Fairy Tail has prevailed after defeating the wannabe guild, Panther Growl. Ichigo was able to defeat Grimmjow and his friends were able to beat the others. The four of them came limping out of the giant and Grimmjow laid on the ground in defeat. Ichigo jumped down from the giant and Erza walked up to him. She seemed to be back at one-hundred percent and everyone were checking to see if everyone was safe.

"Lucy, are you alright?" Natsu asked.

"Orihime and I are thanks to Ichigo." Lucy said.

"Excellent work." Erza said.

"Thanks, but we still have something to take care of." Ichigo said as they both looked at Grimmjow. The time came for answers.

"Darrien"

"I can't believe this. I can't be beaten." Grimmjow moaned.

"You just have been." Grimmjow looked and saw a few members from Fairy Tail gather around with Ichigo and Erza upfront.

"If you're forcing me to leave, don't worry. I'll be going." Grimmjow said as he tried to get up.

"We've got questions and you better give us answers. If not, you will pay for attacking our beloved guild hall and the punishment is death."

"Death?! Don't you think that's overkill?" Grimmjow said as he was beginning to see what made Erza scary.

"We still need to know why you did all of this." Ichigo said. "Why were you after Lucy and Orihime? You better tell us what we need to know."

"We were paid for it." Grimmjow said and that caught their interest. "We're not an official guild, but we need money. So some guy named Darrien promised to pay us a fortune if we kidnap that Lucy girl."

"Darrien?!" Lcuy said and Natsu looked mad.

"What's up, Mom? Do you know him?" Nagato asked, but Lucy didn't really answered.

"But that still doesn't explain why you were after Orihime." Ichigo said.

"Same reason, but a different guy." Grimmjow said. "This guy was different. He didn't even give us his name, but he made us an offer we couldn't refuse." He thought back to him and his crew out in the woods when this mysterious man made that offer.

"I assure you that money is no problem. Name any price you like and it's yours."

"In fact he was the one who gave us this giant." Grimmjow said. "When he told us we could find both women in the same guild, we thought we could kill two birds with one stone."

"Orihime, do you have any idea who this man might be?" Erza asked.

"No. I don't know anyone who could be like that." Orihime said.

"How strange." Lucy said.

"Well, I think that should answer all our questions. If that's all you know, you will leave at once." Erza ordered to Grimmjow.

"We are." Grimmjow said as he got back up and started to walk away.

"Hold on." Ichigo said.

"What do you want now? I already told you everything I know." Grimmjow said.

"I just want to know where you learned spirit slayer magic." Ichigo said. "It is considered a lost magic. You're the only person I met that uses the same kind of magic as me."

"To be honest, I don't know." Grimmjow said. "I was out on my own in the wild for a long time. When I was struggling to survive, it all just came to me."

"Ichigo, did something like that happen to you?" Orihime asked.

"Something like that, but I don't want to talk about it." Ichigo said and turned back to Grimmjow. "You wouldn't happen to know if there are any other spirit slayers."

"I have heard rumors about one more. I think her name is Nel or something like that. She's part of the Blue Pegasus guild." Grimmjow said.

"Blue Pegasus? That guild is one of our comrades." Ichigo said. "Thanks. Now, get out of here. Oh and if you hear anything about other spirit slayers, let me know."

"What? Why would I ever do that?" Grimmjow said.

"We're both spirit slayers." Ichigo said thinking that they should watch each other's back since they are a rare kind of wizard. Grimmjow thought otherwise.

"Screw you. Next time I get my hands on you, I'll tear you apart." Grimmjow said and even gave him a thumbs down.

"What am I thinking? Why would I want to help a jerk like you? Just get out of here." Ichigo said.

"We're going." Grimmjow said as he gathered his four buddies and left the guild and brought upon another victory in Fairy Tail history.

…

Orihime

'It's been about a week since Panther Growl was beaten.' Orihime narrated. 'However, we've suffer many injuries. Wendy is doing her best. I offered to help, but she said I should relax since I have some injuries myself.' Right now, Orihime was in her apartment, but flinched from all the pain she was.

"Ow. These bruises are really painful." Orihime said as she looked at the ones on her stomach.

'I can't help, but wonder what's going on with Lucy. She seemed to have known something about the person that hired Grimmjow that kidnapped her.' Orihime narrated.

…

Lucy

Just a couple hours ago, Lucy was doing some of her writing, but her mind was distracted. She kept thinking about this Darrien person that had Grimmjow attack Fairy Tail. Nagato was walking up behind her to see if she was alright.

"Mom, are you alright? You've been pretty quiet lately." Nagato said.

"Nagato, I need you to come with me. I might need your help with something." Lucy said.

"Of course." Nagato said.

…

Orihime

'I'm just glad it's all over. I hated to see my friends get hurt and I hated it much more knowing I was the reason.' Orihime narrated. She was cut out of her thoughts when she heard a knock at her door. She got it open and saw Ichigo and Rukia, who had a few bandages around herself.

"Hey, Orihime. We came to check on you." Rukia said.

"We brought a first aid kid for your injuries." Ichigo said as he held it up.

"Thanks. Come on in." Orihime said. They got settled in and Rukia helped with the bandages. "Thank you for doing this. You didn't have to trouble yourselves with it."

"We wanted to since we were worried about you." Ichigo said.

"You should really thank Uryu. He knows a little bit himself in the medical field." Rukia said. "So what do you think was going on? I was told a couple guys hired Panther Growl to attack us."

"The only name we got is Darrien. Anyone got a clue as to who he is?" Ichigo said. No one got the chance to answer as they heard shouting.

"Dad, slow down. We can't run as fast as you."

"Natsu, wait." All three of them looked out the window and saw Natsu with Happy, Lilly, and Igneel and he didn't look happy.

"Hold up." Ichigo said as he and girls ran out and cut him off.

"What's the problem?" Rukia said.

"Lucy and Nagato are gone. She left a note saying she was going to see Darrien." Natsu said.

"So she does know who he is." Rukia said.

"If he does anything with my wife, I'll tear him apart." Natsu said and continued running.

"Dad!" Lilly complained.

"Wait, we'll come with you." Ichigo said as they went after him. They wanted to know what the deal was with this guy as well.

…

Lucy

Lucy and Nagato got on a train and were heading to meet with this Darrien. Lucy couldn't stop thinking about him.

'I haven't seen him in years. I wonder why he would appear all of a sudden.' Lucy thought.

"Mom." Nagato moaned for her to look at him and he looked like he was in so much pain and all pale. That's a weakness with all dragon slayers. Unless it's an animal, they can't really ride anything. "How much longer until we get there? I'm dying."

"Just hang in there. After the next stop, the rest of the way is on foot." Lucy said. The horrible train ride for Nagato came to an end and they were making the rest of their way on foot. It took them a couple miles, but they came across a mansion. "We're here. This is the Mataro residence."

"This guy lives here?! He must be loaded!" Nagato said. "So are you ever going to tell me what the deal is with this guy? How do you know him?"

"Well, it's a little complicated." Lucy said. "Let's just say that before I married your father….I was about to marry him."

"WHAT?!" That was a complete surprise. Both of them made it to the front door and Lucy gave a couple knocks before a butler opened the door.

"Can I help you?" The butler asked.

"Hi. We're here to see Darrien. My name is Lucy. He would know who I am."

"Yes, I know who you are. He's been expecting you for some time." The butler said and allowed them in. The master of this household was in his office with his desk in front of a large window. Darrien seemed older than Lucy with black hair and in a power suit. He was doing paperwork when he heard an intercom go off. "Excuse me sir, but Lucy Heartfilia is here."

"Thank you. Please send her in." Darrien answered. The doors opened up and Lucy and Nagato walked in. "Lucy! Wait, who is this? He looks just like that dragon slayer."

"He should since he's the father. This is my son, Nagato." Lucy said. "It has been over seventeen years since we last saw each other. I thought you should know that your attempt to get me to leave Fairy Tail has failed."

"Attempt?" Darrien questioned.

"Don't play dumb. We know that you sent that guild wannabe to kidnap my mother." Nagato said.

"I knew I should have gone professional. I thought a spirit slayer would have gotten the job done." Darrien whispered.

"I heard that." Nagato said.

"I can't believe you would stoop that low, Darrien." Lucy said. "You know how much Fairy Tail means to me. What made you decide to come out after all these years?"

"I've tried to forget about you, but I can't." Darrien said. "I just simply refuse to understand. You were such a high positioned young lady, Lucy. Then, you gave it all away for some guild. People like us shouldn't mix with people like that."

"I feel like I had this same conversation with my father." Lucy said.

"What's more is that you decide to be married to that beast of a man that causes nothing, but trouble." Darrien said.

"Hey, that's my Dad you're talking about." Nagato said. "He's a great man and a great father. You better watch what you say about him or else you're going to get a fiery fist to the face."

"Hush boy, the grownups are talking." Darrien said.

"I want to hurt him. Can I hurt him? Cause I want to hurt him." Nagato said, but Lucy held her arm out to stop him.

"You wouldn't understand, Darrien." Lucy said. "You and I would have talked about this, but you went too far. You hurt people I care about."

"I did it all for you, Lucy. I can give you everything you could ever want." Darrien said. "Why would you want to stay with that fire breathing freak?" When he said that, Lucy slapped him across the face.

"That's one of the reasons. Those people are who I consider family and I love Natsu more than anything." Lucy said. "I'm actually happy and I won't let you ruin it. If you ever attack the people I care about again, you'll be sorry."

"Mom!" Nagato said with amazement. He's never seen her like this.

"Holding onto the pass isn't good for you. You need to let go and move on Darrien." Lucy said. "This is your last warning. If you ever attack Fairy Tail again, we'll bring you down like any other enemy. When you've accepted what happen, let me know." Darrien didn't know what to say. With that said and done, Lucy took Nagato and decided to leave.

"Wow, Mom. I've never seen you like that before. So why did you need me?" Nagato said.

"I thought Darrien wouldn't let me go so easily." Lucy said. "I also thought he could see how happy I am that I have a handsome and strong son."

"Mom, you're embarrassing me." Nagato said with his face turning a little red.

"Lucy!" Both of them looked ahead and saw their family with Ichigo, Rukia, and Orihime.

"What are you guys doing here?" Nagato said.

"Dad freaked out and came here as fast as he could." Igneel said.

"Since this is the guy that hired Grimmjow, we thought we come to lend a hand." Rukia said.

"Is everything okay?" Orihime said.

"Yeah. We took care of it." Lucy said.

"Well, I'm going to go up there and give this guy a piece of my mind." Natsu said as he was ready to storm inside, but Lucy held him back.

"It's fine. I think he got the message. Let's just go home." Lucy said.

"Oh man. We came all this way for nothing." Lilly complained. All of them got walking with Lucy having her arms around Natsu and started walking with her head on his shoulder.

"So are you ever going to tell us what went on between you and this Darrien?" Ichigo asked.

"I think that's a story for another time." Lucy said. As they were leaving, Darrien looked out the window and saw the people Lucy cared about, her own children, and how happy she seemed with Natsu. After a little while, he got to work on a letter.

Dear Lucy,

I know you probably don't want to hear from me, but at least let me explain why I did what I did. As you know, I was deeply in love with you. The reason I sent those people to attack your guild was because I was desperate to see you again and make you mine. I tried to move on, but I couldn't. Seeing you with that Dragon Slayer hurt because I thought you deserved something better. I never understood why you gave up the life you had, but I think I'm starting to. You wanted happiness and you found that in the guild. You found love and were able to have children of your own and I have no right to take that from you. I've heard stories about Natsu Dragneel and I didn't see why you would want to be with him. I saw him as an actual dragon and you were a trapped princess and I would be the knight in shining armor to save you. I see now I was wrong. I'm not asking for your hand in friendship, but I do hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Sincerely, Darrien Mataro.

Eventually, Lucy got that letter and she did.

…

Orihime: Ichigo, how much do you know about Suegaps?

Ichigo: Not much.

Orihime: Then, why do you think he's been acting so weird?

Ichigo: I don't know. Maybe he's hiding something.

Orihime/Ichigo: Next Time: Legend Horse

Orihime: Something also seems to be going on with Lilly.