Summary: What if Rette hadn't gone to Tenrou Island? How would life have progressed for her? This is an alternate universe version of my story Nexus Mage that will show how Rette's life would have been had she not gone to Tenrou Island.

Author's Notes: Greetings, my fine readers. This story is an alternate time line that shows the events of the Fairy Tail story from the eyes of Rette Starrilia, my OC, if she had decided to stay in Magnolia instead of going to Tenrou Island during the S-class exams. A bit of a warning, because of the increase in her age and the time that has passed, some events in this story line will play out differently than they will in the main story line. One of the things that will play out different is who ends up as Rette's love interest. If you want to see the differences, you are more than welcome to read both story lines for both will continue to follow the manga. That being said, since the manga didn't really go into detail about what happened during the seven years, a lot of what I write will be what I think. So everyone, please enjoy and review. I love praise, constructive criticism is welcome, but please do not flame me. Please and thank you! I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 1 Bad Omen

"Hey Rette, can I get a beer?"

"Coming."

Rette rushed back to the bar, snagging a mug and filling it before placing it on her tray. Since Mira had joined the others who had gone to Tenrou Island, Rette had been asked to mind the guild hall. She had been given the choice on whether she wanted to stay and run the guild hall, or go to the island and assist there. Rette had agreed to mind the guild hall.

She didn't really mind, in truth, though she felt a little weird staying behind since the rest of her team, Lucy and Wendy included, had gone. Even Thyme, following Lily as she normally did, had followed him and Carla when they had followed the others to Tenrou Island. Since Rette was trying to encourage Thyme to expand her world past just the two of them, she hadn't argued with Thyme's choice.

Besides...her crush on Lily was adorable.

So that left Rette in Magnolia, watching after the guild hall all by herself. Not that she was all too concerned about that. She had help from Laki and Kinana, and everyone was patient with her. But it made her wonder how everyone was doing. Rette paused on her way back to the bar and looked out a nearby window, wondering. Usually Mira would contact her around the middle of the afternoon if not mid evening. Just to let Rette know how things were going and to see how Rette was fairing being in charge.

Rette hadn't received her call yet, but she wasn't too worried.

From what many of the members of the guild told her, the S-class trials were difficult. Since Mira was helping out, she was bound to be busy. Rette heaved a silent sigh as she watched the snow falling outside the window. She would never say it out loud of her accord, but...she kind of already missed her team and their rowdiness. It was far too quiet without Natsu and Gray starting fights in the middle of the guild hall, pulling everyone else in on it.

"Feeling lonely, Rette?"

Rette turned her eyes to a nearby table where Macao and Wakaba were sitting together, a mug of beer before them both. She lightly shrugged her shoulders.

"Not lonely, so much as...it just seems quieter without them here everyday." Rette replied, returning to cleaning tables.

Macao, Wakaba, and several others at the surrounding tables, chuckled. It certainly was a lot quieter without the main trouble makers of the guild around to cause a lot of noise. Though Rette ran in the same crowd as those trouble makers, by herself, she never really caused much trouble.

"Weren't you upset not to get chosen, Rette?" Droy asked, leaning back in his seat to look at Rette.

"Not really. I don't really care about being an S-class mage. As long as I can continue to learn new magic and do my jobs, I don't care what rank I'm considered." Rette replied.

Rette carried her tray full of dirty dishes to the bar and sat it on the counter. She turned then to look at them, her arms folding over her stomach.

"Though, I would be lying if I say I wasn't curious as to what they are doing right now. As a person who likes to learn in new environments and take in new sights, I have been curious about Tenrou Island since I joined Fairy Tail. And as a person who also likes to grow through challenges, the mere thought of a tough exam appealed to me. But, I'm not really interested in the title of being an S-class mage. And since it's unnecessary for me to do my job, I don't see the point in going through the trouble." Rette said.

"You're a strange one, Rette. Everyone wants to be an S-class mage." Alzack called from where he sat with Bisca.

"Not me. I don't see the point. Yeah, you can take on higher class jobs that pay more, but I make enough between my normal jobs and working here in the guild hall. And then there is that whole recognition thing, but...I don't care if others recognize me as strong or not. You stay out of my way, I stay out of your's. Simple as that." Rette replied with a shrug.

"It wasn't that way when you stepped in to take Laxus on head-to-head." Jet replied.

"That was a different matter altogether." Rette retorted. "That was for the best of Fairy Tail."

"Aw, Rette! You really do care!" came a call from Max.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rette retorted, turning her back on them all.

Laughter rung out through the guild hall. It wasn't so much a matter of caring as it was a matter of Rette being possessive. Fairy Tail was her guild. Rette didn't tolerate others messing with what was hers. Even if it was another member of Fairy Tail. So when Laxus had started goofing around with something of hers, breaking things and causing pain and chaos, she had confront him face-to-face. She had gotten the crap beaten out of her for her troubles, but it had all worked out in the end and she had, just recently, gotten her own, small form of payback against him.

Laxus now maintained a good six feet distance, at least, between their bodies whenever he happened to come across her while she was out on a job. A girl lands, once, on a very sensitive part of a guy's anatomy, hard, and suddenly she's deemed public enemy number one it that's guy's eyes.

Go figure.

Well, if you keep up the hard work you're doing now, then this time next year, the Master might decide you're S-class material and select you for the exam." Wakaba called to Rette.

"A lot can happen between now and next year, you know. I try not to think more than a day ahead, if I can." Rette told him.

"What if it does happen?" Laki asked.

"What if it does? If it does, it does. I have no real opinion about it, one way or the other." Rette replied.

Groans rose from several people. A few even banged their heads on tables. Rette was so difficult to get a straight answer out of sometimes. It was like she purposely did it just to make others feel like ripping their own hair out of their heads. Rette raised an eyebrow at the displays, though there was a tiny, amused tick to one corner of her mouth. Despite the amusement, she tilted her head to the side in questioning. What were they groaning about?

"Rette, do you ever get worked up over anything?" Bisca asked.

"Why? Getting worked up won't change anything. Getting excited and happy won't make it any more true and getting depressed and angry won't make anything any less true. What's the point?" Rette asked.

"Lucy and Natsu are right. You're really pessimistic, aren't you?" Warren asked.

Rette shrugged and turned back to her chores. A lot of people called her that. And truthfully...she could see why people thought that. She wasn't always the most positive, but she was always realistic and blunt honest with what she thought. If that made her pessimistic, then that was just something she would live with.

Her team didn't seem to have too much of a problem with her and that part of her nature.

"I prefer to think of it as being realistic and honest with what I think." Rette replied.

"Yeah...right." Max muttered.

"I heard that." Rette called, looking at him over her shoulder.

Max gave her a nervous smile and rubbed the back of his head. Rette knew they were just teasing her. She had been in Fairy Tail long enough to know they would never purposely upset her. They had been given proof, time and again, on why they shouldn't anger her. She had a really bad habit of baring her teeth whenever someone managed to anger her and it never ended well for the other person.

Rette got back to work, now and then checking the time. At one point during the afternoon, Rette paused in her work to shiver. Since she had first started to learn magic as a small child, she had had the heightened ability to sense the magic in the world around her. She could even track others with that ability. Normally, the magic in the air about the Fairy Tail guild was a mix of all of those who were currently there. She could sense something else, something...larger beneath the feet of the guild, far below the basement and she had a feeling that Makarov could tell her what it was, but she had never said anything.

She had a feeling that she shouldn't know about it.

The point was, that the air around the guild hall was usually just a twisting source of different types of magic. She could always tell who was and wasn't in the guild hall because of that. But today, at that moment, she felt like the magic in the air was, briefly, overwhelmed by something darker and more powerful than the mages gathered in the building. It made her chest, where her guild mark sat, ache. Rette paused, stopping to rub at the lavender colored emblem that decorated the space between her collar bones.

"You alright, Rette?" Bisca called from her table.

"Yeah. It's nothing...I hope." Rette replied, her eyes staring out a nearby window.

What had been that feeling?

What could have caused it?

Rette couldn't even begin to phantom that answer. It put her a little more on edge throughout the day, though. The time of day when Mira always called her, came and went. By the time night had fallen and Rette was cleaning up the guild hall so she could close everything down, she had grown worried that something happened. Something through the bond she shared with Thyme was making her spine tingle and had goosebumps rising on her skin.

Something just wasn't right.

Thyme, as an exceed with a rare power, had the ability to form tight and close bonds with others and through those bonds, communicate with the other person mentally. So far, in her life, the only person she had formed such a bond with, was Rette. Through that bond, the two of them could talk into each other's heads, could gauge the emotional state of the other, and even tell if the other was hurt or dead. Because of this, Rette knew Thyme was alive and well, but something about the feeling she was getting through the bond was making the small hairs on the back of Rette's neck, stand on end.

She felt like there was static fuzzing up the connection, making her feel light headed and groggy whenever she tried to feel for the connection with Thyme. It was strange, something she had never felt in the six years she had been with Thyme.

Rette had a hard time sleeping that night. She found herself spending most of the time wrapped in a blanket and sitting out on her balcony. Rette wasn't a big fan of the cold. It reminded her too much of her childhood where she had been raised in the cold and dark, underground passages of a place called The Compound. It also reminded her of the frozen lands where she had lived with her adoptive, dragon parents, Tundron and Chrysalis. But with the snow falling softly from the night sky, and the moon shining in the sky, she wasn't so bothered by it.

She must have dozed, at some point, sitting in that chair on the balcony, because one moment she was staring up at the moon in the sky, her eyes drifting close, only for her to wake up the next moment to the sun starting to rise on the horizon. She was stiff, after dozing in the chair out in the cold, but a warm shower fixed that. She dressed and headed for the guild hall, to get things up and running. The guild hall was quiet, with no one else around.

Rette wasn't use to seeing the guild hall like that, but she quickly got to work, knowing that soon it would be filled with the noise of others talking and enjoying their time with each other. The usual regulars were the first to show up, among which was Macao and Wakaba. Rette greeted them briefly before turning back to minding bar.

She had never understood how some people, like Cana, could start drinking first thing in the morning. Rette had tried a drink of alcohol before and been completely disgusted with it. Not all alcohol tasted the same, as she had found out, and a few tasted pretty decent, but Rette hated what alcohol did to her more.

Apparently, she was what Cana called an "emotional drunk".

Meaning...Rette spilled every little emotion when drunk.

She had to say "no thank you" to the whole thing. What went on in her own mind and heart, was best kept there. No one needed to know that heart felt, family stories made her cry or that Mira's and Lisanna's hugs actually made her ridiculously happy.

Steadily, the guild filled up with all the usual members coming in to just greet each other. Some went to look at the job board, bringing by the request they were taking. Before she had left, Mira had gone through the whole process with Rette on what she had to do when someone selected a job. It was pretty easy work, on it's own, though the paperwork, itself, was a chore to her. That being said, when she was trying to run the bar and do the paperwork too, it became a little more difficult. Multitasking had never really been her strong point.

Rette was in the middle of cleaning empty glasses off of table when the doors to the guild hall opened again. She turned to greet whoever it was and froze when she was confronted with Rahal, the head of the Magic Council's Fourth Custody Enforcement Unit. He had a few guards behind him as he stood in the doorway, looking around the guild hall. Silence fell over the guild as everyone turned to look at him. Rette, as the one in charge of the guild hall at the moment, stepped forward, a tray holding glasses, propped on her hip.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

Rahal looked at her. Obviously he recognized her and remembered that she had hit him over the head the last time they had met, for his expression wasn't pleasant. Then again, he looked like he was ready to swallow his own tongue as it was. Rette really had a bad feeling now.

"I need to speak to the one in charge here." Rahal said, looking like he would rather speak to anyone but her.

"You already are. Master Makarov and Mira, the one usually in charge of the guild hall, are gone right now. They've left me in charge. If you have something to say, I really would like for you to spit it out. I do have work to do." Rette replied.

The grimace on Rahal's face was undeniable. Whatever he had to say, he really didn't want to say it. Out of all the members of Fairy Tail currently in the guild hall, he apparently wanted to tell Rette least of all. Not that she could blame him if it was something bad. And where the council was concerned...it was always bad. His eyes were looking anywhere but at Rette and the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach was only increasing.

"Spit it out already. You're making me irritable." Rette told him.

Rahal's eyes finally locked on to her and she watched as he swallowed hard. Everyone had their eyes on Rette and Rahal by then.

"Well?" Rette asked.

The next words to come out of Rahal's mouth, made Rette's heart skip a beat, her blood running cold throughout her body. It made her feel like someone had just punched her in the gut or had just ripped a hole in her chest to pull her heart out and crush it.

"Tenrou Island...was eradicated. With your guild mates still on it." Rahal said.

The tray of empty glasses that Rette was carrying, fell to the floor, the glasses shattering. Rette stared at Rahal, her eyes wide. It took her a moment to force her lungs to drag air in. Horror spread through the guild hall, everyone staring at Rahal, but Rahal was looking at Rette. He took it that, out of all those present, she would be the one with the calmest head. She had seemed to be pretty calm when he had last met her.

"...You're lying." Rette said, her expression evening out, if with a lot of effort.

Her heart was now pounding a heavy, frantic beat in her chest, her whole chest aching with the effort to stay as calm and collective as she could. Panic wanted to well up, to force tears to her eyes, but she forced it back. She could still feel Thyme. Could still feel her very heartbeat through their bond, even if the bond was fuzzy for some reason. She knew Rahal had to be lying. He just had to be.

"I'm sorry, but I am not. I saw it with my own eyes. It's gone and so are your guild mat-"

Rahal cut off when Rette surged forward, grabbing him by his collar, dragging him down to her eye level. He gulped hard when he saw the utterly cold and unforgiving look in her eyes. Many of her guild mates called out for her to release Rahal but Rette didn't. Not even when his guards stepped forward to try to help him. Rette shot them a murderous look that had the men backing away again. Rahal assured them that he was fine.

At least...for the moment.

"If you're telling me the truth, which I doubt, then it had better not been because of another idiotically stupid decision on the behalf of the Magic Council. Because if it was...you and everyone else on that council had better prepare yourselves for my retribution will be beyond your wildest dreams." Rette promised, her voice dropping to down right icy.

And he had thought her the calmest!?

What in the world had he been thinking!?

"The Magic Council had nothing to do with it, I assure you!" he rushed to assure her, sensing that she would carry out her promise and she would start with him.

"Then you better explain to me what happened and you best be quick about it. Keeping a grasp on my temper, at the moment, is a bit of a chore." Rette demanded, releasing him.

Rahal explained to them what had happened, from the reason council members had been there to begin with, to the arrival of Grimorie Heart and it's defeat at the hands of the Fairy Tail members on the island, down to the appearance of the black dragon, Acnologia. At the mention of the dragon, Rette's breath hitched in her throat. It felt like someone had just gone from dumping ice into her veins to pouring lava into them.

A dragon!?

She had not seen a dragon since Tundron and Chrysalis had vanished. Not a single one. Natsu had searched for years and had never found another one after his dragon vanished as well.

"A dragon...There were three Dragon Slayers on that island! Not to mention our master and our strongest mages! You really expect me to believe they were all wiped out!? That easily!?" Rette demanded.

Her emotions were getting the better of her. She knew it. She would have been more rational if they weren't. She had read many stories, heard many legends about the black dragon, Acnologia. How even the dark mage, Zeref had had trouble with the dragon, how that very dragon alone could destroy an entire country on it's own. One island would have been no problem for it.

But...Rette also knew they were alive.

She could feel Thyme!

If Thyme was alive than so were the others! They just had to be. Rette refused to believe for a second that they were gone for good. To believe that...Rette was sure she would snap for good if she allowed herself, even for a second, to believe that they were gone. She knew they weren't. It was a faith she would never forsake.

No.

She wouldn't believe it.

Rahal, after he was done explaining it, watched Rette. He saw the change come over her. Where she had just had a cold look on her face, her fists curled tightly at her sides, her whole stance changed. Her expression leveled out, returning to it's indifferent look and her whole body relaxed. She took a deep breath and completely calmed herself. Where her guild mates behind her were in tears, horror on their faces, she was completely calm.

"You should leave now." she told Rahal.

"We can offer you our assistance if you wish to search for th-"

"No." Rette said, cutting Rahal off. "We'll do it ourselves. After all...it's our guild, our family."

Rahal could tell that she had made up her mind and her guild mates were apparently happy enough to agree with her where the Magic Council was concerned. He nodded and left, leaving Rette and her crying guild mates. Rette stared at the door way to the guild hall.

Gone?

Tenrou Island and those on it...were gone?

No.

Rette didn't care what anyone said, didn't care what happened. She knew they were alive. They had to be. She refused to lose anyone else. She didn't know what would happen, or if they would find anything, but they had to try looking, right? A family never gave up.

Nodding to herself, Rette turned to the others in the guild hall.

"That's enough, everyone. Whatever they said, we don't know none of them made it until we look. We can't give up before we start. So let's pull it together and go find our family." Rette told them.

It took a moment, but the others slowly agreed. They would search for their guild mates, would give it their all. Even when they didn't have anymore to give, they would just give it some more. Giving up was not an option.

If there was one thing she had learned since joining the guild...it was that Fairy Tail never gave up.

Even when others did.

END

Kyandi: I would have been a bawling mess.

Rette: And that is where we differ.

Kyandi: Yeah...you do all your crying in private.

Rette: I do not cry.

Kyandi: Sure you don't...if you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm.

Rette: I know what sarcasm is! Just move on already.

Kyandi: Oh, alright. Everyone, please enjoy and review.

Rette: We shall return as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!