This is my first Fairy Tail fanfic, hope you guys like it. I made a code so the scene changes and stuff makes sense. /\/\/\/\/\ is for time skips and /\/\ is for scene changes.

Prologue

The Brothers and the Girl

She sat on the ground, cradled her brother's still body. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed, rocking back and forth. "Kazuma," she wailed his name. "Wake up! Please! Don't go! Don't you leave me too!"

A boy stood a few feet away from them, watching with emotionless eyes. He took a step closer to them, hand reaching out. The girl raised her head, hearing the sound of his boots. She looked at him with broken eyes, shuffling backwards, holding the dead boy's body closer. "No!" she screamed, hysterical. "Stay away from us! I hate you! I hate you! You-you monster! Stay away!"

The boy flinched at her words, but continued forward. "Give me the swords. They belong to me now."

The swords he spoke of where the ones that were strapped to the girl's back. They had been her brother Kazuma's, but he had given them to her in his last moments, telling her to keep them safe.

The girl seemed to snap out of her delusional state, and stared at him. He looked the same as he always had; ash brown hair up in spikes, eyes greener than the earth. So what had changed? Why had he done this? The girl looked around the clearing, the trees were on fire and smoke rose high in the air. Far away, she could see the dead bodies of two dragons. Her mother and Erdhile, the boy's father.

He had killed them both.

She wondered what had happened to turn his once kind eyes to these emotionless ones. Or had he always been like this? Hiding his true nature behind fake kindness. She had once trusted him, loved him, but now, as she gripped her dead brother's body, she felt nothing but hatred.

Focusing on that hatred, she called her magic, and roared. A beam of violet magic left her mouth, hitting the boy's chest and sending him flying back. Willing herself to let go of Kazuma, she stood, and ran. She could hear him already starting to get up, calling her name angrily. She hadn't expected him to recover that quickly.

She could hear him getting closer. This was bad, she thought. He would surely catch her.

Panicking, she pulled the swords from their sheaths, gripping the tightly. She recalled Kazuma's words when he had handed them to her. "These swords are yours, trust them and keep them safe. Call upon them and they will help you."

She didn't quite know what he meant when he said 'trust' the swords. But right now, she was willing to try anything. Help me, do something. Anything! Please! She begged.

The boy was much closer now, a few meters behind her. The swords became warm in her hands, and suddenly, she felt a wave of magic pass through her. Everything seemed to be slowly down, her vision clouded and she felt herself falling.

She heard a roar from above. A large mastodonic dragon flew through the sky. His entire upper body was covered in black scales and blue markings. His white, beady eyes glowed as he flew away, feathery wings beating against the wind.

She murmured his name as the world disappeared around her.

"Acnologia."

/\/\/\/\/\

Sting yawned, stretching his aching muscles. He rubbed his eyes and blinked as he stood up. At his right he heard light snores and turned to see his twin brother Natsu fast asleep. After days of traveling, the boys had found themselves in a forest and taken shelter within a cave. Once they were sure there was no danger within it, they had placed their things and started a fire. He saw now that the fire had gone out.

Having no idea how to light a fire, he decided to wait for his brother to wake up and do it. Walking towards the mouth of the cave, Sting scanned the trees. He couldn't sense the presence of any Vulcans or magical creatures nearby, so they were safe. Sting grimaced as he thought of the Gorilla-like creatures. He had no fondness for them. The two brothers had been attacked by a group of Vulcans a few days ago and they had stolen most of their food.

They would have to find a town and get more soon; they only had enough food for another 5 days maybe. Sighing, Sting turned around, about to wake his brother, when he heard something.

It sounded like the crying of a girl. He could also smell blood, the scent was faint, but from how far away the crying sounded, he figured it might be a lot.

He wanted to run and see what it was, but didn't want to leave his brother alone. Thinking for a minute on what to do, he decided to leave Natsu a message. Getting a stick, he wrote a short note in the dirt.

Then, he began running, following the sound of crying. As he neared, the sound got louder, and the smell of blood much stronger. Soon enough, he found the source of the crying and gasped at what he saw. She lay on the forest floor, bleeding heavily. Around her were fallen trees and even some that had snapped in half.

Her hair was a dark violet splayed beneath her, and Sting could see that the ends were burned. Her clothes were burned as well, barely covering her. Two swords rested on the ground next to her hands. She turned to face him, her eyes pleading.

"Help me."

/\/\

Natsu had seen the note his brother had left him, and was now waiting for his return. He had re-lit the fire and packed most of their things. Pulling out some bread from his back-pack, he ripped it in half, leaving that for Sting. As he ate, he heard the sound of footsteps. They were moving in his direction quite fast. Getting up, Natsu ran to the mouth of the cave, prepared to face off against any monster.

He relaxed though, seeing that it was his twin. But wait, what was that he was carrying? The metallic scent of blood hit his nose, and he realized that it was a girl. A heavily injured and bleeding girl.

"Natsu!" Sting called.

The pink haired boy gasped, alarmed. "Who's that? What happened?"

Sting ran past him, not saying a thing. He laid the girl down on his sleeping mat, moving her gently as to not hurt her further. He also had two swords strapped to his back, Natsu saw, which he placed on the ground next to her. "Get me some bandages and water!" he said to Natsu.

Natsu, snapping out of his shock, ran to their bag, pulling out the roll of bandages and a water bottle. He handed them to Sting, who used the water to wet a cloth he had got and began dabbing her wounds. After cleaning them, he began wrapping bandages around her cuts. Natsu helped him with what he could, all the time wondering what had happened to her. He could tell that the attacks had been caused by magic, and from the severity of it, he didn't think her attacker meant for her to survive.

She looked around their age, 12, give or take a year. Who would want to kill a 12 year old girl?

/\/\/\/\/\

The two brothers sat by the fire. The girl lay on a cloth the boys had laid out, her breath even. Sting and Natsu had done what they could for her and now they could only hope that she would be alright.

"What do you think happened to her?" Sting asked. He had explained to Natsu what he saw when he had found her.

"I don't know," he said. "But those injuries were caused by magic. Someone must have attacked her."

"Hmm," Sting agreed, glancing at her. Her swords lay in their sheaths beside her. Sting had cleaned them of the blood and dirt. He remembered the strange marking's on them, ones he recognized as those in the language of the dragons. He and Natsu had tried to work out what they had meant, but had gotten nowhere.

"Do you think she's like us then?" he asked Natsu.

"Yes," was his brother's reply. "She's got to know something about the Dragons if she has those swords."

Outside, the sky was black, night had taken over. Their original plans of leaving the forest had been stalled as they couldn't leave the girl to die. They decided that when she woke up and was able to move and walk, they would leave.

"Uh," the two boys turned to the girl, hearing a noise. She moved around, her eyes open. They ran to her side, helping her sit up. She leaned against the cave wall, dazed. Blinking a few times to clear her eyes, she looked at her surroundings.

"Hi," Natsu said, grinning.

Her eyes snapped to him, widening. She started moving backwards, away from him. Pressing herself further against the cave wall, she curled herself into a ball, reopening her wounds. "Hey, are you alright? You shouldn't move too much, you're opening your wounds up again."

The girl stopped, looking at her arms to see that they were covered in bloody bandages. "What happened?" she mumbled.

"We found you bleeding in the woods, so we brought you here and bandaged you up," Sting told her.

Her eyes turned to him, observing him. She opened her mouth, and then closed it again. "Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Sting Eucliffe, and this is my twin brother Natsu Dragneel. Who are you?"

The girl stared at the boys for a while, eyes narrow and fearful. However, once she had confirmed that they were no danger, she spoke. "I'm … My name is ..." she stopped, looking down at her hands. They were trembling. She was silent and as she took a deep breath. "My name is Ka ..."

She stopped, her hands clenching into fists. "My name is Rinne. Rinne Drake."

Natsu and Sting sat down, still a distance from her. 'Rinne' opened her mouth to ask another question, when she spotted the two swords on the floor next to Sting. Tears filled her eyes as she started at them, drops falling down her face and onto her lap. The memories of what had happened to her filled her mind. But something was wrong; she couldn't feel his magic anywhere near here. No, that couldn't be, he had been right behind her angrily screaming her name.

"Are you OK?" Natsu asked, but she didn't seem to have heard him.

She looked to the mouth of the cave, revealing the forest. It was night, but she could see that the trees were unharmed. Not burning. The only smoke she could smell was from the fire. A thought filled her mind, was it possible?

"What …" she hesitated, wiping her eyes. "What year is this?"

Frowning at the girl's odd behavior, Natsu glanced at Sting before replying. "X778."

/\/\/\/\/\

"Can I come with you?" Rinne asked.

Sting and Natsu glanced at each other, unsure of what to do. They two stood at the mouth of the cave, bags strapped to their backs. It had been a week and Rinne had healed surprisingly fast. They had found out a bit about her, such as that she was actually 11, a year younger than them, but she wouldn't tell them what happened to her. As she was well enough, the brother's had been about to part with her, when she had asked them this.

"You guys are searching for a Dragon, right? So am I," she said. "It would be better if we looked together, so, please can I come with you?"

After a minute of silence, the brothers grinned at each other. "Sure, why not? It'll be fun having someone else with us."