Well well, is this another chapter I see? Interesting. This one will definitely be shorter than the last one, but that's just because it sets up the next one! Also, if you guys didn't notice, take a look at the story's cover art! Where did I find that hm? I didn't. A lovely reader blackmai...convinced her sister to draw me that. And I must say, it looks pretty good. But if it was colored in...I know you read that, zodiac. I'm teasing.

Enjoy!

Nashi wasn't sure how she was supposed to react in this scenario. Blake, a man whom she knew as an Olympian agent, was asking to see her. Was he here on good terms? To kill her? It could have been either, honestly.

She had to wonder this as he walked up to her. Truthfully he too looked a bit tense.

"Hey." He greeted. "How've you been, Nashi?" Nashi didn't reply to him, she just kept her eyes glued on him looking for any sign of a sneak attack.

"...Hey." She said. He smiled at her pause.

"I see you're quite tense. Please don't be. I'm not..."

Blake was cut off by Drake.

Nashi watched in shock as her friend moved swiftly. He grabbed Blake and twisted him around, slamming him against a table nearby and startling those nearby. Drake twisted Blake's right arm behind his back and started to push it upwards, which caused a grunt of pain from Blake.

"Give me one reason." Drake snarled. "One good reason I shouldn't snap your fucking arm." Blake grimaced through the pain.

"Please do. I'd deserve it too, wouldn't I?" He asked.

"Drake!" Nashi shouted. "Go easy on him!"

"I know what I heard, Nashi!" Drake replied, looking back at her. A fire was in his eyes Nashi rarely saw. He was talking about when he'd listened in on herself and Michael when they were introducing everyone to Steph after she came back. Nashi had meant to talk to Drake about Blake's affiliation with the Olympians, but the job from Halsey had made it slip her mind. "He's one of them...Just like Apocalypse. What reason could he have for being here if not to attack us?!"

"Ah, that's...Right." Blake said, still grunting in pain as Drake looked back at him, pushing his arm even harder. "You can hear me, can't you Poison Dragon? Well do me a favor and take a nice, long listen and tell me what you hear." Blake glared right back at Drake, who made a face as his ears started to twitch.

Nashi watched as Drake did his thing, and the expression on his face contorted from anger to shock, calm, anger again, and finally, with a frustrated sigh, Drake let go of Blake and backed up. Blake sighed as he got up and rubbed his arm.

"Thank you." He told Drake. Drake looked down.

"I should have started with that...I had no idea that..."

"It's fine." Blake said. "I deserved that for what I did." Drake didn't say anything more, so Blake turned to Nashi once more. "Now that that is out of the way, would it be okay for me to speak to you privately, Nashi?"

"Privately?" She asked. Blake nodded.

"Yes. There's some thing I'd...Like to talk to you about." Nashi looked over at Drake cautiously, but he simply nodded. Whatever he had heard, it seemed to have soothed the anger in his heart. Nashi turned back to Blake.

"Okay. Let's go."

"You what?!" Nashi asked, sitting up bolt-right on the bench they were seated on.

"You heard me." Blake said, staring at his feet. "I betrayed the Olympians, and I'll be hunted for the rest of my life because of it. So to protect Sabertooth, I made Sting kick me out." Nashi frowned at this. "It was the only way to ensure that those I love stay safe...That they don't lose their lives because of me."

"Well, if that's what you want to do..." Nashi said slowly. She didn't really agree with his line of thinking, but she had no right to tell him what to do. "Is that what you wanted to tell me?" Blake shook his head.

"No, that's just the explanation of what happened." He answered, looking over at her. "When I left...Obviously Michael and the others weren't willing to let me go. I made them, but..." He looked down at the bench. "I hurt them so badly...In a way I never wanted too. Michael probably thinks I'll die, and the others probably think they'll never see me again."

"That makes sense, I suppose." Nashi said, nodding. "So...Why did you come to see me?"

"Well, a few reasons." Blake said. "I wanted to ask you a favor. I have no right to do so, but...If you'd at least hear me out and consider it, I'd appreciate it." Nashi made a face at this.

"Okay, I can do that." She said. Blake smiled.

"Thank you. That's all I ask." He sat up and sighed. "I want you, if it's not too much trouble, to see if you and your friends can somehow cheer them up a bit. I know it won't do much, really...but if you can get their minds off of what happened with me at least for a little bit, I'd be in your debt. They don't deserve to suffer because of me."

"Blake..."

"And I know that you're probably swamped with job requests because of the Games, so...This may be asking a bit much." That was true, at least. "But...Could you at least give it a go?" Nashi looked down at her own feet and thought about his words. If that was really all he wanted from her, she could probably do that.

"...I'll see what the others think." She said. "But I think we can do that." Blake smiled.

"Thank you. It's appreciated." Nashi nodded.

"But, you said a few reasons." Blake's smiled turned into a frown.

"Ah, so I did. When I was on my way to leave...Hermes came to talk to me." Nashi didn't know who that was, but judging from Blake's expression it was no one good. "He said...He said that if I wanted my friends lives to be saved in the upcoming battle, I'd have to go back to them." At this, Nashi tensed up.

"Are you...?" She started, making Blake look up at her.

"No. I told him to fuck off." Nashi sighed in relief, but Blake did not share her feeling. "I came here not only to ask for your help, Nashi Dragneel, but to warn you of said battle." The two made eye contact. "I don't know what it is they have planned, but it's not too far away now. And you're too heavily involved in their plans for you not to know they're probably closing in, so keep an eye out." Nashi nodded.

"Thank you for telling me." Blake hummed, looking up at the sky.

"I guess I'd better get going, unless I involve Magnolia in my problems as well..." Blake stood from the bench and walked onto the street, before he paused. He slowly looked back at Nashi, and the two exchanged looks once more.

"Anything else?" Nashi asked. Blake watched her before he chuckled and turned around.

"I doubt you'll be able to stop them, but..." He sighed. "If the Olympians truly plan to start a fight with you...Michael told me he promised to be by your side. Was that a lie?" Nashi thought back to her dance with the boy during the Royal Ball.

"If some shit like yesterday ever happens again, don't hesitate to ask the others and I for help. We won't even hesitate."

"No, it wasn't," She said. "He promised." Blake nodded at this.

"Thought so." He paused, looking troubled. "If the battle Hermes speaks of truly does come to pass..." He met Nashi's gaze. "I want you to do your best to keep them out of it."

"...What?" Nashi asked, but Blake just watched her, not saying anything more. "How am I supposed to do that? He wants to help us. All of them do." Blake chuckled.

"I know. I doubt even your words would convince them to stay out of it. But if there's even a slim chance you could, please try. I don't wan't them to get hurt."

"...Okay. I'll... I'll try." Blake smiled.

"Thank you. That's all I want." He then looked down both ways of the street. "I should go. Who knows if any of them are watching me." Nashi suddenly felt tense.

"Okay." Blake glared down the street for a bit, before he sighed and turned to her.

"Goodbye, Nashi Dragneel." He said, turning away from her. "Perhaps, if both of us are lucky, we will meet again." Nashi nodded, smiling.

"I hope so." She said. "You're a pretty decent guy." Blake chuckled at this as he began to walk away from her. He raised a hand to wave to her without looking back, and Nashi watched him disappear into the crowd of people. Once he was gone, she sighed.

"What are we going to do?" Nashi was not surprised that Drake was now with her.

"I don't know." She answered. "I really don't." She turned to look at her friend. "What do you think?"Drake looked unsure.

"Truthfully?" He asked. "I really don't. I'm not even sure Sabertooth would appreciate our attempt to cheer them up." He shrugged. "But we should give it a go anyway. I feel like I owe him now for almost snapping his arm..." At this, Nashi giggled.

"That's what you get for assuming attacking him, you goofball." She said, standing with her hands on her hips. "What did he do to deserve that?"

"Working with them." Drake said, instantly killing the joking mood she was in. She frowned.

"Well, he wasn't anymore. You heard that, right?" Drake nodded. "But still...I see where you're coming from. You took our safety first."

"Whatever. It was still a jackass move. I should have listened to him first." Drake looked genuinely upset with himself. Nashi walked towards him and patted his chest comfortingly.

"It's fine, Drake. You didn't do any harm." She walked past him, back towards the guild. "Now, let's go see if any of our friends have any ideas as to what we could do."

"Jeez, he left?" Nashi nodded at Ultear's question. "Damn."

"He really has a hero complex if I've ever seen one." Steph said.

"His line of thinking makes sense, though." Simon said. "Even if he's basically letting the Olympians get to him."

"Let's not think about that right now." Damien offered. "We should just be thinking of ways to help cheer Sabertooth up. They're probably in pretty bad shape right now."

"Should we go and see them?" Nashi asked. "See if they really do need some help?"

"I think we should." Elise agreed. "We're their friends, so that's the least we can do." Nashi agreed with that. She really had to look at it from her own point of view. What if one of her friends was leaving the guild in a similar situation, like Drake or Ultear? Nashi was certain she'd be beyond consolable for a bit. She could only assume how Saber felt.

"We'll head out tomorrow morning, then." Simon said. "If we go now it'll be nighttime by the time we get there." Now that it seemed the group was in agreement of their plan, the topic of conversation moved. Although she participated a fair amount in the conversation, Nashi's thoughts were still lingering on what they were going to do to cheer Sabertooth up.

Whatever. They'd have to think of something on the way.

Once they reached their destination and the three Dragons Slayers had recovered from the few hours of pure hell they spent traveling, the group of seven walked through the streets in almost a dead silence, all consumed by thoughts as to what they were going to do.

"Please tell me someone got an idea." Drake spoke up. Steph sighed.

"Not really." She said. "You guys know them better than me."

"Debatable." Ultear said. "We only knew them for a week longer than you."

"Leave it to us do go on ahead without any ideas whatsoever." Damien said. This made Nashi laugh.

"How is that any different from normal?" She asked. "We never have a plan." Continuing on their way, Nashi was once again consumed in thought as to how she was supposed to cheer Michael and the others up. She didn't want to see them sad, so she really had to work on this.

The group started to walk past a newsstand, and Nashi was prepared to ignore them like she usually did, but a pamphlet caught her eyes. Turning to look at it, she approached the stand to view what she was looking at. After a few seconds, she smiled and snatched the pamphlet and ran back to her friends, excited.

"Guys!" She shouted, making everyone turn and look at her. "I got it! I know what we can do to cheer them up!"

"Really?" Elise asked. "Let's hear it." Nashi smiled and brandished the pamphlet at her friends. She waited as everyone looked closer to inspect her find, and soon all of her friends were smiling.

"Say, that's a damn good idea Nashi." Simon said.

"Agreed." Elise said. "That'd cheer me up, at least for a bit."

"We should totally do that!" Steph said happily. "We've never been there before."

"Well, let's go see how they feel about it." Ultear said, also looking pleased at the idea. Pleased that her spur of the moment find even had her friends excited, Nashi walked at a quicker pass towards the dome-like Sabertooth guild hall. They could turn this into a huge excursion if it went well.

Michael was not surprised that the table was quite, but it was so unlike him and the others that it really did bother him. However, he really had no idea how to break the silence.

It was a pretty unhappy silence, as well. They had just lost a dear friend to them.

Michael still wasn't sure he'd ever see Blake again. The odds were slim in any case, and no matter how he looked at their situation it didn't look good.

I just have to have faith, I guess. Just be safe, you bastard...

Michael took a sip of his mug, and as he did this, he heard someone approaching him from the side. He turned just in time to catch a slap on the back, and he coughed as his drink came back up. Once he was sure he wasn't going to die from the cough, he looked up at who had hit him. He made a face.

"Nashi? What are you guys doing here?" Nashi smiled at this, and the others seemed pretty happy as well.

"We found out something pretty cool, want to come with us?" She asked.

"What is it?" He asked. Nashi smiled and reached behind her, pulling out some piece of paper. She whipped it out and showed Michael, who had to inspect it closely to realize what she wanted.

"...You want to go?" He asked. Nashi smiled even wider.

"Yep! You guys should come with! It'll be fun!"

"Not really feeling it." He replied honestly. Nashi frowned.

"I'm not taking a no for an answer, Michael Eucliffe. You guys are coming with us to Ryuzetsu Land whether you like it or not! Not that the latter is possible."

Michael found it odd that Nashi wanted to go to a water park, but the last thing they all needed right now was to sit around dwelling on what had happened.

"...Sounds great."

Again, a bit shorter than the chapter recently, but it sets up the next one! So be excited damn it. I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try to get five!