"I don't get any of this," Lucy groaned, looking over at her friend for guidance. Unfortunately, she was met with an intimidating view of several piles of books, all stacked precariously on top of each other. "Levy?"

"Yeah?" the girl answered. "What did you say?"

"Does this make any sense to you? I've only gotten through two books and I'm already lost."

"It's fairly simple," Levy replied, much to the other's dismay. "There's the Anima and the Reverse Anima. The Anima is a gate that transfers everything from Earthland to Edolas, while the Reverse Anima is just the inverse."

"Oh! I get it!" Meredy exclaimed, her face glowing eagerly.

"Simple," Lucy deadpanned. "Right."

"But how do we get the Anima to actually...open up?" Meredy asked, pushing her pile of books away. They clattered to the ground, making everyone jump. "Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Remember the first time the Anima opened?" Levy asked Wendy and Lucy. They both nodded vigorously. That had been an adventure.

"The first time?" Sorano and Meredy chorused. "You mean...you guys have done this before?"

"No," Levy continued, removing her Gale-Force Reading Glasses. She turned to the two girls. "Here's the thing. The Anima can be opened by using a special machine that is located in the Anima Chamber of the Edolas castle. The last time we were in Edolas, there was this battle, and the castle was kind of..."

"Demolished," Wendy finished with a sigh. She brightened up suddenly. "But maybe Jellal- I mean Mystogan- and everyone fixed it."

"For our sake, I hope so," Lucy said, closing her book with finality. "So...anyone come up with a good theory as to why the three brothers are here?"

Everyone shook their heads with embarrassment.

"That's going to be a problem, isn't it?" Lily asked gruffly. "It's all one-sided. The only way to open the gates is to contact Mystogan."

"That's what I'm still trying to figure out," Levy said, rubbing her forehead. "That's what everyone needs me to figure out."

The five mages and the Exceed sat in silence, pondering their seemingly unsolvable problem.

"I think this is all making sense now," Erza said, looking at the drawing contentedly. She traced her finger along the pale face of one of the three brothers. "Skull," Erza murmured, following the outline of the sketch. Her expression darkened as her eyes roamed across the man's sharp features. "He looks so weak and helpless now that we know his name. Ryker Coy."

"That's a start," Jellal replied, studying the paper from over her shoulder. The drawing of the three men looked eerily realistic, as if they would jump out of the picture any second now. "We just need to send the brothers' back to where they belong."

"You make everything sound so easy!" Romeo chimed in, smiling up at the blue-haired man. They had a newfound friendship, the three of them, Romeo, Jellal, and Natsu. It was weird, but somewhat comforting. Jellal knew he could rely on the two of them to make a fool out of themselves, which would result in pressure being taken off of him. Weird, but comforting.

"I deserve a break," Erza announced. "I'm going to eat-"

"Cake, right?" Natsu butted in. "I'll ask Mira to make some-"

Erza stared at him suspiciously. "That's kind of you, but I already bought cake from Magnolia Bakery."

The three mages watched as the Titania set off to retrieve her beloved strawberry cake.

"Chill out," Romeo urged, elbowing Natsu. "Our cake is going to be great! She won't even notice the difference!"

"There were seven strawberries on top of her old cake right?" the dragonslayer asked frantically. "We put seven on the new one, right?!"

"Natsu, there were eight strawberries on the old one," the younger boy said. "Remember?"

"No..there were six! Six or seven..or were there eight?" The salmon-haired boy turned to Jellal. "Right?"

The blue-haired man raised his hands in surrender. "I don't know! You saw the cake, you ate the cake, I just helped bake it!"

"We're so, so screwed!" Natsu wailed.

"You'll be fine," Jellal said, heading towards the library where Levy and the others were gathering information on Edolas.

Juvia roamed the streets of Magnolia. She was supposed to be helping, but she couldn't bring herself to be with her comrades. They were stressed, but happy. Happy, content, and foolish. She loved them very much, but these past few days felt especially rough for her.

Juvia needed a break.

She wandered through the bustling town, watching in amazement as the sun began to slowly set, painting the tops of the buildings a deep orange. Pink clouds and red streaks adorned the sky, fabricating an almost heavenly atmosphere. Why couldn't the world always be this beautiful?

The water mage smiled sleepily up at the sky. 'This sunset is almost as beautiful as Gray-sama.'

Her smile faded in an instant. 'No thinking about Gray-sama, no thinking about Gray-sama, no thinking about Gray-sama..'

"Juvia!" a voice exclaimed. "I've been looking for you!"

"G-Gray-sama?" Juvia choked out, whirling around and finding herself facing the dark-haired ice mage. "J... Juvia's been..."

Gray watched her carefully, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. "Juvia... I have to talk to you..." He had meant to sound calm and suave, but all he could focus on was how shaky his voice sounded. Pathetic. The blue-haired girl stared at the man with wide eyes, waiting for him to continue. Gray sighed, finally meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry I haven't told you my answer... Things just keep coming up and it seems like there's never a calm moment."

Juvia's expression softened. "Gray-sama..." She placed a hand on his shoulder, hesitantly. "It's okay, Juvia doesn't mind. Take as much time as you need." The look in her eyes was pained. They held a glint that revealed a sort of desperate wanting, but it was quickly covered up with a smile. Gray saw right through it.

"If you want, I can give you my answer now..." he whispered, dropping his gaze.

Juvia's eyes lit up, but her thoughts contradicted her feelings. 'If Gray-sama tells Juvia now, there'll be no time to grieve or celebrate and Gray-sama won't have time to think.' Despite wanting to know the Devil Slayer's answer, she shook her head. "Not until everything is calm and happy." She smiled at the man. "Let's go help everyone out."

Gray took her hand and nodded, even though his cheeks were burning up. "Yeah."

The two reached the guild in time, and were met with a loud crashing sound. They brushed it off and entered the guild to help Levy and the rest do more research. Gray was pulled away to help come up with theories, while Levy pulled Juvia into her group. The crashing noises seemed to get closer and closer to the guild hall, but no one noticed. Crashing sounds were normal, here in the Fairy Tail guild.

Crash!

The glass doors shattered as a girl around nineteen years old was thrown into the guild. She groaned, but quickly leapt to her feet. "You scum!" she screamed at someone outside.

"Rain! Hurry up and get out here!" a male voice called out to her. She rolled her eyes and transformed into a figure similar to Gray's demon form.

"Fire Demon Zeroth Long Sword!" she called out, summoning an odd-looking sword made of flames. She ran at whoever was outside, exiting the guild's view.

"What did she say?" Gray's eyes were wide with confusion. "She's a devil slayer?" he called out.

No one was listening to the ice-mage as they raced to the door to find out what all the commotion was about. They saw a silver-haired man and the brown-haired girl, from before, fighting Scar and Skull, otherwise known as Jax and Ryker. Jellal was in no form to help fight, so Erza stopped him before he insisted on joining in. "I've got this."

Erza, Mira, Natsu, and Gray ran to the two wizards, ready to help. "I see you're back for more," Erza growled, transforming into her Armadura Fairy armor, whilst summoning her katana. She and Gray took the girl's side, helping to fight Scar. Natsu and Mira took the silver-haired man's side to fight Skull.

Gray was fascinated yet confused; he wasn't able to get his mind into the fight. Scar noticed this and kicked him back into the wall. "Focus on the battle, Fairy!" yelled the silver-eyed woman.

He grumbled and joined the fight, using his Ice-Make magic. The girl got close to Scar, noticing the enemies lack of attention, and used another spell. "Water Demon Zeroth Destruction Fist!" she called, knocking Scar into a nearby wall. The evil man passed out causing Skull to realize he was no match for six wizards. He retreated, using an unknown spell to fade away into the shadows.

"What just happened?" muttered Gray, scratching the back of his head.

The silver-haired man rushed over to the girl who knocked Scar out. "Rain, are you okay?" he asked, checking her body for wounds.

The girl sighed and pushed him off her. "I'm fine, Vari. You know I'm fine." She rolled her eyes and smiled at the man.

"So, uh, who are you guys?" Gray asked, studying the two unknown wizards.

The man smiled at Gray. "I'm Varian and this is my partner-in-crime, Rain."

Erza stepped up to the two. "Do you two know those men?" She pointed at Scar. Rain shook her head.

"We saw them sneaking around, trying to get into your guild hall. We didn't see a guild mark, so we stopped them. They started to fight us and we..." She gestured to the area. "somehow got all the way here." Her voice was dull, void of any emotion- a sharp contrast to when she was talking to Varian.

Erza smiled with gratitude."Thank you for trying to help." Mira approached them from behind.

"Please, come meet our guild master. I've told him what happened." Rain and Varian looked at each other, shrugging. Meanwhile, Erza and Natsu were ordered to take Scar into a locked room so he couldn't get away.

"Sure." The two friends followed behind Mira, noticing the stares they were getting from the guild members. Rain leaned in towards Varian. "Do I look weird or something?" she whispered.

Varian chuckled quietly. "No, you look beautiful. I'm pretty sure they're just a bit shocked."

Rain nodded in agreement. She watched intently as Mira opened the door to Master Makarov's office. "Master?"

The two wizards were expecting someone taller and more buff, but a small, old man greeted them. "Hello." Rain cracked a smile at the master's odd grin.

Varian followed suit. "Good evening." He smile politely.

"I hear you attempted to protect our guild?" Master sat back down at his seat. "Relax, you might be here a bit."

Mira brought in chairs for Rain and Varian, allowing them to sit and talk with Makarov. "Yes, we did," Rain confirmed.

"Thank you, greatly." Makarov stood up to thank them, personally. "That was very kind of you."

Rain was awkward in the hug she was given, but eventually relaxed and hugged back. "It was no problem, we were only doing what was right."

Varian nodded. "There's no need for thanks."

At the bar, Gray sat on a stool, trying to clear his thoughts. He couldn't understand how there was another devil slayer. He didn't know there were other devil slayers and what confused him further was how she used two different elements. He was starting to get a headache from the amount of stress that was on his head. "Is everything okay, Gray-sama?"

Gray shook his head, trying to stop thinking about it. "Yeah, I'm fine... Just a bit confused."

Juvia frowned suspiciously. "Abou-" Before she could finish, Gray's attention was snagged elsewhere.

The two wizards, Rain and Varian, were leaving the master's office, each bearing identical Fairy Tail marks on their shoulders.