Everything was ready. Finally, Varian could cast the Mirror spell, but there was one problem. He refused on doing the spell without Rain there and no one could find the silver eyed girl. The Mirror Mage was starting to get worried because all of her things were gone and she wasn't at their apartment. The poor man fell onto his seat with a 'thump.' He rested his head in his arms,"Where are you, Rain...?" His throat tightened as tears threatened to fall.

Mira sat next to the man and rubbed his back,"I'm sure we'll find her." She whispered. Varian wanted to speak, but he was worried that if he said anything, tears would fall.

"I-I..." He choked out. A single tear slipped down his cheek,"I can't lose her." He muttered as he stood up abruptly. "I'm going to find her." He wiped the tear from his cheek. "The Anima will have to wait."

"Wait, Varian!" Mira grabbed his wrist. "You're a part of Fairy Tail now and so is Rain. We'll do this together." The people, gathered around them, smiled.

"Come on. Let's go find our friend." Lucy smiled as Mira separated the people into groups. "Varian..." Lucy sat down next to the man with Natsu. "You know her best, where could she be?"

The silver-haired man rubbed his chin. "She's probably trying to get out of town, but I know she's going to stop at..." He choked, not wanting to say the word. "this place... I can lead one of the groups there."

Natsu gripped his shoulder,"Hey, don't worry, man. Even if she is mean-" the boy pouted,"we'll find her, she's a part of our family now." Varian smiled softly and nodded.

"Varian, you'll lead this group to the place you were talking about," Mira said as she pointed to a group of wizards consisting of Erza, Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Juvia, Gajeel, Pantherlily, Happy, and Carla. "Levy will lead the second team," This team was made up of  Lisanna, Cana, Alzack, Bisca, Asuka, and Freed. "You will be searching the Magnolia and a bit of outside Magnolia. Lastly, Laki will lead the third team, which will go and check every hotel for signs of Rain." Mira had the remaining wizards stay in the guild hall, just in case Rain came back.

The first and second groups grabbed the packs they had put together for their trip to Edolas and got ready to leave. Varian sighed deeply as he swung the bag around his shoulder,"Let's go." He instructed as he opened the repaired glass doors. The group followed behind him,"I'll warn you right now, this trip isn't going to be short. I doubt even Rain has gotten there yet."

Erza stopped Varian by gripping his shoulder,"I should tell Mira that, one second." The scarlet-haired mage ran into the guild hall and spoke with Mira. The transformation mage nodded and pointed at a bag which held camping supplies. Erza came back out to the group,"The group is being reduced to Team Natsu and Varian. Anyone else is being put into other groups."

Juvia held Gray's waist,"No! I want to be in Gray-sama's group!" She cried with hearts in her eyes.

"Juvia." groaned Gray,"I'll be back soon."

The water mage sniffled and nodded, heading back into the guild with Gajeel. Varian started walking again, except now it was silent. Even Natsu wasn't talking, but that was because Lucy had her hand on his mouth. The group walked up a hill, so that Varian could look around. "Hey... Varian?" Gray spoke up.

"Hm...?" Varian hummed as he studied the surrounding area.

"Can you tell us about you... and Rain?" Gray asked the man hesitantly. Varian's eyes widened slightly.

"Are you asking for our background?" The silver-haired man asked quietly, walking down a different side of the hill. The terrain became rocky as they walked farther and farther from people.

"Well-" Erza answered,"we'd like to know more about the both of you, so backstory and personality... Only if you're comfortable."

Varian sighed and nodded,"Sure, I'll tell you about us."

"I'm hungry-" groaned a salmon haired fire wizard. Lucy turned and looked at the boy with a glare, while mouthing 'shut up.' She grabbed one of the sandwiches in her bag and stuffed it in his mouth.

"I'll start with Rain-" he rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly. "I'm not good at talking about myself." he looked up at the sky, which was still bright blue. "She's... well, she's a really nice person. She loves to laugh and make other people smile. She tries her hardest to be better than she is. She's really sociable and can be really silly, so when she's being serious, it's hard to take her seriously." He chuckled,"sometimes I'll make fun of her, jokingly and she'll hit me while pouting. It's so cute."

Lucy looked over at Erza and winked, pulling over the scarlet-haired wizard. "He likes her." Erza nodded, but there was no point in whispering when Happy spoke.

"You liiiiiike her~" Happy giggled, whilst Carla hit him.

"Stupid Tom-Cat!" She glared at the blue cat and flew up to Wendy.

Wendy giggled at Happy's outburst. Everyone expected Varian to get upset about this, but he sighed and rubbed his neck and smiled. "Is it that obvious?"

Erza laughed quietly,"Yes, it is."

The silver-haired mage smiled softly. "Heh, I guess it's just her who doesn't realize. Well, back to Rain. She has the best advice, so whenever someone needs advice they come to her. Since she's really sociable, it's easy to approach her, but that's only when you know her. When you don't, she can give off a dark vibe." He sighed, sadly, "She doesn't like herself much. She hates everything about herself."

"Wait, what?" Gray asked.

"What? What's happening?" Natsu asked Lucy. The blonde glared at the wizard.

"Pay attention!" She yelled at the dragon slayer while Wendy giggled at Natsu's stupidity.

Varian didn't mind that Natsu wasn't listening, he just continued,"She doesn't like anything about herself. At all." He said, facing Gray. "She does love to sing and she loves to write, but she thinks she's terrible at both so she never shows anyone. Not even me."

Lucy gasped in surprise,"Wait, she writes? I love to write! I've written a novel!"

The mirror mage laughed,"Yea, she knows. She loves to read so she bugged me to buy your book so she could read it. I did and she loved it. She freaked out when she found out you were in the guild." The man chuckled, softly.

"Really? Oh my gosh! I can't wait to get to know her!" Lucy squealed.

Varian grinned,"I'm sure she'll want to get to know you as well. I should continue... Even if Rain wanted to publish her book, she couldn't do it."

"Wait up," Lucy interrupted Varian. "She's written a book? Why can't she publish it?"

"We've always been on the run. We never stop anywhere, she could never publish it because we never had the money to nor were we permanently living anywhere." He sighed,"I should explain all this, shouldn't I?"

    Erza stopped him,"You don't have to if you don't want to."

    "No, no, you guys should know." he smiled, "Since the start, Rain had two brothers, one older and one younger. The older brother always caused arguments and she was always thrown into the middle of it. She had to take care of her little brother all of the time. Just to let you know, her little brother had Autism and Down Syndrome."

    "What's that?" Natsu asked obliviously.

    "Autism is a mental problem that makes it hard for you to talk with people or learn. Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder, which you have when you have an extra chromosome. A chromosome is something inside your body. This causes you to look different have problems with your mind." He tried to explain it in small words so Natsu would understand.

    "Oh..." Natsu mumbled as Varian continued.

    "Well, she really loved him and he loved her. When she went to school, everyone bullied her because she wasn't very fashionable, and because of her family." His voice was quiet and filled with pain.

    "Th-that's not right..." Wendy said as a tear slipped down the girl's cheek.

    "I never understood why they bullied her, so I tried to become her friend. Instantly, I fell in love with her. She was so strong. It had only been a year since we became friends, and since people started bullying me, when her brother took his wife and walked out on their parents. She was only 13 and had to take care of everyone. Soon after, her mother had a heart attack and died. After that, her father died of another disease."

    "Th-that's so sad..." Lucy whispered hesitantly.

    "She took her little brother and ran away because her older brother wouldn't take them in. For years they were on their own. I didn't see her for two years and it killed me inside. One day, she came back to visit her parents grave and I saw her in the same clothes as the day she ran away, but her little brother was wearing seemingly new clothes. He was crouching next to her, crying." He paused, "I assumed that she spent all the money she had on her brother, so I ran home packed a bag for myself and took some of my sister's clothes and packed those. I got us a large bag of food and ran back as quickly as possible." He looked back up at the starry sky and sighed. "That's enough for today. I'll tell you the rest tomorrow, let's set up camp there." He pointed to a cluster of trees where no one would see them.

No one spoke as they started to set up camp. Lucy and Wendy were extremely sad and Erza was still trying to process everything. Gray was being polite, while Natsu was just sleeping. Happy and Carla were helping Varian gather sticks that Natsu could light up. "Natsu, wake up!" Erza hit his head. "Light these sticks."

"Fine." grumbled the mage as he threw a spark at the wood and fell back asleep.

"Alright, I'll take first watch." The requip mage ordered everyone to sleep. Varian lied in his sleeping bag and closed his eyes, slowly falling into a deep slumber.

Drip.
Drip.
Drip...
Splash!

Her hands flew up to her face, wiping a salty substance. Taking the small hand of a crying boy, she ran. Soaked hair clung to her back as the wails of the small boy echoed in her ears. He chased after the girl with the weight of three bags on his back, his feet moving as quickly as they could. "Please-" Her feet ached,"let us go." Her cries worried the small boy next to her as she fell on her knees, her ragged clothes covered in mud.

"Rain-" the boy cried as he fell and gripped the girl tightly.

"No, wait! D-don't cry! It's me!" A sapphire eyed boy looked into her dull silver eyes. "Rain." He smiled softly as he took her hand.

"V-Varian?" She choked out as he got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around her neck.

"I'm coming with you this time."

The sound of fire crackled in his ears. He jumped up in fear, "W-wait." A dark-haired man was staring at him, "Gray...?"

He nodded and walked over to the man, kneeling down. "What happened? Why'd you wake up?" His gaze was soft with concern, something unusual for the ice mage. "It's not your turn if that's why."

The blue-eyed man shook his head, "Sorry, but what time is it?"

"It's around four in the morning," Gray replied, shrugging.

"We have to start walking, she might get there soon." Varian stood up, packing up his things, throwing Gray some bread, ham, and cheese. "Make a sandwich for each person. I'll wake 'em up." He stood up and walked over to Natsu, shaking him. "Natsu, wake up."

The dragon slayer groaned,"What?" He covered his face with his scarf.

"Wake up." Varian rolled his eyes,"It's time to go."

Grudgingly, the boy sat up. He smelt the food and ran to it, snatching one of the sandwiches from Gray. Varian had already woken Erza and Wendy, only Lucy was left. "Hey, Lucy." He whispered, shaking her. "It's time to go."

The blonde girl sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Already?"

"Mhm." Varian grabbed one of the sandwiches and placed it in Lucy's hands. "Eat up." The man exited the cluster of trees and checked the road to make sure no one was following them. He nodded and went back inside, grabbing each person a pair of clothes. "After you're done, change into these."

"Wow, you're really prepared," Natsu said while chewing.

"Natsu! Manners!" Lucy smacked the boy's back.

Varian chuckled,"Hurry on up, guys."