A/N: So, it begins.

More information after the chapter.

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 1: A Heavy Heart to Carry

July X791

The smoke is what Rhiannon would remember the most when looking back on this battle. The smell of it clogged the air and her lungs. The burning black stench was all she had smelled for days. Even high up in the air on her wyvern mount, it had taken over. The little she had managed to eat in those final days had tasted like ash, and she could not recall a time that she wiped at her eyes so much. Her entire unit had red-rimmed eyes just like herself from the constant watering that the smoke caused.

She was honestly surprised that she could even smell the smoke anymore since it had been filling the area they were stationed in for days. It was a tactic that Bellum was known for using. She had a handful of wind mages under her command, but Bellum had brought more to keep the smoke blowing their way. Still though, they'd have to try harder than smoking them out to win.

Rhiannon sighed as she stared at her reflection in the small mirror hanging in her tent. Smears of black appeared across her platinum blonde hair. She had managed to wash off the same smears from her face, but her hair would have to deal with the soot covering it until they could end this battle and head back to the capital. Her burgundy eyes looked tired. She felt tired. Not just from this battle, but from…

"From everything."

Her whisper seemed to echo through her tent.

She was only thirty-six, but sometimes, times like these, she felt much older. She could feel the pressure pushing against her shoulders. She knew it was the weight of a general trying to lead her people to victory. It was a weight that brought her both comfort and sadness. It was in these moments that she wondered if she had been a fool to turn down the offer to move into a Royal Knight position, but she knew the answer to that question every time.

"I always looked better in red, anyways," she said, giving her reflection a brief smirk while eyeing the sleek red armor that covered her body.

"Mage General Ward."

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard her name being called from outside her tent.

"Yes?"

"Things are about to begin. We should get moving."

"I'll be out momentarily."

Rhiannon pushed all her previous thoughts to the back of her mind, locking them away deeply like she always did. She wouldn't be able to lead her knights if her mind was somewhere else. She pulled her hair up into her usual high ponytail before moving to grab her helmet and spear.

When she stepped outside, the few rays of sun that managed to pierce through the smoke glinted off the silver spear. She admired the craftsmanship of the adamantine metal before sheathing the spear on her back. She held her helmet under one arm as she looked around, seeing her black wyvern corps unit on their mounts and ready to begin the attack they had planned with the ground troops the previous night.

"I'll make this short and sweet," she began, "I know it's going to be hard to go back out there, but we must keep pressing forward. As knights of Pergrande and its people. I believe in all of you."

She received resounding shouts from all of them. She nodded at them with a confident smile before turning towards her own wyvern mount.

Calypso was large and fierce looking like the rest of the black wyverns the Pergrande military used. Her red eyes narrowed in on Rhiannon and her long snout gave the woman a quick nuzzle. The general then placed her helmet on before climbing up into position on her wyvern.

Rhiannon took a moment to steady herself, waiting for the general of the ground troops signal for them to take flight. In that brief moment, she didn't think of victory or defeat, of the smoke or the war drums coming from the Bellum troops. All that she thought of, like she did every time before the beginning of every battle, was her wife.

'Cassie,' was her last thought before the horn blew for them to begin.

. : + : .

"Shit!"

Lenz cursed as he dodged another Bellum soldier in the sky. The enemy had their own mountain wyverns to use in battle. While much smaller than the black wyverns, their skin was hard and thick like stone, making them hard to bring down unless struck on their underbelly. And Bellum's wind mages were not letting up with all the smoke being blown their way.

He could hear the battle down bellow them well under way, explosions of magic going off constantly along with the clash of weapons. Shouts of men and women began to intertwine while the black and silver armor of both countries smashed against each other.

Lenz had already thanked his black armor a few times for saving his butt since the start of battle. Everything had quickly turned chaotic up in the sky due to the smoke. It made it hard for their unit to properly make attacks, and often found themselves on the defense. The only thing that made him feel a bit better about their situation was that the smoke also covered his enemy, making Bellum work for any hit they managed to get.

He moved his wyvern upwards, hoping that the thinner smoke above would allow him to see better. He held onto the reins in one hand while the other carried the sword he had called forth from his requip space – The Gunblade. An elegant and heavy longsword that was made of a silver alloy with golden embellishments near the guard. Its handle was covered in a burgundy cloth, ragged with wear and tear, while its pommel was adorned with a light blue lacrima crystal.

Once he felt high enough, he looked over the battlefield, spotting a few Bellum wyvern riders chasing down a member of his unit. He lifted his sword towards them, a magical display lighting up around the handle to show how many charges it had left to use before needing to be reloaded. He kept his arm steady, waited for the Bellum riders to slip in and back out of the smoke, then launched three magic projectiles at them. It didn't take long for them to find their marks, all three exploding upon contact with the riders.

His fellow knight had enough time to wave up to him in thanks before a loud horn was heard across the battlefield. Like the rest of his fellow knights, Lenz knew exactly what that sound was. Not far behind him was General Ward, blowing on a large ivory horn. He began moving towards her, the ground forces also moving until they were placed behind her. He watched as the Bellum soldiers appeared confused momentarily until they saw their enemy falling in behind the general.

"You idiots!" a shout was heard from the Bellum forces, most likely one of their commanders, "That's The North Wind! Don't give her a chance to attack!"

Realizing their mistake, the Bellum soldiers attempted to close in on the Pergrande knights, but it was too late. Rhiannon had been given the space she needed.

She threw her arms open, Calypso keeping her steady, "Iced Storm: Tundra Hurricane!"

The wind began picking up, slow at first before it was roaring towards the Bellum soldiers. It turned to a sharp, cold wind, small pieces of ice beginning to appear in the wind. Though, those small pieces soon changed into large and thorn like icicles. It covered an overly wide area, easily blowing away soldiers on the ground and taking down riders in the air until they took cover behind the wind mages that were putting their all into blocking the heavy attack. Rhiannon kept up the attack long enough to take out half of those wind mages and blow away portions of the soldiers taking refuge behind them.

Once the spell had ended, a deep silence covered the area. The Bellum forces stayed behind the wind mages that had managed to stay standing, unsure if another magic attack would come. The only sound for a long minute that Lenz could hear was his general's labored breathing. He had only seen her use that spell a few times in the three years he had been assigned to her unit, but each time it had always left her wiped out. It wasn't a spell she used lightly or until she thought they could end things. And the spell managed to dispel most of the smoke that had been covering the area, giving them a clear battlefield for the first time since things had begun almost a month ago.

Lenz watched as General Ward took a few deep breaths before sitting up straight. She took one last deep breath as she closed her eyes and reached for her spear still on her back. Once she let out that deep breath, her eyes flew open, alight with the victory they knew was so close to them. She smoothly pulled her spear from its sheath and pointed it towards the remaining Bellum forces, letting out a fierce shout before charging. Lenz, along with the rest of their until, followed her without hesitation, letting out their own shouts to match their general.

The Bellum soldiers all braced themselves to defend the oncoming attack, but great echoing cracks interrupted the battle. Both sides came to a stop, looking up at the sky first, thinking that it had been thunder. But the sky was clear and blue now that the smoke had disappeared. A strange hissing sound accompanied the cracking now, and it was Lenz that saw it first.

"The ground!" he shouted, pointing behind the Pergrande knights.

There, the ground was cracking and splitting apart while bright lines of orange and blue splintered like glowing skeletal hands. The immense heat that washed towards them was just as intense as the freezing cold Rhiannon had created moments ago, if not more.

"Move!" Rhiannon shouted once she realized the cracking and heat were heading straight for the ground troops.

The knights began running away from the splitting ground, but that only seemed to make the ground crack faster. It continued forward, reaching the Bellum soldiers as well. There was silence for a moment, the glowing of the ground seeming to fade away. Though, it wasn't long before whistling began to come out from the fractures.

Rhiannon barely had time to shout out another warning before the ground all around both military groups was glowing a bright and fierce orange. Then the loudest explosion they had ever heard went off, earth and fire spraying upwards. It was so hot that anyone close enough to the initial explosion had been lost, burnt and melted away in it. That bright orange soon became a blazing blue, while multiple smaller explosions started popping off all around the first one. The blazing blue fire was melting away everything around it, creating a pool of liquid earth where it sat. Chunks of the burning, melting earth began to pop out of the crater, taking out troops from both forces. Whatever this was, it didn't care what country you were fighting for, it took out anyone close enough for it to reach.

Chaos had been erupting since the first explosion, making it hard for Lenz to keep control of his wyvern and dodge his way to safety. He did his best to rein his beast in, but it was clear it was panicked and trying to get to safety as fast as possible. It wasn't paying attention to everything going on. Lenz could hear shouting all around him, doing his best to ignore the ones belonging to people dying. Left and right people were being taken down by chunks of earth and searing hot fire. He tried his damnedest to listen for his general's voice, but he couldn't make out a single person in all the confusion and panic. He was looking around for the red armor when loud hissing and rumbling could be heard below him.

He looked down to see one of the smaller explosions about to go off, "Shit!" He pulled at the reins again, trying to get his wyvern to move where he wanted it, but it wasn't listening. He managed to get it away from the main explosion, mostly due to the beast knowing something was about to happen and wanting to move, but it hadn't been enough. A shattered piece of rock had shot up at them, piercing his wyvern through the neck and stabbing Lenz in his side. His wyvern began to immediately fall through the air, the hit instantly killing it. Lenz knew that this situation was a reason why they had been taught levitation magic, but the rock in his side was making it hard to do so.

'Not again,' he thought as he fell, watching so many others falling around him, 'It ended up the same way! Why?!'

The ground was closing in and he thought for a moment that this was how he was going to die. But the flapping of large and heavy wings caught his attention before he felt a horrible, stinging pain at his side. The sharpened piece of rock was pulled from his side while an arm wrapped around his chest. He saw red first, the color belonging to sleek, fine armor. He was placed onto a new saddle, his back pushed tightly against another person.

"I've got you."

He realized that his general had caught him, and he almost felt like crying. Someone from his unit was still alive, and she had saved him.

"You're the…last one I could get to."

Lenz heard the breaking in her voice. Had they lost that many people?

He finally took a moment to look down around them. The earth was still an open, burning crater with so many bodies around it. Both Bellum soldiers and Pergrande knights filled the land, wyverns filling in the space with them. He watched as a very small group of Bellum soldiers ran from the area, no longer focused on fighting their enemy, only on getting out of there and back to the safety of their own country. He looked the other way to see that a small group of their own forces were also running away. The battle was over, but they had lost so much, and by what? A random explosion from nature? This wasn't a volcanic area, so it made no sense.

"What…what was that?"

Rhiannon stared at the aftermath of what had happened, also knowing that the explosion wasn't natural, nor would Bellum release something like that on their own people. Besides, whatever it was, it came from the Pergrande side of the border. It came from within her own country. Something wasn't adding up and none of it felt right.

"I don't know," was all she could answer him with.

With that, she turned her wyvern away from the destruction and devastation, needing to gather up what was left of her forces and start conducting first aid before heading back to the capital.

. : + : .

Three Weeks Later

A woman with short, dark brown hair and green eyes made her way towards the main hospital building in Alexandrite. She took the final drag of her cigarette before she smashed the butt into her traveling, metal ashtray. She took another moment to blow out the smoke before walking into the hospital. The nurses immediately recognized her, considering she had been coming in every day since General Ward's unit had returned and been admitted to the hospital. Plus, the tattoos up and down both arms were also a dead giveaway as to who she was.

"Good morning, Mrs. Ward."

"I keep telling you ladies to just call me Cassie or Cas," she said with a smirk.

"But your married name has such a nice ring to it!" one of the younger nurses chirped happily.

"Is she ready to go?"

"She's been ready since she was admitted," an older nurse answered, "You can head on up to see her and take her home with you. All the paperwork has already been taken care of."

"Thank you, ladies. I'll be sure to send you all a gift for your hard work."

The nurses smiled at her before she made her way to the elevators to take to the fourth floor. The ride and walk to her wife's room was quiet, only nodding at another nurse on the floor before turning into the room. Rhiannon stood, fully dressed in the clean clothes she had brought from home the night before – a simple pair of light blue jeans, a red t-shirt and brown boots. She was staring out the window, her arms folded in front of her.

Cassie took in that moment of peace, the morning sun illuminating her wife's figure. It hadn't been that long ago that she had been stuck out in the waiting room with her gut twisting in worry. Her wife didn't have a major injury, aside from the burn on her left arm, but it had been the high depletion of magic and the exhaustion of a month-long battle and stressful journey home that had gotten to her. It wore her down and had her fainting upon returning home. She pulled through fine, and Cassie was able to see her a couple of days later, but it had still been one of the worst experiences of her life. So, she wanted to drink up that moment, to remember that there were moments of peace to be found in their lives.

"Rhia," she called out, causing her wife to jump a little before turning. As she turned, her arms dropped, and it was easy to see the large burn mark on her left forearm. The doctors and nurses had done wonders to heal it faster than normal thanks to their own medicine and magic, but there would always be a scar now.

"Sorry, I was lost in thought."

"You're fine," Cassie waved her off, moving to bag up the few belongings that had been brought to her room while she was staying there, "Still thinking about what we've been discussing."

"Yes, but thinking about that at least keeps me from thinking about…"

They both knew she meant what had happened on her most recent mission.

"I gathered up the needed paperwork to get started. It's at home whenever you're ready," Cassie said, placing the last book she had brought for Rhiannon into the bag.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Are you?"

"I…" Rhiannon trailed off, thinking about her career, her rank, her…knights, 'Most of them are gone now,' she thought, feeling her hands tighten into fists, "I'm sure about it. I need this. We need this. And it'll be good to be in a place where there is family that wants us around."

They both knew that was a crack towards Rhiannon's father, but both chose not to voice that fact.

"Alexandrite is great, don't get me wrong," Cassie said, "There's so many things to love about the capital and its people, but Carnelian is just…it's home. I think you'll really like it there. And as soon as my family hears about what we're doing, they'll be thrilled."

"I know," Rhiannon said, giving her a small smile, "It'll be a good change. It'll just be strange for a bit. The capital is all I've ever known as home. And all I know is how to be a knight. What if I mess up?"

"Then we'll mess up together. We'll do it all together. If anyone can do this, you can. And I'll be right there with you."

Rhiannon hummed happily, cupping her wife's face gently, "Thank you."

Cassie gently squeezed the hand against her face before giving her wife a quick kiss, "Alright, enough of this mushy stuff. We've got things to do and places to be!"

"Of course," Rhiannon agreed. As the two women walked out of the room and down the hall, Rhiannon came to a stop, "Give me a moment," she said when Cassie looked back at her, "I'll meet you outside."

Cassie saw the room she had stopped at and just nodded with a smile before walking off.

Rhiannon turned to face the hospital room just a couple doors down from where her own had been. She took a deep breath before heading into the room. She had visited a few times, but this time felt more important than the others.

"Lenz."

His blue eyes shot open, seeing his general standing at his bedside.

"Ma'am!" he said as he tried to sit up straight to greet her.

"Relax, you don't need to do that."

"But-"

"We're not out in the field and there's no one here besides the two of us. Besides…no one will need to address me so formally soon."

"Ma'am?"

She sighed as she pulled a chair up next to his bed, "I'm…leaving the military."

"What? Are you okay? Did you get a bad injury we didn't see? What-"

"Slow down and relax, Lenz."

He looked her over again before taking a deep breath, forcing himself back against his bed, "What's going on?"

"I love what I do. Being able to protect my country and its people. Being able to lead and take care of my unit. But…I'm tired. I'm tired of watching people die. And this last time…it took a lot out of me, too much out of me. I'll be resigning from the military and moving to Carnelian with Cassie and Olivia."

Lenz was quiet for a moment, "Will they let you resign?"

She knew he was talking about the military and Pergrande Council, "I haven't had that discussion yet. I've only just been released from the hospital today. But I'm not taking no as an answer from them."

"What will you do instead?"

"I'm going to be starting up a mage guild in Carnelian," she answered, seeing the surprise on his face, "I still want to lead and help people, but I need to go about it a different way. This is the best way I can think of. Cassie and Olivia are already all over the idea and that gives me hope that it will work out and that I'm doing the right thing."

Lenz was quiet again, taking a moment to think about everything she had just laid out for him, "So…why tell me all of this?"

"I'm inviting you to join the guild. I know you look up to Schwartz and want to make him proud, and I know you have, trust me. But I think this might be good for you too. I know you because I know myself. You've done and been through so much for only being twenty-one. I don't want you to reach my age and realize time has past you and you've missed out."

Silence enveloped them again for a moment.

Rhiannon eventually stood from her chair, "I have to get going, Cassie is waiting for me. But think about what I've said and my invitation. You've got some time still in here recovering, and if you've decided to take up my offer, you can find me in Carnelian."

She walked towards the door and stopped again, looking back at him with a smile, "You deserve to enjoy your life, Lenz."

With that, she disappeared from the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

'Maybe…maybe she's right,' he thought as he let himself finally relax back into his bed, 'Lili has been pushing for a change of scenery for me for years. Maybe things will be different in a guild.'

A/N: And there's the first chapter of a new story! I hope you all liked it!

Credits

Rhiannon Ward – MyDearWatson

Lenz von Saphir – Dreadburner94

Cassandra Ward – MyDearWatson

Hello again everyone! So, yes, I'm aware that this might not be the update you all were waiting for or anything, but here we are all the same.

First! I big, giant thank you to both Dreadburner94 and Origm2012 for all the help and sound boarding and everything on this new project. I have been working on this thing for the past month, and while it has been killing me to keep it hush hush, these two awesome gentleman have been great support for this project. So, I cannot thank you both enough!

Second! As for my other stories – they have been put on hiatus for the time being. I found that I was trying to get back a lot of what I had going for OG Thunder Stone and Storm's Helm to the point where every time I felt like I took a step forward with the reboots or Kingdom Come, it then felt like two steps back. Like I was writing in circles and not getting anywhere. Which is why I wanted to do something completely new. I can't say when and if I'll get back to those stories, but they will be left up for now.

Third! I will be updating my profile and the discord with much more information about this story. As I've said, I've been working on this for the past month and have built up information about it. The best place to get the information will be discord – The DWU – as I am on there more frequently and will answer quickly there. And that is where things will be updated first aside from the form(s) being updated on my ffnet profile right from the start. So, I highly suggest joining our server! You can join using the following - discord. gg/ EuZQkDfm3V – just remember to take the spaces out!

Fourth! I am accepting 20 characters outside of the ones I have made myself/the ones that Dread and Ori have sent to me already. And they must be new characters, so no revamping ones that you have previously sent into myself or Dread. Keep in mind that this is a new guild being made, so not every character will be showing up immediately. You'll have to be patient for characters to appear. I am also leaving submission time open for a month in order to allow people to create characters and send them in. I will only be accepting one character per person to start off with, but you can make multiple characters to send in for me to look over and choose from. So, please take your time making characters and please be patient during submission time! I will be putting out chapters during submission time to keep you all entertained!

Fifth! The rest of the information will be on the server and my profile (eventually). Please use the form that will be on the discord/my profile.

I really appreciate you all for reading and enjoying my content, whether you're a newcomer or someone who has been around for a while. You're all appreciated!

Until next chapter!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson