***
Lucy's P.O.V

"Oh my this strawberry crepe is delightful!" The requip make exclaims before taking another bite into her dessert.

     I stared at my own plate. I haven't been able to touch it for the past five minuets while everyone was digging in. For an unexplained reason I had a massive and pounding headache.

"I'll finish that for you if you don't eat it, Luce!" Natsu offers pointing out the fact I had barely touched my food.

"Go ahead I say." Sliding the plate towards him. It was disappointing to say the least, wasting such a good dessert but right now I didn't feel right.

"Are you okay Lucy? You're spacing out." Erza asks concerned looking up from her crepe.

"Oh, just this random headache I got." I shrug off.

"Motion sickness and now this? You must have a bug or something." The ice make wizard comments.

"Aye." The blue cat agrees.

"That's probably the reason." I answer truly believing it myself. "During our travel to Taro I could've caught a foreign virus."

"That sounds serious." The requip mage says crossing her arms. "Maybe you should head back to the Guild early and leave the mission to us."

"No! I'm okay guys I swear! Just a small headache! I'll be over it by tonight!" I blurt out, wanting to help my teammates an not cause any worry among them.

"Luce is right!" Natsu says finishing my crepe, crumbs still on the corners of his mouth. "She can beat this dumb bug and kick ass while doing it!"

     I can't help but mentally smiling knowing Natsu has my back like that, even if it's nothing very significant.

***

     After we finished at the crepe shop we decided to head back to the mansion, as the sun was already setting.

"When do you think these guys will show up exactly?" I ask no one in particular, I was hoping this job wouldn't take to long due to my unexplained headache.

"They'll probably use the cover of the dark night to show up." Gray replies—which means we should quicken the pace considering the sun was almost no where to be seen.

    I remain silent the rest of the walk to the house, specifically the gardens. In my head I was still trying to figure out the pounding in my head and the unsettling feeling in my stomach. Although I made sure to look alive, not wanting to worry my friends. We had to focus on the mission.

     When we got there I could see a few stars in the sky, the mansion itself was secured and locked, lights turned off. We were expected to guard from the outside. The plan so far as Erza explained during our walk was to catch the suspects by surprise and use our magic to stun them and send them on their way.

"It's so dark." Happy comments as the five of us wait patiently for any signs of life near the premise. It'd has been ten minutes and so far no luck.

     Natsu then had a bright look on his face, suddenly raising his fist which was engulfed in flames, acting as a light source. This seemed to make the exceed happy.

"You idiot!" Gray scolds the dragon slayer. "The bandits are gonna know we're waiting for them with that!"

    He had a point, the light was nice, but it was obviously giving us away.

"You got a brighter ideas, ice ass?" Natsu mocks putting his fire out to collide heads with Gray.

"Stop this at once." Erza warns. Shutting them up quickly. "Your squabbling will for sure get us caught."

"Y-Yes mam!" They say in unison. Always a distraction those two...

***

     Twenty more minuets in this seemingly useless endeavour the salmon haired mage suddenly peeled up from the wall he was previously leaning on.

"I smell someone—no some two!" He explains in a whispered voice.

"Good job Natsu." Erza praises him before trying to scope them out for herself.

    I look into the darkness ahead where Natsu apparently senses them and can only see pitch black.

"Really, where?" I question.

    All of a sudden the wind howled along with the sounds of clear footsteps on the fresh grass of the gardens.

"Wait I hear them!" I say finally able to spot two dark figures in the distance making their way to where we all suspected them to show up.

"Lets go!" The ice make mage says as he begins to quietly tip toe to their location, ready to incase them in his ice.

    Just as Gray had gotten close to them, one hooded figure turned around to face him, surprising all of us as we had been easily spotted. Right then same figure held their hand out which gave away they also used some sort of magic.

"Gray watch out!" I call out when a beam forms from the persons hands ready to attack. As they aim their magic towards him Erza was fast enough to block the attempt with her sword.

"Natsu, Lucy, Happy, hold back the other guy! Me and Gray will handle this one." She commands her sword still locked with the mysterious magic user.

"Aye sir!" Happy says as Natsu and I get in our positions.

   I get out my golden zodiac key. "Open gate of the lion: Leo!" I shout, Loke appearing in a flash of gold.

"Beautiful as always, Lucy." Loke comments turning to me with a playboy look I'm his eyes. I roll my eyes, what a typical greeting.

"Shut up and focus on the bad guy!" Natsu butts in,
Loke then nodding as he turns towards the cloaked stranger.

    Without a second thought Natsu charges towards them. "Fire Dragon's fist!" He yells, as he throws a fire-fueled punch at the person.

    Unexpectedly his flamed fist is caught before he can cause impact, the attacker managing to resist his arm and throw him to the ground with no effort.

"Natsu!" I exclaimed worried.

"Wow this guy must be strong to withstand Natsu's moves." Happy comments.

  As the dragon slayer regains balance Loke joins the battle. He uses a quick light based attack which thankfully lands a hit which makes the cloaks hood fall. It revealed a man with scars along his face, as well as a Guild mark on his bald head.

  Before the mysterious wizard could recover from Loke's regulas punch, Natsu rejoins by kicking his side with a foot of fire.

  The stranger then gets up, balling up his bare hands as he slams them to the ground causing a slight tremor. I assume he had physical magic.

"These two goons belong to dark guilds!" I exclaim as the rest right then off. It was hard to concentrate with my concerning stomach ache, but I recognize serpent like symbol. It belonged to a dark guild I  Fiore called Serpents Wing.

'But why would dark Guild like that be doing in this small town to steal something?' I ponder. Just then I notice a beam of bright purple magic coming in my direction from the other attacker, catching Erza and Gray off guard.

"Lucy!" Natsu yells running towards me.

'Damn it I was too caught up in my thinking.' I scowl do myself, luckily I'm not useless.

   Before the attack can hit me I bring out my whip and deflect the beam in one shot, the beam reflecting back at the cloaked figure. He stumbles to the ground which also reveals his identity, another male with a Serpent Wings Guild mark.

"You're right Lucy. These bandits are part of an illegal organization." Erza walks over to the one I had just knocked down, pointing her sword at his throat—his comrade held down by Gray and Natsu.

"Serpents Wing." She spits. "What would petty mages like you be doing here?"

The man pinned down by Erza looks frightened and tried to raise his hands in surrender. "W-w-we were just trying to do what our master told us to do..."

"Tell that crook Aizen to stop bothering our client." The requip mage demands, inching her blade closer towards him. She was referring to Serpent's master, Aizen. His Guild and Fairytail have known each other for years but they've been in the shadows up until now.

The unnamed dark wizard quickly nods and Erza releases her stance, letting him free. He scrambled to his feet along with his friend and before they can run away Natsu and Gray bonk them in the head unexpectedly, letting them fall unconscious to the ground.

"We should bring them back to Satoshi." Gray says bringing rope out to tie them up.

"Another mission complete!" I cheer along with Happy.

"Aye sir!"

But the mystery of what Serpent's Wing was after unknown.