The morning after the feast everyone was packing their things and getting ready to go back to the guild.

Erza was discussing with the chieftain about the reward money, which Erza didn´t want to take since the request was taken illegally, but the chieftain didn´t budge.

Zeldaris and Aversia were currently flying to the spot where they left the ship, both of them were not sure if it would still be there or if the captain and the crew had already fled.

But it was still there, and the crew were trying to pass the time, while some of them were keeping watch.

The captain was playing cards with his officers as he noticed the two half dragons’ arrival.

 “So, you two are still alive and here I hoped to set sail in a few hours. Let me guess, we are going to be stuck here for a few more days?” said the captain, not happy to see them at all.

“Actually, it is the exact opposite of what you just said, captain. We are finished with our tasks here and we will be ready to leave in a few hours. I hope that you and your crew can get the ship ready until then.” said Aversia, she didn´t like captain just as much as the captain her.

It took the captain a few moments before he processed the information before his eyes widened and looked baffled at the two.

“Are you two telling the truth, we are really leaving this cursed island soon?”

“Yes, also, there will be three more people with us and a blue cat. When we are ready, we will give you a signal, so that you know where to pick us up. Now, if you would excuse us, we need to go back.” answered Zeldaris.

“Sure.” was the only answer the captain gave them.

“Oi, lads what are you looking at, you heard those two land rads, get the ship ready we are heading home.” yelled the captain too his crew, who only stared at him waiting for his orders.

To which the crew answered with an excited ‘aye aye captain’ and started to prepare the ship.

“What an interesting bunch, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yeah, but I really don´t like the captain.”
It didn´t take long for them to get back to the village, only to see that Erza and the chieftain were still arguing about the reward money.

Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Happy were sitting on a few flat stones and were watching the debate.

“Like I said before, we cannot accept the money, because the request had not been accepted legally.”

“But even then, you saved our lives, so please accept this as our show of gratitude.”
The argument between the two was not getting anywhere anytime soon, also the reason why the two told the captain that it would take a few hours.

“So, what did we miss?”

“The two of them are really persistent and both of them had the other almost in a corner, but nothing else.” answered Gray.

“Maybe we should send our little demon slayer, hm?”

“One day, I will have my revenge against you, Aversia.”

“Doubt it.”

“Will you two shut up, I think they are almost finished there.” said Lucy.

And indeed, it seemed like they found a compromise, they would only accept the golden zodiac key.

Natsu and Gray were not happy about it and complained, but they became quit after they got hit by Zeldaris and Aversia.

“You two have no reason to complain, the request was not accepted officially and with out us, you guys would have never come up with the solution to the problem.” said Zeldaris with an ice-cold tone.

“Let us hope that the captain is quick, otherwise we will have to wait a few more hours.”

Not long after, everyone was on the ship and were sailing toward Fiore, the villagers had accompanied them to the beach and they and the island were now only a small point on the horizon.

The captain had almost suffered a heart attack as he saw them, but still followed the instructions that Zeldaris and Aversia gave him.

Lucy was inspecting the key that she received, she still couldn´t believe that everyone agreed that she could have it.

Now she had 5 of the twelve golden zodiac keys, almost halve of them.

“Looks like you got Sagittarius’s key. His sharp shooting abilities should be a good addition for you.”

“You really think so. I mean, I get what you mean. Most of them are… only… WAIT! You know about this key and the others I have? Also, I wanted to ask but, what key do you have? Is it also a golden zodiac key?”

“Calm down, calm down. First, Zel and I know about all twelve zodiac keys and have met them before. To the both of us they are our friends and from what I can tell, you have what it takes to become a wonderful mage, but you have a long way to go. Because right now, you are only stronger than a normal mage. But feel free to ask us for help. As for Ophiuchus, her key is not a zodiac key, although she is often thought as one. She is the black key, the hidden key.”

Aversia continued to explain the black key to her and gave her some tips for her.

 

The trip home went quietly, and they arrived at Magnolia at afternoon.

Lucy was really nervus about the punishment that they would receive, but Natsu told her that it would be no problem and that they wouldn´t get punished.

“Even if that were true, which it isn´t, Ave and I are going to give you our own punishment, Natsu.”

“The punishment from those two aside, you won´t be able to worm your way out of this one and it is probably already decided that you guys will be punished with ‘that’.” added Erza.

Natsu started to sweat profusely and tried to run away but was caught by Erza and dragged behind her.

They continued like that until they arrived before the guild building, where all of them could only dumbfoundedly and shocked looking at the building.

Because the building had been impaled by multiple giant iron rods.

More than half of them had already been removed and had been neatly piled up before the guild.

The holes were still there.

The strongest reaction to that scene belonged to Zeldaris, Aversia and Natsu.

All three of them were gnashing their teeth and clenched their fists, while saying a single name with bloodlust,” Gajeel!”

The name of their brother, Gajeel Redfox, the adopted son of Metalicana and an iron dragon slayer.

The iron rods that impaled the building were without a doubt his work, meaning that Phantom Lord was finally doing their move.

However, they had not much time to for this, because one of the rods suddenly flew into the sky and was heading toward them.

Zeldaris and Aversia jumped quickly into the sky, summoned their wings, and caught the rod in the air, before gently putting it down on the ground.

“What the hell old man! Are you stupid or what?!” yelled Zeldaris.

“Dad, you really need to be more careful, if a normal person would have stood there, they would have been killed.”

The door to the building opened and Vulcan walked out of it, scratching his head.

“If a normal person would have stood there, then I wouldn´t had done it. But because I knew it was you two, I knew that I could continue with the work.”

“What happened here?”

“Is it not obvious, just by looking at it. Who it was and what happened, I think it is clear.”
“Yeah, it is obvious. But could you give us more details, dad.”

“As far as I and Makarov can guess, Gajeel attacked the guild around midnight and as far as we can guess left the city afterwards. You should talk with him; he and the others are downstairs in the basement. None of them had been hurt. I will continue to remove the roads.”

“Let me guess, you and gramps are planning to sell all but one of them, the last one you are going to keep as your personal iron supply, right?”

“That´s my daughter for you. I mean can you blame me, Gajeel´s iron is top notch quality and even one of those will last me for multiple years.”

“Forget I even asked.”

Everyone walked into the building and then downstairs, Zeldaris and Aversia just wanted to be somewhere else, that old man was sometimes just too much.

In the basement they found everyone drinking, most of them were in a bad mood.

“Welcome back everyone, good work out there.” said Makarov, who was sitting on the makeshift bar counter.”

Zeldaris and Aversia sat down at the counter and gave Mirajane their order, while Aversia summoned Ophiuchus back.

“Muh! Why did you not summon me sooner!” were the first words Ophiuchus said to them.

“Sorry, but you drank a bit too much yesterday. So, I wanted to let you sleep a little more and after that I simply forgot.” said Aversia while averting her eyes and scratching her head.
“YOU FORGOT!!! Why?!”

“I am sorry, ok!”

This continued for a while, Zeldaris just watched while smiling.

“Gramps, this is isn´t happy hour, we need to do something and fast.” yelled Natsu.

“Ohhh, you are right. How dare you go on an S-Class quest without permission!”

“Eh?”
“Eh?”

“It´s punishment time. I will give you your punishment here and now, so prepare yourself, you guys.”

“This is not the time for that, gramps!” yelled Natsu, although a few drops of sweat were on his face.

Makarov used his magic to make his hand longer and gave Natsu, Happy and Gray a light shop on the head, while slapping Lucy on the ass.

“Master, behave yourself.” said Mirajane while pouting.

“Master, do you understand the situation we are currently in.,” said Erza.

“THEY WRECKED OUR GUILD!” yelled Natsu.

“Calm down you two. This is not something to make a fuss about.” said Makarov, who looked rather annoyed.

This shocked all four of them, while the half dragons were still occupied with their own situation, but still listened to the conversation.

“From what Vulcan and I could figure out, it was Phantom that attacked the guild and attacking an empty building is as far as they will go. I think that they want to provoke us into making the first blow, but they can wait a long time before that happens.” said Makarov while drinking his beer.

“I CAN´T ACCEPT THIS!!! I WON`T FEEL RIGHT UNTIL I SAMSH THEM!!!”

“I won´t hear any more of this. This discussion is over. Until it is repaired, we will accept requests down here.”

“WE DON`T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!!”

“NATSU, CUT IT OUT AND LISTEN TO ME!!!” yelled Makarov while repeatedly slapping Lucy´s ass.

“Master… Don´t push me.” warned Mirajane.

Makarov stood up and walked toward the toilet.

“Natsu… I am sure that master is as shocked and angry as all of us. But warfare and conflict between guilds is prohibited by the council.” said Mirajane, who felt just like everyone else.

“Mirajane is right. We can´t be too hasty here. We need to be cautious and clever about our next steps. All we can do now is to make sure that they won´t be able to do this again and if they try, making sure that they will regret being born on this planet.” said Zeldaris.

“Can you guys find out if Gajeel is still inside the city?” asked Erza.

The two half dragons thought before a moment before Aversia said.

“Technically yes. However, it is relatively easy to hide from our senses, both physically things like sent, and magical power. Gajeel knows us for a long time and is more intelligent than Natsu. The sent is easy, something that overlaps the natural sent is easy to find. As for magical power, that is even more easy. All you have to do is to not release any of it from your body, which is a basic thing that almost every mage can do. Exceptions would be dad, gramps and Zel and I.”

“In other words, he could still be inside the city and we wouldn´t know it.” said Erza and continued to think.

Lucy left soon after since she still had to take care of a few things.

Later on, it was decided that all members would stay in groups for now, just to be safe.

Erza, Natsu, Happy and Gray would stay with Lucy.

Romeo, Macao, and Canna would stay with Wakaba and his wife.

Levy with Jet and Droy.

Mirajane, Lisanna and Elfman with Vulcan, Zeldaris and Aversia.

Alzack with Bisca, Laki and Reedus.

The rest were in similar groups of their choosing.

However, in the end it was still not enough because at the next morning everyone received a dire message.

Makarov, Zeldaris and Aversia met not too far away from the park with one another.

Makarov was wearing his saint uniform and had a grim look on his face.

The two half dragons walked behind their master, not saying a single word.

At the park, a large group of people were standing before the largest tree in the park.

When the people noticed the three, they hurriedly stood aside and let them pass.

All of them were scarred by the magic power that those three were releasing.

Front of them were Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Happy.

“Master.” said Erza without turning around to look at him.

Which wouldn´t had made any difference, because all three of them could only look at the three people that were crucified to the tree.

Those three were Levi, Jet and Droy, all three of them were badly hurt and currently unconscious.

Iron plates were holding them in place and on Levi´s stomach was the symbol of Phantom Lord.

Makarov placed his free hand over his eyes and for a short moment trembled out of sadness.

“Wrecking our shabby bar and building, that I can bear. But there is no parent who can stay silent after seeing their children´s blood.”

(AN: Que Fairy Law.)

An unbelievable amount of magic power was flowing out of Makarov´s body and he clenched his fist so hard that his staff broke into pieces.

Zeldaris and Aversia were also releasing their magic power, both of them had never been as angry as now.

Their blood was boiling from anger and both of them were slowly losing control and slowly transformed back into their true form.

“THIS MEANS WAR!!!”