Author's Note: Sorry this one took so long. I had writer's block. I also had several other ideas for fanfictions (and an idea for a doujinshi, which I'm writing the script for before I start the comic itself), and I was writing them at the same time as this. I'll try to focus mainly on this one until it's finished, but I'll probably get distracted again.

"Okay, so our first priority is to find the girls. We'll be stronger as a four-person team than we will with just the two of us."

"Sure, Al… that's the reason you want to find them…"

Alzack looked up at Gajeel, frowning. "Do you think I'm some sort of pervert or something?"

"No, but you have a thing for Biscuit."

The guns mage blushed. "I do not! And even if I did, it's not important right now! We have to focus on the mission, okay?"

Gajeel rolled his eyes. "Got it."

"So." Alzack leaned back against the tree. "You have that "super-dragon-slayer-sense of smell" of yours, right? You can pick up their scent. From there, it'll be easy to find them."

"It's not that simple," Gajeel growled. "I need something that smells like them first. We don't have any of their belongings."

Alzack sighed. "Speaking of that, Levy had the bag with all the food in it… and the blankets… and everything else we brought with us…"

"Who cares? We can hunt. And there are edible plants out here."

"I know absolutely nothing about edible plants," Alzack admitted.

"…Neither do I."

"In other words, we'll have to eat nothing but meat until we find Bisca and Levy?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Alzack groaned. He was stuck in the woods with someone who probably hated him, the only available food was meat, and they had no water.

This was not going to be fun.

"So… Gajeel and Alzack are somewhere in the town. We have absolutely no clue where. We have all the food and water, so they don't have any… This mission is going well."

"No, it's not," Bisca pointed out.

"I was being sarcastic," Levy answered.

"…Oh."

"As for us," Levy continued, "we're stuck in the middle of a town which we know nothing about, and if we come out of hiding then chances are those spirits will attack us again."

Both of them suddenly froze as they heard knocking at the door of the house they were hiding behind. Bisca opened her mouth to say something, but Levy pressed a finger to her lips, silently telling her to be quiet. She had a bad feeling about this.

There was the sound of the door opening around the other side of the house.

"Good day, ma'am," said a man's voice. "We're here to search your house. Don't worry, we'll try not to bother anyone. We need to come in, so if you'd be so kind as to move out of the way…"

"Sorry, but I don't let strangers into my home," snapped the woman who had answered the door. "Get lost."

"Our search will do you and your family no harm. Now, please move. This is the last time we will ask."

"No. I don't care what you're looking for, I ain't letting you into my house." A slight crackling sound, like fire, could be heard. The two Fairy Tail mages assumed that the woman was using fire magic in an attempt to scare the strangers away.

"Fine, then we'll use force. Joe, you know what to do."

There were a few heavy footsteps, presumably "Joe" walking toward the house. "Fire magi–" the woman began, but her sentence was cut off with a scream, which ended abruptly with a loud, sickening crack. Then there were more footsteps, this time two people, walking into the house. This was followed by yelling, several high-pitched screams, and a child crying, all of which gradually faded into silence.

Levy and Bisca glanced at each other. They were both thinking the same thing: Let's get them.

The duo snuck in through the nearby back door, trying to be as quiet as possible on the blue, carpeted floors. Bisca raised a hand, silently telling Levy to hold still for a moment, and peered around the corner. A man in a strange uniform was pacing back and forth across the room, arms folded behind his back, face covered by a mask. He occasionally glanced down at the four people who were sitting on the floor, their backs against the wall; a middle-aged man holding a baby, an elderly lady, and a boy who looked about ten.

"So, do you have any clue where this object might be?" the man in the uniform asked, holding up an image the greenette couldn't see from her current position.

The man shook his head. "No, I haven't seen that anywhere! Now will you please leave us alone?"

"I sincerely apologize, but we can't leave your home until we've completed our search of the building. Ah, here comes Joe now."

A much taller man with the same uniform and mask as the other stepped into the room. "Couldn't find anything. Even searched behind the secret panel in the wall in the basement. Nothin'."

"Alright then." The shorter man turned toward the family. "Our search is complete. We shall leave now."

As the footsteps headed toward them, Bisca did the first thing she could think of to avoid being seen. She grabbed Levy around the waist and darted into the nearest closet, leaving the door slightly ajar so that she could see out of it. Peering around the door, she watched the two men leave, and caught a glimpse of the picture one of them was holding.

What is that thing? she wondered.

It was impossible to tell how large the thing was by simply looking at the sketch, but it was easy to see that it was some sort of machine. And not a particularly modern-looking one.

"What is that thing?" Levy whispered almost silently, voicing exactly what Bisca was thinking.

"Looks like some sort of old machine," Bisca replied quietly. "Must be what they're looking for…"

Levy nodded. "I don't know what it's for, but by the look of it, it can't be good. We should find it before they do."

"And destroy it," Bisca added.

"…So… no signs of any animals yet…"

"Shut up, Poncho."

"I'm just saying, y'know, maybe this was there aren't animals in this direction after all. And don't call me "Poncho"!"

Gajeel turned toward him, smirking. "Why not?"

"Because I don't like it," Alzack answered.

"So? What kinda reason is that?"

"A valid one."

"Not really."

"You know what? Fine. Go ahead and call me "Poncho"… Metal Brains."

"What did you just call me?" Gajeel asked, glaring down at Alzack.

"You gave me a nickname. Don't see why I can't give one to you."

Gajeel growled as the guns mage walked casually past him. He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to go without killing this guy…

Alzack suddenly stopped with a sharp gasp. "Gajeel!" he hissed, apparently forgetting about the whole "Metal Brains" thing already.

The iron dragon slayer turned around and started walking toward him. "What?" he asked.

"Shh! Don't be so loud!" Alzack whispered. He pointed ahead of them. "Look. It's a deer."

Gajeel stared at the animal, his face splitting into a grin. "Dinner," he whispered, his arm becoming an iron sword. He almost immediately lunged at it – but the deer was too fast for him and ran off into the bushes. The iron dragon slayer lay face-down on the grass, cursing loudly.

Alzack sighed and shook his head. "Gajeel, I was just pointing it out. There's not that much meat on anything that thin, anyway. I could see its ribs. And they're way faster than us; if I attacked it, it would've been gone by the time I had loaded my gun."

"Shut up, Poncho."

"Anyway, let's keep heading in this direction. Maybe we'll find something else."

The dragon slayer really didn't feel like listening to Alzack. But at this point, he knew it was probably the most sensible course of action, so he got up and walked in the direction Alzack had specified.

Gajeel froze, causing Alzack to bump into him. They had reached the edge of the woods; if they went any further, they'd be in plain sight of those spirits, and would probably be attacked again.

"Hey–" Alzack began, leaning sideways to try and see around the taller man, but his sentence ended abruptly when he saw the town in front of them. "…Oh."

"What now, boss?" Gajeel taunted.

"Since when was I the boss?" Alzack asked, blinking at him. "I figured you would want that role."

"Anyway, let's keep heading in this direction," Gajeel said in a poor imitation of Alzack. "Maybe–"

"Why are you suddenly in such a bad mood?" the other asked.

"Maybe it's the fact that I'm fucking starving!" the dragon slayer snapped.

"I'm hungry too, and I'm not biting your head off."

Slowly, Gajeel realized how weak both of their voices sounded. How long had they walked through the forest after the incident with the deer? Five hours? Six? And five more hours before that. That meant they had gone almost twelve hours without eating a single thing. They needed something to eat – but at the edge of the woods, what would they find?

The dragon slayer looked around. A few yards to their right, there was a cluster of houses, their backs only a few feet away from the edge of the woods. He grabbed Alzack's wrist and dragged him in that direction, shushing him when the guns mage started to protest.

With a few quick steps, they managed to get from the woods to the backs of the houses without being noticed by those spirits. The back door of the house they were pressed against was only a foot or so to Gajeel's left. Without hesitating, he reached out and knocked on the door.

Alzack's eyes widened. "What–" he began, but was cut off when Gajeel clamped a hand over his mouth.

As soon as the door opened, Gajeel stepped in front of the door. "We're from the Fairy Tail guild," he told the surprised, elderly man standing before them. "We're here to save your whole town from those spirit things. We haven't eaten anything for almost twelve hours and we're really damn tired. Mind lettin' us in?"

The old man looked surprised for several seconds, before his face softened a bit. "I'm so glad someone finally came to save us! Come in, come in! Young people shouldn't go so long without eating. I'll make you some stew, and then you can use my guest room if you'd like. It's five in the morning anyway. Oh, and I have a first-aid kit in the bathroom for all those wounds."

"No wonder we're so tired…" Alzack sighed. He briefly wondered how Bisca and Levy were doing, before remembering that they were both capable of taking care of themselves and had probably found a safe place to stay, like them.

Eleven hours ago, Bisca and Levy had been in a closet.

"What do we do?" Levy whispered. The family living in the house had started moving around again, the dead woman's body on the table and covered up with a sheet. Her mother, husband and children could be heard weeping.

"I don't know," Bisca answered. "Wait for them to go to sleep?"

"That could be hours," Levy sighed. "And even then, we might wake them up if we move around too much, not to mention all the doors opening and closing…"

Bisca sighed. "We could always just come out and introduce ourselves."

"But they might not be too happy about us being in their house uninvited."

"True… maybe if we let them know that we're from the Fairy Tail guild and that we're here to save them, they won't be hostile toward us?"

"…Maybe."

"Alright, let's give it a shot." Before Levy could change her mind, the greenette pushed open the door. "We're from the Fairy Tail guild, and we're here to save your town!"

The family members stared at her. After several seconds of silence, the baby started crying.

Levy sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm. "Bisca, let me handle this."

"What did I do wrong?" Bisca asked, staring at the shorter girl in confusion.

"We'll talk about it later. For now, just… let me handle this. Please?"

"Okay."

"Um, sorry about being in your house uninvited," she said to the confused people standing before them. "We were just listening and trying to gather information about those people who are holding this town hostage. Do you know anything about them that could help us?"

The elderly woman was the one who spoke. "They're a cult of Zeref worshippers who are looking for some sort of device that they think is in this town. A few of them left to search a different town earlier today, but many of them are still here."

"Thank you." Levy smiled, before turning to leave.

"Wait."

The two mages turned back around.

"If you two ever need something to eat, or a place to sleep, we'll gladly let you in," the old woman smiled. "Your effort to save our town is fully supported by our family. And you two look as if you could use something for all those cuts you have."

Bisca and Levy glanced at each other. Levy turned back toward them. "Thank you again. We appreciate it."

Now, hours later, the two of them lay in beds on opposite sides of the family's guest bedroom, fast asleep.

The old man sat on one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs in the kitchen, listening carefully to the two wizards moving around upstairs. Once he heard the door of his guest bedroom slam shut, he pulled a communication lacrima out of his pocket and, glancing around furtively, dialed a number.

He could hear the ringing on the other end as he held the lacrima to his ear. It rang twice before someone picked it up.

"Yes?"

"I have some information about those wizards we were informed about," he whispered. "First of all, they're from the Fairy Tail guild. They're trying to "save the town" from our spirits. There are four of them, according to the ones I've found, but I only have two here. They'll be asleep soon. Once they are, I'll make sure they stay that way. In the meantime, I'll need someone to come over to the house I'm hiding out in and wait outside for them to be unconscious." He gave the address of the house he was in. "We can use them as bait for the other two and quickly stop all four of them."

"Excellent plan. I'll send a team over and we'll take them as hostages."

"Thank you," the old man grinned, making sure to be quiet to keep those two wizards from hearing him. Then he hung up.