Magical Meetings

AN: REALLY IMPORTANT READ. I REWROTE THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS FOR THOSE THAT DID NOT KNOW. PLEASE GO BACK AND REREAD THEM BEFORE STARTING THIS ONE. Okay now disclaimer I don't own anything in Fairy Tail except my Ocs. I have also tweaked the timeline a bit.

I bend backward to avoid the sword that sweeps over my face. I spring back up, and parry the second sword with my fan, before slamming the first sword to the ground. I ducked under a backstab and jabbed my fan backward into the stomach of my opponent. I parried again and jumped to create some distance. While in the air, I opened the fan and released a small wind spell to push my opponents backward. I twisted so when I landed, I was facing my last opponent. We exchanged a flurry of strikes, my fan being very effective at shifting the aim of her hammer. I twist around an overreaching strike and whammy my opponent in the face and she flew into my two previous opponents landing in a heap.

I leaned on my fan as I caught my breath. "That was awesome Cleo!" Wendy cheered from the side lines. I flashed her a smile. I swing the fan around, so that it attaches to my back. I walk to my defeated opponents and offer them a hand.

"Thanks for the spar guys." They graciously accepted my help.

"Geez Cleo, when you said you needed a sparring partner four weeks back, I didn't expect you to get so good with your fan so quickly." Jinka said, using her requip magic to vanish her hammer.

"Not only that Jinka, but he has Libra and Pisces out. A showoff is what he is." Perlu said jokingly. I adjusted my hat in embarrassment.

I cleared my throat. "Thank you, Pisces and Libra, you can go home." They nodded before their gates closed. In order to increase the effectiveness of the training I had Libra turn up the gravity to three times Earthland's gravity. I then implored Pisces to act as the ring. I technically didn't need Pisces but, I was trying to see how long I could keep two gold keys open. I beat my record by thirteen minutes, but I could feel my reserves dropping low.

"You okay Cleo?" Simurlo asked, catching me as I swayed a little.

"Uh I used a bit more magic, than I thought. I'll just have Wendy boost my regeneration, and then I'll be as good as gold." I say waving off his concern. I bid them a goodbye and made my way to benches to the side of the training arena. I drop onto the bench and let out a low groan. "Ugh Wendy can you help me?" I say with a pleading smile.

She giggles, "Okay Cleo, but just this once. You should keep better track of your magic levels. That was one of the first lessons you ever taught me." She mocked while poking my head multiple times.

"Hardee har har. I also told you that I would be doing magical expansion training." Magical expansion worked by using all available magic in your core, in a safe manner, in order to gradually increase your reserves. "I still have 10% of my reserves left, so it is not like I am in the danger zone."

"Do you want my help or not?" She questioned. I immediately pleaded with her. She smiled and agreed to help me. I swear when it comes to patients, Wendy turns into quite the drill sergeant. "Sky Dragon Slayer Magic: Wind Boost." Immediately her soothing magic washed over me in waves. The spell worked by enticing your core to replenish faster than normal. Useful in a pinch for last minute reserves or if you need a recharge after an intensive training session.

I laid on the bench perfectly content to let my reserves crawl their way back to normal levels. It was nice to let the sun's rays to gently caress me. The serenity was ruined when Carla landed on my chest. "Master Roubaul requests your presence." She orders before deciding to curl up on the bench in the sun. I give her a small scratch behind the ear, which causes her to claw at me, which I dodge.

I quickly make my way to Master's office. When I enter, he is working on paperwork. "Ah Cleo, I am glad to see that you arrived quickly." He files through a stack of paper and pulls out a job request. "This arrived this morning, it requested a competent water mage and you were the first mage to come to mind." He hands over the flier.

Initially I thought it might have been S-class, and so only I could take it, but it was a B-class mission, with a chance to turn A-class. Apparently, a group of dark wizards have taken control of Tribula forests, which happens to have a major highway running through it, so several cities have had trouble with trade. A water mage was requested because apparently there was a powerful fire mage amongst them. "Master, not that I am not glad that you thought of me, but why not Grueka. She has a great grasp over her water magic, and I think this would be an excellent chance for her to get more training in."

"Ah I thought of her too however, at the bottom of the flier you will note that this is a joint mission with Phantom Lord, seeing as several of the cities being affected have significant trade agreements with the guild."

Phantom Lord huh. Not the most welcoming of bunch. In fact, I could describe them as outright cruel. However, they seem to be more mellow as long as you are not a part of Fairy Tail. Our guild relationship is neutral. Sure, they will make several jokes about our cat like mannerisms, but it isn't anything we aren't saying ourselves. But based on the job description, Totomaru of the Conflagration would be selected. Never met the man, but out of the elemental four he is the most tolerable alongside Juvia the Rain Woman. "Okay, I accept. I don't know how long this mission will take, so make sure Wendy keeps up her training. I will leave as soon as possible." I gave a quick bow before being dismissed.

I went to my house and gathered the gear I would need. Once I had everything, I needed I head out. I debated summoning Aquila, but my reserves were still recovering from my training session. Guess I will need to take the train at Serilia town. That's about a thirty-minute trek, so best to run. At least it would be good endurance training.

When I make it to Serilia town, I quickly purchase a ticket for the train. Thankfully I only have to wait a minute or two before a train arrives. The train system in Fiore is quite an interesting thing. The trains always run and there never seems to be a long wait for a train to come by. Plus, they can take you to practically any major city in Fiore. I board the train and quickly find an empty compartment. I revert my fan back to its small version, and fan myself. I look over the flier in more detail.

It seems I will meet the Phantom Lord member at the edge of Tribula forest, so I will have to get off at Minka train station. Hmm that leaves me five hours of travel. I didn't bring any books, so I should probably pass the time meditating. At least it would give me time to compartmentalize all that has happened this last month. I lock the door, can't be too careful and cross my legs. I close my eyes and breath in and out slowly. Focusing on the soft hum of the train racing along the tracks. With every breath I withdraw more and more into my magic, until I can't feel the outside world anymore.

When I open my eyes, I see my mindscape. While I mainly use Celestial and Water magic, I picked up a bit of mind magic. I found it useful to categorize my thoughts while also protecting them from unwanted intrusions. The mind scape reflects my magic well, with a calm lake overseeing the heavens. The stars are more pronounced and seem as if they are touchable. If any person gets inside my head, they would think that these stars are where I keep my memories or thoughts, but they are wrong. Their second guess would be the water, but wrong again. They actually contain fake memories with a bit of duplicate memories to trick anyone who is more familiar with me. My real memories and thoughts are organized in the sand.

With a wave the sand starts parting to reveal a doorway. I quickly open the door to my Library. In the middle of the Library is a throne. I take a seat, and instantly a lacrima appears. I place my hand on it and memories of this path month flow into it. The lacrima displays these memories for me to categorize. The first few memories are my job to Magnolia. I instantly categorize it as a mission. The memory materializes as a book and joins a shelve holding all my memories pertaining to every job I have ever taken.

My memories of Hargeon fracture into four separate books of different length. The ones of Natsu and Happy become pages, which are then inserted in two books that fly off the shelf. Whereas Lucy's memories become a new book together. They all file away on the Fairy Tail Shelf. I have a shelf pertaining to every guild, I have ever come across, as well as the magical council and wizard saints. If they overlap then multiple copies are made, and the books are marked that these memories overlap. I also have a shelf for people who are not in guilds or that are not mages, who I deem important. Either because they are dangerous, or they could be powerful allies.

The last fracture is categorized under Rune Knights. Then I quickly categorize my interaction with Fairy Tail. The memories don't fracture this time. Instead they are categorized into a giant book labeled Fairy Tail. From their the memories are duplicated and filed into the individual books on the shelf. For example, I interacted with Gray Fullbuster, so a duplicate memory is filed into his book.

Moving on I file my memories sparing against Perlu, Jinka, and Simurlo under their individual book. My interactions with Wendy, Carla, and Master Roubaul also get filed away easily. The next chunk of memories is my water magic training. Wendy, Carla, and I took several triage missions in order for me to practice my water healing spells. I only managed to learn two. Water Magic: Burn Heal after triaging a village that lost everything to a fire. Water Magic: Diagnostic, which allowed me to see into a person's body to identify problems. I am also really close to being able to use Water Magic: Reverse. The spell allows me to reverse damage, but it is very difficult to manage, as it requires very fine control for two reasons. A, you only want to reverse the target area and B, you only want to reverse the target area to a certain extent. I have successfully used it to fix broken bones and minor injuries such as cuts and bruises. But I still need more practice to really master the spell.

I decided against the more major healing spells in favor for supplemental spells because Wendy can dish out healing spell better than I can. I thought it might be better to get a grasp of this branch of water magic by starting of with basic spells and working my way up to the more difficult ones. Besides if push comes an overpowered Water Magic: Water Sooth. Will do the trick. Copies of these memories are filed under jobs and Water Magic.

My memories of my magic and training are under extra protection. Their shelves are deeper beneath the Library in the Sarcophagus room. They are guarded by the Guardian 12. A Cat, a Baboon, a Crocodile, a Fish, a Mongoose, a Shrew, a Bird, a Jackal, a Snake, an Eel, a Scarab, and a Bull. The are statues, but when they sense a threat, they will come alive to protect my memories. I don't expect them to be able to keep the intruder out, but since they are made of sand and are basically indestructible, it should stand as a suitable distraction, while I increase the protections around the memories.

I was going to have a representative from each zodiac key, but I thought this might tip any intruder into thinking they are getting close to my core secrets. And I mean they are, but I don't want to help them figure that out. Besides the only way to get to the Sarcophagus room is through 100,000 feet of sand, plus there are memory bombs imbedded in the sand. When they are triggered, they create a physical manifestation of one's worst memories.

I take mind protection very seriously, so I do everything in my being to protect my mind. Anyway, back to categorizing. I have a couple days' worth of memories training with my spirits mostly working with them on new maneuvers or improving old ones. Besides that, I would try to bond with them as stronger bonds mean stronger magic. Other times I just summoned them to try and keep their gate open as long as possible.

I continued to file away memories, until I reached today's memories. With them all filed away, I took my hand off the lacrima. I got off the throne, and the lacrima disappeared. I check my magical levels. While mind magic, when used internally doesn't take up any magic, categorizing with my lacrima does. However, my magical reserves were increasing at a rate faster than they were depleting, so I have nearly a hundred percent of my magic back.

I left the temple, and slowly started to come out of my meditative state. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see Totomaru in front of me. He was cleaning his Katana. "So, you finally awaken. It has been two hours since I got on the train, but you didn't seem to register that I was in front of you." He said not looking up.

"I was meditating." I reply collecting myself. I opened my fan and fanned myself.

"Hmm. Quite dangerous to meditate on a train, when anything could happen. Especially if you can't seem to sense what is going on in the outside world." He sheathes his Katana and looks out the window.

"Yes, it would be, however, my spirits were keeping watch for me. If they deemed, you a threat they would have summoned themselves." Totomaru just grunted. "So, were you the one to selected for the Tribula forest job?"

"Yes. I am to assume that you were as well?"

"Indeed. Cleo Lilica of Cait Shelter." I would have held my hand out, but I sensed he would have not accepted it.

"Oh, look the Celestial Splash in all his glory. About the only good thing to come from that trash guild. Is it true that you have cat parties, where you all chase lasers?"

I flush slightly because he isn't wrong. However, they aren't parties they are training exercises. By depriving ourselves of light and having us chase a laser pointer it forces us to increase our magical detection skills lest we run into each other. Plus, it helps us to learn to maneuver around if we suddenly find ourselves lacking sight. But we don't need to justify ourselves to anyone. "Quite interesting indeed, that you believe my guild to be trash. Our guild ranks 9th in all of Fiore. Yes, your guild ranks 2nd but none of your branch guilds can even crack the top 30. The way I see it is that our guild is made of slightly weaker but still powerful mages while yours is made up of five strong mages with a bunch of cannon fodder." I fire back.

"Che if I had my way, half of the people who get accepted into Phantom Lord wouldn't, but Master Jose says that the more members that we have the more branch guilds we can open. I don't see the benefit, but who am I to question Master Jose's decisions."

I hum. "So, what do you know about the situation in Tribula forest?" I ask trying to change the subject.

"From what I can tell, the entirety of Tribula forest has been taken over by a conglomerate of Dark guilds. However, they seem to be of the weaker variety, which is why they are only sending the two of us."

I nod. "Tribula forest covers over 1000 acres of land. It might be to our benefit to scout the surrounding acres in order to get a clearer idea of who we are dealing with."

Totomaru nods. "I don't have anything in my arsenal that would allow me to do that. I assume you do?" I nod. "Okay, so you scout the forest. Once we have it mapped out, I suggest doing this grid style. Clear out one acre at a time going up and down until we make our way across the forest."

"I agree, this way we won't miss any dark guilds. I suggest notifying rune knights after we clear each acre. They can patrol or set up camp in that area to make sure that there are no reinforcements." Our plans were interrupted by the announcement that we arrived at Minka train station. Scouting might take more time than we originally thought. We might have to adjust our plan to acre sized scouting. It takes us about an hour to reach the left most edge of the forest. I summon Aquila and Lepus to scout the first two acres. We wait at the edge of the forest for about an hour before they arrived.

Apparently, both acres contained just one dark guild rounding to about twenty mages each. They each had a small stronghold probably done with some earth magic. Neither Lepus nor Aquila could tell us about the magic that they used, but they did mention that none of them had magic levels higher than a Vulcan. With that we set off. This mission was going to take forever to complete.

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I was right this mission sucked balls. It has been about two months now and Totomaru and I were about at our end's wit with this mission. It started out okay. We were able to clear the first two hundred acres with no problem in a span of five days, but that is where the fun ended. Someone who supplied us the information sucked at their job. The dark guilds occupying the rest of the acres were sufficient in suppressing their magical power. While they weren't necessarily a threat to either Totomaru or I, it was annoying.

It took another five days to clear the next two hundred acres. From then on, the difficulty increased because more than one guild occupied an individual acre. Now mostly Totomaru and I mostly cleared acres by ourselves, which is how we were able to clear out so many acres so quickly. But now an acre could have up to eighty members per acre.

Yes, we were both S-class mages, but why take the risk. We were forced to find a rhythm after the first few acres where we were constantly jumping into each other's attacks. Thankfully I learned Water Magic: Burn Heal. On the plus side I could reliably use Water Magic: Reverse. I also learned that Totomaru had a pink fire that could heal injuries so that was an added benefit. It took us ten days to clear the next two hundred acres.

As our luck would have it the difficulty only increased. The number of mages per acre doubled at 160 mages and they were stronger than the cannon fodder of the previous acres. We decided to operate on stealth and guerilla tactics. Usually we just scouted and went in magic blazing. But 160 mages versus two is too much. We forwent using magic for a bit, just using our individual weapons to thin the heard. Once we thinned the heard to a more manageable number, we would use our hard-earned teamwork to wipe out the trash. It took us 16 days to clear out the next two hundred acres.

At this point a deep respect had been built between Totomaru and I, and who could blame us. When it was only him and whatever spirit, if I even had one out, to protect my back, I had to trust him with my life. Plus, the closeness that had been forced on us just doing daily things such as cooking, bathing, planning out attacks. I could honestly say that there is no one else I would rather work with than him.

As like all the rest the difficulty increased after passing the 800-acre mark. The number of mages had doubled again with 240 mages per acre, and a good majority of them were B rank mages. Ugh whoever provided the information for this mission had royally fucked up. We would have requested back up from the Rune Knights, but they were already busy. We sent word to the magical council that we might need assistance from other guilds or to our guilds to request backup, but every time Aquila and Lepus made it anywhere near the edge of the forest, they were sent back to the spirit world. Someone was going through a lot of trouble to keep us from calling back up.

Our strategy of guerilla tactics wouldn't work in the last two hundred acres because there were too many mages to do so quietly. We had to gear up for a battle every time we cleared an acre, while trying to save as much magic as possible in order to continue our campaign. It at least gave me the chance to learn Water Magic: Replenish. Unlike Sky Dragon Slayer Magic: Wind Boost, which uses the users magic to replenish magic levels Water Magic: Replenish is a supplemental spell that sustains itself. By imbuing a body of water with healing magic, one can soak in the ambient magic to replenish their own reserves. The process takes about two hours, but it is worth the results. It allowed us to get back into fighting shape faster than if we just waited for them to fill up naturally.

It baffles me that none of the dark guilds don't just attack us instead of waiting for us to attack them, but I suspect it is the arrogance in their own skills. Because I am sure that there has been a couple of mages to escape our sight to report back the fire mage, whoever he is.

It took a total of 26 days to clear 199 acres, which leads us to today, where we will clear out the last acre. "I suspect that this last acre contains the fire user." I say to Totomaru.

We are both kneeling in the foliage and suppressing our magic, to not get caught. "I am not sensing many presences just four E rank magic levels and one that is easily S-class. Would it make a difference to scout?" He questions.

I think for a second. "It is likely that they already know that we are here, so scouting wouldn't do anything for us. I say we creep along the edges to see if we can spot them. It is more likely that they are all together." With that we use a bit of magic to jump to the thick branches of the forest. We jump from branch to branch keeping an eye on the magical signatures. It is when one of them disappears with another not too long after that we know something is amiss. The only way for a magical signature to disappear is either they are cloaking their magic, or they are dead. I signal Totomaru to keep an eye out for assassination tactics.

The deeper we travel the more paranoid we get. It doesn't make sense if they were going to attack us, they would have already done so. I mean we gave them many openings to try and press them into attacking. I look to Totomaru and nod. We split up. Now that I am on my own, I probably make a more enticing opponent. But still no attack came. It is only when I sense the only magical presence near that I drop to the forest floor.

I look on in confusion. In the middle of the clearing is a man surround by four people all crucified to wood panels. "You can come out now, Cleo Lilica. You as well Totomaru." We step into the clearing. Totomaru has his hand on his katana, ready to strike at any moment. "My name is Clarence Vilion. I'm sure you never heard that name before. Its okay, you see I was always a weak mage. I could barely use my fire make magic. Many guilds rejected me. I was so angry because the only way I could get stronger was to join a guild, but because I wasn't strong enough, I couldn't join one. Quite the paradox I know."

He started walking around the clearing. "I decided if the legal guilds did not want me then maybe the illegal guilds would. I joined the dark guild Lion's Terror. I was the weakest mage there, but I quickly got better at managing my fire magic. It wasn't until four years ago that I was finally strong enough to kill my old guild master. With Lion's Terror under my command I scoured the land for a way to get more power. Because while I was the strongest in Lion's Terror, we were a rather weak guild.

It was during my studies that I found something called ley lines. A line of magic that flows through the very earth. I studied for a way to tap into the ley lines, but I discovered that there are pockets that naturally release the magic contained in the ley lines. Tribula forest happens to be one. But the more interesting thing is that there are two ley lines that use this pocket. I was ecstatic but no matter what I did, I couldn't harness the magic. My body couldn't handle it. But then I got to thinking. If my body had more magic, then I could." I wasn't liking where this story was going.

"So, I did more research, and I found a spell that would transfer the magic from one item to another. Well nothing said that these objects couldn't be mages. With a plan in place we attacked other dark guilds that were weaker than us. Compounding their magic onto our own until we were strong enough to gain respect.

But the power wasn't enough, I needed more. So, I tricked 300 dark guilds of varying sizes to help control Tribula forest. Under the ruse, that in our combined power we could hold off any relief the magic council had. While we had Tribula forest under our control anyone who entered would be sucked dry to help bolster our numbers." He walked over to a brunette woman. "Now with the help of my dear friend, who was an expert on mind magic, it didn't take much to convince the Rune Knights to give back our defeated "comrades."" It was then that realization dawned on my face.

"Oh, I see you finally get it. You see we used you to defeat our enemies, and when we got them back, we drained them dry. There were over 104,000 mages in this forest, and you helped me gain all of their magic." It was then that he flared his magic in its entirety. I fell to my knees. "NOW IM THE STRONGEST MAGE ALIVE, AND NOONE CAN STOP ME." With a powerful explosion a fire spread out from him.

"Water Magic: Veil." I whipped my arms around my body as I weaved layer after layer of water to surround me. When the fire met my water, it instantly evaporated it. I struggled to maintain the veil as the water evaporated as fast as I could erect it. After expending a large chunk of magic the fiery onslaught ceased. I dropped to my knees and breathed deeply. While I was able to stave off imminent death, the heat from the flames left me drained. I used a Water Sooth to stave off any side effects. I looked to see that anything in 100 miles was vaporized. The trees are gone, the grass burnt, the dirt was hot to the touch and crumbled easily. I saw that Totomaru was in better condition. While the fire had more magic imbued into it, it is still fire, which he can control.

"HAHA SO YOU SURVIVED MY LAST ATTACK, WELL WHAT ABOUT THIS?" He let out streams of fire shooting them one after another. I was hard-pressed to dodge.

"Totomaru keep the fire off me!" A flame that was going to hit me suddenly turned on a 90-degree angle. Totomaru then engaged Clarence with his katana. I summoned Libra. "Libra slow him down."

"Gravity Magic: 100." I gathered magic as quickly as I could. But I could see that Clarence was shrugging off the Gravity magic, probably by cycling magic throughout his body.

"Make him feel it."

"Yes Master. "Gravity Magic: 1000." This finally slowed him down enough that he wasn't able to dodge Totomaru's blade. The cuts however healed as fast as they were applied.

"Water Magic: Whirlpool" A torrent of water quickly swept all of us up. I made a platform for Totomaru and I and dismissed Libra. "Protect me while I keep up the spell." Clarence who finally got his bearings used the intense heat from his fire to evaporate the water, but a new wave crashed into him every time he evaporates one.

"Fire Magic: Blue Fire." Several magical circles shot blue fire at Clarence. When they made contact, they froze his body. Clarence had to spend precious magic to unfreeze his body.

"Do you think you can get him to stay still?" I ask. I pulled the water and spun it.

"I have just the fire, Fire Magic: Green Fire" Green fire erupted from beneath Clarence and engulfed him. When the spell was done Clarence was engulfed in many vines.

He tried to use his fire to burn the vines, and he was making good headway when I finished my spell. "Water Magic: Needle and Thread." It was my most brutal spell. The water parted into small thread like tendrils that shot through his body and circled back weaving through his skin.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed as he was skewered. When the spell finished his body was riddled with holes and he was bleeding out fast. He fell to the ground no longer being supported by the vines. He started crawling leaving a large trail of blood. Totomaru was going to finish him off when he said, "Ley lines give me power." There was a large rumble and then magic started pouring through the ground. We jumped away as Clarence was enveloped in Magic. "Ley Lines I command you to do my bidding." A magic circle appeared, and the magic was sucked into his body.

Clarence, who was seconds away from death, had all of his injuries healed in a manner of seconds. He became essentially a magical conduit. "Now that I am connected to the ley lines its time to take this up a notch." He blasted out intense flames. I jumped to the side, only to have to do an immediate handspring to avoid the next volley.

"Aquila, I need you." Aquila opened her gate, and we took to the sky's. With me in the sky, and Totomaru impervious to the fire, this should go a lot better. We played a game of cat and mouse with Clarence expending major amount of magic without seeming to break a sweat. Neither of our spells seemed to do anything to him, as he either just used his fire to dodge or used magic to heal. It was only as Clarence coughed that I saw our way to victory.

His body couldn't take all the magic running through it at once and was deteriorating at a fast pace. "Totomaru we need to give one last final push." I say as I land near his position. We quickly gather magic, while Clarence does as well.

"One last attack you say, well let's see who will win in a battle of attrition." This last volley would determine the winners. All at once we released our spells. "Fire Magic: Eternal Sunbursts/ Water Magic: Suijin Breath/ Fire Magic: Rainbow Brilliance." My water spell and Totomaru's swirled together to create a stream of pure destruction. When it met with Clarence spell the struggle was on. Each of us continued to pour as much magic as possible into the spells. They bounced back and forth in strength, when suddenly Clarence started to lose power. We looked to see that blood was slowly started to pour from his orifices. "THIS WON'T BE MY END!" He pushed one last time, but quicker than a flick of a switch his spell dissipated. Clarence was hit with the full strength of our combined spell and was shot into the air, where he exploded in a burst of magical power.

We waited to see if Clarence survived the blast, but we couldn't find a trace of his magical signature. With our victory confirmed, the adrenaline left our bodies, and we collapsed to the ground side by side. We turned to each other and grinned over our victory. Pisces summoned themselves and carried us to the nearest source of water about twenty acres back. I casted a quick "Replenish." And we sat in silence for five hours just enjoying the peacefulness of having succeeded in this mission.

When we had replenished our magics, I had Aquila fly us to Minka to buy our train tickets. We had to give our report to the Magic Council. When we got on the train, we instantly fell asleep.

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"And with that last spell we were able to overpower Clarence, unfortunately in combination to magical deterioration he did not survive." Totomaru explained.

"Well it seems that you had quite the lively mission. Don't you agree." Siegrain said.

"Yes, they did quite well. I believe a total of ten million jewels per each a long with an accolade to commemorate the good you have done for Fiore." A random member commented. The other members quickly agreed. With that we were dismissed.

We made our way back to the train station. "Well I guess this is where we part. I hope that we get to work together in the future." I offer my hand and Totomaru quickly takes it.

"To be honest I hope we never do because this mission was just ridiculous." He cracks a smile and we both laugh.

"Well if that is the case, I hope we stay in touch, you're not so bad once you get past that whole bad boy exterior."

"Yeah whatever cat-boy."

"I'll miss you fire menace. Until we meet again."

"You too." We had a brief hug, before he pulled away. "I'll see you." He then walked away to get his ticket.

I smiled while pulling out Aquila's key. "Open gate of the Eagle: Aquila." She materialized next to me, and I got on. It was a long three-hour flight, of which I spent time compartmentalizing my memories. When Cait Shelter was in sight, I jumped from Aquila while closing her gate. A soft buzz let me know that she was okay. I landed softly outside the Main building. As I entered, I said hello to everybody, and quickly entered Master's office.

"Ah Cleo, it is nice to see that you have made it back safely. Would you like to do your report now, or later?"

"Now would be okay." I sat in a chair as I reported my mission.

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AN: I hope you guys liked this chapter. It is a bit more expository than normal, but I am setting things up for the future. I also wanted a chapter that had nothing to do with Fairy Tail. I feel like many stories do this. If the character is not apart of Fairy Tail, they still magically find a way to be a part of the plot. And I am not going to be a hypocrite and say that I won't do that as well, but there will still be plenty of chapters with just Cleo and Cait Shelter. I tweaked the timeline and pushed the Lullaby arc back although you won't see a direct effect in this chapter, but you will see it in the next one. I pushed it back because I think it is stupid that Lucy was allowed on that mission after only joining about a week or two before with only technically one mission under her belt. This way she had three months in the guild and more missions in her resume. Until next time.