Ladies and Gentlemen, I have another chapter for you all. Admittedly, this is by far one of the shortest chapters I've ever put out, but I have plenty of important information to divulge in the author's notes in regards to this fic. Please give it a read to stay informed.

Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo and Shounen jump. Fairy tail is owned by Hiro Mashima and weekly shounen magazine. I own NOTHING. This is all just for fun.


With the Rune Knights currently examining the train for any kind of potential threats and various other kinds of other inspections, the members of Fairy Tail found themselves with some time to kill. At least an hour's worth or so. Wanting some alone time with a new book Momo had offered her, Levy broke away from the group of sixteen for some much needed privacy in the town's local park.

The blue haired book lover couldn't help but smile as she turned the next page. "Momo wasn't kidding when she said I'd be hard pressed to stop reading. I almost hope the train isn't ready in a few hours." She knew that she was being selfish in that regard, but it was rare when a novel could capture her attention this much.

It wasn't anything original, the concept simply being about a group of mages teaming up to overthrow the dark lord of the land, but the way the sentences flowed into one another and the unexpected twists and turns she had experienced had made it one of the more memorable experiences she had with a novel in a long time.

However, just as she was about to turn the next page, Levy could vaguely make out the sound of small wings fluttering as a small blue bird carrying a letter flew towards her.

"Message for Levy Mcgarden, Message for Levy Mcgarden!" The small bird chirped out.

Levy almost rolled her eyes as the bird dropped the letter into her hand and sighed. Probably Jet and Droy wondering when I'll come back. Levy partially appreciated their eagerness to see her again, but sometimes she felt that the pair were too clingy. Still, it would be rather rude of her to not at least see what they wrote.

However, much to her immense surprise, the letter came not from Jet and Droy, but rather from Master Makarov himself.

As she quickly read the contents within the letter, her eyes widened and her mouth fell agape as she unconsciously began to shuffle and shudder on the park bench.

This...This is...

Of all the things she had been prepared for Master Makarov to inform her this was without a doubt not only the most unlikely… but also one of the most difficult. She supposed she should have been grateful that the master had given her a heads up in regards to the current situation but even so...

Why...Why on earth is he coming to Fairy Tail? Levy screamed internally. She absolutely knew that in the end it was Makarov's decison, he was the guild master all, but even so Her mind was in utter turmoil, a brutal blend of fury and fear twirling in her mind like a vicious twister. "How…How do I respond to this?!" She cried out as she clenched the letter in her hand.

"Miss Mcgarden, what's the matter?"

Gasping as she quickly turned to the sound of the concerned voice, Levy's tear-filled eyes made contact with Momo Hinamori's, the bluenette's shuddering coming to a complete stop. "M-momo? What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see how the book I gave you was coming along… but it looks like I came at a bad time." She slowly walked around the bench the bookworm was sitting at before she gave her a small smile. "Still, I like to think that I'm a good listener. May I have a seat?"

Slowly nodding her head, Momo promptly sat next to her fellow book lover. "I know that we've only just met, but if you want to tell me what's wrong, I'm more than willing to hear you out." Momo paused. "...If I'm not intruding, that is."

Normally, Levy wasn't so sure she'd open up to someone who she had relatively just met, but as confused, angry and dejected as she was, she just couldn't find it in herself to keep her feelings contained. Thus did the dam of emotions burst open as she told Hinamori everything. From the traumatic events that had taken place several months ago, as well as the contents of the letter and the news within.


Momo's right hand covered her mouth as she took in all that Levy had to say. "I see. That's... I'm so sorry that you had to go through all that. And... you're saying that your guild master is letting him join the guild?"

Slowly, Levy nodded her head. "Yeah. I… I know what I want to say, what I want to do, but…I'm sure the master has his reasons. Besides I…I know what he's going through right now. Before I found Fairy Tail, I… I had to scrounge up whatever I could to live. Every day was a struggle just to survive. No one should have to go through that, not even someone like… him. Everyone needs a guild to call their own. But even so, even so… Why does it have to be Fairy Tail!?"

Watching her new friend shudder from her overwhelming emotions, Momo slowly covered one of Levy's hands with her own. "Levy… I understand exactly how you feel right now."

Sniffling, Levy turned her head to look at Momo. "You… You do?"

The reigai slowly nodded her head. "Yes, I do. A while back… I had someone I idolized more than anyone else. For so long, we worked hard to bring peace where we lived. He was practically my whole world. And then, one day, I thought I lost him. More than that, I thought I had lost my entire reason for living. The things I did in my grief… I'd rather not talk about them."

As Momo continued, Levy felt the grip on her hand tighten ever so slightly. "I thought my life was over until I discovered that he was alive all along! I was beyond overjoyed… until I found his sword in my chest."

Levy gasped as Momo continued her story as her hand went to her chest. "For the longest time, I refused to believe it. I fervently believed that he had to have had a good reason for what he did. Or that someone was controlling him. It...took a while for the truth to finally sink in. No, more than that. It took me dying almost two more times before it was finally clear to me. The man I admired...never existed."

Her left hand clenched her shihakusho as she narrowed her eyes. "Once I finally woke up to the truth, I hated him. With every fiber of my being, I despised the man I once loved. I wanted nothing more, nothing more than to scream at him, to cut him down with my own blade, to demand some sort of apology. To get any sort of answer. I just wanted to take something, anything from him to make him hurt as much as he hurt me. But..."

She shook her head. "But in the end, none of that hate brought me any happiness. If anything, it almost consumed me. When I began learning all of those spells, a small part of me was doing it so I could prove him wrong. To show him just how strong I could really be. I didn't know it at first, but the first three months of my life here, I grew as much as I did just to spite him...and all it did was just bring me more pain. I wasn't able to really enjoy my time in the academy, not at first. All I wanted...was to just prove him wrong "

Momo looked over in the distance then as her gaze met a loving couple who sat opposed to them on the other side of the park. "But then I started to notice that...That desire was all that I had. I didn't have any friends. I didn't have anything to really live for. Once I realized that...I decided to do my best to move on. To learn magic not for myself...but to protect others so that they'd never have to go through the same pain that I did."

She then looked back at Levy. "I'm not saying that you shouldn't feel the way you do. You have every right to. Honestly, I still can't find it in myself to fully move on from what happened. I don't know if I ever will be. But what I do know is that none of this hatred I still feel has brought me any joy. Hate only breed's more hate. Likewise, suffering brings only more suffering. The only thing this feeling of hatred hurt…was me."

"Are...are you saying that I have to forgive him?" Levy asked with a slight tremble in her voice. "Do you…really think it's just that simple?"

Momo shook her head. "Not at all. Levy, I'm not saying that you have to do anything. You're the only one that can really make that call. All I know is this: If you can move on from what happened, if you can live the rest of your life in spite of what he did...then that's more important to you than anything you could ever do to him."

Levy simply stared at Momo as the weight of her words filled her heart before the bluenettes narrowed her eyes. "Alright.. I know exactly what I need to do."

She took out her pen then, and began to write down an answer of her own.


Crawford Seam let out a sigh as he wearily looked out of the prison bars of his cell. How the mighty had fallen. A mere thirteen days ago, he had been at the top of the magic council, the most respected man in government, and had been promised an even grander position of power once Tartaros had reigned supreme.

Now here he resided, trapped within a prison tower meant to hold the most deplorable criminals that Fiore had ever known. Not that he would be here long. His days were numbered and he knew it. The verdict had come to him last night when he asked one of the patrolling guards.

Execution. He was to die a mere month from now, publicly beheaded for his crimes. It had been over fifty years since the last public execution, but the soon-to-be vice-chairman of the Magic Council, and the very woman who had ousted him in the first place, Meifon Long, had insisted to the magic council to be publicly executed.

He gripped the bars of his cell before he bit his lip. "That damn bitch! Everything was going perfectly until she showed up!" He wasn't just referring to the day she had confronted him either. Ever since she had left Fairy Tail, Meifon Long and Celestial Blade had been vigilant in their attempt to rid Fiore of dark guilds, and they had been quite successful at managing to take down over five or so per year. It had made many of his under-the-table operations that much harder.

Worst of all however was when he was forced to publicly endorse and praise her efforts when he truthfully wanted nothing more than to sell her off to the black market for how much trouble she had caused him.

"No, no, I won't let things end like this," Crawford swore. "Not till I put that wench back in her place just like–"

"Just like your other 'pets', right, Crawford?"

No…It…It can't be! Crawford quickly turned around, only to see none other than Emberella closing his cell door behind her, and giving him a small smile.

"How long has it been, hmmm?" She asked as she slowly made her approach. "I believe it was five years since we last saw each other face to face."

Crawford's angry expression quickly changed into one full of absolute panic as he yelled out of his window. "Guards!"

"Oh, what's wrong Crawford?" Emberella asked him as she took another step forward. "I thought you'd be happy to see your favorite pet again." Her voice didn't raise in the slightest, though the past three words were filled with an undertone of fury.

"GUARDS!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "Come help me, you worthless–"

But before he could prattle on any longer, a burst of flame shot from Emberella's index finger and seared his right ear, the old man squealing in agony as she got closer and closer.

"It's no use, Crawford," Emberella said as she moved one finger against the wall of his cell as she approached, small sparks arcing all the while. "I've placed a spell of perpetual white noise over this room. They won't know what happened for at least a few hours. Though..." Her smile changed then, from a small smirk to a huge, terrifying sneer. "I doubt you'll survive what I have in mind for that long."

"W-wait, wait!" Crawford insisted as he got onto his knees. "Look, I know I've wronged you in the past, but surely we can work things out! If you just free me, then I can–"

A swift kick to Crawford's face knocked him to the floor, his nose completely smashed by the kick as Emberella looked down at him with a piercing gaze filled with complete and utter rage. "Did you really think you could bargain your way out of this one, Crawford?" She sat down on his bed then before lifting up her foot and slamming it over his head, his face cracking the pavement beneath. "Your finances have been completely liquidated, your benefactors from the Balam Alliance have lost any and all use for you, and the political might you once had is nonexistent."

The temperature in the room began to rise, sweat easily dripping from the fat man's skin as Emberella dug the heel of her shoes even more into his head. "Not that any of that would give me any pause to spare you… Not after what you've done."

She kicked him once again, this time on his right side, cracking a rib as his body collided with the cell walls. However, just before he could fall, flaming rings pinned his arms and legs to the wall, searing his flesh even more as the former chairman screamed and screamed.

Her index finger slowly trailed up his body. What might have normally been seen as a teasing gesture of a sexual nature was quickly revealed to instead be her own form of torture, third degree burns left wherever her finger trailed. Finally, her finger stopped just below his chin before she snarled.

"My family and I worked for you for years. We bled for the magic council, fought tooth and nail, even died for them. And yet somehow, somehow, your mere words alone were all it took to give my family a death sentence."

Crawford sputtered with his words, trying to find something to soothe her, but she slapped him across the face for his efforts and left a palm-sized burn on his cheek. "No. You will be silent. You sent the mightiest of us on a suicide mission! You told us our target was nothing more than mere pirates, when in reality you had us attack one of the Spriggan Twelve's own personal sea vessels! If it weren't for my fiance sacrificing his life for my own, I would have died along with them."

Crawford tried to speak up once more, but Emberella pressed her index finger against his shoulder until his flesh began to burn away, a finger-sized hole gradually forming, her own finger sliding in and searing the muscles within in order to cause even further anguish.

"But you couldn't have just stopped with killing the mightiest of us. Oh no, my family knew far too much about Tartaros after my brother stumbled across a meeting where he found out about Tartaros's plans to use Face. We were a security risk, so you decided that my whole family had to go. I still remember it, when I came back home, only to find everything and everyone reduced to cinder's."

The flames inside of Crawfords shoulder began to spread, slowly yet surely destroying all of the muscle tissue in his right arm. His pleas fell on deaf ears as she continued to glare at him.

"My sisters, my brothers, you took them away from me. My family meant everything to me, and because of you, I lost them all!"

Crawford's entire right arm appeared to be boiling as his skin was popping and searing more like it was some sort of liquid rather than flesh. However, she then turned up the ante by placing two of her fingers over his right eye.

"But worst of all… was what you did to my baby." Her fingers slowly dug into his eye socket, the former chairman screaming louder than he ever had. Music to her ears.

"She was just two years old when your men set that house a blaze, you son of a bitch. You couldn't begin to possibly imagine my agony when I found her charred corpse!"

With a swift yank, Crawford's eye was ripped from his eye, his cries sounding more like that of an injured animal than a humans. Emberella then crushed the eyeball in her fingers and spat in his face.

"What's wrong? Is the pain too much to bare?" Emberella asked as she slowly caressed his other check which slowly began to burn. She scoffed. "Compared to my suffering… your pain is nothing!"

Slapping him once more, the flesh that connected with her hand ripped off, revealing scarred tissue and bone as the old man's remaining eye filled with tears.

Emberella gritted her teeth. "But it wasn't enough to just kill my entire family, was it? No, you wanted more. Or should I say me?"

Her mind flashed to the past briefly then, from her capture after expending all of her powers, to the seal-stone collar placed around her neck, to her enslavement to Crawford… and all the indecencies and humiliation that followed.

"Life as your pet was a living hell, Crawford. I wanted almost nothing more than to die than live under your roof for even a minute longer. The only thing that kept me from killing myself was just one thing: the desire to kill you myself."

She took a step back then as she looked at the pathetic old man she had pinned to the wall. "I was fortunate that, after I escaped, Master Hades took me under his wing as one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory. Even if it was for only a few years, I owe him everything for giving me a second chance… and for him telling me the truth about you."

Her right hand placed itself on his chest as she slowly began to burn away at his robes and the skin beneath. "Master Hades forbade any attempt on your life, not while you were under Tartaros's thumb. But thanks to Meifon, your usefulness to them is finally at an end, and I can do with you as I see fit."

"Please... please, have mercy." Crawford wept pitifully as he could feel his chest burn more and more. "I… I don't want to… to–"

"Die?" Emberella interrupted him. "Oh, don't worry."

She slammed the back of his head against the wall. "I don't intend to kill you. Well, at least not yet. After all, I've imagined this day for years… and I have so many more ideas in store."


Thirty minutes. She had managed to inflict thirty minutes of absolute hell on Crawford Seam before he had finally passed. While she would have preferred to keep it going for a while longer, she knew that it was to have been expected.. By the time she knew he was about to die, she had ensured that his last moment alive was spent with his entire body covered in flame. There his body lay, nothing more than charred black bones. Just like her daughter had been.

She sighed before she sat back down on the bed. She looked up at the ceiling, and for the first time in years, tears fell from her eyes.

"You can finally rest in peace, Bridget. He's... He's finally gone."

Her tears continued to fall for a few more seconds before they dried up, her face one of cold stoicism as she looked outside of the window to one of the Magic Council's many outposts.

"No. No, I'm not done. Not yet. Not until everyone and everything responsible for it all burns."

Tartaros was the reason they had died in the first place, but Master Hades had informed her just how powerful they truly were. But that merely meant that their time would come later. Regardless, the Magic Council had allowed this tragedy to happen in the first place, and its populace accepted it with little to no disregard for the lives lost. Once she controlled Fairy Tail... her revenge would begin in earnest.

They'll pay, Emberella thought as she clenched her fists. Every single person in Fiore… No, all of Ishgar will soon know my wrath.


Like I said, this is a very, very short chapter in terms of story content/progression, but I have my reasons for taking things this slow.

First of all, I just felt it was about damn time I finally went into detail on why Emberella hates the Magic council so much. While I didn't have it in me to write out an entire flashback sequence, I felt some sort of context was needed. Not to mention it allowed me to get rid of Crawford. Two birds, one stone.

But more importantly than that is the subject of the Bleach anime's return. Finally, after 10 long years of waiting, it is finally here. Just a mere 9 day's away. It's kind of surreal to be honest, but I'm beyond excited for it to see this arc and the Bambi's (Bambietta in particular) finally being animated.

But with the anime's return comes some…potential issues, at least in regards to character backgrounds for this fic. For any new readers, please understand that until this point in the story, I have relied solely on the manga when it came to the Stern Ritter, because I've had no other means of getting anymore information on them.

For those of you who are catching up purley from the anime, the manga was very sparse on backstories for the Sternritter. In fact, only Yhwach, The "Yourself" Twins, Bazz B, Haschwalth and As Nodt got any sort of flashback. For the rest…Yeah we got nothing. Zilch. Nadda.

There is a chance that the anime will give certain members of the Sternritter their own unique backstories and while I am happy for this to be the case…I've had my own plans/ideas for Bambietta for quite some time. (Literally over 5 years)/ In fact, I've already dropped several hints that it was fairly nasty, thanks in part to her father so the groundwork for it has already been in place for some time.

Let me be perfectly clear on this subject. While I greatly look forward to whatever plans the anime may have in store for a potential Bambietta backstory, I'll more than likely won't be able to use it due to the fact that I have already laid the groundwork for her backstory for years.

There are a few things I'm willing to go back and change such as God Serena's Ichor element being retconned into being Diamond thanks to the revelation from the 100 years quest manga, ( And no, the irony of that being one of his elements has not been lost on me) but to go back and change several instances throughout the story is another matter entirely.

I've spent so much time adding to Bambietta's character that I can't just force myself to change all the plans I've had in mind just because the anime (potentially) may contradict my story. I hope that you can all understand, and enjoy what I have in store.

That said, I am willing to incorporate whatever new material I can from the anime that is compatible with this story.

One last detail I want to mention is that I will be publishing a one shot Bleach story about the 9th Kenpachi, 'Kenpachi Tamura' on the 10th of October. I'm mentioning it here not simply just to promote it, but also because it's actually in continuity with this story. In fact, I've already name dropped the 9th Kenpachi character from it all the way back in chapter 74. While the story is Supposed to act as a stand alone, I've already decided to make use of her (Though it won't be for much more than simply world building for the Kenpachi title and for when we focus on Mermaid Heel.) So please, feel free to check it out to get all of the context you'll need.

In good news, we'll be starting "The Battle Of Fairy Tail) arc next month, so look forward to seeing that coming soon. I'm already several chapters ahead in regards to the arc, but I prefer to have a large swath of chapters done ahead of time so that if anything urgent should happen in my life, I can focus on what's important while still maintaining a consistent monthly update schedule on the first of each month. I've keept to it so far and I want to see if I can continue to do just that.

That's all I have to say for now. Looking forward to the Bleach anime starting up again in 9 days. Till then, stay safe!