Third Person POV

Lucy sat on the barrel, staring at where the terrifying lady had gone; did she just, offer to protect her? She already felt guilty about dragging the whole guild into her mess, but now this super intimidating mage was coming in here and throwing her weight around? What was happening?!

She jumped slightly as Natsu's loud voice broke through the spell that the woman seemed to cast over the whole guild, "Man, that chick is irritating! Who is she to tell me how to punch? I'm perfectly good at punching!"

Gray, who thankfully had a bit more of a brain on his shoulders than Natsu, walked up to Mira, "She seemed to recognize you, who is she?"

Mira sighed deeply as she sagged into a nearby seat, "I honestly don't know much about her either, but her nickname is The Reluctant Fairy, I only knew to call her because master mentioned that she was strong one or twice."

Everyone's ears seemed to perk up at the mention of the Reluctant Fairy, that name was a bit of a legend among the guild, she was as mysterious as Mystogen, and apparently really powerful too. Though rumor had it she had no ranking, though no one could really confirm that...

"Wait, seriously?" Everyone looked over towards Natsu, whose hands had burst on fire out of excitement, "That's the Reluctant Fairy?! I bet I could beat her in a fight!" He began sprinting towards the stairwell, presumably to challenge the woman to a fight, but he was stopped by a loud crash, which caused everyone to fall to the ground.

People began to filter outside to see what was happening, but before Lucy could follow, she was stopped by Mira, "Lucy, I need you to wait here for Miss Fairy, please! Once she comes back, you will be escorted to a safe house by her and Reedus, please, you have to stay away."

Mira must have seen the rebellion welling up in Lucy's eyes, because she quickly wrapped the girl in a tight hug, "Please, it will be easier for us to fight if we know you're safe." The light faded from the room, which made everyone who hadn't left already, go running for the door.

Lucy pulled away from Mira, fear in her wide brown eyes, "No, Mira, I can't do that! Everyone here is fighting for me, I can't allow this to continue! I need to do something, anything! Please don't ask me to leave you guys now!" Her frantic rant was cut off by a white cloth covering her mouth.

Reedus was standing behind her, gently restraining Lucy as the anesthetic kicked in (Okay, I know that in the anime, magic was used to knock Lucy out, but I couldn't remember who used it on her, and adding another character would just make a crowded scene more crowded, so.... yeah. Yay for laziness!), light returned and steps were heard coming from the infirmary.

Ember made it back into the basement just in time to see Lucy slump over, completely knocked out, "So," She said, causing Mira and Reedus to jump, "That's how we're doing this, is it? Well, Phantom Lord will still get ahold of her, but I guess this works for now." She walked to Reedus and offered to hold the girl, "You're the one who knows the way to the safehouse, I'll take her, you show us where to go."

Reedus nodded slightly and the two left, leaving behind Mira, who was watching them go with a slightly quivering chin. Without missing a beat, Mira shifted her looks slightly until there was a perfect copy of Lucy standing in her place.

Ember's POV

I sat on a barrel in the safe house, examining the ceiling carefully, "Man, this is so boring," I sighed, "If I had gone out to the fight, I could have just set off my old flair and been taken to Jose, rather than playing this damn waiting game," My head knocked back against the wall as I allowed my feet to swing. The canvas man was watching me carefully, his suspicion palpable.

It honestly didn't bother me if he wanted to distrust me, I wasn't here for him, I was here for Jose, but there was no telling how long I would have to wait, though the blonde should probably be waking up soon.

"If you do not mind me asking," I looked over at the canvas man when he spoke, nodding slightly to signal him to continue, "Why did you come if you found it to be so boring? Why did you not stay with the others and help them fight?"

The questions were valid, though it would be rather difficult to give my exact reasons without cluing him in to the fact that I was an assassin, "Well," I started out before jumping off the barrel and walking to the blonde, who showed signs of waking up, "The easy answer to that is that I knew Jose, and he is a sadistic prick, so it's hard for me to believe that he wouldn't send someone to bring this chick to him."

I wasn't kidding about knowing that he was a sadistic prick, when he sent me missions there was always a detailed (and completely unwanted) plan for how to make the people suffer before I killed them. Obviously, I ignored those and just killed the people as I always did, I was not a performing monkey, and it really irritated me that I couldn't let him know just what I thought about his, 'tips'.

Canvas nodded, but it didn't seem to ease his suspicion, in fact, if I had to guess, it only made his suspicion worse. Ignoring that, I turned to the blonde before asking a question over my shoulder, "Can you perhaps conjure up a glass of water?" He tilted his head and I fought the urge to smack someone's head (likely his), into the wall, "I need it for her, she's gonna wake up with a major migraine, and water helps to ease it. Oh, if you can find some bread, that would be great too."

True to my words, Blonde groaned slightly and lifted her hand to cover her eyes, man, she had fantastic dramatic timing!

I walked back to my barrel as canvas jumped to help the blonde, fighting the urge to smirk knowingly the whole time. I half listened to their conversation for a few minutes as I kept an ear out for anything out of the ordinary. According to the little information I was able to dig up, there were five people we needed to worry about on top of Jose, something about a group of four, who may be tied to the elements, and a guy with metal in his name... What was it, black copper? Black aluminum? Whatever it was, those five seemed to be the heavy hitters of Phantom Lord's main group.

And then there was Jose, a wizard saint and all over terrible human being. I had never seen or experienced his magic, but the rumor mill, which was usually pretty accurate, mentioned that worked with shades... Though, what that meant, I had no clue.

"Um, excuse me?" I was pulled out of my thoughts by the blonde, who had finally gotten up, "May I ask what your name is? I think you mentioned it before, but I'm afraid I can't remember."

Yeah, she was definitely the daughter of a rich person, her nervous speech pattern said it all, "The name's Ember, and don't act so scared, it's not like I'm going to smack you."

She nodded slightly, "I see, well my name is Lucy, I wanted to thank you for volunteering to watch over me, even if I don't understand why."

Ah man, now I had her thinking my motives were pure and noble... That couldn't be allowed to continue, "Blonde," I said, my voice flat as I leaned forward until I was only an inch away from her, "Don't get the wrong idea, the only reason I'm helping you is that I know that Jose will send someone for you. So long as I can be the one to teach him that messing with Fairy Tail is a bad idea, I'll be happy. I can guarantee that you'll be hurt in the conflict to come, but just know that I won't be there for you when it happens."

The Blonde had backed away several steps by this point, perhaps I was being too harsh, but she needed to know the truth, "All you are seeing here is a battle being fought, but me? I'm fighting to win the war with this battle, and you are an unnecessary objective."

Canvas stood up at that, ready to rebuke me or some shit like that, but before he could say a single word, I reached out and grabbed the blonde, pulling her into me.

Only a second after I did, somebody crashed through the roof and landed with a flourish where she had been. A man with black hair, many piercings, and red eyes stood staring at me with a sadistic grin that only grew when he saw I was holding the blonde.

Oh, that's what the metal had been! It was black steel! I smiled back at him even as relief filled me, that would have been bugging me all day if it weren't for the piercings.

My smile was, of course, filled with just as much, or more sadistic intent than his was, which seemed to take him back for a moment. Though, he was able to regain his bearings just in time to send swing his arm around, hitting canvas with a metal pole that had been his arm only a moment ago.

Wait... This was the guy who trashed the guild. Oh man, I needed him to take me to Jose, but as soon as he did, I was punching him in the face as hard as I could.

Canvas had bounced away from the metal beam rather easily and as soon as he landed, he pulled out a palet and drew something on his white shirt. Though, his creation was brushed aside just as easily as he had been earlier.

"You took way to long to get here," I said casually, standing up and pushing the blonde behind me, "I expected you at least ten minutes ago."

Metal man's smirk turned into a scowl as he batted yet another one of canvas' creations away, "And why should I give a fuck?" I smiled at his growl, so the rumors were true, he was a dragon slayer.

"Because," I said, pulling the blonde away from a strike that had been aimed at her head, "I need to talk to your boss, and I guarantee he would want to see me."

My smile was sickening as I continued to dodge strikes from the metal man, who turned away from me long enough to knock canvas out of the fight for good.

A flash came from behind my back, and a giant bull barrelled past me, slamming into metal man as I turned around and stared at the blonde in shock, "A celestial mage?" As much as I hated to admit it, I was impressed, celestial mages were rare, and it appeared that this little thing had just summoned a high tiered one. Not bad, blonde, not bad.

The blonde turned to me with a scowl on her face and a whip in her hands, "You may be willing to give me up so you can talk to their master, but I won't lay down and let the sacrifices of my guildmates go to waste!" God damn it, I did not want to be impressed with her, I swear!

My maniacal smile softened slightly as we continued exchanging looks, though I ducked down, and pushed her down just in time to avoid another blow aimed at her head. "Fine," I sighed and patted her head, "I have a compromise. OI! Metal man!" I called out and stood, spinning around staring at him before I darted forward, getting past his defenses in a second and holding my blade to his throat.

"How about you take both this blonde and me to your boss, and I won't kill you. does that sound good?" The smile was gone, I was glaring at him menacingly.

He attempted to get away from my blade, but I simply shifted so my dagger slashed him across his arm. He hissed and looked at his arm in surprise as blood dribbled from the five-inch cut my blade had left behind. Thank god for Gavin and his miracle concoctions that bypassed things like this.

"I said, does that sound good?" He had no escape, in a moment, I had him cornered, this is why the spark plug had never outright won against me.

His glare never let up, but he nodded slightly, indicating that I could remove my blades.

The blonde was looking at me as though I had grown horns while I spoke and I just shrugged before patting her on the head again, "You don't have much reason too, but trust me, I'll keep you safe."