Chapter 51: A Year's Difference

A/N: Hello there! First, shout out time! Today we have darkabys and EliXY following the story, new favoriters in EliXY and PalaDude234, and a review (Finally!) from sashaXmafuyuFOREVER! So I'm not sure when this will be posted as I am extremely busy and cannot devote all my time to this, so blame school not me. I hope you guys get excited because the next chapter is the beginning of the end, the beginning of the rematches! I'm so excited! I hope you guys are too, now onto the montage chapter! Warning! SPOILER VIA THE MANGA, WILL BE DENOTED BY **! ENJOY!

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The Same Day (Laxus POV)

I walked into the guild and look around, seeing just how empty it looked, matching the mood of the guild. 'Damn, who would have thought that three people leaving would change so much...'

I walk over to Mira and ask her, "Why is everyone so down?"

She looks at me and sighs, and says, "Have you read the morning paper?" I shake my head and look at her confused, so she hands me the paper and says, "I'd read that in your office."

I looked at her and was now even more confused but did as she suggested and went to my office and sat down. Just as I did Olive came in and sat down next to me, pulling up a chair and asked me, "What's up with everyone? They look like they saw a puppy get bisected and eaten in front of them."

"Ok, one, are you pregnant again because your only that weird when your pregnant, and two I'm not sure. Mira said it has something to do with the morning paper." I said and opened it up and immediately saw the headline article.

'The Black Mage is Dead! Yes people of Fiore, rejoice! The infamous dark mage, Zeref, is now officially dead! And the saviors of Fiore is known as well: the independent mage group called Ronin is to thanks!'

I stopped reading and looked at Olive and her expression said everything, 'Is this thing for real? Did Natsu and Lucy actually kill Zeref?' I kept reading aloud, and saw Freed who had shown up later than usual walk in after hearing what I said.

'There leader, Natsu Dragneel is believed to be the one that actually finished the job, but the group also defeated all of Zeref's demons by themselves, all ten of them. Now before we had been told that Natsu Dragneel was the second coming of Zeref, a menace to all of Fiore and the world at large, but this is not the case. In fact, as it turns out, he was in cahoots with the council the whole time and has been pardoned of all crimes, including the murder of his former fellow guild members, Lisanna Strauss and Makarov Dreyar of Fairy Tail. The killings were waved off as, necessary losses as both were corrupt individuals who impeded the progress of justice.'

"WHAT?! THOSE BASTARDS! FREED GET OUR STRONGEST MAGES READY WE'RE GOING TO ERA AND KILLING THIS COUNCIL!" I yelled and threw the paper up in the air, needing to be restrained by Freed's runes before I did something really stupid.

Freed held me in place as Bickslow came in, bursting through the doors holding a letter. It had the magic council seal and I took it, after Freed released me from his runes, and read it aloud, 'To all guild mages, this article posted in today's paper is all true except for the part of us working with Natsu. We used his success against Zeref as a chance to gain publicity for being part of the solution for Zeref, do not lose heart nor believe this article. That is all.'

I relaxed now, knowing it was all a publicity stunt, but was still mad at them for sullying the Dreyar name. I picked up the paper's pages and found the last little piece of the article and read it aloud.

'The council declined to comment on the specifics of Dragneel's mission as it is classified, but do say that they have nothing but thanks for the Ronin. However, there is still one thing that must happen, the rematch of them and Fariy Tail and their allies in the guild coalition, which will take place in a little less than a year. The rematch will be a closed and private event, and the location is unknown but we all know that this time around it will be much closer as Laxus Dreyar and Jura Neekis have assured the council that in one year they will be strong enough to win. All that we can do is wait now, so stay tuned for the latest in this developing story.'

I finished reading and sat back down, sighing deeply as I looked everyone gathered seeing there look of concern on their faces. "Freed, go and find Erza and Jellal, we need to talk about some things, and Bickslow, go and make sure everyone in this guild sees that letter and knows to keep quiet about it. Olive, you can stay as I will need your help with scheduling." I said and put some monthly calendars out along with some pens on my desk, throwing some paperwork aside.

"Scheduling what?" Olive asked as Freed and Bickslow ran off like the obedient followers they had always been, doing the tasks they had been assigned.

"Scheduling the guild wide training regiment, we need to be ready and need to win. The council may not believe in us, like the paper said, but that will just be our motivation. Now come over here and help me decide just how often I can schedule training that won't interrupt everyone's need to do missions so they can have money to survive." I said and Olive looked at me, pleasant surprise on her face at how serious I was taking my job as master and how dedicated I sounded to achieve victory over Natsu. 'And just how badly I want to win as well.' I thought to myself as Erza and Jellal came in and I ushered them to where we were, hunched over the calendars trying to figure all of this out.

Two Months Later (Erza POV)

I charge at the numerous people in front of me and requip into my new armor, yelling, "Heaven's Wheeled Spike!" and two wheel like swords appear, blades adorning every inch of it. I spun the one in my right hand and pressed a button, the button caused a blade to shoot out and strike one enemy in the heart. Then I used the one in my left hand like a shuriken and threw it at two enemies who were dead ahead of me, and held onto a string that was coming from it. When they both side stepped to avoid the wheel sword, I pulled the string and two blades popped out from it, plunging into their abdomens. The wheel sword comes back to me since I had pulled it's string and not a moment too soon as two enemies came at from both sides. I swung upwards with the swords and, as they are still swords, cut open a massive gash starting at their navel and ending at their chin, finishing off the group of enemies.

"Damn it Erza! Those were my favorite life like babies! They were expensive too!" Bickslow yelled as he and Laxus walked forward from where they had been watching, evaluating my progress.

**SPOILERS VIA MANGA, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK UNLEES YOU READ THE LATEST CHAPTERS!**

I sighed and looked at them, seeing that both were pleased with the progress I had made in such a short amount of time. Then it hit me and suddenly I was blind again, could not hear again, could not smell again, could not feel again, I couldn't even taste the sweat dripping down my face. "Guys help! It's happening again!" I yelled and Jellal who had been walking over started running over knowing what was wrong with me, like everyone who was around for Tartarus did.

"Erza sit down and relax, just take deep breaths and relax, it will pass. I'm here, don't worry it will pass." Jellal said soothingly and I calmed, knowing he was right.

'Damn that Kyouka and those demons, but especially her! She destroyed my five senses temporarily and now it's a thing! I have to find a way to control this thing or I will be useless in the battles. Although, it is the first time in a week so that is a positive.' Then as if a switch was turned on in my brain, I regained my five senses and looked at Jellal, and said, "It's ok now sweety, I can see again. Laxus, other than my little episode, how was that?"

** SPOILER OVER**

"Tch, it was alright, all you did was beat up on inanimate objects, nothing to gloat or write home about." He said and I sighed, 'He's right. I need to find a big long job that has a lot of enemies to fight, and high level enemies too. I need to stay sharper than sharp.' Then I realized he wasn't done talking and was waiting for me to look at him, asking, "Can you hear me?" I nodded my head and stood up, looking him in the eye now, "Ok, well before you started day dreaming, I was about to tell you that I have the perfect opportunity to change the enemy a bit, a chance to fight real enemies. There has been mumblings of an old enemy rising up again: Eisenwald. I want these rumors checked out now, and if you and Jellal run into any trouble, terminate the trouble. Understood?"

I thought I was dreaming, a chance to fight and to kick someone's ass who annoyed me? Perfect. Then I was brought back into the reality we live in by Freed running towards us, holding a poster in his hands. "Guys, you need to see this."

He put the paper between all of us and we read it and groaned loudly, knowing that we shouldn't have let him leave. The poster said, 'Missing: Juvia Fullbuster-Lockser. Last seen two and a half months ago in Magnolia, looks like the woman in the picture and has blue hair with blue eyes, and a guild mark on her left thigh. If you have seen her, please contact Gray Fullbuster, her husband on lacrima frequency…'

"God damn it. I knew he was too much of a mess to let go alone! Freed call him and find out where he is, knowing him he's probably in jail for public nudity. Then send someone to him and make sure he or she stays with him from then until a year later when he comes back. Erza get ready and go your mission is still a go. Bickslow see if Gajeel is near to him and have him and his family travel with Gray." I could tell something was different about Laxus now, he sounded like master Makarov did when he was alive.

I nodded to him and turned to leave, needing to pack and get ready. I smiled the whole way home, finally feeling ready to let go everything that had happened, 'Fairy Tail finally has a new master, and his name is Laxus. He really has grown up to be a true Dreyar, I feel like things are looking up finally.'

One Month Later (Laxus POV)

I was breathing heavily, as was Jura who had come to visit and then of course to spar. We were both getting stronger, but his back was beginning to hold him back as was his age, he was becoming like Gildarts. 'Strong yes, but old and slower than before. His back is really slowing him down, I'm not sure my plan of him taking Lucy and me Natsu would work anymore, he's getting so slow.'

"Hey Jura, I think that's good for now. Come on, I think dinner should be ready." I said and he nodded, and we walked out of the room and up the stairs to my office and I shut the door behind us to the new training room. The room that originally held Lumen Historie, the room of my greatest failure as master.

"Hey Laxus-dono, what was in there before? I sense a lot of strange things were in there before and it creeps me out." Jura asked and I flinched at the question, not knowing how to answer that.

"Just tell him Laxus, it's ok. He can know since Natsu used it to help kill Zeref, he wouldn't be able to use it now." Mavis said and I stiffened even more, not sure how to proceed.

Luckily, I was saved by Freed who came in and saw how tense I was and how curious Jura looked. "Umm, am I interrupting something?"

"No what is it?" I asked quickly, changing the subject so I could no longer have to squirm around.

Freed looked at me and nodded, turning towards me and saying, "Well, we have received word from Erza, she has successfully completed her mission and her and Jellal are making their way home. And there was an article on her in this morning's paper, here."

He handed me the paper and I looked at it, seeing it was already open to the article I read aloud, 'Fairy Tail Defeats Eisenwald, Again! Yes the strongest of all the legal guilds in Fiore, Fairy Tail has defeated the dark guild Eisenwald again. Their first victory over Eisenwald came over fourteen years ago by a similar group of mages, at least in composition. Erza Fernandes, originally the famous Erza Scarlet, and her husband Jellal Fernandes defeated the entire guild by themselves. Yes, just the two of them defeated an entire guild by themselves, which is less than the first time they did so when Erza led a team made up of the now superhero Natsu Dragneel, his wife Lucy Dragneel, formerly Heartiphilia, and Gray Fullbuster. They defeated them in a much more flamboyant way the first time, but this time it was done with precision. They fought them in a more discreet way, slowly dwindling their members down until there was only guild ace "Shinigami" Erigor, and their master, whose name has been lost to time. They defeated those two with ease, ending their hopes of victory in less than ten minutes, according to eyewitnesses. It seems that whatever training Fairy Tail has been doing for their rematch with Ronin is working, as clearly demonstrated by Erza and Jellal Fernandes. In other mage news…'

"Well I'll be, she is more like her old self than I thought, in less than one month she finished off an entire guild, much like the Ronin did with us. Probably got the idea of how to deal with them from them. Freed tell her to come straight home so we may talk about her success and tell her that she better be ready to turn up her training regiment again. Dismissed." I said and I turned to Jura to tell him we should eat, but I noticed the lack of footsteps by Freed, so I turned and saw that he was in fact still there, "Something else I should know?"

"Yes, but this is a bit more of a sensitive topic." He said and I knew he meant that Jura shouldn't hear about this, so I looked at Jura and motioned for him to leave. He did and bowed to us both, as soon as he closed the door behind him I motioned for Freed to sit and we both sat down. He sighed a bit as he saw Mavis, getting used to her appearances there, and he said, "We have a problem. We have been trying to contact Gajeel but have not been able to do so, and have gotten a report like he promised he would send every week since last month. Even Gray has been sending in his reports, we just can't find him anywhere."

I leaned back in my chair and began rubbing my head, 'Fuck. I get Gray not being found, but Gajeel being lost? That doesn't make sense, Jiji said I could trust him to do any sort of mission for me, but now I can't even find him? And he has Levy, Lily, and Joi with him, I can't begin to wonder what happened to them if something happened to him.' It was then Gramps decided to appear and make his presence known as he said, "Damn these brats, causing trouble even when I'm dead."

"Now, now. Third, that is no way to talk about fellow guild members, I trust in this Gajeel from what you have told me of him and I trust in his judgment. There is no need to worry about him, but Gray does cause me to feel uneasy. Is there really no way to find him?" Mavis interjected, scolding Gramps and asking us a question, 'She would be a damn scary mother. Always smiling, even when she's mad, not to mention the fact that she is pretty much bipolar in that anything will make her cry.'

Freed sighed as the search for Gray was his mission to lead and coordinate, and he said, "No, all attempts to find him have been futile, even Gildarts and Cana couldn't do it and they know him the best. Other than Juvia did when she alive. If she were alive she would know where he is, she was a pretty good stalker as we all know."

"Yeah but sadly, she is no longer alive. Freed is there really no other ideas of how we can find him?" I asked and looked at Freed who began to think, unsure of anything now thanks to how frustrating this had been.

Then surprisingly enough it was Gramps who answered my question, "What about his 'brother' Lyon? Would he not have some ideas?"

"Sadly he has already tried to help him find her and help him through it, but couldn't find him." Freed said and we all sighed, annoyed by Gray.

"Well, trying to rack our brains while on an empty stomach won't help, so let's go eat. Jiji, Mavis, you are welcome to come with us and watch Maks while we eat, but I'm leaving. We can always try again in the morning, but for now we will just need to have faith in them." I said and looked at everyone who smiled at me, probably because I sounded like Gramps did when he was alive, always believing in his brats. I stood as Freed did and everyone left and went home, certain that everything will be ok.

One Month Later

I walk up to bar and see everyone in pretty good spirits and I see Olive and Mira talking and laughing about something Maks did. Then Freed ran up to me and pulled me aside, and I looked at him like he was crazy. "Oi, where's the fire?" I asked and Freed looked at me, and I saw how nervous he was and I looked at him even more confused now.

"The guild has been infiltrated, it happened last night." He said and I suddenly understood his nervousness, and he continues, "I felt my rune barrier go off last night and the only way to get past it and not be paralyzed as they neared the guild is to have a guild mark. There are only six people who we have not seen who bear the guild mark: Lucy, Juvia who's dead, Gajeel, Levy, Joi, Pantherlily, and Gray. Since Gray and Gajeel have gone dark that eliminates them, leaving only one person who could be the culprit."

"Lucy." I finished for him and he nodded and I groaned, "Of course it had to be the one who was an espionage expert, able to fool people with her superior intellect. Can you runes tell us who it was to confirm it?"

"Yes, and I checked, but there's a problem. It said unidentified guild member did it, we weren't able to catch the person fast enough it seems." He said and I groaned again, 'Fuck Lucy and Natsu. They are a pain in my ass and I can't even stop them, UGH!'

I looked around and spotted Erza and yelled, "ERZA! Come here!" She looked up and saw me, then made her way to me with Jellal in tow. "Erza I need you to take whoever you deem trustworthy and search Magnolia for someone who has a guild mark. It seems that someone came here last night but we couldn't identify who it was, the rune barrier couldn't recognize them. It recognizes all guild members so we don't have another spy problem, but we need to find out who broke in last night and why."

She nodded her head and told Jellal to find Gildarts and Mira, and soon enough the quartet was off, looking for a ghost in a haunted graveyard. Or really a specific needle in a needle stack, I knew they had almost no chance to find the person but we had to try. I sighed and told Freed, "Get Bickslow and tell him what happened, then have him use his dolls as guards at night from now on so we can always have eyes on this place." Freed nodded and went off to find him, and I went up to my office, to the training room really, I needed to blow off some steam.

Five Months Later

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" I yelled and a massive wave of lightning hit the wall, and blew it up. I shielded my eyes from the flying rubble that came flying at me, and when I felt the wall's rubble stop hitting me I looked and saw that I had opened up a hole so big I hit the bedrock underneath the sewers. "Wow sparky, nice. That's gonna cost a fortune to rebuild and a helluva a nice and remorseful apology to the mayor. Honestly, you need to find an open area to train." Olive said as she had been watching me with Maks, who was clapping at my magic and strength.

"Whatever, you worry too much. See Maks approves! Isn't that right my big strong boy?" I said and picked up Maks, who smiled at me and was still clapping.

"Dada!" He said, and I was proud that at the fact that he could say my name so perfectly.

"Yes, dada! See Olive, why can't you be like him? So impressed by my everything?" I said and Olive rolled her eyes at me and smiled, she gave my arm a light tap and we all laughed, it was her way of saying she was impressed.

The Freed came running down and was holding a lacrima, "Master, we have found Gajeel! Well more like he finally called in! Here, he wants to talk to you."

He passed me the lacrima and I took it, ripping it from his hands as I yelled at Gajeel, "WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

"Oi, language! There is still a kid here with me you know!" Gajeel yelled back and I glared heated daggers at him through the lacrima, but he just sighed and said, "Listen, we had to go off the grid for a while. We were looking for something and we finally found it. Listen, we found out that they did in fact use Lumen Historie, but they kept it after they used it. Don't ask how I know about Lumen, the old man told me about it. But then we tried to find out just where exactly they took it and we finally got that information: they took it with them after their battle with Zeref and took it to their base. Which we found. It's in this city of high middle class people called Naito, it's near the center of Fiore." He said and I nodded, not saying anything because I knew that wasn't all of his story, "I tried to find out exactly where in the city they are hiding out in, but these people fucking love them, treat them like gods. They saw my guild mark and suddenly I was a pariah and was chased out of the city. Got separated from Metalicana too, and that was a month ago. We stayed under the radar to avoid any issues with the people in Naito but found nothing at all, so we are heading back."

For some odd reason, I felt like he wasn't telling the truth, his story had seemed rushed and like information was withheld from me. But I knew if he wasn't telling me something, it was for a good reason so I sighed and said, "Ok, just come back soon, it's close to go time and we want everyone back soon so we can plan everything. Speaking of people who need to come back, have you heard from or actually seen Gray in your travels?"

He sighed at the question and said, "No, I haven't. I honestly don't even know if we can rely on him to show up for the battle, I have heard some things about him. Some say he's gone crazy, others say he's become like a hardened criminal. I personally don't buy any of it but whatever. I'll be back in one month, I still have somethings to do, like finding Metalicana. I gotta go, I'll check in more regularly from now, Gajeel out."

The lacrima turned off and I sighed, unable to shake the feeling that he was lying and withholding stuff from reaching my ears. I turned to Freed and said to him, "Get all the guilds who will be sending a mage for the coalition to prepare their mages to come in one month. That is when we will be ready." Freed nodded and went off to call everyone necessary and I walked to my office, preparing myself for the battle I had been looking for.

Three Months Later

'Today is the day, today I get my revenge.' I paced around the front of the guild, the mages who will fight behind me: Sting, Jura, Lyon, Freed, Bickslow, Gildarts, Gajeel, Erza, Jellal, Cobra, and Richard. 'So few capable fighters… gods how depressing. Where the fuck is Gray? I swear, the moment I'm decking him.'

I paced a bit more before I looked over the horizon and saw someone coming our way. I knew who it was based on the build of the person and I called out to the person, "GRAY!" He looked up and saw us, then walked a bit faster and walked up to me, at which I punched him squarely in the jaw like I said I would. Then everyone came and held me back, and held him back as he was mad now. I looked at him and saw that he had a new scar on his face, running down the right side of his face making his unusually hard demeanor even harder. "Where the fuck have you been? You know who gives us a fuck about that, what have you been doing all this time? Huh? You made yourself look like a fool and then you don't answer our calls? What too big and cool to let us know where you are, or even let us help? HUH?"

"Shut the fuck up! I know she's not dead! I know it but no one seems to get it! I know she is alive! And I don't have to fucking tell you everything I do, I'm not your fucking kid!" Gray shot back and was ready to freeze his teammates off of him, but thought better of it and instead just threw them off. "Fuck you right now, I have been training my ass off and I was looking for my wife. I have every reason to go dark! I am dark now! Did you really think I just thought she was actually dead? Hell no! I know she is out there somewhere but I came back because I made a promise, not because I wanted to."

I couldn't believe my ears, was this really the Gray who I had watched grow up? But I never got the chance to counter his claims as suddenly a massive arena came crashing down, right in front of our guild. It was bigger than the first arena and I saw what looked like doors on it, and my jaw dropped. There were nine doors and they had signs above them, but none of them said anything, no names or symbols, just blank wood. I groaned as this wasn't part of our plans and I looked at everyone gathered, and said, "Jura, our plan just got fucked. I say we just go in our groups or go solo if you were told to do so. Agree?"

"Agreed, everyone, go!" Jura said and we all charged at a door, and I picked the smallest one, thinking and hoping Natsu would go the inconspicuous route. 'Time to show everyone what one year of training can do. Natsu, you better be here, or else I'm just gonna find you and kill you. Time to get my revenge!'

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A/N: I hate the way this ended. I tried for ten hours to get this right but I just couldn't. This was after the fact that I saw you guys do some good work yesterday! Thanks to sashaXmafuyuFOREVER for the review and baby names, which at this point are the leaders for the baby's name, and to beareagle13 for favoriting the story. In case you noticed, no there is no Natsu and company POV's here as you guys reached ten again! So I decided to split up this chapter into two, instead of giving you guys two chapter at once. That would have meant giving you guys a fighting chapter and those chapters will each get their own day. Yup, starting Monday the fights start and there will be way more than I thought of these fighting chapters though. THERE WILL BE TEN OF THEM! You'll see why soon enough, but remember I still need your help deciding something,I do remember promising you guys two one shots, and I want to know what you guys want out of these: a background one shot of Nena and Esoj, an adventure one shot of Gray's year of training, the same as the last just with Gajeel and Levy, Natsu's lost years, or how Natsu and Lucy finally got together. I have an idea of how each should go but I want to know what you guys really want to see. So let me know somehow.Remember! READ AND REVIEW, OR FAVORITE OR FOLLOW EVEN IF YOU SO PLEASE! ADIOS!