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"WE HAVE A PROBLEM...it's Erza!" The entire guild froze in fear at the idea of the approaching warrior. Celty, whom had been talking to the recently returned Cana, turned in surprise.

"Erza?!"

"Already?!"

"Oh man, I'm so dead..." Macao sweated, not easily forgetting his screw-up. Natsu and Gray had forgotten their previous dispute, in favor of dreading the red haired mage. Loke dashed into the guild, hiding under a table. Slowly approached large crashes, each sounding like something extremely heavy was being dropped.

"Those are her footsteps! Definitely."

"Judging by those reactions, she must be one powerful wizard..." Lucy muttered to herself, but Mirajane overheard.

"I think it's safe to say that she's the strongest female member in Fairy Tail." Celty visibly saddened at the words from Mirajane. She easily remembered when Mirajane would die before she said that. Lucy's eyes widened as a dark figure slowly approached. She had blood red hari that only reached her shoulders, and wore a suit of armor and a blue skirt. An odd combination, but it worked. The most notable thing about her was the enormous object she held above her head.

Placing it heavily beside her, one of the guild members spoke up. "O-oi, Erza. What is that?"

"The horn of a monster I killed. The village decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir." She turned sharply, glaring at him. "Do you have a problem with it?" The guild member shied away, sweating profusely ad murmuring something. Erza scanned the guild, picking out reprimands.

"Vijiteer, dance outside. Cana, don't drink in that position." She glanced at Shizuo and both gave a mutual nod. Seeing her friend, sh widened her eyes at Celty. However, she decided that reprimanding the guild members was more important right now. "Nab. get a job." Finally, she turned to Macao. "Macao..." There was a long pause before she turned away, sighing.

"SAY SOMETHING!" Erza ignored him turning to Celty And Shizuo.

"Shizuo, Celty, it's good to see you. Although I must admit, a surprise." Celty gave return smile.

"Yeah, it's good to see you as well." Erza gave a smile, before remembering why she was there.

"Ah, is Natsu and Gray here?" She turned to see the two locked in arms, acting like two best friends.

"O-of course, Erza! Just getting a long as usual!" Gray stammered, both profusely sweating in fear. Natsu could only get out a high pitched "aye" in agreement. She smiled, continuing. "That's good. Just remember, even the closest of friends can argue sometimes. That being said, it's always a welcome sight to see you two." Natsu gave a terrified grin. "Aye!" Erza smiled, but then turned serious, a 180 degree change. "Listen, I have a favor to ask. Normally I would consult the Master first, but I heard something on my job I feel is of utmost importance. Will you help me? Natsu, Gray, Shizuo, and now Celty?" There was a long pause as Natsu and Gray stared at each other, hating the idea, but knowing that against Erza they didn't have a choice.

"All of us, join a team?" Celty murmured. She glanced over to Mirajane, telling Lucy something. "I'm not actually a part of Fairy Tail, but I doubt Makarov would mind. I'm in." Celty nodded, giving Erza her consent.

Shizuo shrugged. "It's a bit over-kill, but I'll do it." He glanced at Natsu and Gray. "I have a feeling that they're joining as well." Natsu looked back at Erza, and although she had civilly asked, he still feared saying "no." Besides, Erza needing help? It was exiting! Even if droopy eyes was coming along.

"A six person team. It's a lot, isn't it? Plus a cat." Celty asked. She had never really been a part of a guild, but she understood basic things about them. Lucy nodded, trying to ignore the arguing ice and fire mage.

"Yeah, the most I've ever seen was four." She sweat-dropped at the two's antics. Slowly, they began gathering the attention of everyone who passed by with their insults and challenges. "I don't know them, I don't know them, I don't know them..." as if convincing herself of that would cause it to come true. Happy, sitting next to her, happily munched on a fish.

"Why are you here, Lucy?" He asked curiously. She gave a dry laugh.

"I promised Mira to stop them from fighting when Erza wasn't watching..." She looked up. Shizuo was deep in thought, and Celty didn't want to get between the two mages. "I had hoped that Shizuo and Celty would help, but..." She shook her head, knowing she had been foolish to expect help from those two. Her thoughts were interrupted by Shizuo greeting the wizard in armor.

"Hey, Erza." A bemused eyebrow was raised at the sight of her luggage. He wasn't sure they could fit all that onto the train... "Not slacking in the "prepared department," I see." Lucy stared at the amount of luggage in shock, as Erza turned to see Gray and Natsu getting along as usual in her presence. She nodded, apparently happy at the two "getting along." However, the instant she turned both turned with anger and vigor usually reserved for the worst of enemies. "Shizuo, Celty. Ah, and you must be Lucy," She glanced back to see Natsu and Gray doing a happy friendship dance that ended as soon as she looked away. "The girl who took down a mercenary Vulcan with just her pinkie."

Lucy froze up, sweating profusely and clutching Plue, her celestial spirit pet."Yes, it'll be good to have you along. Thank you for coming."

"M-my pleasure..." She managed to choke out, despite knowing that she couldn't even hope to live up to her now very high expectations. Rather suddenly, Natsu broke into their conversation.

"Erza, I'll come with you, but on one condition!" Shizuo perked up, curious, and Celty tilted her head at the dragon-slayer, unsure what he was going to propose. Despite the ignorance of these two, Gray seemed to know where he was going with this. He managed to get out a warning "hey" before Natsu continued, encouraged by Erza's curious glance. "That you fight me when we get back!" Erza turned fully towards him, pleasantly surprised as Gray attempted to change his mind. However, Natsu wasn't one to go back on decisions, no matter how dumb they were.

Shizuo turned away, feeling he really should have seen the challenge coming. Celty, however, seemed shocked, not having expected it at all. She was away for three years."I don't know why you're so surprised. He's Natsu, after all." Celty seemed to calm down, realizing the absolute truth to the simple statement.

She waved her hand, as if swatting away an annoying fly called her previous disbelief. "Yeah, you're right..." She sighed, watching as Erza accepted the challenge. "Still, he really should know better then to challenge Erza, of all people. You or, well, maybe just I would at least see what he had before going all out." She jumped slightly at the piercing train whistle, breaking through her thoughts and startling her.

Erza was arguing with a conductor, pointing at her luggage and then at the train. It was less an argument, more an aggressive command to get her luggage aboard the train, while the conductor meekly came up with excuses as to why they couldn't. Erza swiftly won, a dangerous glint appearing in her eye. The conductor, surprisingly perceptive, noticed this and relented to her onslaught.

"Well, we'd better get on. We don't want to be left behind." Erza was now pulling the reluctant Natsu along, Lucy and Gray trailing quickly behind.

"You coming? Erza's telling us what's up in the car." Gray motioned them to get on.

After Erza's explanation of Lullaby, a mysterious object sought after by the dark guild, Eisenwald...

There was a period of silence after the grim story. Erza obviously blamed herself, not having attacked the guild members when she could have. Lucy decided to ask something that had been bothering her. The entire group took up two sets of seats, across the cabin's walkway from each other. Lucy sat alone, Natsu previously there now unconscious in Erza's lap. Gray sat in the seat opposite Celty and Shizuo, whom sat together.

"So, if it's not rude, do you mind me asking what magic you use?" Erza smiled at her curiosity.

"Erza's magic is really pretty!" Happy munched on a fish he had produced from nowhere. "It makes enemies bleed a lot!" Lucy sweat-dropped, while Celty gave a small laugh.

Erza took a small bite of her luscious cake. "Personally," She glanced up at Gray, using Natsu's head as a table for her plate. "I think Gray's magic is prettier." He blinked in surprise.

"You think?" Holding out his fists, a blue magic appeared in front of him, accompanied by a burst of cold air. Opening his fist, he held in his palm the Fairy tail symbol made of finely sculpted ice. "Ice magic." The symbol floated out of his hand, across the isle and stopped in front of Lucy, impressing her. "Celty's magic is like mine, but it looks a lot more threatening, but beautiful too, in it's own way."

Taking this as her cue, Celty held up her palm facing the roof of the car. A deep black circle appeared underneath her hand, moving as though it were alive. The circle deformed into lines of shadow, climbing up the sides of her hand and forming a small black, swirling cloud. A second later, the tendrils dispersed, leaving behind a miniature horse in her hand. It seemed to be smoking, lines of black, smoke-like shadow seeping off of it.

For a moment, Lucy thought it just as a statue, at least before it began moving. It's minuscule head shook, throwing it's mane around and disrupting it's steady flow of shadow for a moment. It gave a insignificant neigh, before trotting around in her palm. "That's amazing!" Leaning across the isle, the two met in the middle. She held out her index finger, looking to Celty for permission. After a nod, she slowly stroked it's back, her finger running over the delicate shadow animal. "It feels almost... cold, but still alive. And it's so soft. Does it have a name?"

Celty gave a happy nod. "Yeah, his name is Shooter. When he's full sized, he can run as fast as the train and up walls." Shizuo turned in surprise at Shooter's new-found speed. "As I got stronger, so did Shooter. I can make other living stuff, but I'm definitely most comfortable with Shooter as a horse."

"Ah, man. I'm jealous Celty." Shizuo closed his eyes, and Celty sheepishly looked away at the praise.

"Thanks... although, you're magic isn't exactly unimpressive." Shooter deformed into shadows, once again swirling around itself. However, this time when the shadows dispersed, a miniature hawk perched in it's place. it was about bigger than Celty's clenched fist, causing her to place him on her shoulder for easy holding. "The smaller they are, the less magic it takes to keep it up. But inanimate stuff I can make and pretty much forget about, like Shizuo's gloves, or my clothes." She tugged at her clothes, and a small section came apart, rearing backwards, and in doing so revealed that it was made up of shadowy tendrils.

"Ah, miss, would you liiii..." The waiter trailed off, the pitcher of water in his hand forgotten. He continued staring at her with a small amount of blood beginning to appear from a nostril.

"What's wrong?" She asked, not quite sure. Shizuo groaned.

"Celty, your shirt..." She suddenly realized that when she pulled apart the tendrils to show the others, she had revealed quite a bit of her milky flesh. Blushing, it snapped back into place, and she quickly formed a hood from shadows out of embarrassment. The natural shadows formed from the hood concealed her face, and the waiter, equally embarrassed, walked away quickly.

"Whoops." Gray looked pointedly out the window.

Onibas Station...

"So are the Eisenwald still here?" Gray asked, walking from the train along with the rest of the group. Erza shrugged, speaking up while pulling her enormous luggage.

"I don't know. It's why we're here, right?" Erza answered, not giving a real response to the question.

"It's going to take forever." Lucy moaned, but Celty determinedly clenched her fist, Shooter giving a confidant cry on her shoulder.

"We'll do it anyway! This Lullaby thing could be bad." She glanced around. "Right N..." Her search became more fervent. "Where's Natsu?"

"Ah crap." Shizuo slammed his palm into the center of his forehead.

"Shooter! Let's go!" Shadows swirled around Celty, encompassing her, forming horse Shooter underneath. Shizuo turned to Erza.

"Get on with Celty, I'll power the Magic-mobile!" As Shizuo jumped aboard and clasped the band around his wrist, ignoring the complaints of Erza, Celty twitcvhed nervously.

"Actually... Shooter can only take so much weight... and, well, your armor is heavy, so he'd be faster with Gray or Lucy." Celty treaded lightly, not wanting to offend the S-class wizard, but she hadn't need to worry. Erza nodded in understanding, instead ordering Lucy to get aboard Shooter. She did so, albeit quite awkwardly, never having been on a horse. Once Shooter had his passengers, he reared in excitement, already feeling the urge to race the strange magic-fueled machine.

"OK! Ready, Gray? Lucy?"

"Yeah!"

"Let's go save flame-brain!"