Energy crackled around Laxus as he stormed through Magnolia. He was absolutely fucking furious and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Well, there was one thing. He needed to find his friends before he left, not wanting to just leave them behind.

"Hey, Freed! Bickslow! Evergreen!" he called. "Guys? Where are you?"

"Laxus!"

He craned his neck, looking at Freed as the Rune dropped to the ground. Without giving Freed the time to land, their human friends leapt off his back.

"We were in the park when we saw the Fires. What happened?" Evergreen asked.

"They somehow found out that Natsu was here. They came for him and, in the process, started demanding that the rest of us go with them. To find our old homes."

"You aren't actually leaving, are you..?" Bickslow asked. Laxus shrugged, "I don't think we have any damn choice in this, and.. That pisses me off," he huffed as electricity crackled around his horns.

"They can't take you away!" Evergreen exclaimed.

"You can't go along with this," Freed murmured.

"Irene won't let me hear the end of it if I don't.." Laxus sighed. "I was never supposed to be here, remember?"

"Just.. promise that you'll come back one day.." Freed said, gently nuzzling the fellow Dragon's face. "Promise.."

"I.. don't know if I can.." he admitted. "But I'm going to damn well try."

xXxOxXx

Laxus watched Wendy disappear into the mountain range, however, the group didn't leave it themselves just yet.

"The Skies and Lightnings shared this range. The egg stealing pushed them into war," Atlas explained. "I do not know who won, but I do not dare send you into the Sky's part of the territory on your own."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Laxus responded dryly. It was funny how Atlas thought he was doing any of them a favor when Natsu was the only one who wanted to leave.

"All of you dragonets, behaving like this.." the old Fire sighed. "You all keep complaining about what this is. None of you see the importance of why I'm doing this. You do not belong in a human city. Do you want to keep going on in life, knowing your families will never get the closure of what happened to you?"

"So we can just tell them that we're still alive and go home afterwards, right?" Sting asked sarcastically.

"Dragonets.." Atlas muttered to himself. "There will come a day where you will remember this, and you will thank me for it."

"Don't get your hopes up," Laxus stated bluntly.

The four remaining Dragons fell silent as they traveled around the mountain range. Laxus stopped caring about his surroundings until he found something interesting to look at.

In this case, it was a pair of large pillars standing tall, with a larger city sitting behind them. Sitting atop each pillar were a pair of large Dragons, one being black with golden lightning markings. The other was several shades of silver and purple that looked like stormy clouds over their scales.

The two of them launched into the air when they spotted the group, surrounding them, "Who dares come here?" the black-and-gold one demanded.

"I bring your stolen dragonet," Atlas motioned for Laxus to move towards the other Lightning. Hesitantly, he did just that.

"This is the King's missing grandchild? Where are his wings?" the silver-and-purple one demanded.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Laxus impatiently demanded. He did not get taken out of the only home he knows just to be judged for being wingless.

"Mouthy for a dragonet, but we'll take him. Which Sky did you kill to get him?"

"None. He was found in a human city with the other stolen dragonets. They were taken by the Sages, who framed all of you, then fled to the humans."

"Quit lying! We already told you that's not what happened!" Laxus snapped.

"We'll take him to King Elexion," the gold-and-black one said, ignoring Laxus–a fact that was not lost on him and infuriated him quite greatly–as he pushed the younger Lightning towards the mountainous city.

"I can fly on my own, keep your sorry claws off of me," he hissed.

"Not very well, if that lack of wings is anything to go by. What kind of Lightning are you?"

Laxus growled, and took off ahead, making sure not to move too quickly to make them nervous, but just enough to get him away from them. The silver-and-purple one caught up, yanking on his tail, "Stay where we can see you. You've already caused more trouble than you're worth!"

"And just what is going on here?"

The two large Lightnings froze as Laxus glanced up at the larger Lightning glaring down at the three of them. He shared a similar face shape to Laxus, but with a far more prominent underbite, as well as a similar horn shape.

"General Tormenta!" the two landed and bowed.

"Who?" Laxus asked.

"I'm one of the King's sons," he stated, before lowering his head to reach Laxus's eye level, "And judging by the fact that I've never seen you before, I can only assume you're the missing Lightning. My nephew."

"Indeed I am.." he agreed warily.

Tormenta looked around the younger Lightning, examining his body. "No wings, but you're all muscle. Impressive for a Dragon your size. And I saw you flying, so the wings part won't be an issue. You'll do fine. Where did you find him?"

"Do fine for what?" Laxus asked. He felt himself bristle when he was ignored yet again when Tormenta looked at the two guards. They hesitated for a moment, before the black-and-gold one stepped forward, "Atlas Flame of the Fires brought him here. Said he was taken by the Sages and humans."

"Not the Skies?" the General asked. The other guard shook his head, "No. But it does make sense if one thinks about it."

"You two, back to your post now before someone notices your absence."

The two guards nodded and scrambled to take off, then Tormenta nudged Laxus with his large snout, "Come with me."

"All of this pushing me around is really starting to piss me off, you know!"

"I'm the General, and you're about to become one of my soldiers, so get used to being pushed around," Tormenta stated bluntly. "All Royals have to contribute to our army in some way."

"What about this… so-called King Elexion?"

"He oversees the army, just like he does with the rest of the Kingdom."

"So who's considered the Prince or Princess if you're a General?"

"Nobody. The only Dragon Elexion considered a worthy heir was your father, but that changed the night you were taken from us." Tormenta huffed quietly, "Your father was faced with a powerful adversary and he turned tail and tried to run instead. His cowardice got him killed."

"Great, I finally found out about my family and they're all a bunch of military nuts and cowards, splendid," Laxus growled sarcastically.

"Watch it, dragonet," Tormenta warned, "Whether you like it or not, you are a part of this family and I expect you to act like it."

"My family is back home," Laxus hissed, "I don't know if you've noticed, but Dragons don't like to be constantly told to believe things we don't want to believe in. How would you like it if I kept telling you that you were something that you're not?"

"Do we share the same blood or not?" Tormenta responded. "Do we not share the same features? The same traits? Like it or not, we are related. We are family. Nothing can compare to the blood that runs through our veins. You may think you have family back in your old home, but those Dragons are thieves who should mean nothing to you."

"They did not steal me!" Laxus snapped. "Why is that so hard to understand? Why are all of you too stupid to even think about there being other explanations?!"

Tormenta growled, slamming his talon down on Laxus and pinning him to the ground. "We know what happened! Unless you can prove that the thief had good intentions for taking you, then you can keep your sorry mouth shut!"

"And I know what I lived through!" Laxus wriggled under the claws pinning him down, "Our eggs were found outside of a human city. They don't know who the thief was!"

"Did you witness all of this yourself?" Tormenta demanded. When Laxus didn't immediately respond, he scoffed, "That's exactly what I thought."

He tightened his grip on the younger Lightning's body, then took off into the air, carrying him in his talon. Laxus thrashed, but wasn't let go until they passed over a training ground.

He used his magic to slow his fall, then landed properly as if he had flown himself. Now effectively very annoyed, he snarled at Tormenta.

"Since that head of yours isn't very useful, we'll see if I can still make a decent soldier out of you physically," Tormenta stated. "You will be training with the rest of my trainees."

Before Laxus could say anything more, Tormenta reared and let out a deep bellow.

It wasn't long before several Dragons showed up to the training ground, all of varying sizes. Tormenta counted the group that showed up, before letting out a growly sigh, "She's late again.."

Laxus decided not to ask, assuming he'd get his answer soon. Sure enough, a smaller Dragon flew over the ground, before landing. She was covered from head-to-tail in armor, which was likely why she was late.

"If you didn't waste time with all of that useless metal, then you wouldn't be late everyday," Tormenta angrily chewed her out. To her credit, if he was looking for a response, she didn't humor him with one.

"It's not useless," Laxus stepped forward. He knew Gajeel wasn't here to hear that comment, but his loyalty to the Iron still made him step forward. "The only thing the metal would leave her vulnerable to is electricity-based attacks, as the metal would attract it. But she's a Lightning, so that's a good thing!"

"The metal weighs her down, and, in case you haven't noticed, she wastes too much time bothering with it. Our scales are far better armor than all of that scrap," Tormenta stated. "Not to mention, what if she gets attacked by a Fire, whose element can melt it and encase her inside of it?"

"Why would you need to fight the Fires? They think the thief was a Sage!" Laxus countered, "They aren't going to waste the resources on us when they have better, less trivial things to worry about than a Royal General who's stupid and paranoid!"

The trainees gasped, and the armored Lightning visibly recoiled at the comment, as if they weren't expecting the newcomer to lash out so much.

Tormenta started to respond, but Laxus cut him off, "Who are your actual enemies? Who are you training to actually fight?"

"The Skies," Tormenta reluctantly relented.

"Exactly. That makes the armor useful. I grew up with a Sky Dragon," Laxus stated, turning his attention to the others, "Her magic could tear the scales off your body. The armor would protect you. Better to have this ripped off-" he knocked on the armored one's pauldron, "-than to lose some scales."

"Your first day here and you're already being an issue," Tormenta raised a talon to rub his face.

"If I may add," one of the trainees hesitantly stepped forward, "You did call us earlier than usual, so if anything, she's actually on time for once."

"You get here when I tell you to. If you aren't here within five minutes of the warning, you're late," he lowered his head to hiss at the trainee in question. She yelped and stepped back.

"Does anybody else have anything to say to waste more of our time?" Tormenta demanded, glaring down at the group. When nobody spoke up, he lifted his head, "Good. We'll start with the usual laps around the Kingdom. Because of the three who decided to be mouthy-" he looked at Laxus and the other Lightning, "-and decided to waste time-" he looked at the armored Lightning, "-you get twenty instead of our usual ten."

"Can the newcomer even fly?" a larger trainee marched over to Laxus, with such an air of arrogance that it only served to infuriate him further.

"He can. Now quit wasting time and get FLYING!" Tormenta bellowed.

They all took off into the air in a hurry to follow orders. It left Laxus wondering what the larger General does in order to keep them all in line. They all seemed to fear him except the armored Dragon.

"Thank you," he heard someone whisper to him. He glanced up and spotted the armored one flying next to him.

"Uhh.. you're welcome..?" he responded awkwardly.

"I mean it. Nobody's stood up for me like that before," she continued, "It's a shame that it might not last under Tormenta's guidance."

"He's not going to break me," Laxus hissed. "If I can handle living in a place where it's clear that I'm not welcomed, then I can handle that arrogant asshole."

"Why were you stolen if they didn't even want you there?" she asked.

"Because they didn't steal me. They just raised me with the other stolen Dragons."

"Oh.." she lowered her head, "I'm sorry. It must've been rough being forced to live like that.. Why didn't you leave?"

"Because I still had people who cared about me. I had friends. I had a family."

"A family," she said wistfully, "Like Dragons who don't boss you around and try to act like they know better simply because they're bigger and stronger than you?"

"You have to deal with that a lot?" Laxus asked.

"Yeah…"

After a moment where the two flew in relative quiet, he asked, "So why do you wear all that armor? Aside from the practical reasons, of course."

She nervously played with her talons, running them over each other, as if pondering on how to answer that. "You have to promise me you won't tell anyone. I feel like.. I can trust you not to tell the General.. since you two don't seem to agree on anything.. But you also can't tell the other trainees, okay?"

"I couldn't care less about them either.. except maybe for the one who also stood up for you."

"Well.. I'm the General's daughter, Ilumina. And he absolutely cannot know, so I hide under the armor.."

Laxus had two lines of thought at that moment. The first was that Tormenta was such a terrible father that he couldn't recognize his own daughter, regardless of the armor? If he tried that with Makarov, he'd get nowhere because the elderly man would've recognized him instantly!

The second, he voiced aloud, "Why not? He seems to think everyone in our family needs to contribute to this military. Why would he be bothered by you being a part?"

Her eyes turned dark under the helmet, "Is that what he's telling others…" she murmured. "He says I'm too weak to be a part, since I was really small and sickly when I first hatched. But I'm perfectly capable now!"

"And he doesn't see it?"

"No.." Ilumina lowered her head.

"So what's the plan?" Laxus asked, "You can't hide from him forever."

"Not forever. I'm waiting until I graduate from trainee to a proper soldier, then I'll show him who I am. That I'm stronger than he thought I was."

"That will piss him off like no other," Laxus commented. Ilumina let out a quiet chuckle, "Yeah. He would lose his mind. But maybe he'd finally respect me by then."

"Oi. Less talking, more flying," Tormenta ordered.

Laxus and Ilumina looked at each other, grinning.

Just from a first impression, Laxus could safely say he hated it here, but at least he had a friend in the form of his cousin, who seemed far more reasonable than the other Dragons around, so he was sure he'd be fine until he could finally leave.