Chapter 1

Levy woke up to a average sunny day.

The clouds were just clearing up, letting in the first of the sun's morning rays. They looked like they had bellies of fire as they died under the coming warmth of the day.

She got up and pulled on the first complete outfit she could find and a hairband to match it was tied to keep her blue hair out of her face.

Her clothes were childlike and cute, the way a lot of people saw her to be.

Most everyone saw her as cute or adorable, not a powerful mage in her own right.

Her Solid Script magic was just as powerful as the other Script mage in the guild, she herself just wasn't as strong as Freed.

She stumbled over her books as she made her way out of her room in the dorm know around the city as Fairy Hills: the Party House. The girls branch wasn't so bad, being in the back of the property and separated by the large open bath house from the boys larger dormitory/barracks.

Levy met Laki in the hallway as they were making their way to the main part of the guild.

They chatted over some of the things that had happened on their most recent missions.

Laki had had some of the trees she was helping replant catch fire from a kid practicing magic and ended up using her own wood magic to repair the trees as well as spent an hour scolding the boy and giving him pointers to practice on.

Levy told her about her two partners being useless as always. Jet was fast and somewhat strong in his kicks, but he wasn't very accurate and he missed more often than he hit.

Droy was slower, and his plants could trap pretty well, but they weren't strong enough to hold a person trapped or fight back.

Laki laughed at the story as they came to the central hall of the guild.

It was fairly run down for the most part in places that didn't get used very often. Not because they didn't have the ability to fix it, but because they just couldn't keep up with the size of the building. And the level of destruction caused by the guys getting out of control.

The hall was mostly empty except for a few of the regulars. The master of the guild Makarov, and Wakaba sat at the bar counter playing cards as Mira stood behind the counter preparing breakfast for the majority of the guild to come in shortly.

"Morning Mira." Levy called as they came in. Laki moved to look at the job board as Levy went to the counter.

Mira turned and put on her brightest smile, reserved for the people she loved most dearly. Which was most of the main members of the guild, minus a couple who only seemed to piss her off.

"Good morning Levy. Did you stay up reading again last night? You look a bit tired."

"I do? I don't feel tired. Has anyone brought in a job that would be good for me?"

"There might be one, but I don't think so." Mira pulled out a large bowl as she saw Natsu, Happy, and Elfman coming into the guild hall.

Levy turned to watch the Fire Dragon Slayer and the Take-Over mage stumble up to the counter. The flying Exceed plopped himself on the counter.

Natsu slumped on the counter as Elfman sat beside Levy.

Mira hurried to get food prepared as Natsu mumbled about previous leads being full of crap.

"Following leads is a Mans job." Elfman spoke in his usual loud tones.

"But I hate false leads." Natsu grumbled.

"Then stop and think about the obviously false points before just rushing out." Gray spoke from the other side of the room as he came in. Levy turned to look at him. He wore only a pair of shorts and was carrying his shirt and belt in his right hand as he made his way towards a table. "I overheard something about a Salamander in Hargeon yesterday on my way back from my last mission."

Natsu perked up from the ends of his scale scarf to the tips of his pink hair.

Levy watched as he jumped up, shouting that he was headed to the port town.

Mira smiled after him as Happy jumped up to fly after his Slayer partner.

"See, he'll follow anything without getting the details." Gray smirked as Mira finished up a batch of eggs and set a plate in front of the four at the counter.

Levy had to admit, Natsu could be pretty dense.

She focused on her food and when she was finished, she excused herself to head for the guild library.

She needed to research new magic.

xXx

When Natsu and Happy came back to the guild a few days later, he had brought an oddly familiar girl back with them.

Levy was happy to have another girl in the guild.

She was even more happy to know that Lucy wrote stories. Lucy promised to let her read the one she was working on when she finished it.

It wasn't another couple days of getting to know the girl, who looked strangely familiar to most of the information collecting members of the guild, before Natsu and Happy dragged her off on another mission. Mira promised to put her network to work and find out who the new girl was.

Levy took a quick job in Magnolia teaching a group of tourists about the history of the town and country. It was perfect for her, being the one person in the guild who knew the most about the history of things. It was one of her favorite subjects to read on, aside from romance and languages.

Things were never quite settled in the Fairy Tail guild, but it was just how things went around there.

Levy and her team stayed around Magnolia as the guild went into an uproar over Natsu and Happy and Lucy going out on an S rank quest. She feared for her friends, but at the same time, she could never hope to stop Natsu when he put his head to something. Levy could only hope Erza brought them back safely, although she'd likely do them as much damage as the quest would.

xXx

The day after the fiasco with Happy stealing the request, Levy woke up to the sound of breaking wood and crushing stone. She groaned as she thought of the damage the fight was causing to the guild and glanced at her clock.

It wasn't even two in the morning.

No one would be in the hall.

She swung her legs to the side of the bed and tugged her long shirt down to cover her thighs properly.

Her half asleep brain managed to not make her trip over her books as she hurried silently out the door.

Most of the senior members and the destructive ones like Natsu and Gray were out on missions. There shouldn't have been too many members in the guild with a habit of breaking the hall.

She rushed down the hallway, thankful that she was on the first floor.

When she came to the doors leading to the hall, she couldn't even push them open. They were blocked from the inside.

She went to the courtyard door and pushed it open. She stumbled as she looked at the hall from the outside.

There were huge metal beams protruding from it at all angles. It looked like an oversized pin cushion.

She looked up as she saw movement and froze.

Standing on the top of the hall, shrouded in a heavy black coat and a wild mane of black hair stood the only mage that could have done this damage to the guild.

Black Steel Gajeel. The Iron Dragon Slayer.

He jumped from the top of the building as he faced her and she fell backwards. She tripped over the edge of the sidewalk and slammed her head against the ground.

As everything went black to her, she seared the image of his face into her mind.

The sharp canines shown by his maniacal grin, the metal studs on his face, and the cold cruel red eyes of a dragon.

Levy fainted with the hopes that it was all a nightmare brought on by reading dusty old war stories against the old dragons.