A Jedi in Fairy cloth

by Rogue Pizza

This story has been suspended. I may continue it at some point down the line or I may take it down and start from scratch.

6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Star Wars

I plan for Ryu to follow the Sentinel path then later on to Jedi Watchman. Being a Sentinel means you have a balance between your Force abilities and Saber combat skills. Not only that but Sentinels always have a little extra something to get the job done. Ryu won't be splicing into computers and planting thermal detonators in a battleship of course. His skills will be more time esque. For example, lock picking, infiltration, spying, and possibly reconnaissance which Sentinels did .

Also, another feature on the lightsabers is called NL (Non-lethal). Instead of metal cutting beams of light, the blade lowers its amount of energy and instead of a killing strike, a lightsaber blow deals a neural shock to the enemies. It is basically a stun baton but still causes burns.

One more thing, I will be adding mythical creatures into Fairy Tail. I know that you really don't see any mythical creatures but if there are dragons, that kind of opens the door for many other things. I will introduce them over time in the story.

Enough explaining, time for some story

Chapter 6

Elves, Experimental weapons, and Eternal acquaintances

Ryu landed on the ground below without disturbing a pebble. A advanced technique that Ryu had been fiddling around with was Force Flight. It was a difficult one to learn but a extremely useful one. There could be situations where they would be no earth for Ryu to use to fly so having a back up would be handy. At this point, Ryu could easily control his descent and be able to land without a sound.

The sun loomed high in the sky, beating down on him. Ryu channeled his magic energy and opened his pocket dimension once again. Subtle gray light washed over his body, engulfing him entirely. After a second, the gray light dissipated and Ryu's new clothes fell into place. A light brown sleeveless shirt covered his torso, a darker brown garment sat on top on the shirt. This robe was similar to Jedi garment but instead of covering both shoulders, it only sat on loosely on his right shoulder. This style of brown clothing helped Ryu blend into the rocks easier making it harder for him to be detected. The only thing that was the same was the dark tan Jedi pants he had made himself as well.

Ryu hunched over slightly and continued following what essentially what was his paycheck. They dropped out of sight for a good half hour but once Ryu found the trail he had seen before, he managed to catch up with the group in a matter of minutes. Once he was close enough, he managed to get an accurate head count.

Fifteen of them seemed to be all men, big burly men with decent sized muscles. Their armaments were varied, some carried clubs, others swords, maces, daggers and strangely enough, a couple chain maces entered his vision. The remaining ten were all female, their ages ranged from nine to possibly twenty three or four. All of them were wearing what looked like little more than potato sacks. This thought brought back the painful memory of what he saw with Erza's past. Ryu grimaced slightly at the memory but powered through the pain. He saw one of the older girls get smacked and knocked to the ground.

Ryu began to take a step forward but stopped before he revealed himself, "Keep your calm Ryu, these guys might lead you to their hideout . . . if they have one. Although, if they do, I can't begin to imagine how many more might be there."

He took a step back into the shadows and remained still, two of the other girls helped the fallen one back up and began to support her weight. He managed to see each of the girls crack a smile, "There is always time for a smile, even when times are dark a single smile can brighten anyone's day."

Ryu smiled inwardly before he turned his attention back to the group of people who started moving again. The process of stalking them and moving from cover to cover took at least five hours with no breaks in between. Finally the group had stopped, a man within in the group started running his hand along the rock, banging his fist on different parts of the rocks. After a good minute of searching, the man found what he was looking for. He pressed his hand firmly on the rock and a square shaped button slid into the mountain. A large stone door slowly slid open with a large grinding noise. The men on the perminator had their eyes constantly darting around the area just in case there was any unwanted people following them. But they didn't managed to spot Ryu, the combination of shadows and his colored coordinated clothing rendered practically invisible unless you were standing a good five feet away.

The man who had opened the way turned around and started shouting, "Alright, all you wenches, start funneling into the tunnel now!"

There was a couple protests at first but the man walked and slapped the same girl as before and knocked her to the ground. But this time, he started kicking her in the stomach and shouting at the other girls. Luckily, Ryu had all that he needed now. His sabers flew into his hands as he charged out of his cover and toward the group.

Ryu was spotted almost immediately, "Someone followed us!"

The sabers snap-hissed on as Ryu Surged toward the group, before the first man could even raise his weapon, the saber connected with the mans chest sending him back a couple feet, twitching as he did. Another man brought his sword down on Ryu who merely sidestepped, Ryu then stomped one foot on the ground. A smaller version of Stone Pillar rose up out of the ground and landed a hard blow on the man in between his legs. The man grabbed his junk and fell over sideways trying hard not to puke.

"He's a mage, stop him now before he reaches the hideout!"

"Well the cat's out of the bag now." Ryu collected his magic and focused it on the ground in front of him, "Multi Pillar Strike!"

Stone Pillars started erupting out of the ground everywhere, the bandits were suddenly hit from all side suddenly taking them all by surprise. The pillars would shoot out of the ground, strike the bandits either on the head, chest or stomach before crumbling back into the ground to allow the next pillar to strike. Once the pillars had ceased their attacks, ten out of the fifteen bandits were lying crumpled on the ground unconscious. The remaining ones became terrified and started retreating into the cave but were cut of by a sudden rock barrier summoned by Ryu.

They turned around to see the young man walking toward him with a pulsating white light and a shimmering black light in each hand, "W-who the hell are you?!

Ryu smirked and held up his his right gauntlet, the Fairy Tail symbol shined brightly on it, "I'm a Jedi Fairy Tail Wizard."

They all looked slightly confused, "Jedi? What the hell is that?"

"Whoops, you guys weren't suppose to hear that, so goodnight." Ryu started gathering up his Force energy in his hands.

"Wait, what are yo-"

The bandits weren't able to finish as Ryu unleashed a wave of telekinetic energy on them. They were all launched backwards and thrown against the rock barrier, the knock resulted in all of them lying unconscious against the barrier. Ryu turned to the girls, they were all watching him expectantly. After looking through a couple of the bodies, he managed to find the one key to all their shackles. He tossed the key to them as he started binding all the bandits with large ropes on them, probably a back up if the shackles broke apart.

A girl around the age of fifteen walked up to Ryu, "What are we going to do now mister?"

"Well I need to go in that cave and see if there is anyone else in there. You need to stay out here and signal the rescue party that is looking for you." Ryu responded as he finished the last binding on the bandits.

"But how are suppose to signal them, we have no firewood to make smoke signals or anything along those lines." The girl complained.

Ryu once again opened his pocket dimension and retrieved a thin cylindrical device. He then pointed the device upward and clicked a button. A magic circle appeared at the tip of the device before shooting a orb of red light into the sky. Once at its peak height, the orb hovered there and remained there. Again, a subtle gray light covered Ryu's body, the Mountain set of clothing was replaced with his black leather duster outfit. The girls watched as Ryu crumbled the rock barrier to the entrance of the cave, Ryu disappeared almost immediately in the shadow of caves.

The light from his white lightsaber was more than enough to find his way through the cave. Ryu reached behind his neck with his free hand and pulled the black leather hood up and over his head. The hood didn't help him hide any better, but Ryu felt like it was the coolest addition to his outfit and would often wear it from time to time. Once the noise of a single voice caught his attention, he switched his lightsaber off and continued forward in the darkness feeling his way forward. Soon enough he could see a light in the distance, he continued slowly moving forward until he peered around the bend.

In front of him was a large open area, big enough to shelter two hundred people easy. But there wasn't two hundred people, more like seventy-five women in iron bar cages. Ryu was in shock about just how many people there were, his request said there would probably be around forty people at their base camp if all the string of kidnappings were connected. But this number was doubled, it was possible that this group also nicked some girls traveling on the road and more likely girls from families in poverty so their families couldn't pay to have them found.

Ryu then heard someone clapping, "Well, well, well. Who do we have here, a hero who has come here to save all the ladies?"

Seeing no point in hiding anymore, Ryu stood up and moved further into the cave, "More like a man who is here to collect a paycheck. I save these women, and boom, three hundred and seventy-five thousand Jewels in my pocket."

Ryu could see a man standing atop a wooden structure that had been built in the cave to provide the bandits a house within the cave . . . that rested a good fifty feet in the air suspended by wooden support beams. The man wore heavy purple robes, robes like royalty. He was a bit on the heavy side and had a very pudgy face with a giant curly mustache.

"Ho, so a man of fortune." The man started stomping down the wood planks to the cave floor.

Ryu stretched his arms from side to side, "Nah, I work for a guild."

The heavy man reached halfway down the wooden structure and stopped, "Might I ask which guild, boy?"

"Fairy Tail, the noisiest bunch of idiots you will ever meet. And who might you be good sir?"

He bowed slightly, "I am Eugene Skleter, proud Earth mage who carved out this cave."

The name rung a bell in Ryu's head, "Aren't you that one guy who was one of the head members of slave trading ring or something? Then the Detention Corps found out, and raided your mansion right?"

Eugene stepped onto the cave floor with a sour face, "Hmm, those government pigs. That matters very little, I have amassed a new set of merchandise. Soon, influential men from all over Fiore will secretly come here to pick out their own harem. Although I will have to hire more muscle since you disposed of my current hired hands."

Ryu looked around, confused, "May I ask a question Eugene?"

"Well, I am going to kill you anyway so go ahead and ask."

"Sure you are, care to tell me where the other slave masters are holding their operations?"

Eugene smiled before he flew at Ryu who barely had enough time to erect a Earth shield, an idea he had gotten from Gray's Ice Shield. Eugene slammed into the rock wall and much to Ryu's surprise, he broke through. A powerful jab was delivered to Ryu's jaw, after the blow Ryu took a couple steps back clutching his jaw.

"How the hell can that fat ass move so quickly?!" Ryu found his answer when Eugene's foot slammed into his face. Eugene was using Earth magic to keep a stone slab under each foot so instead of running, he used the stone to basically fly. It was much like Ryu's Soil of the Winds but much quicker.

Eugene flew back and maintained a good distance from Ryu, he clapped his hands together and shouted, "Meteor Storm!"

Chunks of rocks broke off of the ceiling and flew toward Ryu. In response, Ryu surrounded his arms in stone and shielded his face with his arms. The stones slammed into Ryu causing him to slid back with each blow, his black leather duster tore in some places where the rock struck him. After the last rock bashed into Ryu, he lowered his arms to see Eugene mimicking his Stone Arms and coming at him with his fist raised.

Ryu side stepped and brought his stone covered hand down on the side of Eugene's head, the strike connected but Eugene seemed unaffected by the attack, he smiled, "You really think that's going to hurt me?"

Another powerful jab connected with Ryu's stomach, spittle flew out of his mouth and onto the ground, "Dammit, he's using his magic to increase his movement speed."

Eugene flung Ryu to the opposite side of the room, Ryu collided and broke through some of the wooden support beams holding up the structure. Ryu pushed himself up slowly, he could already feel the bruises, "It's been awhile since I have been tossed around like this." He stood up and leaned against a standing pillar, smiling, "But there is something you don't know about me."

"I don't know anything about you but I'll humor you, what is it?" Eugene asked with sarcasm heavy enough to sink a ship.

Ryu's smirked widened. "I am a S-class wizard."

"Well, 'S-class wizard', let us see if you can survive my ultimate move." Eugene closed his eyes as magical energy swirled around him, "Poisonous Earth: Stone Serpent!"

A giant snake made of stone shot out of the ground and coiled lightly around its master, protecting him. The snake let out a hiss that you would expect from a normal snake, although you wouldn't expect it to have giant glowing green eyes staring at you. Its head moved from side to side slightly, never taking its green eyes off Ryu.

"Ha, that's all you got?" Ryu scoffed.

Anger appeared on Eugene's face, "Minion, dispose of this annoyance!"

The snake flew across the room towards Ryu, who merely stood there as it crashed into him. The crash also knocked out the remaining support beams holding up the structure bringing it down on Ryu as well. The women around the room could only look on in horror as their only savior was crushed beneath stone and wood. A large dust cloud was kicked up from all the debris shielding everyones view from seeing him being crushed.

Eugene laughed, "Stupid little wizard, thinking his Earth magic was on par with my own. Let this be an example to the rest of you women should any of you think to oppose me. I still need to hire some more help to fix this place up an-"

A rock flew out of the dust and struck Eugene squarely in the face, blood started trickling from his bruised lip and nose. The dust slowly started to settle, when it did, everyone could see Ryu with his arms outstretched with a dome of faint blue light surrounding his body. Ryu's duster was torn in several places and multiple bruises could be spotted on his face, blood trickled out of his nose, down and over his lip and dripped off his chin.

A wide grin showed on Ryu's face, "My Earth magic may not be as good as yours but I didn't pass my S-class trials on Earth magic alone."

The dome of faint blue light disappeared, Eugene stood with his mouth gaping, "What the hell was that blue light?!"

"Oh that, where I am from, it's called Force Barrier. Simple to learn, really useful if you keep training with it. Although that's not all I can do with this second ability." Ryu extended one hand toward Eugene.

Seconds later, Eugene felt really hot and he could smell something burning. He looked down to see his royal robes on fire and quickly spreading. Eugene tore off the robe and stamped the fire out on the ground, "Damn you, this was my only good robe! Now, not only am I going to kill you but I'm going to destroy Fairy Tail if it's the last thing I do!"

Eugene looked back up to see Ryu two feet away from him with a frown on his face. Ryu placed a hand on Eugene's face, "You sir, just said the wrong thing. Force Judgement!"

Green lighting flowed from Ryu's hand and coursed over the mans body. Eugene fell to the floor convulsing, the twitching continued until Ryu brought the hilt of one of his lightsabers down on the mans head knocking him out cold but still occasionally twitching. The women around the cave let out a resounding cheer that echoed throughout cave. Ryu moved to the nearest cage and examined the metal bars.

"All of you, stand back." The women in the cage crowded on the opposite side of the cage.

Ryu brought a lightsaber blade down on a metal bar, the force he applied in the strike was returned back to him. The lightsaber flew from his hand as sparks flew off the metal bars, "Damn, infused with magic."

The lightsaber returned to Ryu's hand as pulled it back to him, "Anyone know where the key is?"

None of the girls nodded their heads, "Well, going to have to do this the talented way then."

Ryu once again opened his pocket dimension and pulled out a small satchel, he reached inside and pulled out a odd looking knife and long thin piece of metal with a curved tip. He crouched down next to the lock and got to work. The process of picking the lock took awhile, Ryu hadn't practiced lately and was a bit rusty but after some persistence, the lock clicked open.

Ryu opened the door and bowed slightly and said with a sarcastic tone, "Let me open the door for you, miladies."

The women ran out of the cage and went to different cages looking for either friends or possibly family members. Ryu moved on to the next cage and opened that as well until he had gone around and opened all sixteen cages that sat around the room. Some women found some chains and Ryu cuffed Eugene before using his lightsaber to light the way out as he dragged Eugene behind him with all the freed slaves closely in tow.

As they made their ways through the tunnel, a young girl probably around eleven caught up with Ryu. Anger stewed through Ryu when he thought of the man he was dragging kidnapping children. The girl walked awfully close to him, her eyes were focused on him, "How did you burn old pervert? You're not a fire mage are you?"

"It's a little personal but I have a second magic ability. What I used was called Pyrokinesis, I accelerated the particles on his robe fast enough to where they caught on fire."

The girl looked confused, "What are particles?"

"Science stuff."Ryu ignored the girl's further questions and pressed on. Soon enough, sunlight showed in the distance. All the girls ran past him and toward the light to the outside, he couldn't run with them due to him dragging at least three hundred pounds of evil earth mage.

Ryu heard a familiar voice that he had heard multiple times before, although it wasn't a friendly relationship, "Lahar, Captain of the Fourth Custody Enforcement Unit, fancy meeting you here in these remote area of the mountains."

Lahar turned to face Ryu as he walked out of the cave, "Ryu Krayt Darkson, member of Fairy Tail, I heard they had hired someone to track down these bandits."

Ryu dragged Eugene forward and dropped him in front of Lahar. Ryu stood at the same height but Ryu had more muscle mass, "Once again, I have done your job for you."

Lahar gritted his teeth, but said nothing. Ryu continued his assault, "Makes you wonder what the Magic Council would do if guilds like Fairy Tail weren't around."

Lahar clenched his fist but once again said nothing. This time, Ryu pushed too far, "Only if those old men you work for could manage to get their thumbs out of their asses."

A fist connected with Ryu's jaw again sending him back a couple feet, Ryu spit out fresh blood pooling in his mouth and smiled, "Wow, I managed to get a physical response out Lahar."

Lahar pointed a finger at Ryu, "People like you should be locked away in prison for the rest of their miserable lives."

Ryu continued to smirk, "But I haven't commited a felony. "

"But when you do-"

"You'll be there with the full might of the Magic Council to bring me down, I have heard this song and dance before. Now if will excuse me, my client has arrived." Ryu gave a small bow before walking over to a large group of militia men.

Ryu and Lahar had met many times before, often times Ryu would arrive at the scene of a major bust of a criminal before the Council and go on a rampage. Lahar did not approve of this but couldn't do anything because Ryu would be on an official Guild request which gave him certain freedoms to beat up the criminals if they resisted which they always would. Ryu would also goad Lahar in a physical response because speaking your mind about the Magic Council in public wasn't really against the law.

Among the group of militiamen was a well dressed older looking man. His client currently was holding his twelve year old daughter in his arms, most of the militiamen around them also seemed to be reuniting with some family member or friend. Ryu snaked his way through the crowd until he stood before the man who hired him.

The man pointed a finger at Ryu as he walked up, "I knew I was right to hire you, Fairy Tail may not have such a good reputation but I knew there was some good people still there."

"Thank you, I need to get going so about my payment . . ."

Ryu was handed a thick envelope, he opened it and found a lot of paper in it, "Three hundred and seventy-five thousand Jewels, in cash."

The envelope disappeared in a flash of light, "Pleasure doing business."

And with that, Ryu walked off alone into the mountains toward the town of Hargeon. The Detention Corps would help take the remaining women back home to where they were kidnapped as well as throw the bandits and Eugene in prison for a very long time. As the day grew later, Ryu wormed his way through the mountains and managed to make it to the coast before sundown. He continued walking along the coastline until it became night time. Ryu settled in a tree near the coast as he usually did and fell asleep quickly. Unaware that when he would get to town, he would meet a future guild mate.

()()()()
Port town of Hargeon, July 2, 12:01 PM

Ryu trudged into town just as the sun was at its peak in the sky, the sea carried its breeze in and swept through the town cooling it down. Nothing exciting happened yesterday as Ryu was traveling other than just walking along the coastal road that eventually led into Hargeon. The town was bustling with activity, many smells could be detected as you walked through the town as well as many different people of ethnic types.

"A lot of people travel through port towns, wonder if Maverick ever came through here."

Even though Ryu had seen hide nor hair of Maverick, he still kept his eyes and ears open for his friend. Sadly, it was much more difficult to find him either though he was one of three Force users in this world. The third Force user was a man who was much older than Ryu at the time, he never saw the man's face or even learned his name. What he did learn was that it was possible to make lightsaber crystals out of magic.

Ryu walked past the train station and noticed a familiar figure standing on the station platform. He walked over silently and looked at what his fellow guild mate was staring at, "Why are you looking at that train Happy?"

The small blue cat jumped a little at his voice, he spun around on one foot and looked up, "Ryu! What are you doing here?"

"Passing through, on my way back to Magnolia. Why were you looking at the train, and where's Natsu?" Ryu asked as he sat down next to the cat, relieving his legs from walking since eight in the morning.

Happy pointed at the train which had all but disappeared in the distance, "Natsu couldn't get off the train in time because of his motion sickness."

Ryu laughed, "Well sucks to be him. What are you two doing in this town?"

"We heard a rumor that a Salamander was in town. Me and Natsu believe that it's Igneel." Happy replied.

Ryu raised an eyebrow, "So you're looking for a massive mythical creature in the middle of a port town?"

"Aye."

"I'm not even going to touch that statement." Ryu thought. "Well good luck Happy, I hope it works out."

"How did your job go, you look a little beat up."

"Well, the criminal put up more of a fight than I thought. It got a little rocky near the end." Ryu snickered.

Happy was confused, "I don't get it. What was so funny?"

"The joke requires a bit of context. Anyway, see you two back at the guild." Ryu stood up and waved to Happy as he started walking away.

"Bye, wait are you going to walk around town with a torn duster?"

Ryu looked at his clothes, his duster was torn in some parts where Eugene's attacks hit him, "Forgot about that, give me a second."

He started summoning up his magic, and slowly began to channeling it into the duster. It glowed faintly green as the holes began to close slowly. When Ryu had bought this duster, he had another mage enchant it with a repair spell. It was a costly one but Ryu really liked this duster and wanted to keep it in good shape. The downside was that the enchantment required an outside energy source, as in another mage pouring their magical energy into it. Another downside was that the spell was relatively new and could only be applied to clothing, not armor or weapons. But that last part didn't affect Ryu, since his duster was neither armor or a weapon.

Ryu ceased channeling his magic energy when the last hole was mended, he looked back to Happy, "How do I look?"

"Like you."

"Perfect, just what I was going for. See you back at the guild Happy. Say hi to Natsu for me." Ryu waved at Happy once more before walking down the street away from the platform.

"Aye sir!" He heard Happy reply.

Ryu began walking through the town slowly, looking for a quick bite to eat. He found a small restaurant and ordered some fresh cooked lobster and a glass of orange juice. Once done, he paid what he owed and left with a full stomach. After a bit more walking, he found himself standing in the middle of a park alone. The sun glowed down on him and made him feel a little tired, he made his way to a park bench and sat down.

His eyelids became slowly heavier, the sun continued to shine on him making him feel warm and drowsier, "Damn I'm tired. I guess a ten minute nap won't hurt."

()()()()

Hargeon Park, 3:47 PM

The next thing Ryu heard was the sound of a girl laughing. He opened his eyes and immediately regretted it, his eyes opened when he was staring directly at the sun which hurt. His head was leaning back all the way as he was sitting which made it cramp up as he was sleeping. Rotating his neck helped the pain a little, rubbing his neck temporarily helped relieved some of the pain as well. The next thing he saw was a girl about his age laying down on a park bench across from him reading a magazine.

She had blonde hair with a blue bow tied into it, she wore a white and blue shirt with a blue skirt and black boots that came all the way up just below her knees. Ryu could make out what looked like a whip handle on the left side of her waist and what looked like Celestial Gate Keys on her right hip, he spotted a couple gold keys among them. What his male senses were drawn to were her large breasts which he quickly looked away from.

The girl sat up and closed the magazine she was reading and smiled, " I'm so gonna join Fairy Tail, they're the coolest guild ever!"

Ryu laughed, "You want to join Fairy Tail?"

The girl jumped a little as he suddenly spoke, "Oh, I didn't see you there. TO answer your question, yes I do."

Ryu slung his arms over the back of the bench hiding his gauntlet that had his Fairy Tail symbol on it, "If you like your sanity, I would avoid them. Trouble seems to actively seek them out, not to mention the Magic Council hates the guild."

The girl seemed to sway just slightly, "That may be true but they-"

Ryu interrupted, "Are the biggest bunch of idiots known to date. They're crazy, all of them are. It would be better to avoid them."

She was about to say something but stopped, she started looking at the ground with a grim look on her face. Ryu had just crushed her confidence about the guild he was in, step one of two of was complete. Now time for step two: Regaining and strengthening her confidence.

"But . . ." Her brown eyes shot back up at him, "They are also the kindest, bravest, most loyal people I know."

Ryu brought his right arm around to scratch his chin, revealing his gauntlet with the Fairy Tail symbol, "I am satisfied with my life knowing that I can laugh, battle, and grieve alongside them. Fairy Tail is my life, and I would gladly give my life for each and every one of those idiots, as they would for me and everyone else."

The girl became transfixed on his right gauntlet, "Join Fairy Tail, they will certainly give you a different perspective on many things."

"Will they let me join?" She asked.

Ryu laughed out loud, "Lady, if they let me in, you'll have no trouble getting in yourself."

The seemed to have regained her confidence, her smile had returned as well as that twinkle in her eyes. Then she became wide eyed, "You wouldn't happen to be Ryu Darkson, Fairy Tail's Dancing Swordsman?"

"Dancing Swordsman?! What the hell kind of title is that?!" Ryu exclaimed.

"Well . . ." She started shifting through the magazine she was reading earlier, "A reporter a while back saw you fight with those swords of light you have. She described it as 'as destructive as a tornado, as smooth as water over rock, and as graceful as a hawk in flight'."

Ryu lifted the magazine out of her hand using the Force causing her to jump slightly again. He kept the page open to where it was as he pulled it over. He read a piece down by journalist about three months ago when he was on persona non grata job. Ryu had discovered part of an illegal drug ring who'd taken a few hostages and took it down with ease, no mages to stop him then, only big, brawny, stupid blockheads. The reporter was one of the captured individuals and had watched take down the operation.

"Well, you learn something new everyday. Sometimes even about yourself." Ryu pushed the magazine aside, "What's your name?"

"Lucy." She responded.

"Well, Lucy, maybe I will see you again. I have spent enough time in this town." Ryu looked up at the nearby clock, "Shit, It's ten to four! I gotta scram."

Ryu shot to his feet and ran off leaving Lucy behind, he managed to get out of town in the town in ten minutes and that's when he let the Force flood through body, increasing his speed. Force Surge was used by a lot of Jedi and Sith to increase their running speed as well as their jump height.

"Damn it all to hell, she's going to skin me and slow roast me over a fire hotter than hell itself." Ryu kept running, running all the way until he reached his second home.

()()()()

Riewel family property, 6:47 PM

Ryu stepped onto his family's property drenched in sweat, a young thirteen old, almost fourteen, girl with brown hair and deep blue eyes sat on the front porch stairs with a sour look on her face. He took a couple deep breaths before walking up to the house. During the passing years, Cyton had managed to rebuild the front porch from scratch as well fill in the craters where the HK droids self-destructed.

The girl got to her feet and crossed her arms as Ryu got closer, her sour face face hadn't changed, "Big Brother, you're late. You said you would be here at four, you promised."

Ryu nervously scratched the back of his head, "I was delayed . . . sorry?"

Neri kept her arms crossed as she turned her back to him, Ryu sighed, his younger sister hadn't changed at all. A flash of light erupted in front of Ryu and a wooden carving fell gently into his hands. The carving was Neri doing the peace sign, with one eye closed, tongue stuck out, and balancing on one foot. It was complicated for Ryu to carve but he had managed to pull it off with several tries.

Ryu tapped on Neri's shoulder, he handed the carving to her, "Happy eight days before your birthday."

Neri picked up a wrapped package that was sitting on the porch before she turned around and handed it to Ryu, "Happy five days before your birthday."

She gleefully took the carving and started looking over it from every angle as Ryu began to unwrap his present. Technically, Ryu's birthday was scrambled when had to switch from a three hundred sixty-eight day calendar to a three hundred and sixty-five day calendar. Ryu decided to have his birthday on July seventh because it was the day he arrived in this world.

What Neri had gotten him for his birthday was a necklace in the shape of the Fairy Tail symbol made out of a what appeared to be a sapphire. Ryu held the symbol up into the sunlight, it created a dazzling effect which lit up the pendent all sorts of blue color.

Ryu looked to Neri with a questioning look, "How much did this cost?"

She toed the ground, "Half of my saved up allowance to buy the chunk of sapphire, the rest and then some to have it chiseled into that shape."

"Don't worry, I'll pay yo-"

"No, I made the decision to save up and get it for you. You don't owe me anything." She thought for a second, "Except a hug."

Ryu pulled his sister in a hug, her head fell onto his shoulder, "Big Brother?"

"Yes Neri?"

"You really need to take a bath. You smell really bad, and I mean really bad."

Ryu laughed at her statement before the two of them walked inside. After saying his hellos to Cyton and Agitha, he made his way to the bathroom and bathed. The family had decided before that they would just celebrate Ryu's and Neri's birthday since they were close together and because Ryu had to get back to Magnolia. Ryu took a long bath, allowing his muscles to relax after the long run getting here, he not only exhausted physically, but also mentally for keeping his Force Surge active for so long.

A knock came at the door, "Big Brother, can I come in?"

He sighed, "Neri, we aren't kids anymore. We shouldn't bathe together anymore."

Neri was silent for a time before talking again, "Please, this is my birthday wish."

"A birthday wish to bathe with your not blood-related older brother? Why do I feel I have read this out of some erotic novel before?" Ryu hopped out of the tub and tied a towel around his waist that fell to his knees.

"Alright, but put on a towel to cover yourself." She walked in before he even finished his sentence already wearing a towel.

Ryu hopped back into the tub closely followed by Neri who sat on the opposite side of the bathtub. Water splashed over the side when Neri hopped, she settled in on her side of the tub as Ryu stretched his arms.

"So how have you been Neri?" Ryu asked to desperately start up a conversation to end the awkwardness.

She remained silent for time, her gaze was on the water and unmoving. After a minute she looked back up, "Big Brother, will you be my boyfriend?!"

Ryu would have done a spit take if he had a liquid in his mouth, or he would have started choking on a piece of food if he was eating. All he could do was stare with concern. Ryu had thought of something more than a sister brother relationship before but now, he just couldn't see Neri in that way. Plus he had eyes for another girl.

He looked Neri straight in her eyes, "Sorry, I can't."

"Why?"

Ryu tried to pick his words carefully, "I could have seen us that way when we were younger but now, I just can't think of you in any other way except that you're my cute little sister."

She blushed lightly at the word cute, "I-I see. Would you be my boyfriend for a day so I could show you off to a bunch of friends in town?"

"As long as they didn't know I was your older brother, then it would be really awkward."

Neri smiled, "Thanks Big Brother."

"No problem, now I better get out before I become a prune." Ryu hopped out of the tub and exited bathing area. He dried himself off before slipping on a fresh set of clothes. He retired to the kitchen where they all waited for Neri to finish with her bath.

Once they were all gathered around the table, the family sung birthday songs for each of the kids. Cake was enjoyed between the four of them and Ryu tried his first beer, which he nearly gagged on the taste. Neri got a black beret from her father as well as a makeup set from her mother for whenever she went to town. Ryu had to admit, she did look good with the beret. What he got was a large travel pack from Cyton for when he couldn't fit anything else in his pocket dimension and a gold pocket watch from Agitha.

Ryu looked over the watch, "Where on earth did you get this golden pocket watch, it must have cost a fortune."

Agitha smiled, "It was my father's, he was a wealthy business man. He left me this so I could give it to his grandson that he was never able to meet. When the accident happened, I just through it in a drawer and it started collecting dust. A couple months I found it again and decided that I should honor my father's last wish. So I decided to give it to you."

Ryu looked over the golden watch carefully, there was a ornate carving of what he depicted to be a dragon, "Was your father a fan of dragons?"

Agitha burst out laughing, "A fan? He was obsessed with them. He claimed that he met a dragon himself!"

Ryu remained silent as he looked over the golden watch, he knew dragons existed, he saw them as he fell into this world. But decided to leave that small detail out as he pocketed the watch, "I'll be leaving early tomorrow morning, around five. I'm having a race with someone from our guild to see who gets back first.

"What about your family?" Cyton asked with a slight hint of annoyance.

"You guys can come with me and wait for me at my house while I sort things out at the guild." He responded as he shoveled the final piece of cake into his mouth.

Neri looked to her parents, "Can I go with Big Brother to town tomorrow?"

Cyton shrugged, "I don't know, can she Ryu?"

Ryu shrugged as well, "I don't know, you willing to get up at four thirty and be ready at five?"

Neri continued the ongoing trend, "I don't know, will you wake me up at four-thirty?"

"I guess, and no complaining about being tired. You can sleep at my place if you're still tired when we get there." Ryu finished.

"Yay! I get to go to Big Brother's house!" Neri cheered.

Agitha smiled at her daughter, "We'll come pick her in two days. Take care of her then."

Ryu put a hand on his little sister's head, "Of course, it wouldn't be the same without her around here."

()()()()

Ryu's bedroom, 9:12 PM

Ryu closed the door to his bedroom and scanned his room, it was mostly the same with the exception of his bed growing in size. Everything that was originally in the room was still there. The holocron appeared in a flash of light and gently landed in Ryu's hand who began channeling the Force into it. Zhuses appeared not a second later, partially bowing.

"Late-night question?" The projection asked.

"Can you go over your notes about magic lightsaber crystal formation that I talked to you about a while back?"

"Yes. Lightsaber crystals are formed from pools of concentrated Force energy. The crystal shown to you by that other Jedi you met several years ago tells us that it might be possible to make a lightsaber crystal out of magic. First, the opponent would have to use some kind of ranged attack. Then using your Earth magic, you would entrap part of that spell in a rock sphere. Next you would reduce the size of the sphere to an adequate size so it could fit into a lightsaber. Finally, once adequate size, channel as much Force energy as you can in through the sphere, directly into the magic. It should, theoretically, form into crystal. All that's left to do is scrape off the rocky exterior and see if you have a crystal."

"And what you said before, the only reason why I wasn't able to form a crystal was because I wasn't strong enough. Correct?"

Zhuses nodded, "Yes. I do believe now that if you pour everything you got into forming that crystal, then if the theory is true, you found a way to make magic lightsaber crystals."

"Which we have no idea how it will affect the lightsaber. Might give a slight difference or it might start shooting off that element every which way." Ryu added.

"In that case, I recommend we find a water mage." Zhuses suggested.

Ryu waved him off, "Nah, what I really want to try is Natsu's fire."

"Again? Remember what happened the last two times you tried that?"

"Lost both eyebrows along with my pride. Yes, but as you said, I should be powerful enough now." Ryu encouraged.

Zhuses rolled his eyes, "Your burnt corpse funeral, don't say I didn't warn you. Anything else?"

"No, get some sleep Zhuses."

The holocron began to flicker, "I'm a holocron, I don't sleep."

"Just turn off." It did.

Ryu jumped on his bed and settled into it, not bothering to cover himself with covers due to the hot July night weather. Crickets continued to chirp outside his window, giving Ryu a white noise fall asleep to. His final thoughts drifted around his guild and what he was going to do tomorrow when he arrived when he dropped Neri off at his house. Levy also drifted into his mind giving him a smile before he fell into slumber.

()()()()

Magnolia, 10:23 AM July 3rd

The two of them had gotten up at four thirty and left the house at five on the dot. Neri stumbled along the road due to her drowsiness, but once Ryu took ahold of her hand, she seemed to be a little more awake. That didn't stop her from yawning every fifteen yards. At the end of their journey when Magnolia was in sight, Neri couldn't go on and collapsed to sleep.

Ryu carried her in his arms to his house which lay on the edge of a forest out of town. A large flower bed sat on each side of the pathway leading up to his house. The house was two stories, one bedroom, one full bath similar to his family's, living room, kitchen, and a large front porch. The entire second floor was one large room which Ryu used for meditation, whittling, physical workout routines, and other things among those lines. To the left of the door of the house, a crescent moon was carved into the wall.

Ryu managed to slide back the lock using the Force since he was still carrying Neri. He slipped quietly inside and went to his room, a queen size bed sat up against the wall, a dresser rested against the wall next to the door, a desk littered with all sorts of books sat in one corner of the room close to the bed. A shelf also was placed in his room which was full of all sorts of books given to him, finally a full body mirror hung on the wall on the other side of the door from his dresser.

Neri was gently placed on his bed and covered up, Ryu closed the drapes so the sun would let her sleep peacefully. Ryu walked back into the living room and placed his new bag against his couch before sitting down to allow his legs to stretch. It was then he heard something or someone moving around in his bathroom. His sabers were in his hands before you could say 'Republic'. Quietly but quickly, Ryu moved to his bathroom door and pressed his ear against it.

He couldn't hear any voices but he could hear what sounded like bare feet on his tiled floor bathroom. Ryu took a couple steps back then took a couple deep breaths. After he prepared himself, he kicked his bathroom door open.

"Eep!"

"Eep?" Levy was standing in his bathroom wearing a towel that modestly covered herself. She had been combing her hair when Ryu had stomped his door open. No words were exchanged between them, only faces of pure shock. Without a word, Ryu reached for the door handle to his bathroom and slowly closed the door. He then moved to his couch and sat down, still processing what had just happened.

A couple minutes later, Levy came out of his bathroom wearing her orange with red lines jacket, red boots, black pants and topped off by her yellow bandana. Ryu had seen Levy grow up over the years, in his eyes, she became more beautiful with each passing day. Jedi teachings said that things like attachment were forbidden but Ryu didn't really care much about Jedi teachings anymore. Levy nervously made her way over and sat in an armchair across from him, her face was slightly tinted red.

Silence loomed between them for a good minute before Ryu began to speak, "I'm just gonna skip the chatter and ask the obvious question, why were you in my bathroom only wearing a towel?"

"I didn't think you would be back yet and the showers and baths at Fairy Hills are broken." She responded with nervousness still in her voice.

"And how exactly did you get into my house?"

Levy reached into a small bag that sat at her side and produced a fake rock, "A rock in a flower garden? Not that hard to figure out."

Ryu shrugged, "It's for other people who need to get into my house, don't remember telling you about it."

"Heard it from Mirajane."

"Who she hear it from?"

"Erza."

"Her?"

"Natsu."

Ryu threw his arms into the air, "He doesn't even use the front door, he climbs in from my second story window that doesn't lock since he broke it!"

Levy giggled slightly as Ryu rolled his eyes, "You're here for another reason beside the shower aren't you?"

Her face became more serious, "Yes. Hand them over."

Ryu scratched his head, "Gonna have to be a little more specific there."

"The three week over due books." Her friendly tone had been replaced with one of annoyance.

A flash of light erupted and four books fell sloppily into Ryu's lap. He neatly stacked them before handing them to Levy. She stood up and swiped the books away before turning her back to him, "I keep telling you to turn your books in on time. Next time I won't be waving the late fees and you will have to pay just like everyone else."

Ryu quietly stood up and creeped up behind her with a devilish smile on his face as she continued, "You say that you're a book lover, but why do I feel like you check out these books and purposely make me come and shake you down f-"

She was cut off when started lightly moving his fingers up and down her sides. It took less than a second before she dropped the books and started laughing uncontrollably. Levy tried furiously to stop the hands that were tickling her but Ryu's hands was quicker than her own. She continued laughing as she fell onto the floor on her stomach, Ryu ceased his attack and moved to her legs. He sat down by her right foot and pinned it under his arm before he took the boot and her sock off.

Levy looked at him with a worried look, "Please don't."

Her request was ignored was Ryu started tickling her bare foot. Levy went into a sort of mini spasm, banging on the floor and laughing uncontrollably once again. She tried to yank her foot out from under his arm but his grip was solid, she tried kicking him in the back but failed to even line up her foot.

Ryu finally released leg and stood up, "There, now you seem happier."

Levy looked up at him with a half smile, "You're a big jerk."

"I know." Ryu extended his hand down toward her.

She took it and was pulled to her feet in one swift motion, "Why do you always do that?"

Ryu grinned, "I only tickle you whenever you have anything but a smile on your face. Everyone looks better if they have a smile on their face. So in short, only smile."

"You're an idiot."

"Yep."

Levy laughed again and shook her head, Ryu jerked his thumb to the kitchen, "Tea?"

"You don't drink coffee?"

Ryu stuck out his tongue, "Bleh, I hate coffee. Can barely stand the smell. Yes or no to the tea?"

She nodded, "What have you have?"

"Green, Black, White, Oolong, or Blooming." He responded after checking through his cabinets.

"Didn't you have Mate tea at one point?"

"Yeah until I learned it tasted it like coffee."

Levy thought for a moment, "Hmm . . . I'll try Blooming."

Ryu smiled, "Good choice, made right here in Magnolia. Got it from 'Blooming Fairies.'"

"Aren't they a flower shop?" Levy asked as she sat back down in armchair.

"The shop owner's son hand makes them, he's pretty good. Knows the perfect blend of spices and herbs to make the best tea."

Ryu started making the tea, set a kettle on his stove and filled it with water before turning on the stove. Two cups plinked down on the counter as Ryu reached for the tea bags in the cabinet below him. The water began to boil shortly and soon the kettle started to whistle telling him that the water was done. Ryu handed Levy a cup after sliding the tea bag into the cup along with the water. They waited a minute before taking a sip to let the water soak in and bring out the flavor as well as the scent.

Levy took the first sip, "Wow, this is really good!"

"I'll tell Zeke you said so, he takes pride in his work making tea. Pull the tea bag out and look at it."

Levy did so, "He sews the Fairy Tail emblem into each teabag?"

"He uses magic. Costs five thousand jewels for a box of five. Worth it." Ryu pulled out his lightsaber and set it on the table in front of him.

The two of them continued to converse with each other, Ryu always liked this since he got to talk to Levy and be around her. He knew he cared for her deeply, to a point where he would take a 'metaphorical' bullet for her. His conversations with her brightened his day and he often thought of the next time he could talk with her. What he didn't know was that he was practically wrapped around Levy's finger, although Levy did not know this herself. But most of the guild could see this from a mile away.

"Oh, I meant to ask, how did your latest job go?" She asked before took another sip.

Ryu leaned back, "Still hunting for the other slave rings, Eugene didn't give me anything useful before I handed him over to the Detention corps."

"Lahar?"

"Yep."

"Make him angry again?"

"Yep."

"He hit you?"

"Yep."

"You hit him?"

Ryu laughed, "I'm crazy, not stupid. Rather avoid going to prison if at all possible."

"I don't know, might cause you to stop being late with your books." Levy joked.

"Like that's ever going to happen." The two of them laughed together, Ryu's bedroom open and a tired eyed Neri shambled out into the living room.

"Morning little one, how did you sleep?" Ryu asked as she slumped onto the couch .

"Not bad. Why is Levy here?" She asked, rubbing the gunk in her eyes that had collected when she was sleeping.

"Here to pick up some books." Levy quickly responded not wanting her to find out that Ryu walked in on her.

"Neri, go ahead and take a quick bath. I'll make you some breakfast and then we'll head for the guild."

The child smiled before shifting through some stuff in her bag and pulled out some fresh clothes before running into the bathroom. Levy shifted her eyes around the room until they rested against a locked cabinet that sat next to the door to the bathroom. Levy had seen the cabinet many times before but only now payed any attention to it. It made her curious since Ryu was typically a open person and didn't keep things in his house locked. She moved toward it as Ryu moved to the kitchen and started making a simple breakfast for Neri. Levy pulled on the cabinet doors slightly but they didn't open, she pulled a bit harder but still no result.

"Do I go around in your house, trying to open all your locked drawers and cabinets?" Ryu asked defensively when he noticed Levy trying to open the forbidden cabinet.

"I'm curious, what do you have in here?"

Ryu turned away from her and focused on the breakfast he was making, "Nothing you need to know about. It's a secret alright?"

Levy moved into the kitchen and sat on the counter, "Alright, no need to get so defensive. That reminds me, when are you going to finish that wooden statue I ordered a while back?"

Ryu became a bit more hostile, "Been busy and stuff like that takes times. I'll get it to you when I can alright?"

Levy looked at him with a worried look, "Are you alright, you were pretty happy a couple moments ago."

Ryu quickly thought up a lie, he didn't want her to hate him but he didn't want her to figure out what was in the cabinet or why he was late with her wooden carving. The two things were related though, he did think up something that was bothering him a bit, "It's just this slave ring crap, am I really making a difference? Can I really put an end to this shit?"

Levy knew whenever Ryu started to swear, he was serious with every word that came out of his mouth, "You have saved people Ryu, you saved them from a horrible life that could been waiting for them. No one else has gotten close to figuring out where these operations have been held except you."

"Maybe I just have a knack for finding trouble."

She put a hand on his shoulder, "I believe you're making a difference."

Ryu smiled, "Thanks, that means more than you know."

"You're right, people do look better with smiles on their faces." She joked.

"Big Brother?"

Ryu turned toward his younger sister who was holding a blue piece of fabric, "Why are there blue women's underwear in your bathroom?"

Ryu's face showed pure shock, he slowly turned back to Levy who was blushing as red as a rose. A look of shock was also spread across her face as well. Ryu tried to keep his voice normal, "Am I correct in assuming that's your . . ."

Levy nodded, Ryu continued, "And that means you're currently not wearing . . ."

Ryu's brain overloaded as she nodded again, and he collapsed to the floor, his face still showing the expression of shock. Inwardly he was smiling, "So she wears blue panties. Very interesting."

()()()()

Fairy Tail Guild house, 11:27 AM

After Neri ate her breakfast and Ryu recovered from the shock as well as promised over a thousand times to not tell anyone Levy's underwear color, the trio finally made their way to the guild. Although Ryu continued to silently tease Levy about her underwear, their friendship allowed for such things.

Neri was happily skipping a couple yards in front of Ryu and Levy when the guild house came into view, "Remember Neri, try not to cause to cause any problems."

"I'm almost fourteen, I can be responsible." She protested.

Ryu laughed, "Yeah, I'm almost seventeen, I'm an S Class wizard, and yet I'm not responsible one bit."

"I can confirm that." Levy added with a smile.

When they reached the guild doors, Ryu opened it for the ladies showing that he was at least was kind of a gentleman. The two of them quickly went in followed by Ryu who closed the door behind him. As soon as he entered a couple of people greeted him, he merely gave a quick wave or a nod in their direction. Levy and Neri broke off and went to do their own things, Ryu walked up to the counter and settled down on a stool. He gave a quick nod to Cana who sat on his right, soon a glass of orange juice clinked down in front of him.

Mirajane smiled, "How did your latest quest go?"

Ryu chugged down half the glass, he wiped his mouth before speaking, "Took down another leader so can't complain."

"That makes about . . . four, correct?"

"Yep, I'm definitely being a thorn in their organization's side. Surprised that the Detention Corps were doing their job, found them there as I dragged the head dumbass out of his little cave."

"You shouldn't be too hard on them, they are trying their best." She replied as she washed out a mug.

Ryu shrugged, "Meh, I wish they would beat me to the punch more, I always have to beat the bad dudes up."

He rotated in his stool and looked around the room, it was filled with all sorts of people from all over Fiore. Ryu closed his eyes and channeled the Force to his eyes, then slowly opened his eyes. The regular colors were replaced with black, blue, gray, as well as translucent. Translucent represented inanimate objects that were within his Force Sight vision. Black represented the maximum range that his vision could currently go which was about a good sixty feet. Gray was most of the color that he saw in other people as well as some hints of blue, although their were a few exceptional people around the guild who almost gave off a pure blue color. Blue and gray, also red which Ryu didn't see, represented people's alignment with him by which was done by reading their characteristic aura. Blue equaled good, grey neutral, and red, evil.

Force Sight was an old trick that he learned from his old Miraluken master who used it naturally from birth. She had started to teach him the basics when he was thrown into Earthland but the training had stuck with him. Ryu glanced down at himself, he guessed around thirty percent blue and sixty-seven percent gray with that remain three being a slight tinge of red, no doubt a result from sifting through some interesting Dark Side abilities on his holocron. Although soon his vision became a blur and pain erupted in his eyes, he shut off the vision and rubbed his eyelids. His magic ability wouldn't often interfere with his Force abilities but with Force Sight, his magic wouldn't allow him to use it for more than a minute.

The door of the guild smashed open, then Ryu heard what considered to be one of the most annoying voices in the world, "We made it back alive!"

"We're home!"

Ryu sighed as he rubbed his eyelids, "Great, the hothead is back. Just when I was able to finally have some peace and quiet in the guild for once."

Natsu grinned and raised a fist, "Ryu! Fight me!"

"Move along, this is not the Ryu you are looking for." Ryu took another sip of his orange juice, he then noticed a familiar figure standing behind Natsu. The same girl he had seen in Hargeon, Lucy.

Natsu shot forward, fist engulfed in flame. Ryu sighed, and raised a hand with his palm to the ceiling. His fingers flicked towards the boy, and Natsu was thrown back into the far wall, the fire around his hands going out as he slid to the ground, leaving a new crater where he'd hit.

Ryu finished his glass and walked over to where Lucy was staring in shock after seeing Natsu slammed against the wall, "Heh, looks like I was right when I assumed I would be seeing you again."

Lucy turned to face Ryu, "What did you do to him?"

"Just knocked him on his ass, he'll be al-" A powerful fist connected with Ryu's jawline, sending him back a couple feet.

Natsu stood their standing with his fists raised, "I'm not done yet."

Ryu grabbed one of Natsu wrists and planted his hand on his stomach. He then raised Natsu into the air above him at an angle, then delivered another quick burst of energy sending Natsu across the room crashing into another table causing another fight which quickly escalated.

Lucy was staring in amazement around the guild house, like she had just seen a starry night sky. A smile appeared on her face, "I can't believe I'm standing in Fairy Tail!"

"As I said we are a noisy bunch, fights happen about every day but it's all in good fun . . . mostly. Also duck." Ryu pulled down on Lucy's shoulder as a member from the guild soared over them and out the door. A couple of seconds later the same member came running back in and rejoined the fight.

"Why aren't you fighting?" She asked.

"I'm really not that into guild fights, it takes a lot to get me to join a fight."

Neri came running out of the crowd with small droplets of tears forming in her eyes, "Big Brother!"

Ryu crouched down as she approached, "What's wrong, what happened?"

"A mug landed on my head." She rubbed her head, "And then I was pushed to the floor in the commotion."

"Did you see who did either of those things?" She shook her head, "Lucy, do me a favor, watch my little sister for a bit."

Rocks flew past Lucy from the outside and covered Ryu's arm and legs in a thin but durable coating. Then he screamed as he ran into the crowd with his fists raised, "WHO HURT MY LITTLE SISTER?!"

Lucy sighed as Ryu plunged head long into the blob of people who were fighting, "I thought it took a lot to get him into these fights."

Neri laughed, "That's a lie. He always joins first sign there is one, he's just trying to act responsibly around me."

"Huh. . . . Is that Mirajane?!" Lucy exclaimed.

Neri looked in the direction Lucy was, "Yes, want me to introduce you to her? My brother seems to think you're alright so that means I like you."

"You'll really introduce me?!" Lucy exclaimed again.

"Sure, but lets go around the outside of the crowd. Safer that way." Neri led Lucy around the crowd and eventually to where Mirajane stood.

Ryu sent another member to the ground when he jabbed them three times in gut followed by a elbow to the face, "Who done it?!"

It was then Ryu saw a huge figure fly at him, Ryu fell to his back and allowed the figure known as Elfman soar over him and crash into the ground farther away from him. Ryu flipped to his feet and was ready for more action. His action was two simultaneous strikes from two people who had a grudge with him.

Ryu crossed his arms over him and took both blows, "Jet and Droy, you must be holding back, cause I couldn't even feel that combo attack at all."

Jet quickly moved behind Ryu and attempted to trip him. Ryu saw this move coming, Jet always used his speed to get behind and attack him from behind. The thing was that Jet tried this tactic over and over again, it worked the first couple of times but rarely anymore. Ryu jumped slightly and Jet's leg swooped under him harmlessly, while still in the air, Ryu brought his hand back and connected with something and could only hope it was Jet as he turned his attention to the charging Droy.

Droy landed a series of blows on Ryu, a few to the stomach and one to the face. Ryu side stepped out of the way of a power attack and caused Droy to trip and go flying into Jet who was just getting up.

Before they could stand up, a loud voice rang throughout the hall, "Would you fools stop bickering like children?!

Ryu looked up to see Makarov in his oh so big form. Now Ryu respected Makarov, he thought of him as a teacher of sorts so Ryu ceased his fight out of respect. And also he could very easily get squished and that route had a lot of pain. The rest of the fights around the guild ceased as well and everyone went quiet as a mouse, all except Natsu who was promptly squashed beneath Makarov's foot. Ryu saw Lucy standing in front of of Markov, quivering with fear. Her fear quickly disappeared after Makarov shrunk down into his normal size.

Instead her face was filled with utter shock, "This little guy runs the guild?!" Ryu heard her shout.

Markov flipped to the second floor with ease, although he knocked his head against the banister causing Ryu to laugh slightly. After quickly recovering, he stuck his hand out which clenched a stack of papers.

His voice was full of irritation, "Look at the stack of complaints I have received from the Magic Council because of you bumbling fools! Almost a fourth of this stack is complaints is because of Natsu and Ryu!"

Ryu happened to be standing next to Natsu at the time gave eachother a small highfive. Markov glared at them for a second and then continued his rant. He went on how the whole guild was filled with bumbling fools and all the grief the guild caused him with so much paperwork. Everyone's head in the guild hung low with shame, except Ryu's. He knew Markov wouldn't end things like this on a negative, he hadn't seen evidence of it yet.

"However . . ." Everyone's head rose up back toward the tiny guild master, Markov had a grin across his face, "I say to hell with the magic council."

The papers in his hand burst into flame, and gave it a good toss over the crowd. Natsu lept into the air and chomped down onto the burning parchment. Markov then began to speak about magic and the flow of something. Ryu had already zoned out, he had heard many of these speeches since he joined Fairy Tail. The technique he used with Lucy to change her opinion of the guild had come from Markov, break down their faith and then rebuild it stronger than before.

Ryu focused in again on the speech, "If all we worry about is the rules then our magic will never progress. Don't let those blowhards on the council scare you, follow the path you believe in!"

"Cause that's what makes the Fairy Tail guild-" Markov shot his hand into the air, "Number One!"

A resounding cheer broke throughout the guild, everyone throughout the guild had the number one portrayed with their hands. Even Ryu couldn't help to raise a hand in honor of Fairy Tail. After the cheering died down, Ryu made his way through the crowd in search of the tiny master.

He found him standing on the table welcoming the new member, "Hey Markov, is Ezra back yet?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Having a race with her to see who got back first, looks like I won." Ryu crossed his arms and smiled.

Markov turned his attention to Lucy, "And have you met L-?"

"Lucy, I met her back in Hargeon. She seems friendly enough. Looks like Natsu gave her the thumbs-up too, he brought her."

Markov examined Lucy closely, his eyes seemed to pierce right through her. After a minute of silence, Makarov turned his attention to Ryu, "You know what that means right, when a new person joins?"

Ryu groaned out loud, "Come on Markov, my powers aren't for peoples entertainment."

He raised a finger, "Not a word Ryu, I am master of the guild and I say every new member must partake in the tradition that has been around for a year now!"

Ryu's face sagged, "You just want to float around, don't you?"

"Irrelevant!"

"My ass. Admit it!"

Markov looked Ryu in the eye and brought his voice down to a whisper, "You wouldn't want a certain girl to know about how you truly feel don't you?"

Ryu's voice matched Markov's, "You promised you would never say anything."

"I'm old, I tend to forget things." Markov smirked.

"You're an asshole."

Makarov turned toward the crowd of people, "Hey, guess what? Ryu li-"

Ryu panicked, "Fine, I'll do it!"

"Ryu's what?" Gray asked from within the crowd.

Markov smirked again, "Ryu's gonna perform the initiation tradition!"

A resounding cheer broke out from the crowd and echoed throughout the guild hall. Lucy stepped up to Markov, "What's the initiation tradition?"

Markov motioned toward Ryu, "Go on Ryu."

Ryu was annoyed to say the least, Markov always used the secret of him liking Levy to persuade him to perform the initiation that the guild had started a year ago. It was primarily for the guilds enjoyment which ticked Ryu off cause it was annoying to him for one and two, it required him to go into a deep meditation which took time for Ryu. Usually most Jedi could slip into it rather easily but with Ryu's wild unrestrained mind, it complicated things making it take more time for Ryu to slip into meditation.

"Follow me." Ryu motioned Lucy to follow and move to the center of the guild house, the people around the center quickly cleared out. The rubble around the center from the recent was quickly swept away with a single pulse of energy.

Ryu sat down in his meditative stance with both feet crossing each knee, he then motioned for Lucy to sit. She did but on her knees, Ryu shook his head, "No, sit like me. It will be easier for me."

"For what?"

"Just shut it and do as your told, I want to get this over as quickly as possible." Lucy could easily tell he was extremely annoyed with the situation and to prevent things from getting worse, she complied. After she pulled off her boots and with some effort, she managed to mimic Ryu's sitting position.

"Now just put your hands in your lap and just sit still for awhile." Ryu rested his open palms on his knees and slowly shut his eyes, then . . . nothing happened.

Lucy continued to sit there motionless for a good chunk of time, watching Ryu the entire time. Soon she began to think that the people in the guild were crazier than she originally assumed if they had this for a initiation tradition. She began to talk but before she could even utter a sound, Ryu hissed her quiet. The sudden hiss surprised her and caused to jump slightly, her gaze drifted to the crowd around her, their gazes were all transfixed on them as if they were expecting something. After a sweep of the crowd, her gaze fell back on Ryu.

After a half hour, it happened.

At first Ryu's body just seemed to relax, his body shifted slightly as he did. Then nothing again. Lucy looked around the room again, everyone had a smile on their face and was staring straight at her. She began to feel like she was being pranked until she realized they were looking straight at her, as in eye level straight. Lucy panicked slightly when she realized she and Ryu were floating a couple feet off the ground and slowly rising. A couple laughs broke out around the crowd when she fell started clawing the air fruitlessly trying to gain a grip on something attached to the ground. Over time, more debris started floating in the air, her boots joined her followed slowly by bits and pieces of destroys tables and chairs. Some of the younger and smaller guild members ran and jumped toward Ryu and instead of landing flat on the ground, they joined the floating debris.

Slowly but surely, the people and debris caught in field started to rotate clockwise. The field of energy continued to expand, picking up more debris then eventually undamaged chairs followed shortly by tables starting to grind against the ground. Eventually the circle of Force energy reached the circle of guild members and began to tug on their cloths, as if the Force was beckoning them to join which they did. Again the lighter members jumped in first, followed closely but the averaged sized ones working all the way up to Elfman size. Soon enough the diameter of the circle encompassed the entire circle of members. Lucy looked around and saw everyone laughing and generally enjoying the floating sensation. Everyone was happy with the exception of Natsu who felt a bit queasy floating around.

"Having fun yet?" Lucy turned her head to see Ryu spinning in a circle with his eyes remaining closed.

She nodded, "Yes, very much so . . . although I have a question if you don't me asking."

"You want to know why I broke your faith in Fairy Tail then helped you gain it back, right?" Ryu questioned.

Lucy was shocked, "In short, yes but how did you know?"

"I'm a really good guesser." Ryu responded with heavy sarcasm, "You initially wanted to join Fairy Tail because it was really popular right?"

"Well yes but I don't still don't understa-"

Ryu interrupted her, "And why did you want to join after I talked to you?"

"Well because-" She suddenly realized the answer, "Because I heard you talk about how wonderful the people are her, people who would give their lives protecting others. I wanted to join because I wanted to be in a guild like that. You wanted me to join for the people, not the guild itself."

"Ding ding ding! That is correct. That is also the bell for playtime over." And with that, everyone but Ryu thumped back to the floor. Ryu merely unfolded his legs and stood up in mid-air.

Everyone around the guild started rubbing their arms, legs, bottoms or whatever they landed on after being suddenly dropped. Ryu looked around the cluster of people looking for a certain person, his gaze fell upon a pink haired man who was still recovering from his motion sickness. Happy stood next to Natsu rubbing his back trying to make his friend feel better. The relationship between Ryu and those two was a strange one, one day they might be tearing up half the town fighting each other and the next them seem to be close as family. Natsu unknowingly shaped Ryu partly to who he was today, he changed Ryu's personality from his old cold personality to a more sarcastic but good hearted personality. And Ryu realized just how much Natsu had change him, and he was forever grateful in his own way.

"Feeling okay there?" Ryu asked as he crouched next to his friend.

A low groan came from Natsu in response as Happy continued to rub his back. Ryu lightly pushed the cat away just before he gave Natsu an annoying shock from green lighting that erupted from Ryu's fingertips.

Natsu bolted up, "What the hell was that for?!"

A grin appeared on Ryu's face, "Don't you feel better now?"

Nastu stopped the fist that he had thrown at Ryu and thought for a moment, "Hey yeah, I feel completely better. Thanks!"

Ryu took Natsu's fist and helped him to his feet, "Hey, I want to try the crystal making idea again."

"But didn't you kinda . . . explode the last couple times you tried." Happy interjected.

"You know what they say, third time's the charm."

Markov was nearby and listened in on the conversation. The minute he realized what they were discussing, he ran up and screamed, "You will not try that in the guild house again! Last time it took us a month before we managed to repair the damage. Go outside!"

Lucy looked to Mirajane, "What happened last time?"

"Well . . . Ryu is trying to supposedly trying to make a crystal out of Natsu's fire. The last two times . . . lets just say it didn't go right." She replied cheerfully.

Lucy watched as the two of them walked out the guild with Happy close behind them. Out of curiosity, Lucy started after them wanting to see what happens. By the time she arrived outside, Ryu and Natsu stood about forty feet apart from each other.

Ryu seemed cracked every joint he possible could, "So, all you need to do again is use Roar of the Fire Dragon."

Natsu showed his toothy smile, "I'm not holding back, you ready?"

He merely nodded, Lucy was peeking out from behind the thick guild door just in case there was a third incident. Natsu's back arched backward slightly as he brought his hands to his mouth, then he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Roar of the Fire Dragon!"

"Earth Shield!" Ryu shouted back just as the fire left Natsu's mouth.

The fire slammed into the chunk of earth but the slab of stone held. Then the slab started to change, it changed from a flat slab to a more half spherical shape. Flames continued to spew into the sphere causing some of the rock to superheat and start to into molten slag. None of the slag dripped to the ground as Natsu ceased his flames and the half sphere became a full one in the blink of an eye, trapping the flames and slag inside. A more strained look appeared on Ryu's face as the size of the sphere began to decrease. Parts of the sphere began to expand and looked ready to burst just before another slab of stone would cover the bulge preventing it from exploding.

As the sphere continued to decrease in size, it made its way closer to Ryu. Soon the sphere was no bigger than a small stone and continued to hover between Ryu's hands. A loud shout erupted from Ryu as he began to channel every ounce of Force energy he had into the small sphere. Lucy, Natsu, and Happy could see the sphere begin to emit a blue light that become brighter and brighter until a flash of light blinded them momentarily.

Once their eyes recovered from the flash of light, they all could see a bright orange crystal that seemed shimmer . Ryu let the crystal hover in the air just above his hand, he could feel the immense heat emanating from the small orange crystal, hot as Natsu's Roar of the Fire Dragon. A fire seemed to swirling around inside the crystal as it floated there adding to its beauty.

A small flash of light erupted in front of Ryu as he sat down in his meditative stance. Lightsabers parts floated around Ryu as he closed his eyes, the crystal floated a couple inches in front of Ryu. The silver parts then slowly started to assemble itself as they rotated around Ryu's head, eventually only two parts remained as they converged on the crystal. The bright orange crystal swirling with fire disappeared into one part of the two pieces. And with a simple click, the two pieces became one.

Ryu slumped over slightly as the newly completed lightsaber fell into his hand. His breaths were short and shallow, both his Force energy and magic energy felt completely drained. He knew it would take a couple days for him to fully recover all the energy he had just spent. The lightsaber in his felt exceptionally warm, like holding your hand close to a lit fireplace.

Natsu walked up with a smile, "Doesn't look like you exploded this time. Does it work?"

The hilt of the lightsaber twirled around his hand in smooth motion until he thrusted his arm out to the side. A beam of pure orange light extended from the hilt. Ryu could feel the heat pulsing from the blade of light but when he turned his gaze toward the blade, his jaw nearly dropped to the ground. Flames. Clearly visible flames could be seen rising from the blade of orange light.

"Well, that's never happened before." Ryu exclaimed

Lucy stepped out from behind the door, "That's amazing! How did you do that?!"

"A lot of luck and a little information given to me by a strange but powerful man who is just like me."

Natsu ran into the guild, "Hey everyone, Ryu did it! Come check out his new weapon, it's freakin awesome!"

A couple of people - including Levy - stepped out of the guildhouse to see Ryu's success. A lot whistles erupted from the crowd as they saw the blade of fire, Ryu gave it a couple of swings, a trail of fire flowed out from it as he did.

Levy gave Ryu a thumbs up, "You did it, congrats. How do you feel not being blown up?"

"Like crap, I used all my energy making this thing. I won't being going on any jobs soon."

"In that case you can help me around Blooming Fairies." Ryu turned toward a young man, a few years older than Ryu and a few inches taller than Ryu's 6' 1" height. His blonde hair fell to his waist and Ryu had to admit, he pulled it off well. His eyes were a light silvery color, contrasting sharply against Ryu's dark eyes. The strangest feature on this man was his distinct point to his ears. A dark grey vest over a white tunic and black pants accompanied a pair of dark brown boots that nearly reached his knees, and a loop of black leather circled his head to keep his hair in control.

"Zeke, haven't seen you for quite some time." Ryu extended his hand which Ezekiel took in a firm handshake.

"Too long." The elf responded.

Ezekiel was in some way like Ryu, they were the black sheep among the hordes of white sheep. He had been found by the Blooming Fairies shop owner when he was just a infant in the mountain region outside of town. Everyone thought that the elves had long gone extinct ever since the elf race disappeared a long time ago. But even though he was an elf, Inari Droverson, the Blooming Fairies shop owner took him in and raised him as her own son.

Ryu had met Ezekiel during his second year in the guild. A group of the neighborhood's kids had gotten together to beat up Ezekiel from being different from the rest of them as children are. Ezekiel had been raised as pacifist, he never fought back or even cursed his bullies, he merely just took the beatings. Ryu on the other hand was not a pacifist, quite the opposite at this point. Using simple magic, Ryu would throw stones at the bullies until they ran off crying to their mothers but never telling them about the elf they had just bullied.

Over time, Ryu and Ezekiel became close friends. Ryu would get rid of the bullies and Ezekiel would tend to Ryu's wounds. It was only two years ago when Ezekiel discovered he had magical talent of his own, Glyph magic, similar to Levy's Solid Script, though it was more focused on symbols rather than words, and had the potential to be terrifyingly versatile if Zeke were ever inclined to hurt someone. Ezekiel became entranced with spice and herbal plants at a young age and it wasn't long after that he started making his own tea. He was so good in fact, that Markov decided to use a little guild money to fund Ezekiel's small franchise if he could put the Fairy Tail logo on each tea bag.

Ryu slipped an arm around Ezekiel's shoulders and pulled him over toward the newcomer, "Lucy, this is Ezekiel, also known as Zeke. If you need a cup of tea to relieve some stress, you can't do better than this guy."

Ezekiel brushed off Ryu's arm and extended his hand, "Pleasure to meet you."

"You're an elf?"

"Yes, and you are a human. Any more questions?"

"I thought elves were extinct."

Ezekiel sighed, "That's what everyone keeps telling me and yet, here I am."

Lucy took his hand and shook it, "It's just surprising to meet an actual elf alive."

"As opposed to a fake dead one?" Ryu commented.

"That's not wh-"

"I know, it's just a joke."

Lucy looked slightly angry before she turned around and went back into the guild house, seeing as the showing of Ryu's new weapon was over, everyone else followed her leaving Ryu and Ezekiel outside.

Ezekiel elbowed Ryu slightly in the gut, "Have you told Levy about how you feel?"

"Shut it." Ryu trusted Ezekiel enough to confided a lot of his secrets to, including the secret of him being from a different universe. Ezekiel was skeptical of Ryu at first when he claimed to be from a different universe, but he had always felt Ryu different from everyone else. It wasn't Ryu's powers that made Ezekiel believe him, it was Ryu himself. Ezekiel always assumed why Ryu was different was because he had a hologram for a friend. But over time, Ezekiel changed his opinion, there was always a certain air around Ryu. A air that made Ryu seem more wise and knowledgeable than he was letting on. Well, that's what he said, but he almost immediately cracked up after saying it. Ezekiel couldn't remember the day he started to fully believe Ryu, he just realized it.

"Oh speaking of Levy, she tried some of your tea."

"Ah. And how soon should I expect to see her in the shop for more?"

"Well . . . you may be a pacifist but you certainly aren't humble." Ryu joked.

Ryu led Ezekiel into the guild and told him of his latest quest. It took a good quarter of an hour to recount all the important details in full. After he was finished with his story, Ezekiel began telling Ryu what had happened over the past few days in town. Ryu was not happy from what he heard.

"People are getting attacked at night?" Ryu exclaimed silently.

Ezekiel nodded grimly, "Each victim never sees the attacker, only a shadow or a blur just before they pass out. When they wake up, they don't find any wounds on themselves but they feel a bit weaker and light headed."

Ryu took a small sip of his orange juice, "That's not good, what kind of magic could they be using on them?"

"No one knows, but I think the Detention Corps are going to be brought in soon. And I fear they are going to point the blame at Fairy Tail."

"Just add it on "The crap that needs to be done" list. See what you can gather up around town, I'll be here for a couple of days recovering from forging that crystal."

Just then, Ryu noticed a small commotion going on to his left. Romeo had just punched Markov in the face while yelling something and ran out of the guild with tears in his eyes. Whatever happened and even with most of Ryu's powers drained, he could feel fear from Romeo as he ran out. Makarov, even though he was just punched in the face, had a more worrisome aura about him.

"Hey Mira, what was that all about?" Ryu asked.

Mirajane's usual smile was replaced with a dismal look, "Macao went up to Mt. Hakobe awhile back. He said he would be back in three days . . . over a week ago. Romeo is worried for his father, master said he would be fine but . . ."

"Romeo fears for never seeing his father again, and Makarov is worried for Macao. Now it makes sense."

A loud crack brought Ryu back to focus, Natsu had just smashed the request board and was now leaving the guild with a very solemn look. A look that Ryu has seen on Natsu very rarely. Ryu thought silently for a couple moments before he gulped down the remainder of his orange juice and stood up from his stool.

Ryu gave one look to Ezekiel, the elf smiled back at him, "I'll make sure Levy and Neri get home safely if you're not back before night."

"Thanks." And without another word, Ryu started after Natsu, his black leather duster flowing gently behind him as he did.

Soon after he left he guildhouse, a familiar figure quickly caught up with him, "I thought you needed to wait a couple days before your powers came back."

Ryu turned around to Levy, "I may not have my magic but I still have my strength . . . and my lightsabers."

Levy shook her head in annoyance, "You shouldn't be pushing yourself, what if you get really hurt?"

"Then I can trust you to help me back on my feet. There is some things a person must do in their life. They do these things so they can sleep at night. I am doing this because Romeo needs his father and I need my sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." Ryu turned his back and kept walking toward Natsu.

"Just be careful, alright?"

"You know I won't."

"I know." She replied unhappily.

A frown made its way across Ryu's face as he sensed worry from Levy. It was only natural for friends to worry over one another, Ryu only wished it was more than just worry between friends. Pushing it past him, he increased his walking speed and caught up with Natsu in no time. Natsu said nothing as Ryu fell in line with him, only a nod of thanks.

"Wait!" The two of them turned to see the guild's newcomer running quickly to catch up, "I'm coming with you two!"

"And why are you coming with us if you don't mind me asking?" Ryu questioned.

"I want to help bring Romeo's father back."

Ryu stared silently at her for a moment as if he was thinking of a reason for her not to come, he merely just shrugged his shoulders, "Works for me, the more, the merrier. I'll flag down a carriage to take us to Mount Hakabe."

Natsu groaned, "Do we really have to take a carriage?"

"I want to be back before tomorrow, taking a carriage is our quickest option, just suck it up."

Lucy tilted her head, "What's the matter with taking a carriage?"

Ryu smirked, "Let's just hope that the ride isn't too shaky."

()()()()

Near Mt. Hakabe, 3:42 PM

Ryu sat opposite Natsu and Happy with Lucy on his right, he prefered being next to the door in case some situation would arise. His cowl was pulled up over his head to provide shade for his eyes to hide from the light. Ryu was almost out as soon as he shut his eyes, his energy reserves were all but spent. Sleeping a little would help gain back a little energy that might save his life. The constant shaking of the carriage had his dreams revolve around the moments before he was in Earthland, the last time he saw Maverick. Thoughts flew through Ryu's head until they settled on another subject, the man he learned forging lightsaber out magic was possible. He never saw the man's face, the man in his memories looked like a mirage. The encounter was almost like a dream but Ryu knew it was real. It just had to be Ryu thought to himself.

"Ryu?" Came female a voice in the distance.

"I don't wanna." Ryu complained in his sleep.

"We're here." Came the voice again.

"Wake up Ryu!" Came a loud voice.

Ryu jolted awake, Lucy and Natsu were staring at him intently. Ryu shook his head and rubbed his eyelids, "What's wrong?"

"We have arrived at Mt. Hakabe." Happy stated.

A loud groan escaped Ryu as he stretched his arms to wake them up, "Shall we?"

"We're waiting on you, you were sleeping on the handle."

"So I am, alright, lets go."

As soon as the door opened, a wave of freezing cold wind filled the carriage. Ryu hopped of the coach and his boots crunched into the snow, Natsu followed him shortly took awhile longer to leave after being blasted with the snowy wind in her short skirt and sleeveless shirt. Natsu stood headstrong in the wind, completely unaffected by it. Ryu had spent a long time in space before coming to Earthland, and space, even in a Republic cruiser, is cold. His leather duster also did its job in blocking most of wind and keeping him insulated. The cowl over his head also managed to keep his ears somewhat warm as well.

The group started walking up the mountain on what they assumed was the trail, but it wasn't a minute before Lucy started complaining, "Why is there a freaking blizzard in the middle of the summer?!"

"Why did you come with us if you're just gonna complain?" Natsu asked as he continued on.

"I didn't think there was going to be a blizzard! Now fork over that blanket!" Lucy began tugging on the blanket that was held by Natsu's backpack. Ryu groaned as he began to take off his duster, the wind began to immediately tear into him but Ryu wasn't about to let a breeze get the better of him. He walked back a bit and threw his duster over Lucy's shoulders, she looked at him with surprise.

"Just don't lose it alright?" Ryu asked as he increased his pace and caught up with Natsu. The duster was a bit big on Lucy, the sleeves drooped over her hands but thankfully she was tall enough to prevent it from dragging in the snow.

She brought the cuff over nose when she finished buttoning, "It's still warm . . . thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, just don't let it go-" Ryu extra sense kicked into play, "Lucy, watch out!" Ryu yelled as he tackled her out of the way of massive figure that slammed into the ground where she was standing.

Ryu was back to his feet in a second with his Flame Saber in his hand. Warmth coursed through his entire body as he held the unactivated saber. Whatever the creature was, its focus was currently on Natsu.

It was until Lucy shouted out, "What is that thing?!"

The creature turned around toward the voice, it stared at Lucy for a second then a grin broke across his face, "Woman . . ."

"Ah, Vulcan." Ryu said as he identified the creature. One of the books he often read was on monsters and mythical creatures of the world.

The vulcan noticed Ryu a couple feet from it and frowned, "Me no like man."

"Me no like vulcan." Ryu smirked.

The vulcan took offense to this and swung his arm at Ryu. Even without his Force abilities, Ryu rolled through the snow avoiding the blow. But what Ryu didn't expect was the vulcan to run past him, snatch up Lucy, and continuing running into the blizzard.

"HHHEELLLPPPP MMEEEE!" Natsu and Ryu heard Lucy cry out as the vulcan carried her off.

Ryu took a deep breath before yelling, "Soil of the Winds!"

Chunks of rock shot out from under the snow and placed themselves under Ryu's feet. He was lifted ground in a second and pursued the vulcan. Natsu was on his own for the moment, he would need to figure out his own way to catch up. He only had enough energy to propel the two slabs under his feet and he wasn't about to let that stupid creature get away with his duster . . . there was also Lucy as well.

He wasn't able to keep up with the two but the path was only one direction and the footprints from the vulcan were deep in the snow that weren't going to be filled in for a couple of minutes. The path eventually led up into the mountain, as Ryu flew through the ice cavern his last ounce of Earth magic was used up. He hit the icy floor hard but managed to roll as he hit the ground dispersing the impact. It took Ryu a minute of rest before he could manage to stand, he was more tired then he let on with Levy. His physical strength was barely holding on as it was but Ryu had to save Macao and now his duster . . . and Lucy. Ryu pushed himself to his feet and continued on into the cavern.

Ryu shambled through the icy cavern, seeing his reflection on many surfaces. His footing was lost more than once as he made his way through, and the cold was starting to get to him, "Son a freaking crystal, I knew it was a bad idea to help out with this job. Last time I felt this tired was after my final S-class wizard trial. It's cold, really cold. What I wouldn't do for a nice cup of . . . lightsaber. My flame saber!"

His hand fumbled on his belt as he reached for his only saber, the other two were currently sitting in his pocket dimension. As soon as his hand was wrapped around the hilt, heat flooded his entire body. The cold had been purged throughout his entire body, the amount of condensation Ryu breathed out increased as his body temperature rose. Ryu looked at the saber in his hand and grinned, magic saber crystals were interesting to say the least.

It was then when Ryu heard a commotion further into the cavern. Ryu could discern Lucy's voice as well as the vulcan battle cries but he could hear a third voice but didn't recognize it. After a minute of navigating the icy labyrinth, he found the source of the voice. The vulcan was currently doing battle with some sort of large cow that carried a giant ax. Lucy stood away from the battle with his duster still drooped over her shoulders, a golden key clenched in one of hands.

Ryu made his way around the battle toward Lucy, when she became aware of his presence she had to restrain herself from jumping him, "Ryu thank god you're here! Wait, where's Natsu and Happy?"

"I lost them in the blizzard when I chased after the vulcan and you." Ryu responded as he placed his hands on his in order to support himself from falling over.

"You left them in th-", Lucy placed a hand on Ryu's shoulder, "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Ryu took a couple deep breaths and stood straight up, "Yeah, just a little winded."

Which was a lie, Ryu was only just keeping his false facade up. But he needed remain in control of the situation, he didn't need Lucy worrying over him while they were dealing with the vulcan. The two of them then heard a loud smash followed closely by a pained grunt. The vulcan had thrown the large cow into a group of icy pillars, disorienting the large cow causing him to drop his large ax. The vulcan bent over and retrieved the large weapon, a smile broke over its face.

"It defeated Taurus?! That monkey must be stronger than I thought." Lucy exclaimed.

"You know that cow?" Ryu asked while keeping his attention on the vulcan who was currently admiring his new ax.

"He's one of my celestial spirits, one of my strongest, but also one of the most annoying." She replied with a sigh.

"How so?"

"Lets just say that he is a bit of a weirdo." Ryu could tell by voice that the cow man was just a 'bit' perverted.

"Woman . . ."

The conversation had temporarily distracted Ryu, causing him to fail noticing the vulcan slowing advancing on the two of them. Lucy backed behind Ryu who carefully activated his lightsaber avoiding the person behind him, "Can't you summon another one of your spirit friends right now?"

"No, I'm not that powerful and I can't dismiss Taurus. Happy told me you're a S-class wizard, shouldn't this be a piece of cake for you?" She asked frantically.

"Normally", Ryu hissed, "But most of my energy is drained, and I don't think my amount of remaining strength is going help me against a ax of that size."

"Then what should we do?" The vulcan continued to advance on the two of them slowly.

"Try to end this in one shot." The Force energy Ryu had recovered now shot itself out his being and into his saber causing it to flare. Force channeling, a technique that his father had mastered, a technique that Ryu had quickly learned and easily controlled, a technique that he was placing all his cards on.

Ryu spun through the air as he lept at the vulcan, his saber trailing flames behind him. His plan was to put as much telekinetic energy he could into his saber and use it as a supercharged baseball bat. Hopefully a large enough strike would render the vulcan unconscious allowing for them to escape.

Unfortunately, the vulcan saw Ryu leap at him and decided to jump backwards out of his weapon's reach. Ryu saw the Vulcan backstep and cursed himself, he had hoped for a contact strike but that wasn't going to happen. All he could hope for was that there was still enough power for the vulcan to be knocked down so Lucy could run. Ryu released the energy stored in his saber toward the vulcan as he landed.

Ryu could never have anticipated what happened next.

A massive wave of fire poured out of his lightsaber and slammed into the vulcan causing serious damage to it. Ryu's mouth stood hanging, "How in the hell?! Is it possible when I channel my Force powers through this saber, the crystal changes my Force energy into flames? Just what kind of crystal have I created?!"

Thoughts raced through Ryu's mind so quickly that he didn't realize that he was currently laying on his back staring up at the ceiling. His vision began to blur, his sense of feeling started to numb and no longer feel cold. He heard what sounded like Lucy shouting at him but he couldn't understand a single word of it, all he saw was the giant ax the horribly burnt vulcan had raised over its head.

"Guess this is the end of the line for me. So many things left unsaid, so many things left undone. All because of this stupid crystal. I wonder if Maverick is waiting for me in whatever world comes next, Warhawk guy probably is. I'm sorry Levy, I couldn't keep my promise."

The large ax came down with swift speed, but before the blade could reach him, a figure stepped over and caught the edge of the blade between his hands, "You okay Ryu?"

"Natsu, 'bout time you caught up." Ryu replied in a haze, "I'll leave this to you . . . now I need to . . . rest."

Ryu's eyelids slowly closed, he became less in tune with what was happening around him. The last thing he heard was Natsu battling with the Vulcan, his last thought was, "Natsu, I am truly blessed by the Force to have a person like you as friend."

()()()()

Mt. Hakabe, 4:27 PM

The sound of voices made Ryu's eyelids flutter open slowly. The front half of his body felt warm while the back felt felt lesser so. The first thing he saw when his eyes opened was the icy cavern ceiling, the second thing he saw was Macao laying unconscious next to him.

"He's alive!" Ryu heard a familiar feline shout.

He felt tiny footsteps walking up his stomach closer to his face, Ryu turned his head to see Happy standing on his chest chewing on a raw fish. Ryu identified the source of warmth on his frontside, Lucy had taken off his duster and placed it over him as he recovered. The cat sat down on his chest and continued to nibble on the fish.

"I'm guessing we won?" Ryu asked.

"Aye. Natsu beat up the monkey while you took a nap. We thought that you finally bought it at first, then we checked your pulse."

"That's generally the first thing you want to do. So where was Macao this entire time?"

"The vulcan had possessed him. Luckily the vulcan took your surprise fire blast or else Macao would have come out well-done. Since when have you been able use fire magic?"

Ryu closed his and let his head fall back, "I don't think it was entirely myself. You know about my other magic ability besides my earth magic right?"

Happy nodded, "With my other power, one of my abilities is to channel my power through my lightsabers. But I speculate that that it reacted differently with the flame crystal, because it is a forged crystal or because a crystal like that has never been made or found. So in short, my energy I channeled through reacted to the crystal and it changed as a result."

"I don't understand what you're talking about but it's still cool." Ryu tilted his head back to see Natsu sitting cross legged sticking his pinky in his ear. Lucy sat next to him by Macao's head, watching over him until he woke up.

"How long was I out?" Ryu asked as he was about to get up, but all his muscles, including ones he never thought he had, screamed in protest and forced him back down.

Lucy put a hand his shoulder to keep him down, "About half an hour."

Ryu brushed off the hand and with quite a bit of effort, he managed to sit up. The cat resting on his chest rolled off onto the icy floor. Natsu gave him support as Ryu slowly stood up, Lucy continued to watch over Macao. Once he was up, Ryu slung his duster over his shoulders and grabbed his Fire Saber which hung at his waist to stay warm. Not long after that, Macao started to moan and groan as his eyes started to open.

"W-where am I?" He asked through his haze.

"Still on Mount Hakabe." Lucy responded.

"Heh, can you believe it? I take down nineteen of those monsters and then I get jumped by the last one. I bet Romeo will be embarrassed about me after this."

Ryu scoffed, "You're joking right? You took down nineteen vulcans. Nineteen of them!"

Macao managed to smile slightly at the encouragement, Ryu then motioned toward the exit of the cave, "I don't know about you guys, but I want to get off this forsaken mountain. Not to mention your son wants to see you"

Since Ryu was out of his own energy, it upon Lucy and Natsu to help Macao down the mountain to the carriage that remained there. Thankfully the blizzard had cleared up giving them clear skies all the way back to the carriage and then into town. The ride back was uneventful, at least for Ryu who passed out as soon as he sat down. His dreams were blank, for even his mind was too tired to do anything.

()()()()

Magnolia, 9:21 PM

Ryu was stumbling through town on his own after leaving the guild house. Natsu, Happy, Lucy, and him were treated like small heros after they brought Macao back from the mountain. He felt a little guilty, he was supposed to spend time with Neri today but he made other plans. After some debate in his mind, he decided that he would take Neri out for some ice cream before Cyton and Agitha would arrive.

It was then as he was wondering the road to his house did he realize something was wrong. All the lights on the street he was walking were unlit. Not a single other soul could be seen, the street was unusually dark, it seemed even the moonlight wasn't even reaching the ground. He grabbed his lightsaber and proceeded carefully. He was still too weak to fight but perhaps he could scare his enemies off with his light sword of fire. Ryu continued for a good while but nothing happen, although he could feel a pair of eyes on him. Someone was watching him from the shadows, waiting for their chance to strike. The unusual darkness made it impossible to see into the alleyways which they were most likely watching him from he speculated.

After walking for ten minutes and nothing happening, Ryu had enough of this stalker. His lightsaber shot out a blazing orange beam of light as he assumed his combat stance, "Alright, come on out. I know you're there, are you the person attacking people at night? You're causing quite a bit of panic around town you know. Detention Corps are going to called soon, so how about you just scurry on out of town and I'll forget this ever happened?"

Silence loomed over him, the buildings around him were void of any light or movement. The darkness around him seemed thick, no doubt it was caused by magic. The air felt heavy around him as well and Ryu for once in a long time, was somewhat worried. And then it happened, he felt someone bearing down on his mind. Whoever they were, they were trying to affect his mind with some spell. However, Ryu had trained his mind against mind affecting spells. His proudest moment was when he was able to repel Mystogan's massive hypnosis spell, though barely and he hadn't been ever able to get a good look at his face which he so keenly hid. The current attack on his mind lasted a couple seconds before it ended, when it ended Ryu found himself face to face with his hooded assailant, all he could see were bright red eyes as the rest of the face was hidden by darkness.

He swung his blade of orange fire at the culprit but before he could even get halfway with his blade, the figure punched his wrist with amazing strength, sending the weapon rolling away, making scorch marks where it landed. Then next thing he realized was that he was staring up at the night sky with the attacker sitting on his chest, pinning him down. Ryu struggled with everything he could, but his strength and powers were completely depleted.

Fangs glistened in the moonlight just before they dived down on his neck. Ryu jerked his neck away and the fangs landed in his shoulder. A moment later the fangs were shining in the moonlight again with his blood now dripping from them. Again, Ryu jerked his neck again and this time they sank into the back of his neck. But this time, before the attacker pulled their fangs out, he felt like they were sucking on his neck. This process of jerking neck lasted thirty seconds before the assailant used one of their arms to hold his head in place.

Then they spoke, "I'm very sorry, it doesn't usually take me this long to find the main carotid artery. Please hold still and this will be over quickly."

The voice was that of a female but it was distorted with magic, and they sounded very concerned for his personal safety. Ryu had figured what she was as soon as she sucked on his neck, "Get off me you vampire!"

Ryu had found a brick on the ground and clenched in his hand. And now that her hand which was holding his arm was now holding his head, he took advantage of the situation. With all the strength he could muster, he brought the brick across her face. The figure went tumbling off his chest and crashing to the ground. As soon as she was off, Ryu flipped to his feet, again the way he once saw a Gungan, and used his very minuscule amount of Force power to pull his lightsaber to his hand. He brought the glowing blade down on the figure who was still lying on the ground.

"Please stop!" The distorted voice cried out. At that moment, the magic clouding his eyes vanished. The street lights lit up along the street, the moonlight was reflecting off the ground, and some windows had light now emanating out of it.

Ryu's lightsaber illuminated the figure on the ground, their body was small much like a childs. Whoever they were, they must have been a midget. A small puddle of drying blood indicated were Ryu had been laying when they were pinning him down. His adrenaline was now surging through his body, giving him strength to fight off this enemy. A quick glance revealed that there was no one approaching from either direction, he could kill this vampire right now and no one would witness it. He was ready to dispose of the vampire when they pulled hood off.

A girl, no older than twelve years old lay on the ground in front of him clutching her bleeding nose from where the brick had hit her. She had light brown hair that disappeared down her neck into her cloak. Her bright red eyes had tears streaming out of them, and Ryu actually felt guilty for a second and then he remembered the powers vampire could have.

"Don't think you can fool me with this little innocent form, I know some vampires have the power to change how old they look."

"Wait no, I'm not trying to fool you! This is my normal appearance, please listen!" She pleaded, her distorted voice was replaced with what he assumed was her normal voice.

"Fat chance, don't move will you, your days of terrorizing the town are over." Ryu raised the fiery blade over his head.

"Please! I was only doing what I needed to so I could survive!" Tears were now flooding from her eyes like waterfalls, "Please don't kill me, I'll do whatever test you want me to. Just please . . ."

Ryu hesitated, "Either I'm growing soft or this girl is really good at deceiving people."

"There is one way, just hold still, if you move an inch, I will kill you." The girl quickly nodded. Ryu closed his eyes and reached deep down inside him for any amount of Force energy he could muster. What he could muster was sent straight to his eyes, what he saw next would determine the girls fate. His eyes opened upon the girl, and he was shocked by what he saw.

Blue, massive amounts of blue light swirled through her body. This girl was had one of the highest levels of positive energy he had ever seen in his life. What wasn't blue was just tiny smigits of grey light that were hardly noticeable. His small amount of Force energy ran out and he found himself staring on the girl with his normal eyes. She was still cowering in fear on the ground, the tears had lessened but still continued to flow from her red eyes. There was no way possible that she could have fooled his Force Sight unless she was a Force user, and he doubted that very much.

The orange light retracted back into his lightsaber, and the hilt was clipped to his belt and was hidden by his duster. He extended his hand forward toward the small girl, "S-sorry for hitting you . . . natural reaction."

As soon as the girl was on her feet, she tried running but Ryu's firm gripped held her, "Don't think because I believe you doesn't mean I'm just gonna let you go. Don't worry, I won't harm you."

The girl could have ripped her wrist out of his hand, but instead of running she looked at the ground ashamed of herself and nodded slightly. Ryu crouched down and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket as he pulled the girl closer. After dabbing up most the blood, he told her to hold the handkerchief to her nose which she did.

Ryu continued on back to his home with his hand clasped around the small girls hand. Ryu forgot a lot about his 6' 1" height, but this time he was reminded of it when the girl's arm was at what seemed like an eighty degree angle when she was only a footstep behind him. Ryu didn't really care about his height, but it was fun to pick on Levy when she was literally more than a foot shorter than him. Although a couple people found it strange for him to be 6' 1" and only sixteen years old. But again, Ryu didn't much care for it.

The girl ran into Ryu when he suddenly stopped, once she recovered from the small impact she found Ryu crouching down on one knee motioning for her to get on his back, "Think of it as my way for saying sorry for hitting you in the face with a brick."

She didn't say another word as she clambered onto his back, once she was comfortable he set off toward his house. Not a minute after he felt the girl's small tongue licking his neck wounds, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I-I can't help it, I see blood and I have the urge to drink it. I'm a v-vampire" The girl replied with a low whimper.

"Fair enough, what's your name?"

The girl remained silent for a minute before she responded, "V-Vania."

"She must still be scared." Ryu thought for a moment before continuing the conversation, "Well Vania, my name is Ryu Krayt Darkson and I want to help you."

The girl's head shot up from licking his bleeding wounds, "You want to change me back to a normal human?!"

"No, but I group of people I know would have contacted me if they found a way. But even though they can't cure their vampirism, they will gladly care for you."

Her head fell back onto his injured shoulder and continued to lick the wounds, "I thought you could help me get rid of this curse."

"I'm sorry." The silence ceased for a minute as Ryu thought of a topic they could discuss. A thought popped into his mind, "How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"Twelve hundred, thousand, million?" Ryu asked confused.

"No just twelve."

"When did you become a vampire?!" Ryu asked with surprise.

"Eight years ago."

"Wow, I hit a twelve year old with a fricking brick. Nice job Ryu." Shame ran rampant through Ryu's heart for a minute before he continued the conversation once again, "So, willing or forced?"

"Forced."

"Blood sucked dry or ritual?"

"Ritual."

"Ah, that would explain the massive amount of magic power you have. Ritual vampires always have far more power than blood-drained vamps do. Even without proper training, beating off experienced blood-drained vampires wouldn't be that big of a challenge for your type. You used your power to create illusions as well to change your voice and Hypnosis to your victims to sleep. Your strength in case you got in a fight. The reason why I mentioned your appearance is because while most vampires can change their age, very few know how to change their appearance all together, I couldn't take any chances. But why weren't their bite marks on their afterwards?"

"I also have a small amount of healing magic. I used it to fix the bite marks I left on them so they wouldn't suspect a vampire was in town."

Ryu was impressed, "Smart girl, not many people would think of that. Where's your family?"

"They're the ones that did this to me. I ran away and managed to survive on my own since then. I haven't had a friend for eight years, I have been moving from town to town. I tried going to my friends after I turned vampire, but they only saw me as a freak. Only a blood sucking fre- " Tears started streaming down her face again.

"This girl hasn't had a friend for eight years? Not to mention her family did this to her? They must be sick fucks. I swear if I ever meet them . . . Poor girl." Ryu pitied the girl, and it was then he was going to do everything he could to make sure this girl gets somewhere safe, "Don't worry, you don't have to run anymore. I'll protect you and get you to good people."

"Thank . . . you, I'm . . . . so tired . . . of being scared." Vania's head slumped down on his shoulder and she went to sleep and her tears started to lessen and then finally cease.

()()()()

Ryu continued to his house and found the porch light on with a note attached to the door. It read, "Ryu, I put Neri to sleep and took the liberty of using your shower again before heading back to Fairy Hills. Neri was upset that you left her but understood that her brother has other responsibilities. Please, don't forget about Neri. She's a good kid and she really looks up to you. Me and Team Shadow Gear are heading out for a job in the morning so I'll be back in a few days. Try not to do anything stupid until then.

Sincerly,

Levy

P.S.: I know you set Zeke to watch over me while you were gone but please don't do that anymore, I can take care of myself.

Ryu ripped off the note with one hand and pocketed it in his duster, then using up the last bit of magic he had left he managed to summon his keys from his pocket dimension. The door lock clicked opened as he turned his key and a moment later he was standing in the entryway to his home. After carefully laying Vania down on his couch and covering her up with a blanket, Ryu went to his bedroom to check on Neri. The door creaked slightly as he opened it, Neri was sleeping soundly in the middle of his bed preventing him sleeping anywhere without disturbing her.

He decided that he needed to clean himself up before sleeping. Ryu's bathroom was almost identical to the one he had first been in at his family's house. There were minor differences but it felt the exact same to him. Ryu removed his duster and shirt to inspect the bite wounds on his neck, about six puncture marks and each of them were still bleeding slightly. His medicine cabinet held various medications, including one for his shoulder that would flare with pain from time to time. After bandaging his shoulder and neck, Ryu ingested to pain reliever pills that he was suppose to take everyday but settled for whenever he had the time. Using a sponge, all of the blood that soaked into his duster was washed out. His shirt was just tossed into the laundry to be washed another time.

Finally, after seemed like an eternity to Ryu, he was finally able to sit down in his chair and relax from the long day he had. From getting up early with Neri, the trek to Magnolia, seeing Levy's underwear, creating a magic crystal, saving Macao from the vulcan, and finally taking a young vampire girl into his home until he could move her to a safer place. Then the note on the door bothered him as well.

Ryu mumbled to himself, "Ah, Levy's right. I have no right to have someone constantly watching over her. I mean, she's about the same age as me but . . ."

He sighed as he closed his eyes, "I just don't want anything bad to happen to her. But she's right, I'm not her father."

One more deep sigh came from Ryu before he drifted to sleep. Good thing too, because in the morning he had some explaining to do.

()()()()

Ryu's Home, 9:30 AM

"Big Brother?! Big Brother?!" Ryu heard someone frantically whisper in his ear.

"I don't wanna." Ryu complained in his sleep.

"Big Brother, someone broke into the house."

That opened Ryu's eyes, Neri was leaning on an arm of the chair whispering into his ear, "Are they still in the house?!" He asked in a hushed tone.

Neri's eyes fell upon the couch, "There."

Ryu saw Vania still fast asleep on the couch, the blanket was pulled over face halfway. Her cloak lay strewn on the ground at the foot of the couch. Light brown hair cascaded over the side of couch and almost reached the floor. Ryu's eyes slowly closed and he slumped back into the chair. Neri became slightly panicked and started shaking Ryu who only groaned.

Neri continued to speak in a hushed tone, "Big Brother, what are we going to do?!"

Ryu attempted shoving Neri away but his body didn't feel like moving anymore, "You're going to stop shaking me and I'm going back to sleep."

The shaking continued, "B-but what about the intruder?!"

"I brought her here, I'll explain later, alright? Just let me sleep, I had a loooooong day yesterday."

"B-bu-" Neri started.

"Neri, I am willing to buy you as much ice cream that can fit in the biggest bowl in my house. You only get this under two conditions. One: Let me sleep. Two: You look for it quietly. Okay?"

Ryu didn't hear another peep out of Neri, although what he could hear a couple moments later were some of his kitchen cabinets opening and some rustling of kitchenware. Although it wasn't enough to keep his still exhausted body awake any longer.

()()()()

30 minutes later . . .

"Mister Darkson sir?"

"I still don't wanna." Ryu complained.

Ryu felt his body being lightly shook, his eyes fluttered open slowly, "Who dare disturbs my slumber?" He asked in the deepest voice he could managed.

Vania took a step back and bowed, "I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!"

Ryu sat up slowly and rubbed his face, "I already told you, I'm not going to hurt you. Have you seen Neri, my little sister?"

"Yes, she's currently taking a bath. She was kind enough to give me some her clothes."

Ryu gave her a quick look over, a blue shirt and a gray skirt that rested just above her knees, it was a bit big for her though "What about your clothes?"

"All I had was the robe you found me with."

Ryu felt awkward, "Oooooohhh, well then. Not sure how to respond to that except thank god that you had something at least."

"Not sure how you're going to respond to this either." Vania reached down beside the chair and picked up something, "She said something about eating ice cream like a queen today."

The item she picked up was a massive pot. This pot was a foot and a half tall, it was meant to prepare a large quantity for soup for a hungry group of six people and still have leftovers afterwards. Ryu had bought this just in case he had a lot of company coming over to his house, although he had never used it.

Ryu could only say one thing, "Oh god damn it."

The morning went by fast for Neri and Vania but slow for Ryu. Neri and Vania seemed to hit it off really well, Neri even knew she was a vampire and she didn't care. As for Ryu, he went to the second and removed a small false panel from the wall. Behind it was a box full of various documents, books, and a rolled up map. Ryu set it down on the dining room table and began sifting through the contents of the box.

"Neri, aren't you scared of me because I'm a vampire?" Vania asked out of the blue.

Neri shook her head, "You're a nice vampire. My Big Brother has met nice vampires as well and became good friends with them."

"Is that true?"

Ryu stretched his arms, "Yep, I'm a bit of a outside contact for them. They saved my life once after I was critically injured. They took care of me as I recovered as well. I talked with them a bit and they gave me all these books on vampires with accurate information about them, also a map of their lair. In exchange, they have the have the option to seek shelter in my house for a day or two and I send any 'lost' vampires their way. That crescent moon carved into the wall next to the door outside is a symbol known to them as Ally. They also try to keep their existence a secret. Bunch of nice people though."

"Tell her the story Big Brother. About how you met them."

Ryu shrugged, "I'm busy but I'll give you the short version."

He switched seats for the dining chair to his armchair, Neri and Vania sat down on the couch close to each other, "So, I had taken this S-class ranked mission for me to go to this remote village located deep in the mountains, place isn't even on the map but I had a guide who met me at the nearest train station. The village was convinced they had angered some ancient god or what not because this huge, and I mean HUGE, scorpion had been seen outside town and the sightings were getting closer and closer. Even though it was huge, the area was very mountainous, giving it plenty of places to hide. Anyway, it takes me two days to track this thing back to its little hideaway. I waited for a chance to attack when it goes to sleep. Apparently those things are waken up by feathers doing sign language to each other because not a second after I stepped foot into the cave, it charged me. Barely had enough time to dodge it but I lucked out. So I fight this monster for at least seven hours, and even though it's big, it's fast. Not to mention that its shell is resistant to heat, which is what my lightsabers relies on to cut through things. But it was not completely resistant. To make a long story short, I had to drive it over the side of a cliff . . . with me on top of it. We fell a long way and I managed to barely slow my descent, I used my last bit of Earth magic just before I hit the ground. In short again, I wind up with two broken legs and a broken left arm and that was what I could only see. Who knows what else was broken. The scorpion, well it got skewered by a giant, sharp, reinforced stone pillar. Job was done, but I was dying. Not long after, these hooded people with red eyes come out of nowhere with stretcher and start carrying me back to their hideout. Wake up a couple days later to find my left arm fixed and that I'm in a cave. They were very generous and kind to me as I recovered. I learned the village that I had accepted the quest from had an alliance with this group of vampires. They would donate blood packets to the vampires once a month in exchange for their protection from monsters and bandits that roamed the mountains. Thanks to their healers, my bones were fixed and I was out of there in a week. I continue to communicate with them with the occasional letter. It's this group of vampires I'm sending you to Vania. They will treat you right . . . Hey Vania, you feeling alright?"

Vania was breathing heavily and sweating, "I'm sorry, but when you mentioned blood packets, my teeth started to ache. I wasn't able to get enough blood last night."

Ryu made his way to his fridge and reached far back inside, he pulled out a plastic container filled with red liquid and poured some into a glass. He then quickly made his way back over to Vania and handed the glass to her, "Drink, you'll feel a lot better."

She took the drink and downed it all in one go. Her breathing returned to normal and the sweating stopped, "This is tomato juice, not blood. Why is it making my teeth stop aching?"

"I don't know, it just does. Not even the elder of the vampire group knows. Although, you can only last off tomato juice for about a month before you need to drink blood, hence why the village only donates about once a month."

Ryu poured her a couple more glasses of tomato juice before she was satisfied. Ryu went back to the table and started writing a letter to the group of vampires explaining Vania's predicament and saying that she was a good kid. While he did that, Neri had gone to the nearest ice cream vendor even though it was still morning with ten thousand Jewel provided by Ryu. He all of a sudden regretted that he had even bought that pot, he had never used it and probably wasn't going to.

A hour later, Neri returned with the giant pot by somehow managing to drag it all the way back to his house. Soon after, the two girls began to dig in to the various flavors and managed to get brain freeze seven seconds in.

"Don't come crying to me when you two have upset stomachs. Neri, remember, your parents will be here around six tonight so make sure you're ready then."

"K!" She managed to say with a mouth full of ice cream.

Rapid, loud knocking came from Ryu's door, "Ryu, we have a problem. Someone else was attacked last night, but they don't know who the victim was, and the attacker got away."

Ryu made his way over to the door and whipped it open, "You seem to be in a hurry."

"Ryu, this is no time to joke! Another person was attacked, in fact it was just up the street from-"

"The Blooming Faeries?"

"How did you know?"

Ryu pulled down his duster neck to reveal the bandages on his shoulder, "That was my blood."

"Oh, well then, are our problems over or have you brought in a stray?"

"The latter of the two, on that note, I need a favor from you."

Zeke raised a slim eyebrow, "What is it?"

Ryu cracked a smile,"Quick question, your thoughts on twelve year old vampire girls?"

Zeke's other eyebrow joined the first near his hairline, "You've got to be joking."

Ryu turned around and shouted, "Vania, come meet the nice elf that's going to be taking you to the vampires."

Vania came running, and she stared with surprise at Zeke, "I thought elves were only a children's story."

Zeke sighed heavily, "Join the club, I hear they have excellent jackets."

"I can have her ready to leave in a couple hours, I will have prepared a map by then for you to follow. When you're done, burn the map. These vampires aren't hostile at all, they just want to live out their lives, understand?"

Zeke smiled thinly, "As do we all. Don't worry, I won't expose them."

"I'm actually being serious here Zeke, I would do it myself but I'm still recovering. I need to know you're being serious as well here." For once in a blue moon, Zeke could see that Ryu was desperate for help.

The smile on the elf's face disappeared, and Zeke placed a hand over his heart, giving Ryu a slight bow, "You have my word."

"Good, go home and be ready to leave at four. I owe you one for this. And don't worry, the other vampires won't bite . . . wait . . ."

Zeke frowned, "Four? Do you want the poor girl to turn into beef roast? It would be better to wait until nightfall, wouldn't it?"

Ryu laughed, "Common misconception. Vampires can't actually die from sunlight, they'd just rather avoid it. They get sunburns easier."

Zeke glanced at his pale hand, "I've always wondered what sunburns are like. Why do you people complain about them so much anyway?"

Ryu began to close the door, "Because if you poke them, they get irritated. Reminds me of a certain elf with his ears." And shut the door, quickly.

Copying the route for Zeke to take took less than five minutes. After that Ryu grabbed the travel pack that he had received two days before and started packing various supplies fro Vania. Two canteens filled with tomato juice, another with water, some spare clothes donated by Neri, Ryu's old Jedi boots that managed to fit her, various other traveling implements and finally the letter. Vania and Neri had resumed eating the pot of ice cream as Ryu started packing but their pace had slowed down and Neri started to have second thoughts.

Ryu placed the bag down next to Vania, "I'm letting you borrow this alright? Once you settle in, have someone bring this back to me."

Vania took the bag, "With all the help you have given me, I'll return this myself. And even then, I have to reward you now for all you have done ."

Ryu cracked a thin smiled and bowed slightly, "And does the mighty vampire Vania have anything to reward me with?"

A pouty face appeared on Vania, "Don't mock me, now crouch down and close your eyes."

Ryu rolled his eyes but he complied, he heard Vania walk up closer to him, "Are your eyes closed?"

"Yes . . ." Ryu sighed.

Silence passed by for a couple seconds before Neri broke the silence, "Vania, what are you doing?"

The next thing Ryu felt a quick soft touch on his cheek, he opened to see Vania blushing slightly, Neri on the other hand was furious, "No one is allowed to kiss Big Brother but me!"

Neri ran over and kissed Ryu on the cheek where Vania had kissed him, "There, my kiss over rules yours."

Vania had a shocked expression on her face, "I thought you two were brother and sister, I didn't know you had that type of relationship."

Ryu sighed again, "No we don't. Dang it Neri, you keep giving people the wrong idea."

Neri hugged Ryu around the neck, "What's the matter? It's not like we are actually brother and sister. We could be boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Neri, we had this talk before. Two days ago in fact." Ryu was annoyed, Neri tried this sort of thing whenever another female got close to Ryu and frankly Ryu was on the tipping point.

Neri brought her hand to her chin, "Did we? I can't seem to remember that we did. Refresh my memory, what were we doing at the time?"

"We were taking a bath togethe-" Ryu didn't catch himself in time.

"You two bathe together?!" Vania asked shocked.

A sweat broke out over Ryu, "Entirely platonic! I swear! Neri will you sto-"

Once again, a loud rapid knocking came from Ryu's door, Ryu looked at Neri with a annoyed face, "I'm talking to mom and dad about this."

Neri only gave Ryu a playful smile as she released her grip around his neck. Ryu jogged over to the door and opened it to find Zeke looking a little frantic, "Hey, it's only two, why are yo-"

Zeke cut him off with a raised hand, "The detention Corps are in town asking people about Vampires. I know you're not good at math, but even you can add that one up."

Ryu only nodded and quickly turned around, "Vania, change of plan, you're leaving now."

Zeke called from outside, "Neri's parents are waiting for us with a cart near the edge of town. The Detention Corps sealed off most of the routes, but I have methods of leaving town that don't involve the roads."

"Alright girls, grab your stuff and follow Zeke. Listen to him, he will keep you safe."

Neri pointed to the pot, "But we never finished our ice cream."

"Oh for crying out loud." Ryu picked up the pot and handed it to Zeke, "Here, you take it."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I don't have time for it Zeke, Neri will complain about leaving it behind." Ryu said quickly as he helped Vania het her cloak on.

"If she wants it so badly, she can carry it. Even better, you can come and bring it yourself."

"Really, you want me to go with you? The person known for ticking off the higher ups in the Detention Corps?"

Zeke gave him an Erza-class glare, "On thys si jyhli os," he drew in a deep breath, then sighed, "Fine, fine. You win."

"That's what I thought. Now get out of here quickly, they probably already have a squad heading to my house." Ryu said his final goodbyes and gave a hug to Neri and Vania before they left. He watched them go from his window until they disappeared into the forest. Ryu's assumption was wrong, not a single member of the Detention Corps was sent to his house, even after an hours wait none arrived. All Ryu could do now was hope that they all made it free. Soon exhaustion swept over Ryu, but before he sat down he made sure to properly hide all the things on the vampires behind the fake panel on the second floor. After the panel was in place, and the edges of the panel blended into the wall, Ryu made his way back down stairs. The first thing his eyes fell on was the cabinet that held a secret that Ryu had told no one, not even his trusted Holocron knew it. Ryu made his way to each of the windows on the first floor and pulled the drapes so that no one from outside could see in. Then when he thought no one could see him, Ryu reached under the cabinet that stood an inch off the ground. A key was pulled of the bottom of the dress and placed slowly into the lock. It took him a minute of mentally preparing himself before he could turn the lock.

Once the lock clicked, Ryu opened the door slowly until he could see everything. Wooden carvings had been placed neatly in the cabinet, neatly lined up in rows. Each one was similar to the one next to it but as the rows went on, the carving got progressively different from the first until it came to the most recent one which just had jagged cuts everywhere. There were only two similarities between every single one, One: They each had a deep slash where the face should be. Two: They all somewhat resembled Levy.

Ryu sighed before he conjured up his latest failure from his pocket dimension, it didn't have any jagged cuts, only the outline of a face with another deep slash in it. He placed it in the ever growing failure carvings of Levy, there had to be at least twenty-five to thirty carvings in the cabinet.

"God damn it Ryu, another fucking failure! Why can't you get her god damn face right?! You see it almost every stinking day! Hey Levy, you want to see why I haven't completed your wooden carving? Come look in my freaky cabinet. Let me show me show you wooden carvings of yourself with a deep cut where your face should be." Ryu's mind paused for a moment so he could simmer down, "Why do I even keep these? I should just burn them . . . . but what if I can fix one? Yeah, when I have recovered, I'll take another look and see if I can fix one. If not, I'll just start again."

This was a lie that Ryu had told himself over and over again. A hopeful lie that someday all his failures will lead to a perfect success that shows Levy's beauty for all who gaze upon the carving. Ryu locked the cabinet and hid the key under the cabinet before returning to his room. He was out before his body even hit the bed, and for the rest of the day he slept peacefully. But soon, he would be pulled into another adventure, one where the fate of guild masters rested on him and five others.

Finally finished! Finals, school and various other things including me throwing up and various family things prevented me from writing my chapter. But I finally managed it to finish it the day after summer starts. Rest assured, I will not stop writing but it will take me awhile to write each chapter because my schedule fluctuates often. Anyway, it feels good to finally finish chapter six. From now on, I won't be posting chapter titles until I have a good idea.

So some more was explained about Ryu, his strange friends, his want for better weapons and his secret alliance with a group of peaceful vampires that just want to survive. Mythical creatures once existed side by side with mankind, vampires included, but once the dragon war erupted, the vampires attempted to expand their numbers. But there were found out and driven almost to extinction. The 'elder' I gave reference to survived through the war and made a enclave of peaceful vampires that only seeked to to live and found it with a small village in the mountains. Vampires are considered myths, but the Detention Corps know they exist after dealing with several rogue vampires.

Elves on the other hand, not even Zeke knows what happened to his race. They all disappeared themselves around the start of Dragon War. They were only thought to be children's stories but Zeke himself is proof that they did once in fact exist. Question is, what happened to them.

Chapter 7

The Fairy Queen, the Flute, and the Reason why Ryu hates trains

So, until chapter seven, stay classy, Rouge Pizza out.