Welcome to anyone reading this :)

I've recently developed a sort of obsession with Fairy Tail (Hiro Mashima is my new hero), and was really keen to write a fic based on it :3

My two favourite characters at the moment are Grey Fullbuster and Gajeel Redfox X3 but this fic is featuring Gajeel as the main lead (because I just love him that much). I'll think of doing a Grey-centric fic at a later stage, when I've figured out a decent plot for it.

This story will contain one or two OC's but other than that, most of the characters from Fairy Tail will make an appearance.

Thanks for taking the time to read this :) I encourage you to listen to the songs relating to each chapter, it will help convey the feeling of the story more effectively :P and they're also really great songs X3

A ginormous THANK YOU to Aikoyu Saotome for Beta-reading this story and making sure it's in tip-top shape before I send it whizzing about into cyber space :D

As always, feedback is encouraged and appreciated :D

General disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail (although I sincerely wish I did), or any songs used in this story. The rights to them belong to Hiro Mashima and the respective artists of the various songs.

1. Alibi (30 Seconds to Mars)

No warning sign, no alibi

We're fading faster than the speed of light

Took our chance, crashed and burned

No we'll never ever learn

I fell apart, but got back up again

And then I fell apart, but got back up again

We both could see, crystal clear, that the inevitable end was near

Made our choice, trial by fire

To battle is the only way we feel alive

I fell apart, but got back up again

And then I fell apart, but got back up again

So here we are, reaching out

The quickest tongue to divide and devour

Divide and devour

If I could end the quest for fire

For truth, for love and not desire

My soul

And I fell apart, but got back up again

Cold. All I could feel was the harsh, biting cold. It sliced through your clothes, seeped under your skin. It froze your very bones. The only way to fight the cold was to keep warm – keep moving. I suppose that's why they had built the camp in such a frigid, barred region – to motivate the inmates to either keep working or freeze to death.

That's all we did, day in and day out. We worked. We trained. We fought. We followed orders like dogs because we had no other choice. This was a conscripted military camp. There was no such thing as 'choice' here.

As I lay on the hard wooden board that served as my bed, covered by only a thin, tattered blanket, I couldn't help but think back to the first day I had been brought to the camp. I had been brought here when I was twelve, forcefully removed from the streets I had been living on.

They didn't care how old you were when they brought you in. If you had a working body, you could be trained to fight and put to work. That was all they cared about. It took them a week to 'break' me – beat me down until I had no other option but to follow their rules, or risk death. Sometimes, I wished they would kill me, end my suffering. But they were too cruel for that. They wouldn't waste a perfectly good soldier for nothing.

They had stuck me in with all the other rookies. They stuck us all in a long wooden hut with no mattresses and only a single blanket each. We received two meals a day – gruel for breakfast and gruel for dinner. After the first week, they started 'conditioning' us. Training us to be the future defense force of the country.

They worked us like dogs. For eighteen hours a day, we trained – physical exercise, hand-to-hand combat, weapons skills, learning to shoot, disassemble, reassemble and reload guns, and many other things that would make us the perfect soldiers.

We weren't allowed to speak to the other inmates. They needed us to be cold, efficient killing machines. There wasn't meant to be any capacity in our hearts for compassion or friendship. Friends made you weak, they got you killed.

I huddled into a tight little ball under my blanket. That was six years ago. I had been going through this harsh routine, in this merciless weather, day in and day out for six long years. Six long, painful, lonely years. But enough was enough. I was finally ready to be free of this torture. I clutched the small cotton sack I held in my arms even closer to my shivering chest.

Today would be the day I broke out.

Inside the bag were my nine methods of escape – nine jeweled tiger's heads, each an elemental charm key. My mother had left them to me before she…before she…

I pushed the painful memory to the back of my mind. I had to stay focused. One slip-up, and it would all be over.

I was an Elemental Charm Mage. I had had some simple practice with my charms before I had been conscripted, but I knew enough about how to use them to break free. It had been no easy task keeping them hidden from the generals and other camp officials who led routine searches through the dorms, but all my patience was finally going to pay off.

I waited until lights out, when the officials would retire to the warmth of their heated brick cabins and thick fleece blankets. After the dorms had been thrown into darkness, I waited another hour or so to make sure all my fellow inmates were asleep. If they knew what I was about to do, they would definitely try to stop me. No one had made it out of here alive, before now.

When I was sure no one else was awake, I threw my blanket off and slowly rose to my feet. I had managed to snag an extra coat and pair of fatigues from the washroom, so I was prepared for the harsh cold I was about to enter. I crept to the doorway, careful not to kick or step on anyone on my way past.

I paused when I reached the entrance of the dorms and turned, looking one last time at the wooden hut that had been my 'home' for the past six years. After a moment, I turned my back to it. There was no going back.

I carefully opened my satchel and drew out they charm I had selected form my escape – it was no bigger than the palm of my hand, studded with precious stones that glittered in the pale moonlight. If the officials had caught hold of these, they would have sold them for sure. Elemental keys were extremely rare. But I wouldn't let them have them. They were the only thing I had left to remind me of my mother now.

They were my salvation.

The charm I held was studded with quartz crystals that glittered like ice in the palm of my hand. Two sets of glazed black stripes, three on each side of the tiger's head, contrasted sharply with the clear brilliance of the stones. Two deep blue amazonite eyes stared into mine as I readied myself to access the magic lying dormant within the small charm. It was now or never.

Taking a deep breath and seizing the moment before my courage could desert me, I pressed the cold metal figurine to my lips, silently calling the magic forth with the words I had been taught so long ago. I felt a brief surge of power as the charm's magic washed over me, lending me its power.

A sudden breeze sprang up outside, blowing my hair back from my face and powdering me in a fresh layer of snow. I clenched my fist. I didn't know much about how to fully use the power of the charms , but I was going to make the most of what I knew.

…

I was running, bolting through the thick snowdrifts, kicking up clouds of powdery white snow as I went. I could hear them behind me, shouting, revving the engines on their snowmobiles as they gave chase.

My face and other extremities had long since gone numb with cold, but I couldn't stop. Not now.

My Air charm had gotten me as far as was possible with my limited skills, and now the rest was up to me. I could hear the guard dogs barking as they chased after me in a mad frenzy, driven insane with the thrill of the chase and the promise of bloodshed if they caught me.

Hot tears spilled down my cheeks as I pushed myself harder, bashing my way through thick mountains of snow as it continued to rain down in a blizzard. A few more feet and I would be in the safety of the trees…just a few more feet…

I screamed as a huge monster of a dog launched itself at me from atop a large boulder, its gigantic knife-sharp teeth aimed for my throat. The damn thing had been waiting for me while the rest of the pack made sure I strayed into its trap. Those damn guards had trained them too well…

I couldn't move. My feet were frozen to the ground from a mixture of fear and the below-zero temperatures. This was it. I was about to get my head torn off by a rabid mongrel.

Massive clawed paws struck me in the shoulder, knocking me forcefully to the ground. I cried out again as the full weight of the beast landed heavily on my chest, pinning me down. It glared at me with blood-crazed eyes blacker than the dead of night, before its massive jaw snapped downwards…

Shock woke abruptly, a scream torn from her throat. She sat bolt upright in bed, the covers pooling down around her waist. Her breathing was labored, and her skin slick with sweat. It took her a few moments to realize where she was. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down and soothe her panicked mind. She closed her eyes, focusing on the rapid thumping of her heart.

She was okay. She was in her room in the old mage's cabin. There were no guards or rabid dogs here. The camp would never find her out here.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, wiping the messy strands from her forehead. Her body gradually relaxed. It was just that damn nightmare again…the same one that had been plaguing her for the last six months. The memory just wouldn't leave her alone. Her mind was constantly reminding her of the subconscious fear that the camp would eventually find her and tow her back to hell.

Shock took another few deep breaths. The camp wouldn't find her. She would be moving on soon, to the city of Magnolia. They would never look for her there. Once she was in Magnolia, she would be safe.

Shock slid out of bed, stretching her lithe body as she did so. She looked out the window at the grassy meadow outside. The tall stalks of green grass were swaying gently in the breeze, and she could see the blue silhouettes of the mountains in the distance. It was so peaceful here.

Shock frowned. But she had to leave. Her aim was to get to Magnolia as soon as possible, and find the guild of mages called Fairy Tail. She had heard on her travels that her old friend Levi was a member.

The nineteen-year-old mage tugged off the short-sleeved shirt she had been sleeping in, slipping on a black sleeveless tank top in its place. Shock's aim was to join Fairy Tail. She had nowhere else to go. There wasn't anyone else she could trust, besides the old woman who had taken her in all those months ago. She had to get to Magnolia and find Levi. She would help, Shock was sure of it.

She quickly changed the rest of her outfit, swapping her shorts for baggy cargo pants and tugging on her dark brown combat boots.

Fairy Tail was meant to be one of the strongest guilds out there. Shock was sure they could help her become stronger. And from what she had heard, it didn't sound like a half-bad place to restart her life.

She ambled over to the small wooden desk at the other end of the room, eyeing the belt that lay across it. It was covered in small, evenly-spaced loops. Each loop had one of her Elemental Charms clipped to it. All nine of them glittered when the early-morning sunlight struck them, dazzling Shock as she gazed at them.

Water, covered in aquamarine jewels with twin sapphire stones for eyes. Fire, with fire opal gems for skin and rubies for eyes. The Air charm, made of quartz and amazonite. The key that had helped her escape the military camp all those months ago. Shock regarded the Soul charm – it was probably one of her most dangerous, mainly because it was so tricky to use. Made with diamonds and blood-red garnet stones for eyes, it was every bit as beautiful as it was deadly.

Her most two contradictory charms lay side by side, Light and Shadow. Where one was covered in bright blue tanzanite, the other was bathed in dark lapis lazuli. Light's moonstone eyes were the complete opposite of Shadow's onyx orbs.

Lightning caught her attention next. Shock smiled when she looked at it – her mother had always told her that it had been the inspiration for her name, because she had been fascinated with it as a child. It was made of citrine quartz and had glittering diamonds for eyes, and she could easily see why it had always caught her interest when she was younger.

The last two charms on her belt were among the most dangerous, almost as deadly as Soul – Time and Psych. Time was covered in opal and had eyes made of tiger's eye stones, and Psych was made from red tiger's eye and carnelian.

Shock looked down at her belt, giving each charm another once-over. Each of them were as beautiful as they were powerful, some maybe too powerful. But Shock didn't care for their power. All she cared about was the fact that they had been given to her by her mother, and they were all she had left to remember her by now.

Shock promptly reached out and lifted the belt off the table, fastening it around her waist. She turned to the doorway and grabbed the pack lying beside it. She slung it over her shoulder as she walked down the corridor to the kitchen. She would be leaving for Magnolia in a few minutes; it was only proper that she say goodbye to the old mage that had taken her in and cared for her for these last few months. Besides taking care of her, the old woman had also taught her how to control her charms better.

Shock was quite proud of the fact that she was a fairly powerful Elemental Charm Mage now, with that old woman's help.

She entered the kitchen to find it empty, but with the back door wide open. Shock smiled gently, seeing the note left on the table. Neither of them had ever been fond of goodbyes. She scribbled another note on the bottom of the small piece of paper.

A few moments later, the girl was gone.

And there you have it! Chapter one :D please tell me what you guys thought :3

I'm going to manage this story like all my other multi-chapter fics – if you guys want an update, then you'll have to review :3 once I receive at least two reviews for the latest chapter, I'll update :D fair enough, I think :)

Just a warning - I may take longer than I would like to update this story, because of schoolwork and such, but I WILL update as regularly as possible and I most definately WILL NOT forget about this. Please be patient when waiting for updates :)

And if anyone has a song or idea they would like me to incorporate into the story, let me know – all ideas are welcome and appreciated!