"I don't know how you talked me into this one," Sting muttered, shaking his head at the magic-repelling bracelet. A million accessories in the world, and he ends up with this one.

It couldn't be karma, he'd actually been a decent guy lately. No raiding, no sleeping with exotic women, he hadn't even picked on anyone. All in all, he was being a relatively respected guild master, getting along with all his guild mates.

And then this happened.

"Everyone's wearing them!" Lector defended, panicking as he waved his arms. In truth, putting the bracelet on to begin with was a bad idea. Not only was it extremely feminine, but he knew he wouldn't buy it. Just because Lector wanted to wear one didn't mean he needed to play along. He didn't have to listen to Lector, he was just egging him on to play along.

Besides, it was too big for Lector and fell right off. Sting literally got the short end of the stick.

"Hey!" he snapped, ignoring Rogue's grinning expression. The shop owner looked somewhat terrified, but his stupid teammate was fighting the urge to laugh. And really, it took an awful lot to make Rogue laugh. The situation couldn't possibly get worse. "You better give me the key to this damn thing now or I will blow up this shop."

"You're going to start sounding like Natsu if you keep that up," Rogue replied, keeping his distance from the fuming blond. "Just ask for the key so we can get out of here."

The shop owner waved his arms, panicking even more than Lector as he looked around for help. "No sir, please! I don't have the key. It's trapped somewhere in one of the other bracelets. That's the trick. You have to find the bracelet with the matching key to… to get it off."

Sting threw his hands on the counter, only his left coursing with power. That was going to get old quickly. "So you're telling me because some smartass wanted to create these little magical-repellant bracelets that I need to look through every damn one to get this thing off? What am I supposed to do with my right arm, hope no one comes at me from that side?!"

"They are supposed to be recalled!" the man cried, his voice going up several octaves as he faced Sting. "Mages are unhappy with the creation-"

"Really-"

"And so far no one can get the bracelets off!" he finished, cowering behind his arms. "Please sir, do not blow up my store!"

Sting growled, ripping himself away from the shop owner to face the nearest wall, slamming his head into the wood. He ignored the vibrating sound it set off, and the large head-shaped hole he left behind, the shop keepers screams the only consolation to his dismal existence.

He looked down at the bracelet on his wrist, binding his magical power in his dominant arm. Seriously, a stupid engineered band did this? He groaned, staring blankly into the wood he'd imbedded his head into. "This can't be happening to me."

And Rogue, with his god damn slayer hearing, had the audacity to keep laughing.

Lucy stared into the ground, willing her tears to stop falling. "This can't be happening to me."

"I'm really sorry Luce!" Natsu said for perhaps the fifth time, rubbing his head as he stared down at the defeated girl. He'd been trying to play a joke by slapping the bracelet around her wrist, and now he was starting to see the error of his ways.

"Yeah, you can't blame him, Lucy," Happy said, sitting beside the crushed blonde. The exceed nodded, seeming to come to terms with what happened. "He doesn't think anything through. I'm sure he didn't think that pathetic bracelet would take all your magical power."

"It didn't take all my power, cat!" she seethed, scaring the poor little guy away with her outburst. "I just can't use my right hand."

"Yes, it's exactly as the warning says," Erza agreed, inspecting the label again. "You need to find the key inside another bracelet in order to remove that one. None of our magic is going to remove that, even someone who has power over metal. We're going to have to find the corresponding key to get that off you."

Natsu crouched down beside Lucy, his eyes already dancing as fire appeared in his hand. "If you would just let me try to burn it off-"

She jolted back, far enough from her teammate that he couldn't immediately try burning off her arm. "No thank you!"

"And how exactly did these things become legal to sell?" Gray asked, peering at the paper in Erza's hand. "I mean, someone had to see this plan would go up in flames."

"It doesn't appear that the owners initially knew what they were selling," she reasoned, placing a hand to her chin. "You saw that old man. He was sobbing when Lucy threatened to bring out her spirits to avenge her. And then we saw the proof when she couldn't conjure anyone with her right hand."

"And her left was just sad to watch," Gray agreed, shaking his head. She'd actually dropped Taurus' key in the process of trying to summon him, and Gray ended up picking up her key on the way out when the blonde ran for the hills.

"Do you know how many of these stupid bracelets there probably are in Fiore?" Lucy piped up, finally getting up off the ground. Her left hand was clutched over the bracelet, trying to shoo off Natsu's flames with her elbow. "There were at least a hundred in that shop alone! It could take me forever to find the owner of my key, not to mention I would actually have to try every key I came across. There's got to be a better way!"

Gray held out a hand, arching one eyebrow. "I can always try to freeze it off."

"That didn't work the first time! And don't even get me started on Erza's sword attack! I'm lucky to still have my arm."

"Whoever did this is trying to handicap people who use magic," the red-haired mage continued, cutting off the argument. "Why else would a product like this ever make it on the market? We need to return to the guild and see if anyone can use a spell to break or at least remove the bracelet. If not, it's going to be a long adventure of looking for jewelry."

"Aw man," Natsu whined, putting out his flames. "How are we supposed to have any fun with a job like that?"

"Sting, you can't just mope around like this," Lector reasoned, flying around his master's head. So far all Sting had accomplished was trashing the shop (much to everyone's dismay) and returning to the guild to lock himself in his room.

"What am I supposed to do?" he grunted, his head once again resting against the wall. "I can't exactly just tell the guild about my little problem. It could cause a mutiny. I may not be like the old master, but there will always be someone trying to take your position. If I reveal to everyone that I'm presently unable to use one of my arms and thus unable to use all of my power, then there's a strong likelihood that someone will try to challenge me. Like this, I can't guarantee that I will win."

Lector sat down, thinking over Sting's words. "I don't think anyone would turn on you. Yukino would care, and she's really smart so I'm sure she could help. Rogue and Frosch know, so they can help too."

"These damn things have been around for a week and already they are causing chaos," Sting muttered, glaring at the wall. "The sooner I find an answer the better. I can't have anyone thinking I'm weak. Not only could it cause an issue in the guild, but more importantly it could draw unwanted attention from our enemies."

It was silent for a moment, and Sting thought Lector had given up on making him feel better. Instead his friend surprised him, his voice much quieter than before. "I'm sorry I messed things up, Sting."

He pulled back from the wall, looking at the devastated look on his friends face. Fighting down his own worries he crossed the room to Lector, sitting beside him on the bed. Placing one hand on his friends head, he smiled when the little exceed looked up. "Don't worry Lector, I'm sure we'll find a way to fix this."

"But how?"

"Well, these are new, right? We gotta find whoever made them and demand a solution. Looking for different bracelets all across Fiore will take too long, but one sound adventure should take care of everything. What do you say buddy, do you want help me find the creator?"

"It could be scripture magic," Levy said, twisting Lucy's arm around once again. "But that's not quite right. It's not cursed, just protected. This is binding magic more than anything."

"Just my luck," Lucy pouted, letting Levy look at the bracelet some more. It didn't look out of the ordinary and it didn't look any different than before, even though it was sapping all the magic from this appendage of her body. She was right dominant, and without the use of her right arm she was clumsy in drawing her keys. She couldn't even properly reach into her bag to draw them.

"You really can't figure out what it is?" Natsu asked, standing close by. He looked troubled by the situation, possibly because he was the reason Lucy was currently struggling.

"Even Gramps was stumped," Gray replied, scratching his head. Freed also tried looking at the bracelet, and Cana attempted her card magic to see if she could predict where Lucy's key for her bracelet currently was.

So far, no luck.

"Sorry Lu," Levy sighed, letting go of her arm, "I'm out of ideas. Whoever created that wants to make it difficult to have it removed. It just seems to absorb or deflect the magic thrown at it, depending on how much there is. Unless we can somehow find a spell to beat it, and I seriously doubt that, this problem won't be solved with magic."

Lucy groaned, laying her head down on the table. "So you mean I need to go on some bogus quest to find my key?"

"Well… it seems that way for now. We could probably narrow down the possibilities of where it would be, but it would take a bit."

"Ugh, that's really not what I wanted to hear Levy," she continued, burying her head into her arms. She liked reading, but this seemed like it would lead to an extensive amount of research that she didn't think would lead anywhere.

She would have to find the key or the creator, that was the bottom line. But no one seemed to even know where the bracelets came from, much less how to narrow down where the creator might be.

Lucy thought about all the books in the library that they managed to hold on to. All those books were based on magic, the exact problem she was having. If she did research, she feared that the Fairy Tail library would not be beneficial to her.

She groaned again. Could anyone possibly be more screwed than her?

Stomping through the streets, Sting tried to ignore Rufus' not-so-helpful voice beside him.

"I don't know who could be more screwed than you."

"I'm starting to think Rogue and I were better off handling this alone," Sting grunted, glaring at his guild mate. "I know you can read quickly, that's the only reason I told you. The sooner I know what I need the sooner this nightmare will be over."

"You do realize it's going to take longer than a day?" Rufus said, staring at the master. He'd kept in step with Sting so far, despite his hot pursuit down the street. "You only got that blasted thing put on yesterday, and even if your dominant arm isn't working you still managed to take out a surprising amount of walls back at the guild. Relax, no one's noticed anything different."

"Stupid bracelet… controlling my life…" Sting continued muttering to himself, oblivious to what Rufus just said.

"He's been moody since he found out," Rogue said, filling in the gap when Sting didn't, continuing to march right on in a furious rage. "He's worried what might happen if people find out about the bracelet."

"I suppose that's not unwarranted," the other man argued, falling back beside the Shadow Dragon instead. He let Sting continue on, stomping through the streets like he owned the place. The two exceeds flew above them, keeping a close eye on the irate blond. "News will spread fast now that people are becoming familiar with the bracelets. He should've worn something to cover it at least. If someone recognizes it while we are out it could start a fight."

Rogue felt a smile tugging at his lips but forced it down. He'd already laughed in public once this week and that was enough. "We are talking about Sting. Most people aren't a challenge to begin with. Unless he faces an incredibly strong mage this setback shouldn't actually affect him at all."

"That's what I was thinking," Rufus agreed. "I still commend him for being cautious. He doesn't know how anyone will react to the news, and it puts him in a delicate position. We don't want someone challenging our guild master when his magic power is being repressed."

Nodding along to what Rufus said, Rogue took in the sights around them. After consulting Yukino and Minerva, they decided that the library in Sabertooth's guild would prove unhelpful. All the books were on magic. They needed regular books written by regular people to find anything out about this anti-magic guy.

That's why they were in Crocus, hoping the library here would be beneficial. With Rufus along, reading would be a breeze.

Passing by a newspaper stand Rogue paused to pick up the paper, wondering if maybe something like this would be more helpful. This was new age technology after all, something that hadn't been attempted before. Unless the creator of the bracelets referenced something in history, they wouldn't just find an answer in a library.

"Sting?" he called, finally getting the blond leader to stop his tirade. So far he'd managed to frighten pretty much everyone out of his way. While impressive, it was a little tedious to follow his display through the streets. Glancing back over his shoulder Sting finally acknowledged him again, his anger momentarily depleted.

Keeping his face blank like normal, Rogue held up the paper. "Maybe you should try reading this?"

Sting scowled, stomping back to his friend to snatch the paper away. He straightened it out, staring at the headline with dawning horror:

Magic Repelling Bracelets: The End to Mages?

"Damn," he snarled, gripping the paper tighter. "Are you telling me someone wants to get rid of magic with these things?"

"It is debilitating," Rufus agreed, peering at the paper over Sting's shoulder, "but I wouldn't call it the end. Enough people know now that it won't be an epidemic to mages. How can it be the end?"

"If they keep making things like this," Sting snarled, "it could be. This doesn't tell me who created them, just that it's complex technology. Possibly, there is even magic in the bracelet to snap magic power."

"What's the point if they need magic to work?" Rogue asked, crossing his arms. "It defeats the purpose if the goal is to get rid of magic."

"I don't know," Sting sighed, folding the paper beneath his arm. "At least it's a start. We still don't have any answers. Come on, the library's this way."

Gray walked beside Lucy, trying to keep his temper in check. He didn't exactly understand her reasoning here.

"So, why exactly did you leave Levy in Magnolia and bring Flame-Brain?" he asked, glancing at Natsu. The train ride to Crocus was short, but still enough to put their pink haired friend in a state of disarray.

"Oh, he wants to help," Lucy said, folding her arms. The metal of the bracelet was cool on her skin, an unpleasant reminder that it was still there. "Besides, Levy wanted to do calculations to see if she could estimate the best places a match to my key might be and which cities to it. If we can't find the creator it's our next best bet. Freed was going to help, and they were going to use Cana's card magic to see if they could get any hints."

"But he doesn't even read," Gray went on, somehow having lost his shirt on the walk. Lucy felt her eyebrow twitching but looked away, attempting to keep a level head.

Behind her, she could hear Erza arguing with Natsu, trying to convince him to keep up. She wasn't sure it would actually do any good, but it was a better alternative than leaving him lying somewhere. Everyone wanted to help her after all, and so far she seemed to be the only one in Fairy Tail presently affected by the bracelets and their power.

Lucky her.

"He may not read but he still wanted to do something, and the company is nice," she continued, pushing her hair back in the wind. "I have Virgo and Loke trying to figure out what they can in the Spirit world, and Crux offered his help if he can. I know magic is probably not the answer, but it can't hurt to do some research there. The sooner this thing comes off the happier I'll be."

"Everyone will be happier," Gray agreed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "We're just going to all have to crack down on some books."

"Yeah, you'll be a bunch of bookworms when we're done," she laughed, looking around the street. They were coming up on the library now, but something to their right caught her attention. "Hey, what's going on over there?"

Gray stopped as well, narrowing his eyes. "Is that Sting?"

Lucy nodded, listening in. "And Rogue… and Rufus?"

"If they keep making things like this it could be," Sting said. "This doesn't tell me who created them, just that it's complex technology. Possibly, there is even magic in the bracelet to snap magic power."

"What's the point if they need magic to work?" Rogue asked, crossing his arms. "It defeats the purpose if the goal is to get rid of magic."

"I don't know," Sting sighed, folding the paper beneath his arm. "At least it's a start. We still don't have any answers. Come on, the library's this way."

Lucy exchanged a look with Gray, their little group going unnoticed by the members of Sabertooth. Without waiting for the others to catch up Lucy took off, waving her arm to get their attention. "Hey!"

The trio stopped walking, turning at the sound of her voice. Sting's eyes immediately zeroed in on her, his gaze fixated on her bracelet. She stopped in front of the three, well aware of her friends following long.

Instead of trying to start a conversation, Sting raised an eyebrow and met her gaze. "I see you got fucked over too."

"In a manner of speaking," she agreed, rolling her eyes. "I guess you're here trying to figure out what will get them off?"

"Well blowing them up doesn't work," Sting grumbled, crossing his arms. Lucy felt someone approach and wrap an arm around her shoulders, and she glanced up to see Natsu holding onto her, grinning.

"Hey, you two look alike!"

Lucy felt Natsu's presence leave just as quickly, turning just in time to see Erza smack him across the head. "That's not the point, Natsu."

"How did you end up with one?" Gray asked, standing at Lucy's other side. She jumped when she realized he'd lost his pants along the way.

"It's really not important," Sting huffed, rolling his eyes. "Gonna tell me how you got yours blondie?"

Lucy blushed, glaring at him. "We're both blond you know."

"I'm guessing you came to look in Crocus' library as well," Erza said, placing a hand on her hip. "We're hoping to find out something that can help break the binding on the bracelets."

Sting scoffed, cutting off anything Rufus was about to say. "We don't need any help from fairies."

"Well you obviously haven't gotten anywhere on your own," Lucy responded, smirking. "What have you got to lose? Seven sets of eyes are better than three, right? I don't know about you, but this little bracelet is already ruining my life."

"He's not going to admit to that," Rogue grumbled, cutting through the conversation, "even if it is."

"Do your other guild mates know?" Lucy continued, tilting her head. "Do you-"

"Look, it's not something I'm sharing," he snapped, covering his bracelet with this hand. "This is ridiculous enough without making it a bigger deal. I'm sure your entire guild knows what happened, but I'm not that into sharing with everyone. Now if you don't mind, we have work to do."

"Fine," she huffed, turning on her heel. "Go ahead and look by yourself. When I find the solution and get my bracelet off you'll be sorry you didn't listen!"

"You're not going to find it before me," he argued back. He pointed at her, the bracelet on his wrist much tighter than her own. "Trust me, I'll find a solution before you can!"

Scoffing, she pointed right back at him. "Oh please, we'll-"

Letting out a high-pitched 'eek', she was unprepared for the sudden gravitational pull that ripped her from her place beside Gray and jerked her across the space, directly into Sting.

Well, not directly.

It was more like their wrists slammed together, Sting meeting her halfway. The jolt caused them to clash together, Lucy's head smacking rather forcefully into his chest. She stumbled while she shook his head, trying to get his bearings.

The pair looked down, oblivious to the other voices surrounding them. Their bracelets were connected now, the metal melding into each other to create one solid band. Sting reacted first, jerking forcefully on his arm to try and separate them, but all it did was cause Lucy to grunt in pain.

"Hey! My arm is still attached you know."

He stopped trying, dropping his arm again as his other hand came up to his hair, running through the locks quickly. He glanced around them, barely registering the group of onlookers and their shocked friends.

Looking at Lucy again, he couldn't control his anger. "What the fucking hell are we supposed to do now?"

A/n: So, there's chapter one. I'll see how the story is received to see if I continue or not. I'm still a little new to the Fairy Tail fan base.

Also, as a quick note to all my readers, I'll be getting married this October so my updating is not going to be as organized as I like. Usually I like to update each week or two if possible but with wedding plans it will be a little harder. I have no intention of abandoning my stories, I just can't guarantee an update timeline right now until after October.

Please review and let me know if you like or if it should continue!