Two years ago...

Storm stared up at the blue sky, watching as the occasional cloud passed.

It was peaceful.

Just him alone, laying on the soft green grass leaning his head against his arm and appreciating the gentle breeze that calmed his body.

Focusing on the sky distracted him from thinking of reality. The reality that Magnolia was near rubble, he had lost a friend, that his sister had left him and the stupid nightmares that plagued his mind every time he tried to sleep.

Storm closed his eyes taking in a deep breath.

"Sooo... what are we doing?" A voice asked casually beside him.

"Ahhh!" Storm jolted up, his heart jumping out of his chest. "What the hell? Who the hell are you and when did you get there?"

The person in question was a girl with short blonde hair. She was laying right next to him staring at the sky, unfazed by his almost heart attack.

"My name's Quinn and I've been here for the last ten minutes." She answered, without skipping a beat. "You?"

"I'm Storm." He said, running a hand through his raven coloured hair. "Look, as much as I like hanging out with pretty girls, I really want to be alone."

This time Quinn looked at him, lips curling in a half smile. "So you think I'm pretty..."

"You missed the point of what I was trying to say."

Quinn disregarded him, looking back up at the sky. "My dad and I came to Magnolia because he wanted to help out after hearing how badly Fairy Tail had suffered. After seeing all your members... I didn't expect it to be this bad." She said, with a sigh.

Storm clenched his fists. "I really don't want to talk about it. So could you just-"

"It's not good to be alone while you're hurting." Quinn sat up, looking at Storm with frown. "I know it may feel like it's your only option right now because you're surrounded by your loved ones who are dealing with their own pain and you don't want to bother them... but it won't do you any good."

Storm stared at his lap with a wry grin. "You don't know me at all." He muttered. "I'm fine with being alone."

"Okay then..." Quinn said, biting her lip. She fiddled with her fingers trying to figure out her next words. "How about we be alone... together?"

Storm made a face. "That's not how it works."

Quinn grinned. "Oh cmon we can stare at the sky together and we can talk about how you think I'm pretty and-"

"You know what, now you're just ruining it!" Storm barked, growing frustrated.

"Aw did I? Then let's go do something else."

Before he knew it, Quinn had taken him by the arm and was dragging him away.

"Hey! What are you-"

"There's no use in being sad so just let me help you. It's torture watching you mope around."

Storm dodged Quinn's fist and it flew past his face so narrowly that he could feel it brush against his skin.

If he had been hit, it would've broken his nose for sure. He knew better than anyone just how strong she was.

The blonde girl charged at him viciously with the full intent of killing him and because he was just so stupid, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her in defence. It didn't help that he'd get distracted constantly due to her dress tearing at its seams as well.

"For Mavis' sake, why did it have to be you..." He muttered under his breath as he continued his evasion.

From the corner of Storm's eyes, he could see Meredy watching the fight, her face contorted in fear. In her condition, she couldn't help him.

And the guy who had done this to Quinn watched with creepy apprehension, a ghoulish grin spread across his black lips. His eyes were completely on Quinn as if he was analysing her.

"Pet, kill him." The man commanded.

Storm growled under his breath and turned his attention back to Quinn.

"Ice Make Cage!" Storm yelled, trapping the blonde in the cage. If she just stayed there for five seconds while he dealt with the guy-

"White Dragon Roar!"

Aaanddd there goes the cage... shattered to pieces. Damnit.

Quinn pounced on him, latching her hand around his throat tightening her grip.

Storm gasped for air. "Cmon Quinny, go easy on a guy first." He wheezed out.

On top of him, Quinn blinked and he could swear for a second her grip loosened before she shook her head and once again Storm was gasping for air.

Mustering up his strength, he pried her hand from his throat and threw her off him where she tumbled onto the ground.

"Sorry..." He muttered as he stood up, rubbing his neck. This would've been so much easier if he was fighting Flame Brain. He turned his head to where he'd thrown Quinn and instantly froze in his spot.

She was still on the ground but her dress was ripped in compromising places, exposing her body.

Storm turned away covering his extremely red face with his hands.

He needed to cover her up first or else he wouldn't be able to focus. He could give her his shirt! That was the perfect solution.

Storm looked down to his clothes only to find that he was already half naked with his shirt nowhere to be found.

"This is literally the worst time stupid stripping habit!" Storm yelled.

___________

Gale didn't know what this June woman's magic was so he was waiting for her to make the first move. Meanwhile Sammy was behind him.

"So you're one of that Lilith lady's minions huh?"

The woman scoffed. "Minion? As if. I'm the Ringleader of this whole operation."

Gale frowned. According to intel, Lilith was the leader but what if that was wrong?

Sammy peeked from behind Gale's shoulder.

"Now you know that's not the truth Miss June." He said, pointing accusingly at the woman. "Lilith is totally the ultimate boss."

June threw him a glare so harsh that a squeak sound came out of Sammy's mouth.

"I run the operations! I created the hallucinogens! That means I am the boss!" June shouted, a vein popping out of her neck. "Lilith is just the figure head! I do all the hard work! All of this success we've had is because of me!"

Sammy went pale in the face, rattled by the sudden outburst.

"Oh right! Sorry that slipped my mind." Sammy chuckled nervously with a fake smile. He didn't know she was that insecure. "Yup you are the boss. And it's not Lilith who you listen to all the time! I understand now."

June looked livid. Her teeth were grinding together and her deathly stare was honed on Sammy.

"Honestly I don't care who the leader is so just shut up." Gale interjected growing annoyed. "Let's get over with. I have to find my friends."

Gale was specifically thinking of a certain pink haired girl in that moment.

June's glare vanished and she grinned widely at Gale. She reached into her lab coat and pulled out five syringes filled with what Gale assumed to be the hallucinogen.

"Eek not the syringes!" Sammy squealed. "Dude, she just pulled out the syringes!"

"Thank you Sammy. I have two eyes I can see that." Gale said, his words dripping in sarcasm.

"I'm gonna stab you with one Sammy and hopefully you'll die." June called out in a creepy sing song voice.

"No thank you, Miss June- I mean Boss. Get it cause you're the boss and not Lilith! Haha please don't kill me!" Sammy stammered holding his arms up in defence.

"Didn't I already tell you that you're not touching him?" Gale said. A magic circle formed under his feet and slowly his skin transformed into iron.

The syringes wouldn't stand a chance against his iron scales.

June tilted her head to the side. "Hmm how interesting."

___________

"White Dragon Iron Fist!"

Quinn's fist collided with his cheek sending Storm crashing into the ground. Storm was dazed as he tried to get up once again.

How could he fight her when he could barely look at her?

"Storm!"

He lifted his head to see Meredy pulling off her Crime Sorciere cloak before holding it out to him. It was apparent by the look on her face that she knew what he was struggling with.

Storm let out a sigh in relief and launched to his feet racing towards the pink haired woman. He took the piece of clothing from her.

"Thanks Aunty, you're the best." He said with a shaky smile. His cheek was starting to sting and swell up from Quinn's punch. He was covered in scratches and bleeding as well from all her other attacks that he wasn't quick enough to dodge.

"I know you don't want to hurt her but you can't keep running around forever." Meredy instructed with a grim look on her face. "You have to do something, Storm."

Storm took a deep breath and then nodded before turning back to his opponent.

Before he hadn't missed it, when he had called her Quinny, for a split second she had stopped being hostile so maybe he could try talk it out...

"Quinn, I know you hate me right now and you have a pretty good reason to but I'd really appreciate if you let me put this cloak on you." He said with a nervous laugh. "No answer? Okay cool..."

Quinn charged at him, her magical energy radiating from her. Storm dodged her fist and her kicks.

"You helped me when I went through that rough patch two years ago remember?" He continued, grabbing onto her shoulders, pushing down and pinning her to the ground. "I felt really alone back then but you changed that..."

Quinn thrashed against his hold on her, scratching and throwing punches but Storm stayed firm, desperately keeping eye contact and refusing to look anywhere lower.

"I'm not good with feelings. You know that better than anyone." Wrestling with her, he tried to get her arms through the cloak. "So when you told me that you l-loved me, I didn't know... I didn't know what to say."

Under him, Storm could feel her resistance slowly weakening. Successfully, he managed to cover her up in the cloak.

"But what I do know... is that you mean more to me than you think and I'm sorry..." With a sad smile, he looked down at Quinn as her expression softened, the dark veins protruding from her arms and eyes slowly fading. "I'm so sorry that I made you believe differently."

Quinn blinked before her eyes cleared up staring at him.

"Ugh... this feels worst than a hangover." She muttered.

Storm's eyes widened and he leaned down closer to her. "Wait are you back? Are you yourself again?"

Quinn's cheeks flared at their close proximity. "Yes! Now get your stupid face away from mine!" She shoved him away leaving the poor Fullbuster to crash into the hard dirt floor.

"Well that was just as shitty as any teen rom com I've seen." The man dressed in black said. "Looks like June's new drug is still weak if that mediocre apology wore off its effects. No matter..." He licked his lips. "That just means I get to kill the both of you."

Despite the threat to her life, Quinn had more pressing matters. She looked down at her now very ruined dress, looking as if she was about to cry.

"Aw this was my one of my favourites." She whined before hugging her knees to her chest. "I'm too upset to fight right now so you go do it, Storm."

Storm let out a chuckle. "Yeah yeah yeah, I got it." He said smugly as he got to his feet.

Now that Quinn was out of the way, he could finally fight back.

Icarus, the man who was threatening their lives, grinned at Storm. "I'll let you have the first hit, boy." He said.

The smug look on Storm's face seemed to melt away, replaced with a more emotionless expression.

"You called her 'Pet' two times and it really pissed me off." He said, his voice missing it's usual carefree tone. "So I'm going to destroy you in two moves, how does that sound?"

Quinn peeked up from her spot, looking towards Storm whose back was faced to her. She squeezed the cloak around her tighter, feeling the temperature around her drop dramatically. She could even see her breath every time she exhaled.

"Ice Make Geyser!"

Razor sharp ice spikes formed from the ground beneath, heading straight towards Icarus almost instantaneously.

Icarus barely had time to evade but when he did he looked back to where Storm was to see that the boy had disappeared.

"Up here, asshole." Storm taunted.

Icarus looked up at the dark haired boy who was above him in the air. There was something different about him now. There was a dark tattoo looking mark on his forearm.

Storm's blue eyes were glowering. "Rage!"

___________

Hunter knelt next to his father, thoughts racing through his mind as he tried to figure out what to do.

"I-I can fix this... somehow I can-" He rambled, clenching his fists that were resting on his knees.

As the seconds went by and all his ears could hear was his father struggling to breathe, his vision became cloudy. He tried desperately to blink it away but he just couldn't.

He can't cry right now. Crying won't solve anything.

"We have so much to talk about. You can't..." Hunter's voice was growing weaker, shaking with each syllable.  "Please don't." He begged.

"Hunter, you have to leave me here." Jellal whispered.

"No, I can't. I'm not leaving you like this." Hunter demanded, some strength returning to his words.

"Your sister..." Jellal struggled. "She was on the ship."

Hunter's eyes widened at his father's words. As if the night could get any worse. Now his little sister was somewhere in the woods.

What if she was hurt? What if she was all alone? What if someone was attacking her?

Without another word on the matter, Hunter understood what his father wanted him to do.

"When you come back, we'll talk." Jellal said, trying his best not to show weakness. "We'll talk for as long as you'd like... I promise."

Hunter let out a weak laugh at the cruel irony. "I know better than anyone that you always break your promises." He said before standing to his feet. "So this is your last chance."

With his back turned to his father, Hunter raised his forearm to his eyes wiping away the wetness that had formed there.

"Because if you break this promise, I really won't forgive you."

With that, Hunter left his father's side and began the search for his little sister.

_________

Gale dusted himself off as he towered over an unconscious June.

"Wow, that was impressive dude." Sammy voiced behind his shoulder. "I didn't know you were such a good fighter."

In truth Gale hadn't done anything flashy, June had tried to stab him with her syringes. All of which had snapped when they met his metallic armoured skin. And then he had knocked her out.

The fight-thirsty side of him was totally let down whereas the lazy side of him was glad it didn't take up much effort.

"That was really disappointing." Gale said, moving to tie June up so she didn't escape when she woke. "If she controls production, why is Lilith the leader?"

Sammy shrugged. "Well apparently, according to the scarily accurate rumour mill at Titan's Soul, the hallucinogens were derived from Lilith and Calix." He recounted rubbing his hairless chin like a scheming detective. "Their magic controls people. I've only seen it in person once and can I just say it was super scary!"

Gale looked down at the woman below him. Somehow she had found a way to make drugs from someone's magic ability? The thought of what that information could do if the magic abilities were more powerful than Lilith's made him uneasy.

And Calix... why the hell was that name so familiar? Almost like he had heard it before Sammy had said it.

"Who's Calix?" Gale asked, finished with restraining June.

"Lilith's little brother." Sammy answered immediately. "Really chill guy. We played ping pong one time. It was fun."

Gale frowned. "You know you're a horrible employee. You give away secrets way too easily." He stated shaking his head at the short boy.

"Hey, I'm only doing it for Princess Aoki!" Sammy shouted, defending his good name. "You'd do anything for the woman you love, wouldn't you?"

Gale blinked as he stared at Sammy in momentary silence.

"O-or man!" Sammy sputtered. "I don't judge!"

Before Gale could respond, a massive pillar of fire burst into the sky a considerable distance from him. Even though he was so far away, he could feel the heat rise against his skin.

Something was wrong. He could feel in his gut and so before he even knew it, his feet began running towards the flames.

"Nashi!" His voice called out.

___________

I hate fight scenes I would like to write wholesome dragneel family content please

I'm hoping to finish this arc before the year ends so FINGERS CROSSED

hope u enjoyed and don't forget to comment!

#unedited

peace out!