Laxus and the rest of Fairy Tail couldn't believe the news. This was really happening. Ivan had sent the news that the shield between the two countries had opened up. Cetus's Miresa was open to attack. Laxus couldn't believe it. Something had to be up.

Xenia looked up at her uncle. "So that's what Ziph meant when he said that he had a different mission. Cetus must have him scouting Fiore for any sign of weakness."

Laxus didn't know if the girl was right, but there had to be a good reason for all of this to be happening. They all knew that Cetus was preparing for a war. They just didn't know when he would strike. It seemed that now was the time. "Let us all head towards the council. We need to get as much information as we can." His father hadn't sent much. It must have been the only way that Ivan could get anything out of the council right now. All eyes and ears had to be on Miresa.

Laxus turned and looked down at his grandfather. "We need to inform the rest of the guilds in our alliance."

Makarov gave him an old smile. "I'll get that; you get to the council. We have to time to wait."

Laxus nodded as the rest of the guild began to move towards the door. Xenia cleared her throat. "I can get us there in no time."

Laxus now felt a little at ease. They didn't have to worry about a long train ride and discover that it was all just a false alarm. "Gather around. We will teleport there in a matter of seconds. I want Mira, Laki, and a couple of volunteers to stay here with Gramps." Some members of the guild made to stay behind without issue. With that Xenia's eyes changed and they disappeared, landing right outside of the council building.

Everyone seemed ready to head for the opening, but Laxus held them back. "We can't just go rushing in there. Gunner, tell them that we have arrived."

Gunner gave him a nod then started to make his way into the council building.

As soon as Gunner was in the building, the ground began to shake. That was odd, an Earthquake hadn't happened here in ages. Why now?

But as Laxus looked up at the sky, he found that he couldn't see anything. The sky was completely black, to the point that it was covering the stars. Laxus felt a little sick to his stomach. Cetus was already here.

Ivan came running out of the council building. And looked up. "Shit!" His father's eyes rested on him for a second. "Come and take cover. We don't know when the wave is going to come. This is only a warning."

Behind him in the group of people were Kitt and Edvin. They had only come to see Vik. They were a little happy to see Ivan, even if the situation was grim.

As the guild made their way inside of the council building, the grounds stopped its shaking and they were greeted by faces young and old. "Who are all of these people?" Kitt couldn't help but ask.

"We have no time for introductions." Corwall snapped. "I say we use an ethrion blast and destroy Miresa for good."

"He has a point. There are no survivors from what we know about." Arlinton said.

"But Vik and Lily came out of there. There is still a chance that there are innocent people running around." Carolta answered back.

"We can't risk Fiore on a maybe." Corwall argued.

"And your Ethrion blast worked so well the last time that you used it." Ivan argued. "If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't even be in this position right now."

"It would have if you Ravens had just stayed still." Corwall interjected.

Laxus felt angry. "So you expected them to stay put and die? That idiotic."

Corwall glared at him. "Who asked you?"

"Laxus is the guild master of Fairy Tail and my son, I will not have you disrespecting him." Ivan had gotten into Corwall's face.

Corwall turned green. "How many children did you and that other guy make?"

"I only have 2 with Remy. Laxus was from my previous marriage. And Remy and I didn't make any of our kids. You're king did that." Ivan snapped.

Corwall still looked disgusted. "To think that some lineages have fallen so low."

Nobody had any idea of what Corwall was talking about, but that didn't mean that Ivan was going to let him off with that remark. Ivan gave the old man a punch in the gut. He didn't care how old the man was. He had just insulted his family.

Corwall laughed from the floor. "I knew that I shouldn't have touched her. But a bet was a bet."

"Just shut up, you old coot. No one wants to hear your blathering." Warner said. "Can we just get back to business then?"

The King nodded. "Right. We need to come up with a plan. There has to be some way to hold off Cetus's army."

The room filled again as Remy, Vik, and Arma returned. Kitt and Edvin couldn't believe their eyes as they looked at him. He looked so different. Where once there was a bright, confident man, there was a dark, twisted looking one. They could tell that he had been through a lot.

Vik didn't even notice them though. He was on a mission and he needed to find out if what he had found was still viable. "Can we have this pendent checked?"

"Why do we need to waste our time with a pendent? We have a war to focus on." Corwall said angrily. Many others were confused, but he didn't say anything. The comment seemed so random. Even Remy looked confused. Vik hadn't explained any of this to his father.

Arma took the pendent from Vik. "We need the magical properties of this looked at."

Vik nodded. "A long time ago, the mother of Perseus gave his to her Cetus, back when his name was Cepheus. It was deemed to be a holy object after her death so Cetus couldn't touch something from the woman he loved." Everyone was still staring at him, wondering when he was going to get to the point. "That is because the hag that met Cepheus all of those years, stored was left of his soul into his pendent. Everything that made him human is stored in here, but that is not all."

Arma gave him a smile. "It was not the non-magic folk of Miresa that killed Cassiopeia. It was the hag that started all of his in the first place."

Everyone was looking at the two of them as if they were speaking a foreign language. Vik nodded at Arma. "Exactly. The hag wanted all of this to happen, but to this day, I have no idea why. She planned for Cetus to do all of his, but there has never been a reason given. She couldn't have done it all for shits and giggles."

"So Perseus has no more answers for us." The King said.

"There are still bits and pieces of things I don't understand. I know that Perseus sealed Cetus in the underground lake and I know that he used this to make the seal. The question is how was the seal really broken. I doubt that Bickslow could have just broken it at will. Either Cetus was working on it for thousands of years or someone else was trying to set him free." Vik stated.

"What about the hag?" Laxus asked. Everyone wondered how he had to be getting this. For the rest of them it was all a jumble of words and names.

"That's a good question. For all we know, she could have been around just to mess with Cetus, she did create him after all." Arma said.

"The thing is if Cetus can be placed in this pendent, then it will remove him from the body he is in. That's what happened last time." Vik stated.

Ivan and Remy froze. Did that mean that they could hope again? That Bickslow would be returned to them again?

Vik seemed to noticed. "I don't know what the effects are though. The process could end up killing Bickslow."

Xenia, who had been sitting off to the side, heard those words. She knew what would happen if her father died. Her mother would also die. Not only that, she knew that his death would kill her grandparents, especially Grandpa Remy. They may have just gotten one of their children back, but that didn't mean that another blow wouldn't crush them. Xenia stood up, she needed time to think.

Vik stared at the King. "If this object still has Cetus's human soul in it, we can find a way to remove it and maybe we can kill him that way. There wasn't the technology back then for it, so Cetus had to be sealed away. If we are able to use your soul tech, we may be able to extract it. If it is still in there."

"There is still a chance that his soul escaped a long time ago and has now been reincarnated. If that is the case, then we will need to find where it went." The King stated.

"Then what do we do then? We can't just kill an innocent person." Ivan said.

"We may not have a choice." Vik answered.

Xenia ran outside and under the tree out front. She wasn't even thinking about it. She just needed to be alone.

"I thought you wanted to be with that boy." She tensed up as Ziph stood behind her.

She glared at him. "I thought you had a mission from your father!"

He smirked at her. "I do, but I can't find what he wants."

She looked at him in confusion. "He wants something?"

"He's looking for a woman." Ziph said with a sly smile. "Do you know who he could be looking for?"

She wondered if he could be looking for her mother for a second, then remembered that Cetus wanted nothing to do with her mother. Had Ziph talked to her father? "What do you mean?"

"He said that he needed her now. I just don't understand what he was looking for. He even made the mistake of thinking I was a girl." Ziph said, giving her a bewildered look.

She couldn't believe it. Could it be true? Could her father be asking for them? Did he push past Cetus? "Did he say anything about someone named Lisanna?"

Ziph smirked. "You're so easy, Xenia. I could have told you that the moon was falling from the sky and you would believe me."

Xenia felt her eyes start to tear up. "You are the worst, you know that! Do what it's like to have your family ripped apart! Oh wait a minute, you don't know!"

Ziph glared at her. "You know nothing."

"Oh, I don't know anything. Says the boy that runs around like he owns everything. You don't even know what hardship is." Xenia snapped at him.

Ziph growled then pinned her to the tree. "That's right, you know nothing about me. You didn't have to grow up and have to deal with your father's impossible expectations."

Even though she was stuck against the tree, she didn't let up. "At least you have a father. Mine was stolen from me by yours."

"At least you still have a mom." Ziph snapped.

She suddenly froze up. "You lost your mother."

He nodded. "She's dead."

"I'm sorry."

Ziph let go of her. "I don't need your sympathy."

She walked over to him, but he seemed to move away. "Then why did you bring her up?"

Ziph looked at her. "Because you said I haven't had any hardship. Father believes that she will come back."

"Come back?" Xenia said in confusion.

"From what he said, her soul came back to him after a thousand years. At least that's what he thinks." Ziph said.

Xenia pondered what Ziph was talking saying. "Is he talking about Cassiopeia?"

Ziph turned to look at her in shock. "My father would occasionally call my mother that."

"Do you think that she really isn't Cassiopeia then?" Xenia wondered if that was the case. If that was true, then Cetus wouldn't be a happy camper.

"Who knows. I try not to think about that." Ziph said.

She put her hand on his shoulder. She knew that she needed to get away from him, but she couldn't get herself to move away. "Why?"

He looked down at her. "Because then I wouldn't be the prince of Miresa. Not that that matters anyway. I will never rule."

"Why wouldn't you be the ruler?" She asked.

He gave her a look. "Xenia, my dad is immortal. He's not going to just roll over and die."

She almost laughed. "I know, but that doesn't mean that he will be in power forever."

"But I don't want him to die." Ziph said.

She gave him a sad smile. "But that is the natural order of things. Everything lives and everything dies."

"Not went you're a demon." Ziph smirked.

She frowned. "And I thought we were finally getting along."

Ziph continued to smirk at her, but then without warning his eyes flashed yellow and they were in a place that she had never seen before.

"Where did you take me?!" She snapped at him.

"I just wanted to show you something. Trust me, you'll like it." Ziph said taking her hand.

She pondered what he had up his sleeve, but let herself be led away. "Just tell me where we are."

"This is the coast of Miresa." Ziph said.

She almost froze. He had brought her to his home. This wasn't safe. "What if your father catches us?"

"Don't worry about it. He's far too distracted." Ziph laughed.

They got to some strange lookout and began climbing up. She wondered how old this thing was. It had to be ancient. But there was another strange feeling. It was like she had been here before. Only it was a long time ago.

Once they reached the top, he gave her a smile and led her to the ledge. "See what I mean."

She couldn't help but smile. It truly was beautiful. She looked up at the sky and froze, why did this scenario feel so familiar? "I don't know why, but I feel like I've been here before."

Ziph gave her a confused look. "Really? I don't think that your parents would have brought you here as a baby."

She giggled. "No, I don't think that's it."

Ziph gave her a smile and it was strange. It was almost as if she was looking at someone else, but at the same time, it was the same person. "Then what is it?"

Xenia didn't know what she was doing as she began to lean into him. Ziph leaned down into her and their lips met in the middle. His kiss was more intense this time and her lips were frantic. Something about it was so gratifying. Xenia knew that this was wrong, but she couldn't stop herself. She knew what she wanted, even if this was the enemy.

Gunner wouldn't like this, but she had never pledged herself to him. They were just friends that happened to kiss and while it felt good. It paled in comparison to the kiss she was getting now.

As Ziph's lips freed themselves from her own, she let out a whimper of loss. "Stay with me."

She wanted to shake her head. She wanted to say no desperately, but at the same time she didn't want to leave his side. "I don't know."

He gave her another kiss. "Just for now, you can go back to Fiore in the morning." He teleported her to what looked like bed room in the palace.

She didn't know what to think. "But what about your father? If I'm discovered…"

"He's not here. We are all alone." Ziph said into her ear.

Xenia felt nervous for a second before sitting down on the side of the bed. "We can't do this Ziph." Again, everything felt familiar even if the room was different.

"We don't have to do anything. I just don't want to be alone right now." He slid up on the bed and made to lay on his side.

She didn't know why but she ended up moving so she was next to him. His hand reached out and he began to touch the side of his face. Her mind felt like it was starting to fog up as she looked at him. "Cepheus."

"Cassiopeia." He said leaning into her and kissing her again.

Her mind was so foggy as she felt his hands on her, but soon she was doing the same thing. She couldn't stop herself. Even after the fog had disappeared, she still wanted more.

Ziph stopped what he was doing. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." His voice was at a whisper.

"I…" She was looking into his eyes. "Ziph…" She leaned forward and kissed him again. "Please…" He read her expression and seemed at odds with himself, he looked like he was going to argue, but she stopped him. After that moment, she felt almost complete. "I need you."

With that he leaned in and kissed her again, before rolling on top of her. "Are you sure?"

She grabbed the sides of his face and looked up at him. "Yes."

To Be Continued…