Lucy paced around the Fairy Tail guild, muttering to herself about the whereabouts of her stolen spirits, Taurus and Gemini. "It's been days…I really hope they're okay…"

"Relax, Lucy, we'll find them soon enough!" Cana said in a reassuring tone, placing a hand gently on the worried blonde's shoulder. "They shouldn't be too far…"

"I don't even know where that lady came from…it just happened so quickly…" Lucy sighed, the frown on her face fading somewhat from Cana's reassurance.

Natsu sat on a chair near the bar, grumbling to himself at his performance in the fight against Gemini Spark and Taurus Fire. "They were strong…I could've done a lot better…I didn't even get that lady's scent because she wasn't close enough."

"Don't fret, Natsu," Erza said while walking over to the fire dragon slayer. "As Cana said, we'll resolve everything soon enough."

"And then we'll pay them back one hundred times over…" Natsu smirked now, standing up. "Let's go right now!"

"Yeah, that's a brilliant plan…" Laxus started from the second floor with an obvious sarcastic tone, looking down at Natsu with a bored expression. "Go right ahead and look for something when you don't even know where it is, where do you come up with these great plans, Natsu?"

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today…" Cynthia mumbled.

"You wanna go, Laxus!?" Natsu shouted as he stared down the lightning dragon from below.

"Maybe some other time…" Laxus yawned, now waving a dismissive hand.

"Ah…anyway…" Wendy started in attempt to change the subject. "What are we going to do in the meantime…we can't find Lucy-san's spirits right away when we don't even know where they are…"

"We'll come up with a few plans, obviously!" Levy said as she raised a fist into the air, putting on her glasses after. "Lu-chan's spirits are also a part of Fairy Tail, so we have to do everything we can to save them!"

"Well said, Levy." Pantherlily said with an approving nod.

Feeling the positive energy from her guild mates, Lucy couldn't help but smile, now feeling the urge to just as hard, and if not harder, than her guild mates to save her captured spirits. "I can't be all sad now! I have to put in effort to save Taurus and Gemini! Don't worry you guys, we'll get you back soon!"

.

.

Things seemed relatively normal in the White Eclipse guild; as in it was another round of training with Reve leading the members with his ever so wonderful "encouragement". "Not bad work today..." Reve said with a nod. "Though, you could all do a little bit better."

Aira panted heavily, now on her hands in knees in the snow from the intensive training session. She looked up at Reve before speaking. "A-Are we done for the day...?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," Reve said with a nod. "You're all getting better at the easy stuff." Reve then turned around and walked back inside the guild, leaving a few of the other members gawking at his last statement.

"What the hell does me that "easy stuff..."?!" Cygnus asked as he stood up, almost having his breath back.

"He's gonna run us into the ground one of these days..." Heather sighed before rolling one of her sore shoulders. "I don't know about you all, but I'm going to take a bath after all that..."

"Selene's lucky she's not here..." Luke groaned as he slowly made way inside with everyone else. "She doesn't have to deal with this..."

"I miss Selene..." Aira sighed, sitting down on the couch after. "She's been gone for months, I hope she's alright..."

"I think she's with Gajeel," Waiston said with his mouth full of ice. After that, things went back to being calm for about 45 or so minutes, until Jaxon came walking out of the infirmary with bandages wrapped around his head. "Jaxon...?"

"Oh, he's awake..." Taya spoke, her arms crossed over her chest as she walked towards the meteorology mage, her voice now a stern, scolding one. "What were you thinking? You've had us all worried, being out for days like that."

Jaxon merely blinked a few times, seemingly confused. "Uhm...I'm sorry I made you worry...but I have one question."

"And that is?" Taya inquired, keeping her tone of voice.

"Who are you people...?" Jaxon asked, blinking confusedly once again.

"What do you mean, Jaxon?!" Kuro immediately asked. "We're your family, remember?"

"Family...? You guys?" Jaxon looked around at all the members present, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm terribly sorry, but I don't think I know any of you..."

"Oh, great, he's got amnesia..." Luke let out a heavy sigh before rolling his eyes, sitting down on a chair. "I don't believe this..."

"Ne, will his memory come back...?" Asami asked, rather curiously at that.

"It might..." Aira replied as she straightened up, glancing at the confused Jaxon. "Memory loss is very serious...we have to take things one step at a time, and even then, he may not remember anything about us or who he is..."

"Guess we'll just have to wait and see where this goes then..." Nami sighed, worry obviously in her voice.

Not too far off from the others, Saeko stood near a window, watching the light snow fall on the mountain, but her expression was not a happy one. She began to talk to herself, passing on a message the stars were telling her. "The deck has been made...the King is the one who wields the cards, and controls the game." Saeko's speaking began to attract a few of the other members, getting them rather curious as she continued. "The Queen and Jack seek to create order...the Heart will destroy the inseparable bonds two, the Diamond, the Spade, and Club will leave a path of the destruction, and that path will lead the Joker right to her. The Dreadful Joker will be the end of..."

"Is she okay..?" Zalen whispered to Kairi, his eyes shifting between the angelic mage and astrology mage.

Kairi merely shrugged, unable to come up with a reasonable response, as she was quite unsure. "Beats me..."

Saeko continued, oblivious to the small crowd of her guild members who were trying to listen in on what she was saying. "The two twins will betray, and the Ox will cause havoc...And the Ace…"

.

.

At the same time of the events at Fairy Tail, Dealer itself was handling a few smaller situations. Queen Tia approached Heartless with a slightly burnt outfit, and an annoyed expression. "Heartless…"

Heartless raised a brow at Queen Tia's outfit, tilting her head in a quizzical manner before speaking. "Yes, Tia…? Did you and Jack get in a fight or something…?"

"No," Tia immediately replied after Heartless spoke, the response so fast that she nearly interrupted Heartless. "It was that stupid bull you brought over here. Taurus Fire, was it? What on earth were you thinking? It's very obnoxious, and whenever it looks at me or Diamond, it gets hearts in its eyes and says something about nice bodies, it's sickening!"

"I see…" Heartless crossed her arms, thinking of a way to apologize to the superior S class mage. "I didn't think that bringing that one back would result in situations like this…Have you have any problem with the Gemini Spark twins?"

Tia thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No, those two have been surprisingly calm and cooperative…Where did you pick those things up from again? They obviously aren't human…"

"A celestial spirit mage," Heartless replied. "Those are the two spirits, Gemini and Taurus. I'm surprised she summoned those two, as I expected Leo…But I'm content with what I did get…"

"Well, keep that perverted fire bull/cow away from Diamond and I before something happens to it, alright?" Tia ordered before walking off.

"Yes, Queen Tia…" Was Heartless' only reply; as the Queen walked off, Heartless began to think to herself. "She and the Salamander were unable to rescue those spirits…if they cannot handle a simple battle such as that…then Fairy Tail as a whole is not ready for the calamity that Dealer is about to bring…And I feel as though I can say the same for the guilds known as White Eclipse and Twilight Zone…The only thing I can do for now is just continue to scout and see how things play out later…"

In the main room of the Dealer guild, Joker, Diamond, and King were beginning to discuss the whereabouts of the missing Spade Magnes and Club Strong. "It's been days! Where are those two idiots?!" Diamond groaned, tapping her foot in an irritated fashion as a cold wind began to emit from her body. "It's been three days! How are they not back yet!"

"This is a little troublesome…" King sighed, shuffling a deck of cards in his hands. "Fiore is a foreign country, but they shouldn't have gotten lost unless one of them damaged the lacrima…"

"I wouldn't put it past Strong to do that…but Spade? Eh…he's usually careful on missions…" Diamond replied while letting her angel subside.

"Should I go look for them?" Joker asked, ready to hand out a punishment for the two being late?

"That won't be necessary, Joker." King replied. "I want to perform a little experiment…"

"An experiment, sir?" Joker spoke with a curious tone, wondering what it was that King wanted to test out.

"Yes…" A small grin appeared on King's face. "I want to see what those two will do before they return, as I ordered them to give me a report of it once they did. So, let us all see where this takes us…"

.

.

In a restaurant in a small town, Spade and Magnus were eating to their hearts contents. But in all actuality, Spade was rather annoyed while Strong was chowing down. "Come on, hurry up!" Spade nearly shouted in aggravation, a scowl the prominent feature on his face. "King is going to have our HEADS if we don't hurry up!"

"He can wait just a little bit longer…!" Strong said with a full mouth, not wasting time in shoving any more food in his mouth.

"It's been days! He's gonna be so pissed…!" Spade began to panic, now rising from his seat. "Come on, we're going back."

"But I need to finish this food…!" Strong said, or at least that's what Spade thought he said. "I want seconds, but there are too many people!"

"Too many people? Fine, wait here sec…" Spade raised his hand, creating colorless magic seals above him. "Missile Barrage!" From the magic circles, missiles launched out, striking every part of the restaurant, causing numerous large explosions, causing the people to panic and flee.

"Ah! Spade, what are you doing!? The cooks are leaving too!" Strong groaned.

"Oh, that's too bad!" Spade shouted back. "We're going back to King!"

"Oi, oi…" Sting, the White Dragon slayer of Sabertooth sighed as he walked forward, stretching as he used a tooth pick to clean his teeth. "Can't a guild master come to a small town to eat out without being interrupted…?"

"Who the hell is this guy…?" Spade asked, a brow raised as he eyed Sting. "I'm detecting an interesting level of magic coming from this guy…"

"Should we report back to King?" Strong asked as he stood up, his hulking stature towering over Sting.

"Let's test this out…Strong, you have the honors." A smirk appeared on Spade's face as he stood back, waiting to see Strong show off his immense strength.

"I don't know who you guys are…" Sting started as he flicked the tooth pick away, a serious expression now on his face. "But you're causing a lot of these people trouble, so I'm gonna have to knock some sense into you."

"That so…?" Strong's clueless expression immediately replaced with that of a cold hearted murdered. "Let's see if you can…" Strong drew his muscular arm back, and hurled it towards Sting, who quickly jumped to the side, causing Strong's fist to smash through the ground. Much to Sting's surprise, the impact was followed up by a shockwave, throwing Sting off his feet, but he quickly spun around to regain his balance.

"He's strong alright…" Sting thought to himself. Sting then allowed white energy to form around his closed fists, and he charged forward towards Strong whilst exclaiming. "White Dragon's Punch!" Sting threw his fist forward, striking Strong directly in the chest, but the hulking male didn't seem fazed by the attack, even though the energy tore through his shirt and left a mark on him, Sting, not acknowledging this yet, then swung a heavy right hook to Strong's face, forcing Strong's head to turn in that direction. Sting jumped back, now noticing how Strong wasn't really affected by the attacks. "He didn't flinch…"

Strong turned his neck, a loud popping sound coming from it as he faced Sting, a grin now on his face. "Oh, thanks a lot, I've had this really nasty crick in my neck for the past few days, but that really helped me out. Let me repay you!" Strong held his hand up, a heavenly light appearing in his palm as a large, platinum club appeared in his hands.

"W-What the hell is…!?" Sting's eyes widened, his irises now miniscule as he witnessed Strong literally shrug his attack off.

"Strong Swing!" Strong swung his club at Sting, but Sting managed to jump to the side at the last second, letting the dangerous weapon strike the ground. To Sting's surprise, the impact from the club sent a powerful shockwave that literally tore through the ground for about 20 or so yards, after that, the path just continued, a tremor following it for about 10 seconds before calming down.

"What…What the hell is this guy…?" Sting thought to himself once more as he glared at Strong, who was giving a few practice swings with his platinum club. Shaking the feeling off, Sting jumped forward once again, his cheeks beginning to puff out. "White Dragon's Roar!" Sting opened his mouth, unleashing a torrent of holy white energy towards the seemingly distracted Strong.

"Oh, ho…" Strong gave a sly grin before stepping on the ground once, causing a light green magic seal to appear in front of up, sending large, thick pillars of wood to appear, protecting him from the roar with ease. The wood pillars shattered, but Strong was unharmed.

"No way…!" Sting's jaw dropped. "How did he guard against that in time…!?"

"Yup, Strong's still got it…" Spade smirked, analyzing every move Sting made so he could file this back to King when he returned.

Stong spun around once, and when he did he sent multiple tornadoes hurtling towards Sting, who was unable to dodge. "GAAAH!" Sting yelled out in pain as he flew through a wall, now landing on a dirt road just near the building. "Ugh…" Sting rubbed his head, and when he looked up, he could see Strong quickly approaching; despite his size, he was certainly fast. "White Drive…" Sting spoke in a low tone, activating an ability that made him different from the first and second generation dragon slayers; a white aura made itself present around Sting's body, upping his combat abilities in the process. He allowed white energy to course through a clenched fist once more, and he charged towards Strong, throwing a fierce uppercut to Strong's chin, causing Strong's head to tilt back, seemingly frozen. This didn't last but for a few seconds, as Strong merely brought his head forward, slamming a brutal headbutt into Sting, sending the dragon slayer into the ground once more. "D-Dammit…" Sting looked up, eyes wide. Strong had raised his club, and he was preparing to swing it down, and he did, but Sting brought his hands up, stopping the impact just in time, but the ground began to crack and crater beneath him from the sheer force Strong was using. "Grrrr…."

"C'mon!" Strong said with a widening grin. "Don't tell me that's all you've got!? You're all magic and no muscle! You'd never beat me in a contest of strength!" As he said this, he was winning battle against Sting, mere seconds away from crushing him into the dirt in this position.

"I'm not gonna make it...!" Sting thought to himself. It was taking everything he had to fight back. His Dragon Force flared up to give him that extra boost in strength, and it seemed to be working as he was starting to push Strong back. "There...!"

"Oh?" Strong lifted a brow. "Ya got a little bit after all, BUUUUUUT!" Strong applied even more pressure, causing the ground to crack under Sting's back, putting him back into that same position as before. Strong was simply...too strong when it came to pure power. Strong was just about to finish the job when...

"Strong, that's enough," Spade commanded, snapping his fingers to draw Strong's attention.

"Eh…?" Strong immediately went back to his usual unintelligent self, walking over to Spade with a confused look. "But I was just about to finish him!"

"We're not here to cause a scene, remember? Plus, you were about to win anyway…we're going back, I have some interesting data to relay back to King," Spade nodded, and he and Strong left rather quickly, leaving Sting there, gritting his teeth in anger.

"Damn…" Sting growled to himself. Whoever that guy was...he was strong as hell. He couldn't help the growing frustration building within his chest. If that attack wasn't stopped...

.

.

"So, that's what took you so long?" Heartless inquired Spade and Strong, a hand resting on her hip.

"Yes!" Spade replied, quickly continuing before Joker could get the chance to chew him out. "But, not only did Strong and I get a map of Fiore, we also got some more information about the mages and the magic they use!"

"Is that so?" King said, his interest obvious caught by Spade's words. "Tell me, what did you find?"

"Well, it was only one mage, but…" Spade coughed. "We figured, well, how about we do some research on the top guilds in Fiore! It's been a few months snice the Grand Magic Games. Even though we've been keeping an eye on their activity, we haven't been watching them personally! Things could have changed! Nothing major has happened since those angels attacked, correct? As such, our magic gathering process has slowed considerably"

"….That gives me an idea…" Heartless nodded slowly.

"And it gives me an idea too!" King shouted with excitement, ingenious smirk appearing on his lips. "There are three top guilds, yes?"

"That is correct," Joker nodded. "There is, in order, White Eclipse, Twilight Zone, and Fairy Tail, the former number one guild of that country, though I still believe them to be number one, because of the events that happened in the most recent Grand Magic Games, preventing a fair competition."

"Right, right." King nodded as he listened to Joker's words. "Alright, well, Jack, Queen Tia, I have a job for you."

"Am I finally gonna be able to leave this dump?" Jack asked.

"Jack, be more respectful," Tia let out a small annoyed sound before looking towards King. "What is it?"

"I want you two to investigate Fairy Tail…we may find some information on that item we are looking for as well. I trust my two strongest S class mages can handle the job, yes?" King asked.

"Fairy Tail?!" Jack wanted to complain but Tia shushed him.

"You can count on us, King," Queen Tia replied. "Jack and I will leave immediately."