The Blood of the Fairy

by Mega Ghost

While out on a job just to pay the bills, Fairy Tail's strongest team picked up a new addition to their guild. It was a welcome occurrence given the state of things since they'd returned from Tenro, but their new friend isn't the usual breed of fairy. He doesn't talk much and keeps to himself. Will his mysterious past affect their chances in the games? And what magic does he have?

1. Chapter 1

The Blood of the Fairy

A/N: First chapter of a new story. Fairy Tail is my newest big love in anime. I watched the whole series for the first time ever not too long ago and just fell in love with all of it. It was a lot of fun writing out these awesome characters and adding my own things to the mix and there will definitely be more to come. I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about this story, whether you'd like to leave a review or private message me. Thanks and I'll see you soon.

Chapter 1

"Fire Dragon ROA-Ack!"

A metal clad fist walloped Natsu across the back of his head, cutting off his magic fire breath attack before it could go through.

"We asked you to start the fire, Natsu, not an inferno!" Erza snapped at him.

"Alright, fine! Geez! Just thought I'd get it going a little faster since we've been walking all day long!" Natsu griped while rubbing the fresh knot on his head.

"Oh, right. Turn us and all the food we brought into a few lumps of charcoal and maybe get the guild stuck with a bill to replant the whole forest at the same time. That'd be real good." Gray added.

"Shut up! It's not like you've helped, popsicle nose! I'm the one who dried out this wet wood so we can have a fire in the first place!" Natsu shot back.

"Would both of you shut up?! It's been a long day, and my feet are killing me! Huh! I'd give anything for my warm bathtub at home right now!" Cried Lucy.

"Amazing. Every time. By how they're behaving, you'd never know they just spent fifteen hours hiking." Carla commented.

"Come on, Carla. It's nice that they still have so much energy after all that walking. It's kind of like unwinding for them, I think." Wendy said sweetly.

"I'm not bothered by it at all. I've got my fish here and its still nice and raw. Carla, I'd be glad to share it with you if you want." Invited Happy.

"No, thank you. I'll wait for the proper meal."

"Alright, let's all just calm down. Don't forget, we're on a job, and it's important not only for the reward. The guild needs the clout our success will bring in." Erza said.

OOO

Thirty-six Hours Earlier...

"Ugh! This sucks!" Lucy moaned. "My rent's due in a week and I've got nothing! I've barely been able to feed myself this past month."

She and the rest of her team were sitting in the main space of Fairy Tail's far from grand hall.

"I'm in the same boat too, you know. Cost every jewel I had to pay seven years of rental space to get my stuff out of storage, and I have to bunk with Warren AND Elfman." Gray told her.

"Happy and I ran out of food money two days ago. If it hadn't been for Mira's stew, we wouldn't have gotten to eat anything today." Natsu said.

"At least you two can fish. When I run out, I've got nothing, period." Lucy said.

"Come on, guys. None of us are having a particularly easy time right now. The rest of the guild included." Wendy said.

It was true, Lucy thought. Seven years before, she, Cana Alberona, and twelve other members of the guild along with Master Makarov and his grandson, Laxus, had been sealed away in a bubble of suspended time. The ghost of Fairy Tail's first master, Master Mavis Vermillion, had done it to save their lives from Acnologia, the dragon of destruction. The spell had worked, but it also meant that by the time a mere week passed for them, seven years had gone by for the rest of Earth-Land.

While the adjustment hadn't been easy for any of them, they'd quickly learned that the past seven years had been far harder on all of their friends. Their guild-mates had spent forever searching for the fourteen of them, spending huge amounts of Fairy Tail's financial resources in the process. With all of their powerhouses missing in action, the guild hadn't been able to take on the biggest jobs, lost their position as the greatest in the country, and eventually been forced to give up their hall in the center of Magnolia for one high in its hills that was more of a chicken farm than anything else. Things had started to get better for their guild since Natsu and the rest had come back, but everything was still far from perfect.

"We all need money. Let's check the request board. I think Jet came in with new jobs a little while ago." Erza suggested.

They all agreed, stood up, and headed over to the board on the westward facing wall. The guild's request board was where any wizard in the guild could choose the job they wanted to take simply by taking down the flier listing the work details and ultimate reward. In the old days, job requests would have littered the board from end to end with barely an inch of empty space showing through anywhere. Now, there were barely fifteen filling the available surface.

"How about that one?" Gray pointed to a paper near the center of the board.

The flier was looking for a team of at least four wizards to protect a rare and valuable animal as it was being transferred by convoy from a city zoo to a biological preserve over two hundred miles away.

"Are you kidding?! My stomach is not gonna hold out for two hundred miles, Happy can't carry me for that long, and I don't want to do another transport job! With our luck we'd probably run into the Butt-Jiggle Gang again." Natsu said strongly.

In response, Lucy gave a simultaneous shudder and retch from her throat.

"I'm with Natsu on this one! No transports! I literally had to spend all day in the bath to get that smell out of my hair the last time!"

"Okay, well, what about this one? It's got nothing to do with moving anything." Wendy pointed to another.

The job she had chosen was a request for someone to investigate a mysterious series of tunnels which had recently been discovered beneath a town in the interior of the country. The details went on to explain that they were requesting a wizard because one of the town's older residents, a retired wizard himself, had sensed magic power coming from inside, but was not in suitable health to lead or even take part in an expedition.

"Well, I would normally say that one looks nice and easy, but check out the reward. The town must not be a very rich one. If we all went, we'd only get ten thousand jewel a piece. I need seven times that just for my rent." Lucy said.

"I agree with Lucy. If possible, I think we should take a job where the reward will see all of us through for the next month, at least." Erza said.

"Whoa! Guys! Check that out!" Natsu suddenly declared.

He was pointing to the uppermost, right corner of the board. That corner was boxed off for a special category of missions, separate from all of the rest, and no one had seen any fliers in it since long before everyone had come back from Tenro Island.

"An S class mission?" Erza asked, as surprised as anyone.

"Hey, Happy."

"Aye, sir!"

Happy, Natsu's Exceed friend and partner spread his wings and floated up to retrieve the paper. Since she was the only S class wizard on the team, Happy handed it straight to Erza.

"It's a bounty hunting job." She announced. "A man named Merts Sickle is offering a one million jewel reward for the capture, dead or alive, of a group known as the 'Damien Brothers.'"

"Did you say one million jewel?!" Gray shouted.

Natsu grabbed the paper out of Erza's hands before she could stop him. He stared at it intently.

"A million jewel?! Just for bringing in three guys?! They don't look like anything!"

Lucy then snatched the flier away from him.

"But a million jewel! Between all of us, that'd be over two-hundred-thousand each! My rent would be covered for the next two months and I'd still have some left over!" She squealed with delight.

Gray was the next to claim the paper and looked it over.

"Much as I hate to agree with Natsu, there's got to be some kind of catch to this. Why else would you pay so much for just three guys?"

"Let's just go talk to Mira about it. She should have more details." Erza said.

On a direct diagonal across from the seven of them, on the north wall of the small, run down tavern was Mirajane Strauss behind the bar. Mira, as she was affectionately known by everyone, played multiple parts in the operation of the guild. She was the jobs coordinator, providing all needed details of the various work taken by her friends, an unofficial chef who would often cook for everyone, a full fledged S class wizard, and one of Fairy Tail's most powerful. No one knew what things would be like without Mira, and there wasn't anyone there who wanted to find out.

"Hi guys! You pick a job?" She beamed brightly, her teeth shining as white as her pure snowy hair.

"Yes, we're interested in this one, but a little confused by it. It seems to be too large an amount only to capture three men." Erza said as they all stepped up to the bar.

To their left, their friend Jet suddenly spit out the coffee he'd been drinking and gagged a little from the outburst. Jet was a member of team Shadow Gear, an informal, miniature unit within the guild, comprised of Jet, his friend Droy, and their old friend Levy McGarden.

"Three men?!" He gagged out. "Are you guys taking that S class job?! The Damien Brothers?!"

"Why? Do you know something about this, Jet?" Wendy asked.

Jet stared at all of them for a moment before a small realization lighted in his eyes.

"Oh, right. There's no reason why you guys would know about them. The Damien Brothers are wizard hitmen. Paid assassins. Word has it they'll take literally any job for the right price, and they don't care who their targets are. Murders attributed to them have been of men, women, and children, and it's said that they always work together." Jet explained.

"Oh my, how awful!" Mira gasped, genuinely perturbed.

Gray banged his fist down onto the bar in anger.

"Wizard hitmen?! And they're ganging up to kill defenseless women and kids?! What kind of cowardly punks are these guys?!"

"Erza, we're taking this job, right?" Natsu asked, his tone conveying how he thought they absolutely should.

"Of course we are. Now, more than ever." Erza replied sternly.

"I had a look at that flier when I was putting them on the board. The employer is Merts Sickle, right? According to the papers, his wife was murdered about a week before you guys got back from Tenro. I guess he must have something to make him think the Damien Brothers did it. I was just about to fill Mira in on all this when you guys came up." Jet said.

"There's one thing I don't understand." Carla broke in. "If this poor man is able to pay one million jewel to bring his wife's killers to justice, why send the request here?"

"That's a good question. Fairy Tail has fallen pretty far out of the public eye, so why wouldn't Mr. Sickle give the job to one of the guilds who are more recognized at the moment?" Lucy followed up.

Jet answered, "You guys know that S class requests come in specially marked envelops, right? Well, when I was getting these from the train station, I saw guys from a few other of the guilds in town, and they were all getting S class envelops too. If I had to guess, I'd say Mr. Sickle is probably sending those everywhere he can in Fiore to try to get someone to respond."

"Seriously? Wanting to get these guys heads bashed in, that I get, but why send job requests everywhere just to get someone to respond?" Natsu asked.

"I can answer that one for you guys." A female voice said.

Walking up to the group on their opposite side was Levy. She was a studious, slender, and friendly young girl with shining blue hair going just past her shoulders. A lifelong bookworm, Levy was the member of Fairy Tail almost certain to either do any needed research or to have a breakthrough at just the right moment.

"I've been catching up on news and history ever since we got back. I'm no expert on these Damien guys, but I do know a bit. From what I've read, they're very powerful wizards. They don't seem to really hide out or mask who they are very much, but they've still been working freely for almost two years. From what I've been able to put together, one of them uses long range sniper magic, kinda like Bisca, except it seems to also have explosive power when it hits its marks. Another one of them uses a combination of earth magic and plant magic. His victims have literally been swallowed up by the ground and then torn apart by plant tendrils waiting for them. The last one, well, no one knows what his magic is, but it's suggested he's the strongest of the three. They have a reputation for being both precise and vicious, often leaving their targets to die slowly as a result of wounds rather than killing them outright." Levy said in great detail.

Erza put her hand to her chin, thinking.

"So, then it stands to reason they've likely had a mental impact on many people. The high reward and wide distribution makes sense now. Mr. Sickle wants to make sure his plea reaches someone who can and will fulfill the task."

"And that's gonna be us!" Natsu shouted at the top of his voice. "After hearing all that, I'm fired up to put a hurtin' on these guys!"

"I'm definitely coming. I need rent, and no matter how strong they are, these guys will be cake for us after everything we've been through! Plus, think about it. Pulling off such a high-profile job like this will be great for Fairy Tail too. It'll help get people noticing our guild again." Lucy proclaimed.

"I may not be the best fighter, but I don't like the sound of these guys either! I'm in!" Wendy said.

"No way I'm gettin' left behind! Guys like this give wizards a bad name, so we gotta take 'em down!" Agreed Gray.

"Then it's decided. Mira, please make it official. We're taking this job!" Erza said.

"Very well then!" Mirajane said with a happy lilt to her voice.

Bending over to dig around behind the bar for a second, she came back out with the official registry marker. It was a magic stamp that when it was applied to a job request would inform both the employer and any other guilds possessing the flier that the job had been taken. Mira applied the stamp to the paper, and the design changed to bear the Fairy Tail emblem in one corner while the rest became dimmer. She then handed it over to Erza straight away.

"There! It's all yours now. And good luck!"

Erza folded up the flier and tucked it into her armor for safekeeping.

Natsu then shouted out, "Alright, we got that all sorted out, so let's GO!"

OOO

"Please! Make it stop!" Natsu groaned through a strained voice.

"Geez! You'd think that your stomach would be able to get used to this sooner or later." Grey moaned.

"He's got a point you know. Eventually it should get at least a little better for you." Lucy said.

"I can't help it. My poor stomach wasn't meant for vehicles!" Natsu wheezed.

He was sprawled out on the bottom of the carriage. Directly after securing the job for themselves, the team had immediately set off to first see their employer, as the flier had demanded. To get to the employer, they'd first had to ride the train for four hours to reach the nearest town to him, followed by a two hour carriage ride to reach his manor. As was his motus operandi, Natsu's stomach had been threatening to reacquaint everyone with his last meal the entire time.

"Wendy, please! Give me the Troia spell!" He pleaded.

"Sorry, Natsu. You know that the spell works less and less the more we use it. At this point, I think it can only work about once per month, and we did use it last week when you were really hurting."

"Just give it a try! I'm begging you! My stomach's about to leave me entirely!"

"Then wouldn't that solve the whole problem?" Gray asked sarcastically.

"We should be there in about twenty more minutes, Natsu. You can last that long." Erza said.

"Brph!" He grunted, trying hard to keep his lunch down.

OOO

The carriage came to a halt, and less than a second later, Natsu was rolling himself out of the doors and flopping onto the ground.

"Oh! Solid ground! Thank you! I love you!" He cried at the top of his voice.

Gray kicked him in the head as he climbed down to make him stop.

"Would you cut that out?! You're embarrassing us!"

Natsu then jumped up and slammed his forehead against Gray's.

"What'd you do that for?!"

"Cause you were rolling around, kissing the dirt like some kind of pig in slop!"

"Maybe I'll stomp your face down in the dirt! It could only improve it!"

"Just try it flame for brains!"

"Whoa! Look at this house!" Lucy said while climbing out. "Six stories, at least fifty thousand square feet, and at least triple that for these grounds. No wonder he can afford to pay us a million."

"Really makes me wonder who our client is." Wendy said.

"I'm sure all of that will be explained once we go inside and meet him. But first of all, you two!" Erza declared sharply.

The snarling pair of Gray and Natsu both cut off their bickering like a switch had been flicked and stared back at the redheaded girl with fearful eyes.

"If you two aren't on your best behavior in there, and I mean not saying anything, not destroying anything, and not fighting each other like children, then I will kill you! You're not going to embarrass the guild today!"

"Ye-yes, ma'am!" They both said together.

"Good. Now that we have that established, let's go in." Erza said.

They all together walked the path from the outer gate to the front door. Halfway along, Wendy suddenly stopped in front of a flower bed. It was an enormous garden, extending eighty feet long by twenty feet wide, and featured flowers covering every spectrum of the rainbow.

"Oh wow! Just look at all of these flowers!" Wendy exclaimed.

"This is incredible! Reminds me of the flower beds at my home as a girl, except they weren't this big." Lucy said.

"It's a stunning display." Erza commented.

"It'd be better if it was a bed full of fishies." Happy said.

"Really, don't you ever think about anything else?" Carla asked.

With that, the group continued on. At the front doors, Natsu used the knockers to pound heavily upon the wood.

"Remember everyone, best behavior." Erza repeated herself.

A few minutes after Natsu knocked, the left-hand door creaked open, revealing a prim and proper butler in full uniform.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

"We're from the Fairy Tail guild. We've come about the job Mr. Sickle circulated." Erza said.

"Oh, yes? Very good. Please, come with me."

The man backed away from the door and allowed them all to enter. The primary foyer of the house was as refined and elegant as the grounds the group had seen moments before. Works of art lined the walls, a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, and an intricately designed, antique rug ran from the top of the grand stairs on the second floor all the way to the door. Looking around, Lucy felt her eyes start to water while a smile spread across her face. Wendy noticed the change in her.

"Hey, Lucy, are you okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." She said as she lifted her hand to wipe her eyes. "All this just made me think of my old home, and that got me thinking about my dad."

"Oh, this must be up a lot of memories for you. Especially with everything that just happened with Michelle."

"Yeah, but I'm good now, really."

After closing the door behind them, the butler stepped around to the front of the group again.

"If you will all be good enough to follow me, I'll take you to the master. He has been anxiously awaiting for someone to reply to his request."

The butler guided them up the grand staircase and along halls decorated with as much wealth and good taste as the foyer had been. Finally, after opening a set of double doors, he brought them to a large library, containing thousands of books.

"Wow! Could you imagine the look on Levy's face if she got to see this room?" Lucy asked no one in particular.

"Mr. Sickle, sir," the butler spoke loudly to a man on the other side of the room. "Wizards from the Fairy Tail guild have come in answer to your request."

Mr. Merts Sickle turned around from his bookshelves, giving everyone their first look at their employer. He was a man of medium height, around five foot seven, about even with Natsu. He looked to be in his early fifties, with dark purple, almost black hair, just starting to turn gray around his temples. His eyes were a dull blue, and the sockets around them were sallow with stress and worry lines. The man looked like he hadn't smiled in quite a long time.

"Thank you for responding so quickly." He said with a tense, miserable voice.

"Of course, sir. Fairy Tail is always happy to render any help it can." Erza said.

"Please, have a seat."

Sickle walked around to a set of furniture about twenty feet to his right, and the fairies followed. Sickle sat in an arm chair on one side of a small coffee table, and the others took up on a sofa long enough to comfortably fit all of them, as long as Happy and Carla sat on Natsu and Wendy's laps.

"I think I should start with telling you a little about myself. My early life is of no consequence except that I was born dirt poor. I always wanted more, and worked very hard to improve my life. I've never had any ability at magic, but early on, I discovered I had an aptitude for making things, and eventually figured out the correct process for creating magic lacrima. Today, my company is the third largest producer of lacrima in Fiore."

"Wait, you mean you're the head of Sickle Lacrimas?" Wendy asked with astonishment.

"That's pretty impressive. Your lacrimas are used in all kinds of daily products." Gray said.

"Thank you." Mr. Sickle said sadly.

"A position like yours, you must have some enemies." Lucy said.

"Yes. No one can go as far as I have in business without meeting a few people who would love to tear you down along the way. The trouble started almost a year ago, when we caught a spy from a rival company in the factory. We went through the correct procedures, filed charges, but the company the man worked for disavowed all knowledge of him, so there was no action brought against them. You see, we've been in the process of developing a new, more efficient model of lacrima, and we fully expect it to propel the company into the number two spot in Fiore, and maybe further."

"With money and prestige like that on the line, I can't imagine your competitors were too happy with the possibility." Lucy said.

"You're quite right, young lady. After the first failed espionage attempt, we tightened security, even hired some freelance wizards to bolster it further, and it worked. There were no more attempts made at stealing our secrets. About eight months ago is when the threats started. It was small at first. Odd, obscure notes arriving in the mail, packages containing items which said nothing in particular, but had a menace to them; knives and such. Eventually, I found a note left on my desk, right here in the library. It was just there, out of the blue."

"What did it say?" Wendy asked.

"It was right to the point. 'Stop production of the new lacrima or lose something you love.'"

"No way to misinterpret that, alright." Happy commented.

"I didn't take it seriously. We're a massive corporation. I've gotten these kinds of threats many times before, and no one's ever tried anything. It never even occurred to me that... it might... be for real."

Mr. Sickle's voice began to break and crack on his last words. He was fighting hard to try to keep the tears away.

"What happened?" Erza asked.

"Six weeks ago, some men from the local village showed up at my door with news. My wife had gone to town to do some shopping and pick up her order from the garden shop; new flower seeds. She was just leaving one of the clothing stores when some men surrounded her. They tell me that one of them lifted his hand into the air, and then a second later, my wife's head was just gone."

At that point, Mr. Sickle could no longer hold back his emotions, and broke down completely. Nobody tried to say anything as the man cried in front of them. They all understood there was nothing any of them could possibly say. It took almost ten minutes for Mr. Sickle to get a hold of himself and shut off the waterworks.

"P-please forgive me for that." He said.

"There's nothing to forgive." Natsu said.

"He's right. It's clear you really loved your wife a lot." Wendy said.

"I did. We met when we were both just sixteen. You might think it sounds corny, but it was love at first sight. There wasn't a day when we weren't together for thirty-seven years. Did you happen to see the flower bed on your way in? She made it and tended to it herself. Despite all the gardeners and grounds keepers, she insisted on taking care of those flowers on her own. Ever since she died, I've insisted that bed be the number one priority."

"Sir, what makes you think that it was the Damien Brothers who did this?" Gray asked.

"Because they told me. A week after it happened, I got a letter from them, bragging about it. They were laughing about it! Calling it the most entertaining hit they've done yet! That they wish they'd had a lacrima with them to record it and play it again afterwards!"

Hearing that, Natsu gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly together.

"So, what do you want us to do?" He asked, barely containing his anger.

"I want those bastards to get what's coming to them. You can kill them, or take them in to the council, I don't care which. I just don't want them out there, free and laughing about what they've done." Mr. Sickle said.

"We understand." Erza said. "Can you give us any information on their current whereabouts? We assumed from your flier that you could point us in the right direction."

"Yes, I can. When I decided that these guys had to be stopped, I employed an investigator's guild to track them down. It cost me quite a bit of jewel, and took a long time, but they finally generated a lead. That's why I'm glad you came so quickly, because I don't know when another opportunity might present itself."

"So, what can you tell us?" Lucy asked.

"The guild I hired tracked the Damien Brothers to the town of Freesia. They were there just yesterday. My people are still in place and waiting for you. If you'll head there straight away, I'll let them know you're coming." Mr. Sickle said.

"But wait! Freesia is at least a three hour train ride away from here!" Natsu cried out.

"Yes, it is. I'll have my carriage take you back to the station right away."

"But... but... but!"

"Natsu." Erza spoke over him, a commanding touch to her voice.

"Hmm." He whimpered feebly.

At that moment, Mr. Sickle stood up and walked over to a desk. He came back after just a second with an envelope. Erza stood to meet him as he returned.

"Here. You'll find names and pictures of my contacts in Freesia in here, plus about twenty-thousand jewel for expenses."

"Thank you, sir. I promise, we will bring these men to justice. Rest assured, they will pay for what they did to your wife." Erza told him.

She held her hand out respectfully, and she and Mr. Sickle shook. With that, Gray, Lucy, Wendy, Natsu, Carla, and Happy stood up as well, and they all left the library. No one said anything until the butler led them back out of the house, and had shut the door behind them.

"That poor man. I've never heard a story so sad before." Wendy said, tears welling in her eyes.

"Don't you worry, Wendy. We're gonna get those guys for him." Growled Natsu. "Just hearing about that put a fire in my belly."

"No kidding. I'm totally with Natsu on this one. We need to put a hurt on these guys!" Lucy declared.

"We should get to the train station immediately. We need to get to Freesia as quickly as possible so the trail doesn't go cold." Erza said.

"Yeah, let's go." Gray said.

"We should probably all try to get some sleep on the train, if we can. Don't know what will happen when we get there, so we should rest up while we have the chance." Suggested Carla.

OOO

Five hours and three barf bags later, the team arrived in Freesia. It was a relatively small town in the western interior of Fiore, about the same size as Magnolia, give or take a few thousand people. It's primary export was apples, said to be the most delicious in the country.

"Gee, been a while since I've been here. Not since that one mission I had here about nine years ago." Natsu said.

"And it looks like they managed to rebuild that historic church you destroyed." Gray commented.

"Really?" Natsu asked, turning to look.

Sure enough, the Resuscitare Cathedral had been rebuilt. It stood four stories tall, with all of the majesty and grandeur to match Kardia Cathedral back in Magnolia.

"Hey, good for them! Man, after the way I reduced that thing to pebbles the last time I was here, I didn't think they'd ever be able to rebuild it, but they did a good job. Looks just the same as the old one to me." Natsu said.

A certain, mischievous glint sparkled in his eyes right then.

"Natsu, whatever you're thinking, cut it out right now! We're not blowing anything up on this trip!" Lucy yelled at him.

Her outburst drew the eyes of some of the passing townspeople, causing them to cast wondering, suspicious glances at the newcomers.

"Hey guys, let's maybe move away from here. People are staring at us." Wendy said.

They decided to do as she suggested and headed further into town.

"Mr. Sickle's information says we should meet his contact at the Golden Fry Restaurant. Let's head there now." Erza said.

"Okay, so does anyone know where that is?" Gray asked.

"It shouldn't be too hard to find, probably." Wendy said.

"And if we get lost, we can always just ask somebody to tell us where it is. If I don't sniff it out first. I assume they'll have lots of nummy fishies there!" Happy said.

"Honestly, Happy! Does every thought in your head revolve around your stomach?!" Carla said in a chastising way.

"We'll find it, don't worry." Natsu said.

They did not end up finding it themselves. They spent an hour wandering around the town before deciding to swallow their pride and ask for directions. Their short walkabout had not been a total waste of time, though, as it allowed them to take in the sights of the beautiful town of Freesia. It's architectural norm was different than most towns the group had seen, and much more so than in Magnolia. Most domestic houses were more rounded than square or rectangular, without exactly being circular. In addition, the majority of roofs the group could see were identically covered in red tiles, giving the town an almost sun kissed look to it.

"You know, that delay feels like it was kinda worth it. This town is incredibly beautiful! If I weren't in the guild and didn't love Magnolia so much, I might consider living here." Lucy mused.

"Yeah, and the air is so sweet here too! I can almost taste those apples growing in the fields out there." Added Wendy.

"Everyone look alive, because we're here now." Erza reported.

They were in front of a reasonably large, indoor/outdoor restaurant, with many tables made of black metal, with matching chairs riddling the area. A sign featuring a gold colored skillet hung over the main door, with spaces missing in the middle to spell out "The Golden Fry." It was easy to see that the eatery was a popular one, because they were quite busy. At least three quarters of all the tables were occupied.

"Hey, isn't that the guy over there?" Gray asked.

On the far end of the outdoors dining area was a man in an immaculately tailored and polished pinstripe suit. He was only maybe an inch taller than Lucy, and looked like he'd be more at home shuffling papers in a bank than out in the field, tracking down dangerous, wanted men. The fragile, wired rimmed glasses on his nose only added to the air.

Erza took out the envelope of information to check the photo. She scrutinized between the picture and the man across from them carefully for ten seconds.

"Yes, that's him."

The seven of them made their way over to the man, weaving in between both the tables and patrons.

"Mr. Eastwood?" Erza asked once they were close enough.

The man in the suit looked up, and recognition immediately dawned in his face.

"Ah, you must be the wizards from Fairy Tail. I was telegrammed you would be coming, and you all match the descriptions I received." He said, his voice coming out every bit as refined as the rest of him looked.

He stood up to face them, confirming the group's initial estimation about his height.

"Since time is of the essence in this case, I'll dispense with the normal pleasantries and get straight to the point."

He bent over and lifted a small duffel bag out from under the table.

"In this bag you will find everything my guild has discovered about the Damien Brothers, including detailed descriptions as to their appearances, predilections, abilities and/or suspected abilities, and high resolution photographs. There are also several items of which the targets personally handled while in town. Since I could not know just what sort of wizards would be taking the job, I procured these on the off chance one of you possesses a psychic tracking ability. Also, the rogues were last seen heading north out of town, into the woods, on foot apparently. Thank you, and I wish you the best of luck."

He handed the bag to Erza and moved to leave.

"Oh, and one word of caution before I go. These Damien Brothers are quite the suspicious bunch, so I would recommend approaching as stealthily as you can. With that, I bid you good evening."

Mr. Eastwood then gave a polite nod to the whole group and departed.

"So, what's in the bag?" Happy asked.

Erza undid the zipper, and laid it down on the table for all of them to see.

"It's just as he said. Typed descriptions, and photographs. So, these are the Damien Brothers."

She placed them on the table surface face up. It was plain to see that they were surveillance photos, two taken from high up vantage points, and the last one on street level, capturing the subject in profile.

"They must have really good cameras in that guild, cause these look like they were taken from really far away." Wendy said.

"These guys sure look like what I'd peg as wizard assassins." Natsu said, his voice turning hard again.

The men in the pictures were most certainly brothers, possessing strong family resemblances to each other. The oldest among them appeared to be close to his thirties, while the youngest could have still been in his latest teens. It wasn't possible to guess how tall they each might be, as the pictures were cropped so that there wasn't anything present to give a scale to the image, but even so, Gray, Lucy, Natsu, Wendy and Erza estimated that none of them could be much taller that Gray himself was. All three of them had the same dull, dirty colored hair, almost like red clay. They each had the same small, beady eyes that gave them an unmistakably baneful affectation. In contrast, their mouths were large and wide, and one of them was a sporting a cruel sneer in his picture. It made him look like a snake that was laughing.

"Look at this. These must be those personal things he was talking about." Gray said as he reached his hand into the duffel and pulled the items. "Looks like a glass, an empty box of matches, and a pillowcase."

"That Eastwood fellow did say he collected these on the off chance we could make use of them. We don't have any psychic trackers, but perhaps Natsu could pick up a scent from one of these." Carla said.

"Um, excuse me?" A voice suddenly said.

They all turned to see that one of the waitresses had come up behind them.

"I'm sorry to have to say this, but the manager says that if you don't intend to eat, he'll have to respectfully ask you to please leave so we can clear the space for new customers."

The girl said it in a timid, embarrassed voice. She wasn't used to having to ask people to get out, no matter how politely it was said.

"Oh, we're so sorry! We've just been standing here, haven't we?" Lucy said.

"We'll leave. There's no need to worry." Erza said. She then reached into the envelope Mr. Sickle had given them and took out four, hundred jewel notes. "And here, for your troubles."

The girl stared wide eyed at the cash like she was unaccustomed to such generosity.

"Thank you very much! And please come again!"

She left, and then Gray repacked the duffel with everything, and they exited the restaurant.

"Hey, Gray, let me have one of those things from the bag." Natsu said once they were all outside.

Gray pulled out the first thing he could get, which turned out to be the pillowcase.

On the side of the group, Wendy suddenly let out an embarrassed little squeak.

"Um, Gray, your clothes." She barely said in a whimper, looking away from him.

"Huh?"

Gray looked down to see that he was standing in nothing but his boxer shorts.

"Damn it! When did that happen?!"

Ignoring Gray's ten-thousandth case of spontaneous stripping, Natsu lifted the pillowcase to his nose and inspected it. With his radically enhanced dragon-slayer's senses, he was able to discern the individual scents of ever person who had touched it.

"Anything?" Lucy asked.

"There's a lot of different scents on here, including that Eastwood guy's and Gray's now. Not sure which one I should key in on. Let me have one of those other things." Natsu answered.

Since Gray was in the middle of tracking down his wayward pants, Erza reached down to the ground for the bag, extracted the box of matches from it and handed it over to him. The same as a moment before, Natsu held it under his nose and inhaled its aromas deeply.

"Okay, now I got one that's common to both things!" He declared. "But it's not anywhere around here."

"That guy in the suit said the brothers left north. Maybe we should go check at that part of the town." Happy said.

"Nice thinking, little buddy!"

They waited a few minutes for Gray to reclaim the rest of his clothes, and then walked straight to the north end of the small town. Tracking people by scent wasn't as easy as Natsu usually made it look. Weather systems, wind patterns, thermal currents, local fauna, and just how long it had been all contributed to the decay of a scent.

The group spent a little over forty-five minutes walking back and forth across the northern edge of the town. Natsu walked on all fours like a dog the entire time, his butt high in the air and his nose low to the ground.

"Don't you have it yet?! This is embarrassing! People are staring at us like we're freaks!" Lucy shouted.

"Wait, I just..." Natsu sniffed. "About..." He sniffed again. "Got it!"

He straightened up with a jolt and turned his head to look out into the forest.

"It's definitely the scent of one of those Damien brothers, but it's really faint. Seems like they're heading kind of northeast on foot. By how decayed the smell is, I'd say they're at least about twenty hours ahead of us." He reported.

"Twenty hours." Erza thought out loud. "So, if we left right now and kept up a good pace, it would take us almost a full day to catch up to them."

"Erza, we can't walk for a full day. We've just been traveling all day today and none of us have eaten since we left the guild hall." Gray said.

"You're right about that. Even though they could possibly get even further ahead of us, we certainly can't follow for another day with no provisions. Yes, we'll spend the night in this town, stock up on everything we need, and head out at first light." Erza stated resolutely.

"So, I guess we should find an inn to stay at for the night." Wendy said.

"Suits me just fine. I could use a nice, warm bed right now." Lucy said with a sigh.

"And I'm starved! There's no way I could make it another whole day without eating anything!" Natsu cried.

"It's decided."

With Erza leading the way, they all turned and sped off to find a place to stay that evening.

OOO

Twenty-eight hours later, and more than twenty of those spent walking, Natsu, Wendy, Gray, Lucy, Carla, Happy, and Erza had found their quarry. The Damien brothers had pitched their camped in the rotted out ruins of some kind of old, country church. The ruinous structure was open to the elements through holes of varying size, but the brothers were still mostly protected on all four sides and above their heads by what remained of the walls and roof.

At that moment, the seven members from the Fairy Tail guild were hunkered down in a nest of bushes, watching their targets from three hundred feet to the south.

"It's definitely just the three of them there. I can't smell anyone else around us at all." Wendy announced.

"According to these names on the pictures, that one in the middle has the plant and earth magic, and the one on the right has the sniper magic." Lucy stated.

"Meaning that one on the left is the strong guy nobody knows what he can do." Gray finished her thought.

"Alright, let's go kick some butt!" Natsu said gleefully.

He'd just barely risen out of the bushes when Erza yanked him back down by the end of his scarf. He gagged and sent out some spittle from the sudden pressure on his throat.

"We have the element of surprise, Natsu, but by all accounts, they are incredibly dangerous criminals. It doesn't look like they've eaten yet. I say we should wait until after they have. Between the low energy ebb after that, and the possible muscle cramps, it should give us an additional edge." Erza said.

"That might actually be a good idea. Seems like they're meeting someone." Lucy announced.

"Why do you think that?" Erza asked.

"Cause there's someone walking towards them." Gray said.

With a mixture of confusion and concern, Natsu and Erza sat up to look out at the new development. Just as Gray had said, there was someone new on the scene, walking straight for the Damien Brothers.

"Natsu, Wendy, you have better eyes than the rest of us. Who is he?" Carla asked.

"Don't know. Never seen him before. Pretty tall. I'd say maybe a couple inches taller than Gray. Can't really tell anything more than that." Natsu said.

"But I thought there wasn't supposed to be anyone around us." Happy said.

"He's coming from upwind, so I couldn't smell him. I'm sorry!" Wendy exclaimed quietly, sounding like she might cry.

"It's okay, Wendy, we still out number them almost two to one, so there shouldn't be any problem." Gray said. "Besides, look at how that guy's walking. Even if he is with them, he must be about as drunk as Cana gets about this time every day."

The guy drawing near to the Damiens was staggering and shuffling from side to side quite a lot. It looked like the guy was having a hard time just staying on his own two feet. Oddly, the Damiens themselves hadn't seemed to notice him yet, and didn't notice him until he stumbled through one of the crumbling walls of the church, just twenty feet away from them. They all jumped to their feet, looking startled and suddenly on their guard.

"They're yelling at him now. Asking him who he is and what he's doing here." Wendy informed them.

"What? So, he really is just some bystander wandering in?" Erza asked aloud.

Just as she was beginning to think they might have to protect this apparently drunken passerby, it happened. The newcomer dropped his act of intoxication, straightened up, seemed to do something with one of his hands and then threw a hard looking right cross punch into the face of the Damien brother to his left. He then followed it up with a fast jab from both hands into the chin of the next man in line, and a snapping, reverse kick back into the head of the previous brother, spinning him around and causing him to tumble back into a wall.

"What the hell?! This guy's stealing my fight!" Natsu cried out.

He leaped from the bushes and began running all out for the fight taking place in front of him.

"Natsu, you idiot! Wait a second!" Gray called after him.

Lucy smacked her own face in annoyance. "He never changes."

With Happy close in tow, Natsu charged towards the church at full force, covering the distance in seconds and entering the church like a stampeding bull. Inside what was left of the building, he jumped into the air and engulfed his entire body in searing flames.

"Fire Dragon Sword Horn!"

His attack hit square on, his head colliding into the stomach of the first Damien brother, sending the both of them flying back out into the clearing on the opposite side of the structure.

The two remaining brothers and their initial assailant momentarily ceased their own fighting to stare at the stream of fire streaking past them. The assailant was the first to recover, pounding a vicious left uppercut into the solar plexus of the second Damien brother. He moved to slam a backhanded fist into the chin of the third brother, but the man had fast enough reflexes that he was able to raise his arm to block the blow before it could connect.

"Splitting E-"

Before the third brother could finish his incantation, the assailant struck his own forehead down into the man's nose in a huge headbutt. The third brother lurched backwards, dazed and bleeding, but this gave the second brother the opportunity he needed to draw out a six-shooter pistol from his waistband and aim it at the assailant.

"Now you're gonna get it, bastard!" He roared.

Across the way at their initial hiding place, Gray, Lucy, Wendy, and Erza had not yet joined the fray, but could see everything that was going on. Seeing the assailant in danger, and deciding to believe in the old adage that the enemy of your enemy was your friend, Erza drew out her sword, eyeballed it carefully with all her years of training and experience, and hurled it with all her strength.

Inside the church, neither the assailant nor the second Damien brother had seen it coming, but the tip of a long, gleaming sword hit the side of the brother's pistol, knocking it out of his grip and nearly taking his hand along with it.

"Come on! Since those two have already started the fight, we should get in there and help." Erza said back at their location.

She had spoken seriously, with the usual amount of stoicism and earnestness with which she issued all of her battle decrees, but at the same time, she couldn't hide the twinkle in her eyes and the barest hint of a grin on her lips. Even with the danger, she was enjoying herself and couldn't wait to have a piece of the action. Erza ran forward to get into the skirmish with the same speed as Natsu had thirty seconds before.

"Well, you heard her. We'd better go help too." Gray said.

"Why don't we focus on that one who didn't have the gun?" Wendy suggested. "Natsu will take care of that one he hit, and it looks like Erza is going to help whoever that is fighting the last one."

"Good thinking, Wendy!" Lucy cooed.

The three of them then left their cover as well, with Carla bringing up the rear.

OOO

On the other side of the church, Natsu's Fire Dragon Sword Horn dug both he and the recipient of his attack deep into the ground, creating a long trail of earth building up behind the Damien brother's back. When the momentum had finally given out, Natsu got his feet under him and then jumped backwards a few feet.

The first Damien brother slowly climbed to his feet. He was clutching his stomach and his face had a small grimace to it, but he didn't look to be too nonplussed by his first blow.

"Who the hell are you?!" The man screamed.

"We're Fairy Tail and we're here to take you down!" Natsu yelled back with a smile.

Natsu then rushed back in, already wreathing his right arm in flames.

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"

He shot the fiery bludgeon for the man's face, but the Damien brother was quick enough to shift his body horizontally, sidestepping to the right. Natsu could see that the the heat of his flames singed the guy's face some, burning away some facial hair and a small portion of his clothing, but that seemed to be all. The first Damien brother jumped backwards and performed a hand-stand flip to carry himself even further away from his attacker. He landed ten feet away, and turned back to stare Natsu down.

"Whoa! This guy's really quick!" Happy commented.

"Fairy Tail? You mean that rinky-dink little guild from Magnolia everyone laughs at?" He asked mockingly with a tone full of contempt.

"What'd you say?!" Natsu yelled, growing angry.

"If that's all that can be sent after us, we should be able to loosen our security measures even more after this. Now, let me show you why we're among the most feared assassins in Fiore!"

The first Damien brother then shifted himself, sliding his left foot far behind himself, placing the majority of his weight upon it. He pulled his left arm back, pointing the elbow out while holding his right arm close to his body with his hand open flat and bent at the wrist. The man was taking a magic wielding stance.

"Corrosion magic! Acid River!"

His left hand came forward, extending to its full length with a quick jolt, and Natsu cringed back, readying his legs to jump out of the way of the stream of acid the incantation suggested was coming. He waited and waited, tense with anxious anticipation, feeling each moment, but nothing happened. Eight whole seconds passed, far more than enough time for the spell to activate, but there was no magic circle, no acid, nothing. The first Damien brother pulled his hand back and stared at it, speechless and dumbstruck, as if looking at it could clear up the mystery of why his attack had failed. The look on his face made it clear he had no idea what was going on.

Natsu sneered. "Ha! I don't know what just happened, but seems like this is my lucky day! Happy, take me up, would you buddy?!"

"Aye, sir!"

Happy extended his wings, grabbed onto Natsu by the back of his vest and effortlessly hoisted him up into the sky.

OOO

"Open, gate of the scorpion! Scorpio!" Lucy called out, activating one of her celestial keys.

"Wicked!" Scorpio shouted enthusiastically as he appeared through a flash of golden light.

Scorpio was one of the celestial spirits Lucy had made a contract with long ago, giving her the ability to summon him from his world through the use of his key any time she might need his assistance. He had the form of a relatively tall, lean man of dark complexion, with short hair that was red on one side and white on the other. Protruding out of his back was a large, long metal gun in the shape of a scorpion's tail, extending up over his head. Immediately after being summoned, Scorpio dropped down to all fours and aimed his gun-tail, taking a posture like that of a real scorpion.

"Sand Buster!"

A massive torrent of sand blasted forth from the barrel of the gun-tail, speeding into the church and finding it's target in the form of the third Damien brother, the earth and plant magic user. The stream of dusty grit sent him careening outside, crashing through one of the rotting stone walls on the way. Outside, as his momentum continued to carry him across the ground, he suddenly felt it change from hard and uneven beneath him to smooth and cold.

"Ice-Make Floor!" He heard shouted somewhere.

With the terrain beneath him turned to ice, he continued to slide across the slick surface with nothing to stop him. The third Damien brother was just barely able to right himself enough to see that he was heading right towards some guy he had to assume was another enemy.

"Ice-Make Geyser!" Gray declared.

The fresh ice-make spell caused a new spout of crystalline water to erupt sharply out of the earth and fling the Damien brother high into the air.

"Web of vines!" The brother shouted.

Before anything could happen, he suddenly found himself face to face with a little girl in mid air.

"Sky Dragon ROAR!"

Wendy opened her mouth and a swirling vortex of wind shot forth and sent the man spiraling back towards the ground with force. It spun him around so that he was going down face first, allowing him to see he was heading towards what looked like a cow standing on two legs and holding a big ax. As soon as he was within range, Taurus, another one of the spirits Lucy was contracted with, threw up his big, meaty fist, nailing him on his whole torso with a monster uppercut. That was it for the man. The third Damien brother laid sprawled out atop Taurus' fist, down and out.

"Nice! Great teamwork, guys! And thanks for the help, Taurus." Lucy said.

"No problem Miss Lucy. Maybe now you can give me that smoooooch!" Taurus replied, dragging out the 'moo' sound of his word.

"Dream on!"

The others joined her just as Lucy closed the celestial gate to send Taurus away.

"I'm so glad we were able to pull that off. I was really worried our little strategy there wouldn't work out right." Wendy said.

"Hmm." Gray grunted.

"Gray? Is something wrong?" Wendy asked.

"I don't know. I just got this weird feeling. This was way too easy. Something about it isn't sitting too well with me, but I can't quite place my finger on it."

It was just then, as the three of them were just about to go and help the others that they unexpectedly lost all vision to a sudden, massively thick fog.

OOO

At the same time as the third Damien brother was ejected from the church by the unexpected sandstorm, Natsu was having some difficulty with his man. The eldest of the Damien brothers didn't seem to be able to use any of his magic for some reason, but he was an exceptional athlete. While Happy had at one point been dive bombing Natsu towards the man, preparing for another Fire Dragon Iron Fist, the first brother had jumped springing himself over Natsu's head and knocking Happy off with a spinning kick. Natsu was right then throwing fire blast after fire blast at him, but he was fast enough and sharp enough to dodge them all.

"Fire Dragon Claw!"

Natsu spun a kick through the air, standing on his hands for support, sending a crescent wave of fire sweeping towards his enemy. It didn't work, because the first Damien brother put himself into a slide, squeezing just beneath the crest of the flames and avoiding their burning damage.

Natsu stamped his feet in rage, gesticulating his arms over his head in a wild manner.

"Would you stop dodging already?! It's driving me crazy!"

The Damien brother reached into the back pocket of his pants and pulled out what looked like a cylinder about the size of a can of soup.

"My magic isn't working right now, but I should still be able to at least use some magic tools." He thought to himself.

The man popped the lid on the container and shook into his free hand a small puddle of multicolored marbles. They were miniature, lacrima grenades, each one containing a different effect, a different kind of magic. Standard tools of the assassination trade. The first brother extracted a light gray marble from the pile and flung it at Natsu. The lacrima detonated at Natsu's feet, releasing a thick, impenetrable cloud of smoke. It plumed and expanded, spreading out to engulf not only the field where they were fighting, but also the church and the open sky for a complete, five-hundred foot radius.

"What the heck?! What is this stuff?! I can't see a foot in front of my face!" Natsu yelled.

"Natsu?! Where are you?!" Happy called out.

"I'm right here!"

"Where?!"

"Right here!"

"I can't see you at all!"

"This is ridiculous! I'm getting rid of this stuff right now!" Natsu exclaimed. "Fire Dragon ROAR!"

He shot his huge blaze skyward, trying to clear away the murky vapor with it, but it was to no avail. The fog lingered, totally unaffected by Natsu's attempt.

"You know, I have to say that I'm impressed."

Natsu whipped around to his six o'clock, but could not see anything. He of course recognized the voice of the first Damien brother, but the smokescreen was somehow interfering with his senses. He couldn't tell where the guy was from the sound of his voice and couldn't pick up his scent to follow it to the source any better.

The first brother went on, "I don't know why I can't use my magic, but it's a nice trick however you did it. It's been ages since someone's actually forced me to have to use these little toys. If nothing else, you should be commended for that."

"Yeah, well, I don't know what your problem is man, but I had nothing to do with it! I'd honestly rather fight you at your full power!" Natsu shouted into the void.

Just then, he heard a slight tinkle, like something landing at his feet. He looked down in time to see a small, light blue marble, and a charge of lightning exploded from it and ripped violently through his body. Natsu cried out from the pain of the electrical assault. The shock to his system was substantial, but not enough to do more but force him to rearrange his feet to keep himself from falling.

Half a second later, Natsu felt a sharp sting on his forearm and reflexively launched himself away from the sensation. Warm blood trickled down his hand from the cut he'd just received.

"Not bad, kid." The voice echoed tauntingly. "You managed to dodge that without ever seeing it coming. Half an inch more and I would have gotten your radial artery."

"Just try that again and see what happens!" Natsu challenged him.

The man had gone for one of his arteries the first time, so Natsu figured he would keep trying that tactic, to go for places that could cause a more or less instant kill. Natsu lifted his arms in front of his face in a boxing stance to protect his vital points. Natsu knew that his tactic wasn't going to work out like he was hoping the second he felt the knife scrape across his back, cutting through his flesh. He tried to throw a flame laced punch in the direction he'd felt the knife traveling, but succeeded only in hitting the air.

Another tinkling sounded near him, and while Natsu prepared himself to receive another jolt of electricity, a small explosion went off a few feet in front of his face. The blast sent him careening back a dozen feet and landing hard on his side. Before Natsu could even get his hands underneath himself, the first Damien brother came out of nowhere again, planting a hard kick into the side of Natsu's head, flipping him onto his back before disappearing again.

"You know, you're really starting to get on my nerves!" Natsu yelled to his unseen adversary.

"Then you're gonna hate this." The man responded.

Natsu looked down, and saw that the first brother had inconspicuously placed another of the little magic marbles at his feet on his last run through. Unlike the first few, this one melted into the ground and then caused the earth beneath Natsu's feet to transform into a pit of quicksand. It started to pull him in, but knowing the guy would use this to try to get him again, Natsu reacted quickly, igniting his hands.

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist Booster!"

The propellant flames of Natsu's only supportive spell launched him to safety before the sinkhole had gotten too strong a grip upon him. He landed a good distance away, safe for the moment, but clueless as to how to proceed.

Natsu thought to himself, "Where is this guy? He tried to tear open an artery the first time, then just went for whatever it was he could hit. And- wait a second..."

He sniffed the air pointedly. He hadn't noticed it at first, but his nose had captured a whiff of of the guy's scent on his last pass.

"Guess it just took a little bit for my nose to get acclimated to whatever this smoke is."

Only a few seconds later, Natsu picked up the scent of the first Damien brother closing in on him again, and heard the man's footsteps for the first time as well. He smiled devilishly as he whipped around and grabbed the first brother by the wrist of his knife wielding arm, deflecting a blow meant to slice through his throat.

"Sorry, pal. Looks like this just isn't your day."

Natsu then released a flood of fire from his left elbow, letting it spew out, building pressure and scorching the ground at the same time. The copious heat being released by the technique was warming the air all around them, raising the temperature for the entire immediate area.

"Fire Dragon Flame Elbow!"

Natsu finally released his locked arm, sending his fist speeding forward with all his pent up velocity. It met the first brother's face with a savage smack into the center of his nose, pushed him back, took him right off his feet and slammed his head into the ground for a second impact. As Natsu stood up, he saw that his attack had not only taken his opponent out, but the heat from his elbow had dissipated the smokescreen.

"Guess that takes care of that!" He thought.

OOO

The assailant of the Damien brothers had no idea what was going on. He had figured on this being just a simple crack and snatch job. The fight itself would be hard, he'd had no allusions about that, but who were these other people? Before the smokescreen had enveloped everything, he'd seen some guy wreathed in flames relieve him of one of his adversaries, and a stream of sand from out of nowhere had taken another of the three.

Finally, some redheaded girl in armor he'd never seen before had come rushing towards the both of them and had struck the third Damien brother in his temple with a hard, left-cross just before the smoke had washed over them all. She'd saved him from taking a kick to the hip, but it was still a totally unforeseen occurrence. The assailant didn't know what was going on, but didn't have the time to think about it.

OOO

Erza had run as fast as she could from their hiding place among the bushes to the crumbling church. She had no idea who this man attacking the Damien brothers was or where he'd come from, but until when and if he proved himself otherwise, Erza had chosen to treat him as if they were on the same side. She closed the distance between them as quickly as Natsu had moments before and noticed Gray, Lucy and Wendy coming up not far behind her in the process. She took a beat to watch Gray and Wendy diverge while Lucy was summoning Scorpio.

Erza came within a few feet of the second Damien brother and planted her armored left fist into his temple with her long practiced expertise. Not wanting to kill the man, despite his crimes, she kept her hit light enough to not deal too exorbitant a damage.

Erza had to give the man some credit. Not only was he tough enough not to collapse from her first blow, but as he'd recoiled from the force of her punch, he'd used his left hand to pull a second revolver from behind his back and get it aimed in her general direction.

"Ricochet Shot!" The second brother pronounced as he fired blindly.

Erza knew that kind of spell, having seen both Alzack and Bisca utilizing it in the past. It was naturally intrinsic to gun magic only and would cause the round to have double its normal kinetic energy and to also easily bounce off anything it came into contact with and redirect itself until it found the shooter's chosen target. The idea of the spell was to make it virtually impossible to miss the target in an enclosed space due to the law of averages demanding that they would have to get hit sooner or later.

That was what was supposed to happen, but it didn't. Erza decided that in the man's wild attempt to counter-strike, he'd forgotten that the structure surrounding them was more than half exposed to the elements. The bullet sailed right past her, the wind trailing it barely brushing her hair.

Erza took the advantage the second brother's momentary unbalance gave her to dive to recover her sword. She had just picked it back up and spun around to see that her punch had accidentally sent the Damien brother falling in the direction of his first gun, allowing him to easily retrieve his initial weapon as well.

He was halfway straightened up when the assailant came back in, jabbing with a straight, front kick into the man's right hand, knocking his gun away. The assailant gave a short snap of his cocked elbow into the man's jaw, then twisted his hips to the right to change his stance, sprung off his feet a foot into the air and put a big, downward punch into the whole side of the man's face.

The second Damien brother collapsed to the floor, turning over himself two whole times, but retained enough clarity of mind to aim and fire three more shots once he'd stopped moving. His shots were sent hastily and positioned poorly, but Erza and the assailant's reflexes both had them instinctively dodging away to the safest positions they could find. The assailant had been planning to dive and shoulder-roll over to his target to put one last kick into his head to lay him out, but a viscid cloud like he'd only seen during thunder storms rolled over them before he could even stop moving.

Erza knew instantly that this fog would be a problem. She couldn't see farther than a foot in front of her face and just extending her arms to their full length made them become partially obscured. Erza had been planning to aid the assailant by requipping into her Black Wing Armor, flying over and holding the man up to give the assailant a clean shot, but now she couldn't even tell where either of them were.

The assailant had reached the same conclusions about their new circumstances, but he was already trying to adapt. He was listening hard for the Damien brother, trying to discern his location. He had known where the man was moments before, but the assailant had to assume the man was smart enough to move away once he had the cover to protect him. The assailant could still hear the second brother panting hard from their fight thus far, but he couldn't decide what direction it was coming from. He didn't know if it was because of the fog somehow, or maybe an echo off of the remaining church walls, but the sound he was picking up on seemed to be coming from all around him.

The assailant was trying to listen for the redhead as well, to make sure he didn't wrongly attack her instead of his true target. He couldn't tell where she was either, but unlike the Damien brother, it was due to a lack of sound. She wasn't making any noises which might give away her position, and that coupled with how he knew it must have been her who threw that sword, and that punch he'd seen her give the Damien, he knew she couldn't be other than a seasoned warrior.

From her position, Erza was trying to deduce the location of their opponent just the same. She'd felt like she was possibly close to zeroing in on the second brother's general vicinity when her focus was drawn away by something. Thirty degrees to her left, in what she knew was the direction Natsu and the brother he'd tackled had gone, a very faint light, almost like that of a firefly was breaking its way through the smokescreen and Erza just knew that it was Natsu, fighting as hard as he always did.

Erza's attention was then diverted again when her ears picked up a sound that was not the hard, labored breathing of her target. It was a small sound, almost imperceptible, like that of an ice cube clinking into a glass. She knew it could only be the second Damien brother reloading his gun. It'd taken the man a couple minutes, but he had apparently recovered enough to carry on.

Erza had a moment of indecision right then. She could easily call out to the assailant to warn him that their enemy was regrouping himself for another attack, but if she did that, she'd be giving herself away.

"No!" She shouted in her mind. "How could I even think of hesitating?!"

She then shouted out loud, "Assailant! Be on your guard! He's reloading!"

Half a second after she'd finished her sentence, Erza heard the report of the man's gun going off. Without even thinking, she knew there had to be a chance this man could see through the haze one of his brothers had likely conjured, so she immediately dove to her right, rolling out of the way.

As she landed, several different factors all began to present themselves at once, telling Erza it was time to end the encounter. In the span of only a few seconds, Erza observed the tiniest speck of light she took to be the gun's discharge, a far more brilliant, blazing illumination piercing through the haze and then noticed that the mist itself had started to clear. She could just make out two distinct forms in close proximity to her, one with an outstretched arm, and the second moving quickly towards the first and she felt she knew which was which.

The assailant, crouching down to make himself a harder target in case of any blind fire had heard the sounds of the reloading quite easily. He'd been on the brink of yelling out a warning of his own when he heard a girl's voice yelling the same thing out to him. He knew it had to belong to the the redhead and thought she had a very nice sounding voice. It was deep and powerful, but lost nothing of femininity for its strength. He thought it sounded quite nice, but those musings were superseded by the new sound of a gun's bark. It could have only come from the second Damien brother's gun, and the assailant had seen the spark of the discharge. He wasn't sure how, but at the same time, he was just able to make out a thin outline behind where the flash had been. He'd found him.

The assailant sprang out of his crouch, rushing his man like a professional sprinter on the final stretch for the grand prize. The Damien brother must have heard his approaching footfalls because he whipped the gun around forty-five degrees to face him, but the assailant had expected as much. He purposefully tripped himself up, causing him to fall onto his back, sliding right underneath the then fired bullet that would have taken his life.

Erza, knowing intuitively that the assailant had to be the one sliding on his back, could foresee what was about to happen and decided on her course of action. She knew she'd be interfering with whatever the assailant's own plan was, but that didn't matter as long as the battle was brought to an end.

"Requip!"

Erza's ordinary, every day armor was magically removed from her body and replaced with the two-piece, hard plated countenance of her Black Wing Armor. Sending a current of magic energy into the bat-like wings on the back, she activated its short range flying ability and lifted herself off the ground.

The assailant closed to within two feet of his target, lifted himself off the ground with three limbs into a crab stance, and kicked his right foot up into the second brother's stomach with a good deal of his highly considerable strength. The Damien was sent careening upward, heading for a rendezvous with the ceiling.

He never made it up there, as Erza intercepted him, swatting him across the back with the flat of her sword, sending him hurtling back down at the same velocity. He met the stony floor hard, coming to rest in a small crater of his own making. He looked to be out cold, but had somehow managed to keep his grip on his remaining pistol.

The last of the fog cleared away just then, allowing Erza and the assailant to get their first good, full looks of each other.

OOO

Wendy inhaled her fifteenth deep breath, sucking in the last of the magic smoke that had obscured everything for them.

"Way to go, Wendy!" Lucy praised her.

"This stuff tastes really nasty! It almost makes me want to throw up!" Wendy said, her face contorted with distaste.

"Well, what do you expect from an assassination tool meant to keep things unseen, child?" Carla asked in her usual way.

"Hey, we appreciate it, really. Who knows what we might have had to do if you hadn't taken care of this for us? Certainly none of the rest of us could have gotten rid of it. You did a really good job today." Gray told her.

He gave her a small, light pat on the head to solidify his gratitude.

"Thanks, Gray." She responded with a big smile.

"Now, we better go make sure Natsu hasn't burned down anything he shouldn't have. Yet, anyway." Lucy said as they all moved off.

OOO

Half a minute after everything was crystal clear again, Natsu, Wendy, Happy, Carla, Lucy and Gray all reconvened with Erza inside of the dilapidated church. They found her in her Black Wing Armor instead of her normal one and standing less than ten feet away from the man they'd witnessed come into the scene and spark everything off.

"Are you okay, Erza?" Wendy asked.

"Yes, of course. The circumstances presented a minor challenge, but nothing I couldn't handle. I trust the other two brothers were dealt with."

"Yep. Our guy's takin' a nap in the dirt about sixty feet that way." Gray said, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb.

"And mine's been done extra crispy and probably gonna be needing a good dentist. I really don't know what the big deal about these guys was. They hardly gave us any real fight at all." Natsu said.

"You know, something's bothering me about this. Even with how hard and fast we hit our guy, I still would have expected him to get at least one spell off, but he didn't. It was one of the easiest fights I've ever had." Gray said.

"Maybe they caught a bug or something. My guy tried to use his magic but just couldn't." Natsu said.

"That is possible. Wendy and I have seen more than once where an illness affected a person's ability to control or use their magic." Carla added.

"That could account for why my opponent didn't use any of the explosion magic we were warned about. I suppose we were just fortunate to catch them at a bad time." Erza said, rubbing her chin in contemplation.

"I guess all that's left is who this is." Lucy said, turning to look at the assailant.

The others all focused their gazes upon him as well, and they took in his full appearance. Up close, they could see that Natsu had been right about him being a couple inches taller than Gray, standing about six-feet one-inch tall. They could also see that he was definitely young, not more than a year or two older than the oldest of them, at the most. He was very muscular, not to Elfman's degree, but not lacking in that area. His hair was a pure, shining silver about a hue less dark than Lyon's and was styled in a way similar to Gray's, but a little longer, going halfway down his neck. In contrast, his eyes were a brilliant, sapphire blue.

But, the most eye catching thing about the young man before them was how he was dressed. It wasn't the very old looking brown leather jacket, the faded boots, or his jeans which looked like they hadn't been washed for some time. It was what he had on his arms. Running the full length from his shoulders to his forearms were two metal armored braces, well and often used from their scratch marks and dents, but also cared for from how well they moved and flexed. At his wrists, they changed to become hand gauntlets, separate from the rest, which protected the back of his hands thoroughly, but were of a curious structure. They were of a skeletal design, branching out from the main plate until they reached the edge of his palms, where each knuckle had a metal nut protruding outward, clearly designed for inflicting extra damage. The gauntlets terminated just past that in rings for each of his fingers to slip through, leaving them fully exposed beyond that point.

"Yeah! Who are you, anyway? You just came out of nowhere!" Natsu half shouted.

The assailant did not respond and it took Natsu a beat to realize it was because he was staring at Wendy. He had been looking them all over one by one, but as soon as his eyes fell upon the youngest member of their team, it was like he became transfixed by her. His mouth was just the barest bit agape and his eyes were wide, but also intense and searching, as if the man's mind was racing, trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle.

Wendy shifted her feet around and fidgeted. He wasn't doing anything really, but she was becoming uncomfortable beneath this stranger's intense gaze. After about fifteen seconds of his staring, she couldn't take it to just stand there without saying anything.

"Um, I'm... I'm sorry. Is something wrong?" Her tone full of unease.

The assailant seemed to come back to himself then, shutting his mouth, refocusing his eyes and shaking his head one quick time, clearing away his disorientation.

"N, no. No, nothing at all." He said.

They were the first words any of the rest of them had heard him say. His voice was masculine and powerful, but had a slight hesitation to it, as if he didn't really believe what he was saying.

"So, who are you, anyway?" Gray asked. "This is the middle of nowhere, at least a day or more away from any civilization. What are you doing here?"

"I really should be the one asking that." The assailant responded.

"Why is that?" Erza asked.

"Because you all just interrupted my bounty hunting job."

"YOUR job?!" Lucy asked incredulously.

"Yeah, that's right. Bounty hunting job for the Damien Brothers. Pays one million jewel."

"What the heck are you talking about?! This is our job! We took it two days ago!" Natsu shouted near the top of his lungs.

"No, that can't be right. I took it two days ago."

"There has to be some sort of mistake here. We can't all be on the same job." Carla spoke up.

The assailant looked down at her and Happy as if he'd just noticed them for the first time. He crouched down on his knees, apparently studying them.

"Talking cats? And walking upright? You two must be Exceeds." He said, more thinking aloud than directly addressing them.

"And what if we are? Are you some kind of thief that likes to steal fishies from Exceeds?!" Happy asked accusingly.

"No, I just don't think I've ever seen your kind before. Heard about them a few times, but that's all. Just interesting to see."

He straightened back up and looked all of them in the eye at once as best he could in the loose semicircle they made up.

"So, who are you guys? Because, really, this is my job." He said. His voice was a bit hesitant again, his words coming out a bit haltingly.

"We're guild wizards from Fairy Tail, in Magnolia, and we formally had this request assigned to us." Erza said.

"Yeah, I've got the flier right here to prove it. Erza gave it to me to keep safe." Wendy said.

She reached into one of the two front pockets of her dress and pulled out the folded up paper of the flier. She neatly unfolded it, held it out for him, and he took it to look over.

"You see there? See that stamp? That means the job was formally taken by our guild and nobody else has any right to the reward unless we were to forfeit our claim to it." Lucy said with a note of triumph.

The assailant said nothing in reply. What he did was to reach down into his own pocket, take out a folded paper of his own and unfurl it with flourish of one hand. He extended his arm out and Lucy quickly snatched it. There was a dread feeling crawling up her spine and she didn't like it.

"WHAT?!" Her eyes very nearly bulged right out of her skull.

"Lucy?" Gray asked proddingly.

"But, but, this doesn't make any sense! This is the exact same flier, but it has its own, different registry marker!" She rattled off with distress.

"What?! Let me see that!" Natsu yelled and snatched the paper from her hands.

He stared at it himself for a long few seconds before looking up at the assailant.

"What's going on here?! I saw Mirajane stamp our copy myself! It's not possible for anyone else to have one of these."

Gray than grabbed it away from Natsu and gave it his own scrutinizing eye.

He glared at the assailant and asked, "Did you make this? You know it's against the law to try and collect on a claimed guild job."

The assailant shifted his feet, taking a nearly imperceptible step further away from Gray. His eyes turned slightly away, and when he spoke, he was clearly somewhat uncomfortable.

"No, I told you, I took the job. I had it assigned to me."

"Where? What guild are you with?" Gray pressed.

"I'm not with any guild. I got it at the Hardwood Freelance office in Croqus. I was there two days ago looking for something to pay enough to last me a while and saw that. Looked simple enough so I took it to the desk and got it in my name."

"May I see that, please?" Erza said in her most diplomatic voice.

Gray handed it over and Erza then extended her left hand towards the assailant.

"That one as well, please."

He gave Erza their own, original copy and she held them side by side in front of her face. Her eyes rolled back and forth, from one to the other, studying them closely for half a minute before speaking again.

"I believe I understand what's happened."

She had everyone's rapt attention.

"So, what was it?" Lucy asked.

"It's a type of clerical error. A rare one, but it happens from time to time. I've seen it myself once. Normally, once the official registry marker touches the job request, it's impossible for anyone else to legally have a claim to the mission. However, if two different registry markers were to touch two different fliers at the same moment, then both are officially taken by the two respective parties."

"Wait, you're saying that by some fluke, this guy got his stamped at the exact same moment Mira stamped ours?" Gray asked.

"Yes. That's the only possible way we could both have the official seal on these fliers."

"So, what does this mean about finishing the job?" Wendy asked.

"I would imagine it likely means we would have to appeal this to the magic council to see who receives the reward." Carla said.

"Actually, no." Erza explained further. "There is already a ruling in place for this eventuality. The rules state clearly that in an unlikely case such as this, both parties have equal claim to the reward at its time of issuing."

"So, what does that mean?" Happy asked.

"It means our five way split just became a six way split." Lucy said in a whining voice. "We have to share it, because if we don't, we forfeit the entire thing, don't we?"

"Yes, I'm afraid that was part of the ruling. It was meant to ensure neither party could be swindled in these cases." Erza said.

"Does that mean we got to travel with this guy?!" Natsu demanded.

"Of course it does. At least until we hand the Damiens over to a branch of the Custody Enforcement Unit." Gray told him.

"It's not like you're the only one that's unhappy about this, you know." The assailant said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Rrgah! I say we forget the stupid council rules!" Natsu declared.

He stalked forward, pushing his face into that of the assailant's, staring up at him menacingly.

"I say you and I go at it right now and the winner gets to take them in for the whole thing!" He spat.

The assailant looked a little uneasy to have this guy he'd just met frothing at the mouth in front of him for a fight.

"Natsu." Erza said.

Her tone was of a commanding nature that captured everyone's attention.

"Our guild has enough to worry about right now without running the risk of violating council laws. On top of that, brief as it may have been, this man fought by my side, so we will not treat as him if he were an obstacle in our path!"

The expression on her face brooked no arguing, and Natsu seemed to shrink while Erza grew in stature as she spoke.

"Okay, I get it." He squeaked out with his hands up in front of him and sweat breaking on his forehead, trying to disarm her.

"Good. Well, now that we have all that settled, we should introduce ourselves. I'm Erza Scarlet. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Erza took a step closer to the man and extended her right arm to shake hands. The assailant just looked at it for a moment, studying it as if he were trying to decide whether he would shake or not. After a short time where it seemed like he wouldn't reciprocate the gesture, the assailant took her hand and gave a firm, but tentative shake.

"Since we've got no choice in the matter, I'm Gray Fullbuster."

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia. Despite all this, I really am glad for your help."

Lucy turned to Natsu, who had entered sulking mode. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest and was looking away from everyone. She elbowed him in the back to prompt him.

"Natsu Dragneel."

"And I'm his partner, Happy! And this is my beautiful girlfriend, Carla!"

Happy touched her shoulder as if he were going to try and pull her close to prove his point.

"I most certainly am not!" She countered, slapping his little paw away.

"Hi! My name's Wendy Marvell. Thanks so much for your help! What's your name?"

The assailant looked down at her, craning his head for the foot-plus difference in their heights. He looked like he was maybe about to say something when his eyes widened, taking on a jarred and intense look. It was different from how he'd looked at her before, with less wonder and far higher severity. Wendy suddenly felt self-conscious under the man's glare once again.

"What is i-"

Before Wendy could even finish her question, he grabbed her by the arm with both hands and violently shoved her to the side just as a gunshot rang out. In a blur of motion, the assailant whipped himself through a three-hundred and sixty degree spin, stooping down to one knee halfway through and raising his left arm in a counterclockwise sweeping motion. With the forearm of his metal arm-brace, he intercepted the bullet, and still carrying his arm through the sweep, deflected it to go zinging up through the holes in the ceiling to the third story roof. A massive explosion of magic energy went off as the bullet made contact, so powerful it obliterated the roof so that the old stone was vaporized, not even leaving shrapnel to fly in search of victims.

All the while the explosion rocked the ancient church, everyone's focus remained on the assailant as he carried himself through a cartwheel tumble over himself. The second Damien brother, even through he was still lying on his stomach in the crater where Erza left him, had come to just enough to lift his gun and fire. Before he could get any more shots off, the assailant came within a few feet of him, wrenched the gun out of his hand and smashed the outer edge of his inverted fist down into the second brother's head, dimming his lights once again. The entire event began and concluded in a span of less than five seconds.

When the assailant stood up and turned to face the others again, chest heaving from his exertions, he noticed that Erza had come to the forefront of her group. She had placed herself directly in front of Wendy, and he was surprised to see that her black, winged armor had been replaced by one with a greater bulk, featuring thick metal and a huge shield split in two with one half attached to each arm. In a flash of light, it changed before his eyes to again become the metal tunic bearing a yellow cross over her heart, blue skirt, and knee high boots he had first seen her in. Aside from Erza, they were all staring at him with awe.

"You... you just saved my life." Wendy said.

The assailant's face remained impassive, but he looked away slightly and his body language changed, regaining that air of distance and unease he had shown before.

"So, since there's no choice but to share the bounty, there's no choice. We'll have to go together to the nearest town to turn them in." He said.

The all business attitude he was projecting seemed to bring the others out of their stupor.

"Oh, uh, right. Now, there's just the question of how we're going to transport these guys since there's three of them and we came on foot." Gray pointed out.

"I didn't." The assailant said. "I've got a magic-cycle hidden a couple hundred yards back into the woods. We can throw them over that and walk it back to civilization. That's how I was planning to move them in the first place."

"An excellent idea. Please retrieve it if you would be so kind." Erza said.

He gave her a nod and started off to do as asked.

"Wait a minute! I just thought of something! What are we gonna do when these guys wake up?!" Lucy said quite loudly.

The assailant stopped in his tracks and looked back at her, a new look of questioning covering his face.

"Didn't you guys bring seal-stones so they couldn't do magic once captured?"

It was evident by his tone that he considered this an obvious precaution for the type of job they were on. In response, Lucy looked inquiringly at Natsu, who gave a similar look to Gray, who passed it on to Wendy and onward, all of them silently asking the same question. Erza turned back to the assailant with an uncommonly sheepish expression.

"It would appear that we forgot to purchase any seal-stone handcuffs."

A long beat passed as everyone present just stood there, not moving a muscle. The wizards from Fairy Tail waited for a response from their newest acquaintance for their lack of thought.

"Well, I've got seal-stones. Brought them to bind these guys since I thought I'd be bringing them in alone."

With that, he started off again at a moderately fast walk to retrieve his magic-cycle. Neither Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, Gray, Erza, or the two Exceeds could tell if he thought they were incompetent, plain stupid, or anything from what he'd said for the utterly neutral manner of his voice.

For his part though, Natsu didn't think it was really such a big deal. In his mind, if the Damien brothers woke up en route, he would just put them all to sleep again. This guy though, this silver haired assailant who'd come out of nowhere, he roused Natsu's curiosity. The speed and skill of his fighting abilities made the dragon-slayer want to test his mettle against him, and wish Erza hadn't intervened to stop him. The way the guy was acting struck Natsu odd as well. He'd come across a few different freelance bounty hunters in the course of doing jobs he got from the guild, and this guy didn't act like the typical breed. The way Natsu figured it, a normal bounty hunter would be showing a lot more hate and resentment for having to split his take with a bunch of strangers, but this guy was being pretty easy going about it all. Natsu wasn't normally a prying man by nature, but he decided he wanted to know more about this new guy.

OOO

Eight hours of walking went by with hardly a word having passed between anyone. After the assailant had returned with his magic-cycle and they had secured the Damien brothers by both binding their arms and legs with the seal-stones and taping their mouths shut, that had been it. The last thing he'd said to them all as he clamped the SE plug onto his wrist was that he was setting the bike for low power mode, and he'd then simply clammed up. Even when Lucy had tried to engage him in conversation a couple of times, he hadn't responded. The eight of them together had just plodded on, navigating through the trees, heading back towards Freesia.

Things had livened up for a brief moment when the brothers had started to awaken after four hours, but it hadn't lasted long. Natsu had given them each a swift punch at their first stirrings and the group had been returned to silence. In the middle of a large, open field, Natsu suddenly spoke up out of nowhere.

"Hey, Mop Head."

His declaration caused all the others to cast an eye his way.

"Are you talking to me?" The assailant asked.

"You see anyone else here with hair like the end of a mop?"

"Natsu! That's really rude!" Lucy chastised him.

"Well, what else am I supposed to call him? He didn't give us his name." Natsu said back.

"He's got a small point there." Commented Gray.

Natsu went on, "So, Mop Head, what exactly did you do to these guys back there, anyway?"

"Mop Head" as Natsu was referring to him, said nothing.

"I mean, you've obviously got some skills given how you saved Wendy back there, but you must have used some kind of magic on 'em too. That is, unless you can't even do magic." Continued Natsu.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't witness you utilizing any magic." Erza said, looking back over her shoulder from the front of their group.

Trying not to be too obvious, they all looked to their companion to see how he'd respond.

After a moment, he hesitantly said, "I can do magic."

"Yeah? Then let's see it." Natsu prompted him.

Mop Head said nothing.

"Come on, Mop Head! You say you can do magic, so let's see some magic."

He said nothing and just continued to look straight ahead.

"Really?! You're really just gonna ignore me and not show us your magic?!"

"Why not? Sounds to me like he's making the right call there." Gray said.

"Nobody asked you!" Natsu hollered back.

Natsu grunted a aggravated snort out his nose and then turned his attention back onto Mop Head.

"Anyway, whatever your magic is, I'm sure it's nowhere near as cool as my Fire Dragon-Slayer magic."

"Natsu, why don't you just leave him alone?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah, I don't think he really wants to talk." Wendy added.

"What? Not my fault if he doesn't want to fess up. I'm just trying to make some conversation here. You know, Mop Head, whatever magic you've got, those moves you showed off back there were pretty impressive. I'm wondering where exactly you picked them up."

The assailant once again declined to respond to him.

"You know, if you wouldn't mind, I think we're all more than a little curious about you. I'd certainly like to know more about the person who saved my life." Wendy said in a soft, sweet voice.

"You really should say something, man. I mean, we're going all this way together. You could at least let us get to know you a little bit. At least tell us your name."

Mop Head turned his head and gave a pondering look to Natsu that the dragon-slayer found inscrutable. Natsu watched as the guy retrained his gaze one by one on Erza, Gray, Lucy, Carla, Happy, and lingering on Wendy more than anyone else. It was a strange look, Natsu thought. To him, it almost looked like the guy recognized her. Finally, he just placed his eyes forward again without giving so much as a grunt.

"Natsu, stop. If he doesn't wish to speak to us, that's his prerogative. He's under no responsibility to tell us anything about himself or even talk to us at all." Erza called back.

"Come on, Erza! Aren't you at least a little curious about this guy too?"

"Whether I am or not, I won't force him to tell us anything if he doesn't want to. It's just the right thing to do."

Natsu scoffed and then looked over at Mop Head one more time to see that the guy was again looking at the back of Wendy's head, practically leering at her, but with no hint of any type of lascivious intent.

"Definitely something up about this guy." Natsu thought to himself.

OOO

Just as with the initial trip out, it was more than a full day's hike to take the eight people and their three captives back to town. The same as their previous evening, the group had set up their camp, Natsu had gotten the fire going and they were cooking their provisions over top the flames.

While the others were preparing their dinner, the man dubbed "Mop Head" by Natsu was tending to the Damien brothers. He undid the tape over their mouths and proceeded to give each of them some water and a couple bites of food while Gray stood behind him, standing guard, just in case. Once he was done extending them those niceties, he refastened the tape over their mouths and left them without a word. He passed by Gray on his way back towards the fire, not making eye contact or any indication of anything.

Gray looked down at their prisoners, who were all scowling back like they were imagining all of the horrible, disturbing things they'd like to do to the Fairy Tail wizards.

"We're gonna be watching you all night, so don't even think about trying anything. I have to, I'll freeze you all solid and just let the enforcement unit thaw you out later."

That seemed to take a little malevolence out of their eyes, and Gray was satisfied they were cowed enough that he didn't need to have eyes on at every second. He returned to his friends as well, sitting down between Lucy and Erza in front of the fire.

"I don't think they'll give us too much trouble, but you know we're gonna have to sleep in shifts. Can't possibly leave them unguarded for even a second."

"I agree. We'll spend the whole night here and leave at daybreak. There's more than enough of us to watch them, so Wendy, you can get your sleep. We'll have shifts about an hour and a half long each." Erza said.

"I'll take the first watch." Mop Head said.

He'd called from where he laid on his back with his hands under his head, a distance away from them and the fire. They were the first words he'd spoken to them for four hours.

"Hey, Mop Head, why don't you come over here?!" Natsu invited him over.

He said nothing and didn't move a muscle.

"Ugh! Come on, man! Are we really doing this again?! I know you can hear me!" Natsu chided him.

"Natsu, do we really have to go through this again?" Lucy asked wearily.

"I agree with Lucy. I don't see why you continue to badger that man when he clearly doesn't wish to talk to you." Carla said.

He ignored them and went right on ahead.

"You know, Mop Head, I've been thinking. After this is over, you should come back to Magnolia with us and join up with Fairy Tail."

That took everyone by surprise, eliciting a reaction from all of them. Even Mop Head turned his head to look at him with eyes a little wide and questioning.

"Wait a minute, you want him to join our guild now? This morning you were looking to beat his brains out just so we wouldn't have to share the reward!" Lucy shouted with incomprehension.

"I changed my mind. So what?"

"More like he thinks if he gets the guy to come along with us, he'll get his chance to have that fight with him eventually." Gray said.

"Like you wouldn't want to have a go at him, icicle!"

After his retort, Natsu focused back on Mop Head again.

"Yeah, I think you'd like it in the guild. We got lots going on for us. Tons of great people, and they've all got awesome skills and magic! If you ever want to train or spar against anyone, there's no shortage of people to go to to help ya out with that. And being a guild, all the best jobs in Fiore come right to our request board. You can pick and choose which one you want to do and work it alone, or maybe form your own team. Heck, you could even join our team if you wanted. I won't deny that I really want to take a crack at you, but I also really think you'd like it there with us. You seem like you got the kind of skills that'd really help us all out and, I don't know, I've got a feeling about you."

From over where he'd laid down for the moment, the assailant just looked back at all the others, analyzing them. The one with the pink hair, Natsu, was looking back at him intently. It'd taken the assailant a little time to really get the hang of how to take care of himself in life, and if it weren't for the fighting skills he had, he'd almost have lost his life more than once for trusting someone who was just trying to con him. A couple of those instances had been from people trying to persuade him about some guild as well. He scanned Natsu's eyes, looking deeply, but as much as he tried to find the lie, the smallest tell to indicate a deception, there wasn't anything he could see accept earnest invitation.

For as long as he could remember, he'd never been able to fully understand why people did the things they did, or had ever been very good at interacting with them. Except for how to spot a lie, which he'd learned both from experience and out of necessity, to this day, Mop Head still didn't entirely know how to read another person. He was more than a little wary to trust anyone and hadn't seen much in the way of altruism, but for whatever reason, this Natsu guy seemed to legitimately be saying that if he wanted to he could come with them. Since nobody had ever wanted him around them before, he truly did not know what to say, so he said nothing. He stood up and went back to sit near the Damien brothers for his shift to watch them.

After watching him walk away, the six other members of Fairy Tail's strongest team all looked at Natsu.

"Natsu, what is this all about?" Erza asked.

"Yeah, man. I've never seen you push anybody to try to join Fairy Tail before." Gray said.

"Nothing to it, really. Like I said, I think it'd be good for him and I think he'd really do well to help us rebuild the guild."

"Well, he doesn't seem like he's too receptive to the idea." Carla said.

"Yeah, Carla's right. Seems to me like he just pretty much wants you to leave him alone." Lucy said. "Wendy, what do you think?"

"Well, I think... I think I want to go talk to him."

She stood up and crossed the forty foot distance to him. Wendy found him sitting on the ground, near to the Damiens, but still far enough away that they'd be able to talk without the brothers overhearing them. She sat herself down a few feet away from him, seeing surprise come into his face from her sudden appearance.

"Hi. Sorry to just come over like this, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. I also wanted to apologize for my friend, Natsu. He's really a great person once you get to know him, but he can be a little gruff and really blunt sometimes."

Mop Head said nothing. He just looked at her with that same searching expression she'd seen before. Wendy decided to press on regardless.

"I'm not really sure why he's trying to get you to come with us. My frame of reference might be wrong to say this, but I think that guild life probably wouldn't be for everyone. But, I really wouldn't know because I've spent my whole life in wizard guilds. First it was Cait Shelter, and then I found my new home with Fairy Tail. All I can really say is that despite some of the hard times, I've really never felt more loved than when my guild-mates were around me. It's just like knowing all the way down to your core that you're not alone."

Wendy stopped there, scrutinizing his face almost as intensely as he was hers. She was waiting to see some kind of reaction, but none came. His face remained as still and stony as a statue's, betraying no hints of whatever might have been going through his mind.

"Anyway, what I really wanted when I came over was to thank you for saving me before. It was really cool and brave of you to do what you did. That exploding bullet could have easily killed you, but I'm sure you know that. I just wanted to say that I appreciate it, and even if you are quiet, you seem like a nice person, so if you did want to come with us, I certainly wouldn't mind."

Wendy then gave him one of her biggest, toothiest, sweetest smiles. To him, it was a smile more innocent and pure than anything he'd ever seen in his life and it sent something through him which he did not understand. The image of that smile and of her angelic little face stayed with him even as Wendy stood up and went to rejoin her friends by the campfire.

OOO

Around ten a.m. of the next morning, the town of Freesia was treated to the uncommon site of men in chains being escorted through their streets. The crowd of onlookers following the Fairy Tail wizards and their companion had grown to a not inconsiderate number by the time they had reached the local Magic Council Enforcement office. The sightseers had positively gasped when one of the officials had identified the Damien brothers, murmuring so loudly among themselves that it seemed a possibility they would have to be forcibly disbanded. For a moment, it was unclear whether the townspeople were just aghast that the infamous killers had been captured or if they were considering trying to release them for fear of some future retribution.

The crowd never entirely dispersed and even grew in numbers, so after the officials had verified the identities of the captured men and that both parties had equal claim to the reward under the ruling of "Duplex Acquisitione," they allowed the eight of them to leave through the back. At Gray's suggestion, they walked a good fifteen minutes away from the Council's office before stopping on an empty corner to divide up the money.

"...One hundred sixty-six, and one hundred sixty-six." Erza finished counting out. "There, roughly one hundred sixty-six thousand and six hundred jewel for each of us, give or take a few odd notes."

From what the assailant could see, the Lucy girl seemed to be fighting not to cry for some reason.

"Well, it's not as much as I'd originally expected, but at least now I can pay my rent."

"And maybe now I can get away from Elfman's snoring. I'm really tired of listening to him shout 'manly sleep!' all night." Gray said. "How 'bout you, Erza?"

"Once I sort out my own bills, I plan to put whatever's left into the guild's coffers. We need all the finances we can get right now."

"I won't be using too much of ours. Fortunately it's really easy to get delicious fishies any time I want!" Happy said.

"Happy, I really sometimes wonder what it would take to get you to think about something else. Anything else, really." Carla said harshly.

"Well, so, I guess this is where we go our separate ways." Wendy said, looking up at the assailant.

"Yeah, I guess it is." He replied while securing his own money in a jacket pocket.

"Come on, Mop Head, come with us! You'll love it in Fairy Tail! We're the best guild in Fiore and we're going right back to the top! Don't let anyone tell you different!" Natsu spouted with brash enthusiasm.

"Oh, you're not back on this jag, are you?" Moaned Gray, covering his face with an annoyed hand.

"What?! I gotta try one more time before he's gone, don't I?!"

"Why?" The assailant asked.

The question had been nagging at him. Ever since Natsu had gone through his whole spiel at the campsite the night before, Mop Head had been thinking about it. The picture Natsu painted sounded pretty okay and even though he wasn't good around people, for one particular reason, he was considering it, and it made him feel that he couldn't outright reject the possibility without at least hearing why Natsu was so keen on this idea.

"Why do you keep saying I should come with all of you?"

Natsu looked him dead in the eye and responded without blinking or even missing a beat.

"Well, it just kinda seems to me like you could use some friends."

Of all the answers the assailant thought might have come up, the idea that this stranger simply wanted to be his friend had not been one of them.

"Natsu can be a bit gruff, but he isn't wrong. It's your decision, but I wouldn't be averse to your coming back with us either. In fact, I'd be honored to have such a capable and virtuous warrior such as you join our ranks." Erza added.

"I know I've been riding the fire-breather over here, but truth be told, I think you'd fit in at the guild too. You seem alright, you're good in a fight and there's always room for a new nut in the mix with us." Gray said.

"You don't really know us yet and we don't know you, but Fairy Tail is like a family. We all love and trust each other there and they're the best family I've ever known. I couldn't imagine my life without the guild anymore, so if any of that interests you at all, it could be a good fit." Lucy added.

"It's all up to you of course, but I think you'd like it at Fairy Tail too and then we could all be friends! So, what do you say?" Wendy asked.

They all couldn't know it, but the real truth of the matter was that he'd been considering whether or not to ask if he could go with them since their formal introductions the day before, ever since he'd first seen Wendy. For the life of him, he really did not know what it was, but there had been something in Wendy's face which had stirred something in him. Meeting her had caused him to experience strong feelings of affection, caring, and what he thought might even have been something like love. Even though he was fairly sure he'd never met her before, there was something so familiar about Wendy, it was almost like he knew her.

There was nothing indecent or vulgar about these things he was feeling, he knew that. He hadn't associated her or her appearance with anything sexually arousing and knew that he wouldn't hesitate to gravely injure anyone who tried something of that sort with her. The only thing he was sure of was that some part of him wanted to be near her.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll come join your guild."

"Really?! That's so great!" Wendy exclaimed as she beamed another radiant smile towards him.

"Now that we have that settled, I think it's about time we finished our introductions. Unless of course you want Natsu to keep referring to you as 'Mop Head.'" Erza said jokingly.

The assailant nodded his head once, and he told them.

"Logan. Logan Bloodborne."