Yo! Um, sorry for the late update, I have actually been trying to write this chapter for quite some time, but I got a little stuck on it and all, but I finally finished it and can put it up so you lovely readers can enjoy it! In the next chapter there will be more appearances of Death Bringer assassins and maybe a fight will issue? Who knows? Future me knows, but we can only tell until future me updates, and lets just hope for the sake of all of our sanity that it's soon. Thanks for those who favorited, followed, and reviewed! It made my day! Please leave a review and favorite! Farewell and Enjoy!

-let there be midnight

ME NO OWN FAIRY TAIL

Woody

The tiny little house was crowded with varies knickknacks, wind chimes, animal statues, candles, and plushies. The place smelled of strong incense with scented candles which was enough to give anybody a headache as they walked through the house trying not to knock anything over as Vella led them through doorways with beads hanging down. Lucy managed to somehow get tangled up in one, but with the help of Erza, she managed to get untangled and only break one statue.

Finally they entered a room where a hippie-like man sat in the middle smoking a long pipe and entertaining himself by making smoke-y images. He had long tangly white-blonde hair with bangs cut right above his eyebrow and some type of flower headband wrapped around his head. An earth green wooly blanket was draped around his shoulders even though the house was very stuffy and hot, but it didn't seem to affect him in any way even though he wore long sleeves and wooly looking pants.

"Woody," Vella said, the hippie guy not looking up. Natsu stuck more to the back, leaning against the door frame and watching with half lidded eyes and his cloak drown close to his body. Woody continued with making his different smoke shapes, not acknowledging his visitors even as Gajeel broke one of his wind chimes and Gray accidently caused a mountain of plushies to fall when he just took one from the pile. "Your assistance is required." Vella said, hoping to gain some reaction from the mid-twenties man. Sighing a little, she put a hand on her jutted out hip as she narrowed her eyes in slight annoyance. "We need your help against Death Bringer, and King." Woody slowly brought down his pipe and looked over towards Vella with sharp emerald eyes. The side of his face that was hidden by the view of the Fairy Tail mages, exiled assassin and current assassin was brought into view. A long jagged scar of an odd image consisting of a circle and a few jagged lines in the middle was located on his right cheek right below his eye and reached to the bottom of his nose. There were a few burn scars around the white scar making the Fairy Tail mages shiver at the sight.

"Go on," Woody said with a slight drawl, bringing his pipe back to his lips to continue to smoke and make smoke images.

"I have an old friend here trying to escape, but he's an… huh… valuable package you can say to King. He has a friend that the King has taken and will most likely kill in an attempt to get ahold of him. Plus, this might be our big chance to figure out what King's secret motives are and shut down Death Bringer." Vella said, crossing her arms. Woody looked away, tapping his pipe against one of his knees before he looked back over to Vella and nodded towards Natsu.

"That's your friend in the way back? Mister Dark Gloomy?" he asked. Vella cracked a smile and nodded.

"Natsu Dragneel. Fire Dragon Slayer and currently an angst-y teen with a cat complex." she said, ignoring the half-hearted glare Natsu sent her way. Woody nodded thoughtfully, looking away.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, bringing his pipe to his lips.

"To help us find a way past King's rune's barrier without getting detected. Also I have a little curse on me from a witch that causes me only to defend myself and not able to be on the offense. It'll be great if you can knock that one down, too, but focus mainly on the rune barrier if you can." Vella said as Woody stood up slowly with his pipe dangling in-between his lips. His wooly blanket managed to balance on his shoulders and not drop to the ground, to the slight surprise of the Fairy Tail mages. He looked towards Natsu and gestured for the teen to sit down on an old granny plush chair. Hesitantly, Natsu went over and sat down only for Woody to block his view as his emerald eyes glanced down at him.

"I don't want you to flip out at me and most likely slit my throat in the process, so I'll put a spell on you that essentially makes you paralyzed until I say so." Woody warned. Natsu's eyes went wide in a small show of alarm and before he could lash out, Woody closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath, Natsu's body going slack and head falling to the back of the chair. The others watched curiously as Woody removed Natsu's cloak and let it fall into a pile on the floor shortly followed by his shirt, leaving his bare chest naked to the world.

Lucy couldn't help but gasp as her hands flew to her mouth, shocked at the many white scars that crisscrossed the teen's chest and stomach, some looking like they were trying to spell out words but became distorted. The only ones that didn't look shocked to see them were Woody and Vella who acted as if it was nothing new, because to them, it probably wasn't.

Woody went over to one of the tables beside him and started putting what seemed to be random things in a bowl, crushing them up and then mixing them together until they made a darkish red mixture.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked tentatively, not knowing if they should intervene or not. Woody didn't even glance up as he put his fingers in the mixture, swirling it around and dumping it on Natsu's chest, drawing weird forms and circles on the bare skin.

"Making it where you can get through the runes undetected." Woody drawled, saying it like it was obvious. "It's not exactly magic, but it can be seen as some form of it." he started to explain. "It was created to work against rune magic of any type, but soon it became somewhat of a lost magic so barely anyone knows about it." He finished drawing on Natsu's chest, ignoring the harsh glare the teen was giving him as he put down the bowl and started to make another concoction. "If done right, the rune cannot detect you: body, smell, heat, it's as if you're not even there. It also works against trace magic, too." This concoction came out looking completely black, Woody wiping some on his fingers and swiping it on Natsu's cheeks, nose, chin, and forehead into tinier symbols.

"So all you do is… make it?" Gray asked uncertainly. Woody put down his bowl.

"Nope, but it's said to be a painful procedure once you actually start working the magic. I have no idea since I've never had it done on me." He took a step back and closed his eyes, muttering words under his breath that the group couldn't understand.

The marks on Natsu's started to glow on him, spreading out to cover his body. His eyes expressed the pain he was feeling, but couldn't express as the magic worked its way, covering him from head to toe and sinking into his skin until it looked like he never had anything on him to start out with.

The glowing light died out as did the chanting, Natsu's eyes drooping to a close as if all the energy had been sucked out of him. Woody opened his emerald hues, muttered something under his breath and turned to the group.

"Who's next?"

"Are you positive we're now able to get past the runes?" Gray asked as he rolled his left shoulder, his body still slightly aching from the weird magic ritual or whatever that was that Woody preformed on him. Natsu stood behind him with his shirt and cloak back on, the hood of his cloak drawn over his head, hiding his pink hair and shadowing his face as he slumped against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

Vella smiled, standing with a hand on her hip.

"It's worked before, that much I can say." she told him, Woody nodding his head as he sat down in the middle of the room where they had found him, sitting with his crossed legs and looking like he never got up, wooly blanket still draped over his shoulders, having not fallen off during the whole time that they were there.

"It'll only work for about five hours or so," he told them, eyes looking out the window in front of him, past all the wind chimes and animal statues. "After it wears off your magic level will be depleted and you'll need to sleep for another five hours just to get back to your top shape. That's one of the reasons why it's a lost 'magic'." Woody explained. Natsu pushed off the wall and turned around, about to walk away. He glanced over his shoulder at the group behind him, his eyes managing to be seen through the darkness of the hood and relaying his impatience to get a move on.

"Thanks Woody, and extra thanks for getting rid of that retched curse." Vella said as she, too, turned around, throwing a small wave over her shoulder. Woody didn't reply, but nodded his head silently.

Once everyone was out of the room and the house, Woody opened his eyes and looked out the window, silently watching as they walked past it.

"So, Uncle Iumi," Woody drawled out lazily. "What's next?" A small lacrima flickered on behind Woody, showing the face of the middle aged man with a yellowish cloak, hood drawn over his head..

"Wait and see how things play out." Iumi said in a gruff tone, lips pursing under the shadows of his cloak. "But lord help those children, because only God knows that they need it." Woody cracked a humorless smile and nodded his head.

"Got that right, Uncle Iumi." The lacrima flickered out and Woody closed his eyes again to the sounds of his many wind chimes.