah!" The boy grinned brightly at the words and made to follow, cheering at the prospect of a reward. "Another gift! You're the best!"

"A reward again?" A woman in the room asked, crossing her arms and gazing at the man and child disapprovingly. "You're spoiling him with so many of those."

The man by the door turned around immediately with the kid on toe, both pointing fingers at the woman. "I am not!"/"He's not!"

The woman only chuckled in amusement and let them go.

Yet… he could still remember the other things, the ones that mattered and were currently hammering his chest and mind with both hope and sorrow. For what he could have and for that which he had already lost. But he couldn't let it bother him now; he had to remain focused on today, on keeping the part with hope alive and the sorrow only to fuel his determination.

Jonah straightened up again and moved to follow, now smiling at having people knowing of his heritage with no ill thoughts in conjunction. He saw the man and his cat and shook his head, a bit of amusement now replacing the whirlwind of nostalgic feelings he just had and that made him remember something more.

'Natsu Dragneel… Salamander… the man in whom they believed in.' He thought with a grateful smile to the man. 'I can understand why now.'

Back to the Dragon Slayer and his cat, they were down the road towards the city with nothing else in mind except the issue of how they were going to split the rewards of today. If the youngster needed the money to get a place to stay or something to eat, they figured they would be okay with letting him keep the request's reward.

"Man, Erza will get crazy when she sees your new sword!" Natsu told the young man next to him, grinning in his direction and imagining his teammate's face at the sight of the guy with his new sword.

"You think so?" Jonah asked curiously, really intrigued about the subject. He was a bit of a fan of new swords too, but he never had that much of passion for them in his original time.

"Yeah, I mean, if you give it to her like I told you to, she won't be mad at you anymore!"

"I doubt that… but I guess it doesn't hurt to try… right?"

"Now we're talking!"

"Guys, look!" Happy called from his position on the pink-hair's shoulder, pointing at a cloud of smoke coming from the capital in the distance. "There's smoke coming from the city!"

"Uh? What could've happened?" The pink-haired wizard wondered aloud, continuing his walk as if nothing big was happening, despite the fast-paced stroll of their companion, who now had a four meters distance with them. They looked at him weirdly, not understanding his hurry. "Hey! What's up with you?"

"I can feel Gray-san's and Lucy-san's presences in there!" Jonah informed them, casting a look of worry to them at the same time a droplet of sweat fell from the side of his head. There were many familiar presences in the city at the moment and one of them made him remember what his original objective was. "And she's with them!" He focused a little more and felt his mind going haywire when he caught two presences more, one of them shocking him to the core. 'W-what!? I-Impossible! H-he's there too!?'

"She? You mean Erza?" Natsu asked in surprise, now hurrying his own steps and entering into a run with the blue-haired man when he caught up to him. Now that he put some effort into it, he could too feel the presences of his friends in the city… along the same icy presence they felt before dealing with the thugs, the one belonging to their mysterious onlooker. His eyes widened. "S-shit! That girl we found is there!"

The eyes of the blue-haired teen widened in fear while looking at the Dragon Slayer. "…t-that girl!?"

He faced the road again and engaged on Meteor to hurry his pace, leaving behind a startled pink-haired man and his cat. He clenched his teeth in despair and his fists in anxiety, little attention was paid to the landscape blurring around him during his flight to the source of the smoke.

There was only one thought in his mind at the moment.

"I cannot let her get near them!"

To be continued…?

AN: I had a kickass Author's Note to share with you all but FF decided to be an ass and logged off my account... TWICE... when I was done writing it and tried to save it. So now, enjoy this really short AN and my grumpiness.

Saludos.

PS: Please, leave some feedback, reviews would certainly help with my sour mood.