AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! I finally finished chapter 6!!!! wwhhhhooooooooo!!!! This one got a little out of control, so it's pretty long, but I hope you all enjoy it!! Stuff is getting interesting now! (:< Also, we have decided on much pain in the future. So. Much. Pain. ;D

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KEY:
Chinese
Telepathy

"I need to call Lily," came a chorus from around the room. Natsu froze, watching as everyone did the same, eying each other. Confusion was clear on their faces as they all looked at each other, wondering probably the same thing Natsu was.

"How do you know Lily?" Gajeel finally asked, voicing aloud Natsu's own wonderings.

Levy answered first. "He's the one who introduced me to The Melting Pot."

"Same here," Lucy said, to which Cana and Juvia both added that it was the same for them.

"What the hell is going on here?" Gajeel grumbled, casting a confused frown in Natsu's direction. He shrugged, not sure what to say. He knew only as much as Wendy and Gajeel did about Lily, so he was just as lost as they were.

Suddenly realizing something, and seeing the same recognition on Gajeel's face, they both looked at their younger cousin. She met their gazes, a guilty look coming over her features. She had always been bad at keeping secrets. Or so he thought. "We should call Lily," she said, quietly.

"Is anyone else here still confused as hell?" Cana asked, crossing her arms as she fixed them all with a stern frown. What do you three know that you aren't telling the rest of us? I saw that secret little look just now, so spill it."

"Lily will be able to explain everything," Wendy said, offering her a smile. "I promise."

Cana's anger deflated at Wendy's words, and Natsu had to repress a chuckle. Having known her for all her life, he would have sworn that people being unable to be angry at her was one of her gifts. But she didn't need a gift to pull that off. That was just...Wendy.

"Alright you jackass, what the hell are you tryna pull here?" Gajeel barked at his laptop screen, startling everyone. Natsu hadn't even noticed him calling Lily, and he was even more surprised he had picked up. It was late into the evening in Wales, where Lily lived, so Natsu had assumed it would take at least a little effort on their part to reach him.

"That means Etherios has been in contact with you," the man on the screen nodded, infuriatingly calm, despite Gajeel's hostile glare.

Gajeel spat out a stream of Russian curses, almost too fast for Natsu to understand, but caused Levy to gasp and cover Wendy's ears. Calming down slightly, he answered, "yeah, he has. He broke into our hotel room this morning. He was babbling some nonsense about us joining him for something or another because of our..." he paused, glancing at Natsu and Wendy before continuing a little quieter, "because of our gifts."

"It seems it's finally time, then," Lily sighed. He said something to someone off camera, then turned back to the confused group all staring at him. "Before I go on, I need to speak with Wendy."

Six pairs of eyes shot to the tiny bluenette, whose face had gone scarlet from the unwanted attention. She stepped forward, and Natsu looked to Gajeel for an explanation, receiving the same look from his older cousin.

"Y-Yes?" She asked.

The man smiled at her, speaking in Chinese. "Have you been well?"

She nodded. "I have."

"I know your cousins can understand this, but that's alright. My main concern is the others. What is your opinion of them?" Natsu frowned in confusion. What the hell was this guy talking about?

"They are all really good people," Wendy said, "and there's no way they're working for him. None of them even knew who he was until this morning. And I think they will help you."

"Wonderful," Lily smiled, returning to English. "Now that that's settled, I shall fill you all in on why I've gathered you here."

"Gathered us?" Juvia asked.

"As you've all figured out, I was in contact with each of you before you met one another, and it was I who introduced you to The Melting Pot, inevitably leading you all together. I must admit, however, that I wasn't entirely honest about the site when I introduced it to you. I said that it is a site for people around the world to communicate with and get to know each other, but that isn't the case."

"Then what the hell is it?" Cana snapped.

"It's a site I designed for special people like you." Despite everyone frowning angrily at him, he continued to smile as he explained. "I can't explain everything now because Etherios could very well be listening. However, I will tell you that I know of each of your powers before I brought you together, and that it was by no accident that you are all here now, together.

"I have sent my associates to meet you in Australia, and they will explain everything in person. Until then, you should probably all talk amongst yourselves about this. My associates will be there in a few hours, so you've got plenty of time to get well acquainted with each other's abilities."

With that, he ended the call. It was silent around the room, no one knowing what to say. Eventually, Natsu turned to Wendy and broke the silence. "Wendy, did you know about all of this?"

The guilt all over her face gave her away instantly. "I wanted to tell you, but Lily wanted me to keep it a secret until we knew for sure about everyone. But after hearing everyone's thoughts this morning, I knew it was alright."

"Wendy," Gajeel warned, knowing she had just given way too much about herself away. Instead of listening to him, she shook her head, looking around the room at everyone.

"Lily trusted me with this secret because he wanted to know if any of you were working for Etherios, and I was the only one who could know for sure whether or not you were."

"How is that?" Levy asked.

Before Natsu or Gajeel could stop her, she squared her shoulders and said, "I can read minds."

"Wait, seriously?" Cana gasped, her grey eyes large as she gaped at the girl.

She nodded. "That's why I get headaches in crowded places—too many thoughts all at once. That's also why Lily trusted me to find out if he could trust you as well. Now that he knows he can, he'll tell us all exactly why it is he brought us together."

"And why is that?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know what the bigger picture is, but I know it has something to do with all of our powers."

After a tense moment of silence, Gajeel chuckled, patting the top of Wendy's head. "Kid must still be half asleep," he told everyone, and Natsu nearly rolled his eyes at how bad the lie was.

"J-Juvia can manipulate paints and ink," the woman suddenly blurted out, before her face turned a dark shade of pink.

"What?" Gajeel asked, incredulous.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her hands towards the sketchbook and paint set she had left on the coffee table overnight. In front of everyone's eyes, the blue paint lifted out of its tube and spread across the paper. "See?" She murmured, barely a whisper, as everyone's wide eyes turned back to her.

"I can manipulate darkness," Cana said, letting out a little breath. "The ability actually runs in my family; all of my siblings and my dad can do it, too."

"Is that why you always seem to be popping out of the shadows?" Levy giggled.

The brunette smirked. "That may be more literal than you think, blue."

"I suppose I'll go next then," Lucy spoke up. She went over to the window and picked up the potted cactus from the window sill. Smiling, she closed her eyes. "I can do all sorts of neat things with plants. They pretty much do whatever I tell them to." The cactus grew several inches and sprouted pink flower blossoms. "I guess you could say that's why my ranch is so easy to take care of."

"So that's why you suck at surfing," Natsu teased, finally understanding why she seemed so completely out of place, floating around in the water on a surfboard.

"Hey!" She laughed, putting the cactus back before punching him on the arm. "So what can you do, then? Hm?"

"Water manipulation," he grinned. He had never actually told anyone other than his cousins about his gift, so it felt nice to say it so openly like that. Especially seeing the say it made Lucy's brown eyes light up excitedly. What the hell am I thinking? Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that sort of thing; there wasn't time to get distracted. And when Wendy giggled, he had to suppress a groan, knowing she had heard exactly what he'd been thinking about Lucy.

"So, you're a water-bender?" Cana snickered.

"Can you blood-bend too?" Lucy added, sending Cana into a fit of laughter.

He knew they meant it jokingly, but he still felt icy hot fear he always did when he thought about that particular subject. "No," he snapped, his one a little darker than he would have liked to reveal to them. The girls immediately sobered, and the room went so awkwardly silent that he could hear himself breathing.

Much to his relief, Gajeel clamped a firm hand down on his shoulder and broke the silence. "That just leaves you," he said, looking at Levy. "Let me guess, languages?"

She laughed, shaking her head. "I just learn those for fun. I'm a summoner. I mostly work with spirits, though."

"A what now?" Natsu asked, confused.

"It'll be easier just to show you," she chuckled. "Baghira come!" A gust of wind suddenly swept through the room, circling around Levy before intensifying slightly. As it dispersed, a low growl took its place, and a jaguar appeared to step through some invisible door at Levy's side. Although it looked like a regular jaguar, it almost looked like it was glowing slightly. Which, Natsu guessed, was because it was a spirit.

"This is Baghira," Levy said, proudly, as she scratched the top of the jaguar's head like it was a normal housecat. He rubbed against her, glaring at anyone standing too close to Levy for his liking—namely, Gajeel.

"Baghira?" Gajeel asked, seemingly unfazed by the large animal's glare as he raised an eyebrow mockingly at her. "Like from The Jungle Book."

Levy's face immediately turned scarlet. "W-Well, if a spirit accepts you, they give the right to naming them. And I was only twelve when I summoned him, a-and that was my favorite book as a child. S-So—"

"I find it quite suiting. You dare to disagree, human?"

"Ok, what the hell was that?" Cana gasped. "I wasn't the only one who just heard a damn voice in my head, was I?"

"I heard it too," Wendy said, frowning, "and it wasn't a thought. It was an actual voice."

"Correct, small one. I am indeed communicating telepathically."

"That thing can talk?!" Natsu gaped at the spirit, then up at Levy, whose face was still red as she fidgeted slightly.

"Y-Yeah, he can," she said, mumbling something in Indian that caused Gajeel to let out a small snort of quiet laughter.

"He must be pretty protective if he learned how to communicate just for you," Gajeel chuckled.

"You have no idea," she grumbled, pouting as Baghira nudged her hand affectionately. "Alright, thanks. That's all for now." With another gust of wind, he was gone.

"That was awesome, Lev!" Lucy cheered, grabbing Levy's hands. "What else can you summon? Does it only work on animal-types, or what?"

"A lot of different things," Lev answered, smiling. "I'll have to show you later. I also want to see some more of that cool plant stuff you can do!"

"Definitely!" Lucy grinned.

Levy turned her gaze to Gajeel. "That just leaves you," she said, repeating his earlier statement.

"Nothin' special," he shrugged, hands in his pockets. Natsu shook his head at the older man, knowing he'd resist talking about his gifts. He had always not much cared for them, so it was rare to get him to talk about them—even with just him and Wendy.

"Gajeel is super strong!" Wendy said, excitedly, answering in Gajeel's silence. "And he's nearly indestructible!"

"Nearly?" Levy inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Only ever bled once in my life," Gajeel said, holding up his right arm, "and it was when I got these."

"What happened?" Juvia asked.

"We were vacationing in Hawaii about 8 years ago, and Natsu and I went surfing. Rain brain over there took us out a little too far on one of his damn waves—right into a batch of sharks in the middle of their damn breeding season. Needless to say, one of 'em grabbed a hold of me. Put up one hell of a fight, too."

"Uncle Metalicana nearly died when I brought him back with his arm all bloody like that," Natsu chuckled.

"I can't believe you fought a shark," Levy snorted, amused.

A knock on the door cut everyone off, and the room grew tense as they all looked at each other, deciding whether or not they should answer it. Gajeel took the lead, and Natsu followed after him in case it was that psycho Etherios again or one of his followers. Instead, they were met with two familiar faces, both of them greeting the room with a smile as they came inside.

"I believe it's finally time for us to explain everything," Jellal said, placing his hand on Erza's shoulder.

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Bamboo's chapter is next! \^-^/