. For a Reason .

"We don't meet people by accident. They are meant to cross our path for a reason."

~Unknown

The first time they'd met had been a complete accident. All hell had broken loose in the city of Crocus; several dragons were scattered around alongside the strange metal-like creatures they'd brought with them, and it was dangerous to anyone still there. Most people had been ordered out of the destroyed city, which had once glowed beautifully in the inky darkness of the night.

Not the mages of Fiore.

She, along with every other person capable of wielding magic, were fighting for their lives, trying to control the situation and save Fiore from certain destruction. While the dragon slayers of the Fairy Tail and Sabertooth guilds had been put in charge of six of the dragons with an unknown dragon slayer dealing with the seventh, the rest of the mages had to deal with the curious looking creatures.

She, herself, had already destroyed a good deal of them. Her short silvery hair, usually spiked up with "wings" and longer strands framing her face, hung limply in her face as she scrambled around a corner, her feet skidding on stones that littered the once beautiful cobblestone street. Debris was everywhere, and she had to hop over some of it to continue forward. Her burgundy eyes were serious, her carefully kept clothes in tatters and various wounds covering her body. Her feet ached - one was bare of a shoe, lost in the battle - but still, she continued on.

She ignored the screams in the distance, the roars that shook the ground beneath her feet. She heaved for breath as she darted past a body that was strewn across the path, missing pieces that had been ripped away and lying in a pool of the blood that had spilled from it.

Now was not the time to mourn over the dead.

That time would come later.

"Damn," she hissed as she rounded a corner, ducking to narrowly avoid the attack of one of the smaller enemies. It screamed piercingly, the sound nearly paining her enough that she ducked down and covered her already bleeding ears.

She clenched her jaw and side-stepped to avoid the attack it fired at her. She waved a hand in a jerky motion, exhausted from using so much of her magic. A massive canine appeared beside her, a snarl on its lips. It growled viciously, silvery hackles raised as it lunged at the creature, slamming it to the ground and setting to work on prying its head from its shoulders.

When her solid illusion had killed it, she crumpled to her knees in the middle of the street. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her eyes misted over with exhaustion and sweat dotted her forehead.

She wasn't made for combat like this. She was not meant to fight in wars; her magic wasn't even offensive, for heaven's sake! She was sent on the spy missions, on the jobs that required precision and cautiousness.

The Magic Council chose a hell of a year to drag me to the Grand Magic Games, she thought miserably as she forced herself to her feet. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then started forward again at a jog. She could do this, she told herself over and over again.

She could do this.

Her feet slipped on the broken ground as she hurried down the street again.

Her vision tunneled as she rounded the corner.

Her mind drew a blank when she saw the group of them waiting to ambush the first stupid person to cross their path.

There was no way around it, she realized, readying herself for her demise as they all readied their attacks, preparing to tear her into pieces with the beams they launched from their deadly jaws.

A brilliant white beam cutting through their bodies in a massive blast that had her covering her eyes put a stop to that. She threw her arms in front of her bloodied face to protect her eyes, unable to see. When she lowered them, she discovered none other than Sabertooth's white dragon slayer.

He looked as tired as she did as he wiped his forehead free of sweat. His body was marked up with just as many injuries as hers, his eyes fierce and angry alongside determined as he raised a hand to her in greeting.

She couldn't help but shoot him a faint and grateful smile with her white teeth, grimacing at the idea that they, too, were bloodied from biting her lip.

He merely winked, amusement flashing across his tired expression.

A roar cutting through the air had his head snapping around, blond hair falling into his eyes. He growled before shouting, "Go!"

And then he was sprinting in the opposite direction. A massive clawed foot descended as the dragon he'd been fighting went after him, another roar escaping, followed by a wave of violent heat that threatened to consume her in its nasty bite. The massive creature paused, as if realizing she was there, and turned its head to glare at her with one massive and dangerous eye, its lips pulling back from its teeth as it prepared to exhale a gust of flames at her.

The dragon slayer recaptured its attention with a single beam of searing light, catching it in the side of the head. It roared in rage and went back to chasing after the dragon slayer, who easily avoided it somehow.

She watched it leave with round burgundy eyes, her body trembling with the shock of nearly being incinerated by a dragon.

She shook her head to clear it, heading back the way she'd came.

She had no more magic and was useless in the fight now. As exhausted as she was, she'd help the weaker mages protect the citizens that had left Crocus in an attempt to keep them safe.

She would thank him aloud later.

Later didn't come until nearly three years later.

Just a fun little thing I decided to do while testing out how I might write this character, an OC of mine by the name of Rhith Vila, who I've paired with Sting. I have plans for a fanfiction eventually that includes her and wanted to test out what some thought of her. ;) This is actually kind of a prelude to that.