Chapter 17: Shadows

A/N: One last Chapter today! Mega shout-out to Decondar who not favorited and followed the story, but me as an author as well! SO AWESOME! And regular shout-out to sashaXmafuyuForever for the review. NOW onto chapter 17 enjoy!

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The Next Day (Gildarts POV, 2 weeks 5 days to wedding)

I walk back into Magnolia, having been gone since the start of the month on business… yeah let's go with that. I had heard about Lucy beating Erza though, which is why I was coming back now, to see for myself just how much she had grown. I hadn't seen her fight in over a year and was curious to see her progress, I had helped her trained after all. I continue walking when something or rather someone caught my eye. He was in a full body cloak that was gray, he was short and not very strong looking but what he was doing dispelled the notion of him being weak. He was using magic, the name of it escaping me, but he was jumping from shadow to shadow as if he were part of it. I recognized the cloak as one that the attackers wore and I knew he was one of them, and that I couldn't let him escape. He was an enemy of the guild and that made him my mortal enemy, an enemy I must crush with my disassembly magic. I try and sneak up on him and surprise him, but he saw me.

He came at me from the shadows and landed a blow to my chest before disappearing again. Shit he was fast, I feel like I have fought him before though, the style of battle feeling awfully familiar. I don't dwell on it though as I see him coming this time and dodge his fist, but not his leg that came and nailed me in the face, ouch that hurt. Not. His attacks were light and he had yet to seriously hit me hard. I wait for him to come at me and see him coming and throw a punch at him at full strength, wanting to end this quickly, but with his speed he dodges and gets behind me and sends me flying, ok now this was gonna hurt a little bit. Then suddenly he was above me and he punched me in the gut, causing me lose my chance to lessen the blow by hitting the ground before land with my magic, the impact would have been lessened as the shock of the attack would have slowed me down a bit. But as he punched me in the gut I was sent flying to the ground and landed with a crash. My landing causing a massive crater as big as a building, and the pain searing through my tired body. I groan and stand up, taking off my cape as I begin to get a bit more serious and not wanting to lose my favorite cape as the ladies love them the cape.

I begin to move out of the crater when suddenly he's on me again this time throwing punches so fast the only thing I can do is dodge and move backwards until I feel my self being backed into a corner. I feel my back hit the opposite side of the crater and a fist hitting my face knocking my head back, my heading hitting the wall. I snap my head back up and begin to attack, but am surprised as none of punches hit my target, and he eventually catches my right fist. I was banking on this and had put magic into this hoping to disassemble him into mini versions of him. However nothing happened and he suddenly picked me up by my fist and threw me down on the floor and threw me back to where I was before still holding my fist. I stood up and head butted him and he lets go in shock, I charge in and land a punch and he is pushed back a bit with his head leaning back.

He slowly snaps his head back and says, "Thank you, may I have another?" And I realize that going at half speed was not going to cut it.

I check and see that I'm far enough away from Magnolia to not cause any damage and let the magic flow out of me and say, "Sure thing." I charge in and begin throwing punches so fast that he can't see them and is hit hard in the face. He flies back and hits the other side of the crater and then disappears, clearly trying to make me lose my focus and relax. 'Not a chance' I think and realize that since he uses shadows to hide, I look and see that the entire side I was on is in the shadows. I build up some magic and release it all at once. The force of the magic destroys the walls of the crater and all the surrounding trees and anything else that could create a shadow near by. After the force of the attack calms down I look around and do not see him, 'huh, where did he go? The shadows are all go…' I can't finish my though as a fist hits me square in the jaw and sends me flying upward, I prepare myself for him to hit me in the gut but instead I feel a fist hit my back and crack a few vertebrae. I arch my back in pain and howl, then he is on top of me and he sends me flying to the ground, and as if is everywhere at once, he catches me with a back breaker and I feel so much pain that I howl loudly enough for someone at the guild to hear me. I begin to fade into unconsciousness and say, "Damn I shouldn't have dicked around, Now I lost."

I hear a scoff and he says, "You Gildarts Clive? That was only half or sixty percent right?" I nod as he hit the nail on the head, "Wow that's sad, that was only me at fifty percent, and I crushed you. You're getting old man, getting way too old. Time to let the youth take over." And that's the last thing I hear before I black out, hoping no one ever fights one on one with these guys, no one in the guild would survive for ten minutes.

(POV Change to Number Five)

I sigh as I walk away from Clive, inwardly giddy, as I finally got a chance to wail on someone. I then hear footsteps and hide in the trees that are still standing. 'Shit was I too loud or did I dick around too much too?' I watch as four people come into my sight and one dressed in red says, "Five where ya at? It's the Boss." I sigh partly relieved that it's just the group, but also worried as I made a big scene. I come down and get ready to face the music, but instead finding them all smiling and laughing. The Boss says, "Damn! You beat Clive good! We saw the whole thing and you totally owned him! Nice work!"

I smile at him and say, "Thanks, I was not too sure how it would go since he is widely considered the guild ace, but he was a lot weaker than I thought he would be."

"Yeah, that's because he lost an arm and a leg fighting against Acognolia way back in the day, before he went missing with the rest of Fairy Tail. He is not nearly as strong as he used to be. But still it's impressive none the less. Well done." I was kinda sad that he was no longer as strong as he used to be but still excited that I won so easily. "Now don't get too excited we have work to do, come on we gotta go, we beat the guild mages here by a few minutes but we should hurry. Back to camp!" He orders and we all run away quickly, just barely escaping as the guild members arrive and drop their jaws in shock at the body lying before them, their ace in the hole was stuck in his hole.

(POV Change back to Gildarts)

I wake up hearing the voice of Lucy saying, "Hey old man, you okay? You took quite a beating today." I look around and see I'm still here, in the crater, my cape now thoroughly trashed by my own magic and my pride left in shambles. 'Only fifty percent? HOLY SHIT! That is way too crazy to even think about. Am I really getting that old to where I am no longer able to protect the guild, or is he just trying to get under my skin? Yeah that must be it, everyone has a bad day and it's my own fault, I messed around instead of fighting seriously and it cost me.'

"I'm fine, just played around too much. I could have taken him." I say standing up and smiling at her and say, "Will everyone calm down now? I'm fine!"

"Uh-huh, pops, sure you are. You didn't get your ass handed to you or nothing. Oh wait you did." I turn and see my daughter Cana looking at me with a worried look on his as I look at her wondering what's wrong. I look at myself and see my body is cut up and already badly bruised, and then I feel the pain from the blows I took take over my body and I collapse to the ground unconscious. "POPS!"

(POV Change to Lucy)

I watch in horror as Gildarts falls down and blacks out, everyone rushes towards him and makes sure he's ok, and Cana stands where she was in shock as her father laid on the ground in front of her completely defeated. I go over to her and say, "Cana! Come on we need your help moving him, turn him into a card so we don't move him too much and make the damage any worse. Cana! Wake up!"

Finally she springs to life and throws a card at her dad and he is transported into the card, Cana looks at me and says, "Thanks Lucy. I needed that help. Let's go! Everyone come on we can dote on him back at the guild hall. Let's Go!" And with that they turn and make their way back to the guild. I hang back and look around, seeing the carnage and the sight of an awesome battle. 'Man I missed out, and I really wanted to show him how much I have grown since we last sparred. Oh well I'll wait until he's better. Who knows, it may happen very soon!' I look around again and, seeing nothing of interest turn and head back to the guild and, my mind wondering, just how did a shadow mage not named Rogue beat Gildarts so easily? Has he really gotten that old or was the mage that strong? I mean I have a feeling about it but I'm not sure. Well we will probably find out soon enough, won't we?' I look behind me and swear I see a group of five people in full body cloaks there, but I blink again and they are gone. I call out Loke and tell him to scan the area, and to make sure no one is here. He nods as I continue walking back, looking over my shoulder and every now and then.

But I see nothing as I finally reach the guild and Loke appears next to me and says, "All clear princess, have a good day!" I nod and he leaves me wondering, 'why did I get so excited when I thought I saw them. I push the thought to the back of my mind and enter the guild and see everyone drinking as usual, no one paying too much attention until I walk in and everyone yells "Congrats Lucy!" and I see a cake that says Congrats on it. "It's to celebrate your victory over Erza! Sorry it took so long to give to you!" says Gray and I smile, now this was more like the Fairy Tail I knew.

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A/N: And I am finally done for the day! Thanks everyone, please answer the question in chapter 15 and see you guys soon. READ AND REVIEW! ADIOS!