Seven years. It had been seven years since many of Fairy Tail's members had been home. The weeks following their return had been filled with laughter, parties and old friends catching up. One would never guess that for seven years these members had been believed dead after the destruction of Sirius island by Acnologia. True there had been sad moments mixed with the happy, but all in all it was like two old friends meeting on the street after not seeing each other for years.

Then quiet fell over the guild like a blanket as exhausted guild members relaxed. Natsu, Lucy and Happy had just returned from a mission, with the later two exhausted. Natsu however was pumped and ready for the next mission.

"Aw come on." He complained. "I'm not tired at all. I'm pumped and raring to go, so let's go pick another job."

"Sorry Natsu but right now I don't have the energy." Lucy sighed.

"Aye." Happy groaned.

"You too Happy!?" Natsu yelled. "Come on we need another mission!"

Ever since the missing guild members heard about the giuld's debt to Twilight Ogre, many of the members, feeling guilty for the debt, had gone out on jobs to help pay off the debt. Others, like Natsu, wanted to go out and beat up 'those punks', but had been forbbiden by Master Makarov (Natsu harded to convince).

"Good news." Master Makarov announced as he strode in followed by Erza, Mirajane, Macao and Wakaba. Erza and Mirajane looking undeniably pleased with themselves and Macao and Wakaba grinning happily.

"Twilight Ogre has agreed to lift the debt we owe them." Macao announced, grinning.

All of the guild members grinned and a cheer filled the guild hall.

Wakaba's grin broadened as he put his arm around Natsu's shoulder.

"You should've seen it." He chuckled. "By the time Master Makarov, Erza and Mirajane were done with them, not one member could stand straight, much less walk."

"Oh stop it." Mirajane said coyly.

"It was nothing." Erza said modestly, though everyone could see her blush.

"Whaaaaaat!?" Natsu complained. "You guys got to beat up those jerks and I didn't!?"

"Can it hothead." Grey interjected. "We all know Master Makarov can't trust you with anything because you would end up blowing up half the city. Speaking of which, how did your job go?"

Natsu instantly rounded on Grey and Lucy swore she could see sparks flying out of his mouth.

"What was that!?" Natsu growled. "Say that again. Right to my face."

"Sure thing, hothead." Grey growled back as the tempiture around him dropped.

"Alright thats it. It's go time!" Natsu shouted as his hand hands ignited.

"Fine by me." Grey said as he knocked his fist to his palm. "Just don't come crying to me when I pummel you."

An audible snap was heard and Natsu's flames increased.

"Your ash, stripper!"

"Boys." A calm firm voice said.

Natsu and Grey froze and turned to see the source of the voice, Erza with a dark expression on her face.

"Oh hey Erza didn't see you there." Grey said nervously as he and Natsu slung their arms around each others shoulders. Both were sweating nervously. "We were just playing." He said.

"Aye." Natsu said.

Erza smiled. "Good to see you two are getting along." She said before turning to Lucy. "I heard about your father. How are you?"

Lucy bit her lip. "I'll be fine." She said. "At first I wasn't sure how I felt about him. He wasn't the best dad ever. But then when I went home I found out that he hadn't lost faith in me and that he'd been sending birthday presents for the past seven years. And I just cried. Cause now I know he loved me and the fact that we never grew close while he was alive I just..." She paused as she realized that she had started crying.

Reaching up she brushed away the tear that had formed in her eye a smiled. "But then Natsu was there for me." She continued. "And then I knew that evrything was going to be alright."

Erza smiled as she looked at Lucy's. Because she knew that her smile was genuine.

"So how was your job." She asked.

In an instant Lucy's smile fell and she gave a sigh of exasution as her head dropped her head to the table.

"Long story short we ended up using our reward to pay for the damages done to the town. Sometimes I wonder if it's possible for Natsu to show some restraint."

Erza chucked warmly. "Your not the only one who thinks that."

Macao sat down at the other end of the table and smiled. "Their back Eveline." He mumbled to himself. "I just wish you could see this." He said as he took a swig of his drink.

Much of what he had said had been lost in the ruckus of the guild hall, but those with sharp ears, Natsu, Grey, Gajeel (who sat not too far away), Erza, Lucy and Makarov had heard him and round him. When Macao put down his glass, he nearly jumped out his seat at the sudden flood of faces in front of him.

"What was that you were saying?" Natsu asked.

Macao blinked and sighed. "Its something we don't really talk about." He said. "And anyways it happened a long time ago, so..."

"Spill." Erza growled.

Macao flinched. He'd forgotten how scary Erza could be. He looked around the room. Quiet had fallen over the guild hall as all eyes focused on him. Seeing no way out Macao sighed and started at the beginning.

"Not too long after your disapperence we received a new recruit." He began. "Her name was Eveline. She was a kind, sweet, hard working you woman. It seemed like there was nothing she could do. When we were at our lowest she came to us like a glimmer of light and lit our otherwise dark world. She taught us to hope for our friends and for a while we thought we could do anything. We had hope for the first time in months."

Many of the guild members who had been around while the others were gone smiled at what seemed to be a pleasent memory.

"And magical talent? She could do things no one could've thought possible. While she was here she took on many of the high paying jobs on her own. Even S-class. And every job she came back from in record time."

"She currently holds the record for the fastest completed S-class job." Reedus said. "One week."

Natsu cracked his knuckles. "Bet I break in my sleep."

In an instant he clobbered by Makarov, Erza and Lucy at the same time. "No way." They said at the same time.

Macao smiled. "It was obvious she was more powerful then me and I confronted her about taking my position as guild master. But she just smiled at me and said that she couldn't do such a thing. Regaurdless, because of her we were able to get through the first year. We had hope and we maintained our quota. Then one day, she disappeared."

"What you mean?" Makarov asked.

"I mean just that." Macao answered. "Just like that she was gone. We couldn't find her anywhere. It was like 'poof' and she was gone. We search everywhere and asked around everywhere. Nobody had seen her. After that everything seemed to fall apart. We fell into debt and lost the old guild hall and had move out to this guild hall. And then we lost hope and the rest is history."

For a moment there was quiet as Macao turned his attention to his mug.

"Sometimes I wonder if she knew that this was going to happen and that's why she didn't accept the position of guild master. But I guess I won't ever know what happened."

Macao then took a swig of his drink after finishing his sentence. The rest of the guild sat in silence.

'How sad.' Lucy thought. 'The guild must've suffered so much while we were gone.'

"Lucy." Natsu said. Lucy turned to Natsu, his face expressionless. "I've a decision." He said as he slowly got to his feet. "I'm going to go find Eveline!" He loudly declared.

Everyone jumped at the sudden shout and gaped at him. Macao almost choked on his drink and gaped as well.

Lucy sat there for a minute and then grinned. "Count me in." She declared, her exhaustion forgotten.

"Me too." Erza said.

"May as well." Grey said joining the growing group.

"Me too!" Wendy bounced up.

"Why not? I ain't got anything better to do." Gajeel stepped forth.

"And me." Levy said.

"Don't forget us." Patherlily said.

"Aye."

Wendy grinned. "Of course not." She said as she hugged Carla.

"Stop hugging me." Carla said. "I'm just coming to keep an eye on things. I'm not getting any vision of what may happen."

Natsu looked around at the assembled members then turned to Macao, who simply gaped at the group, and jabbed his finger in his face.

"Don't you worry." He declared. "We'll bring her home no matter what."

"So where are we starting, genius?" Carla said as the group wandered the streets of Magnolia. "What were you planning on doing? Wander the streets calling her name?"

Grey sighed. "Leave it to Natsu to not have a plan." He said. "What a moron."

"What was that!?"

"You heard me, moron!"

"ALRIGHT IF IT'S A FIGHT YOU WANT, IT'S A FIGHT YOU'LL GET! I'LL BURN YOU TO A CRISP YOU PERVERT!"

"BRING IT ON! I'LL BEAT YOU WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT!"

"ENOUGH!" Erza shouted and the two automatically froze, quickly followed by pretending to be best buds.

'Idiots.' Carla thought to herself. "We still don't know where to start." She pointed out.

"True." Erza admitted.

"Well," Lucy started. "If I was starting a search, I would start at the home of the person and look for clues."

Carla nodded. "Sounds like a good place to start." She said. "Now where is her home?"

There was a minute of silence as everyone suddenly realized they didn't know much about this person.

Carla face palmed herself. 'Idiots'

"Wait." Levy said as she suddenly got an idea.

Carla raised her eyebrow.

"What if I crafted a tracking spell?" She said. "It'll take a while, but I think I could do it."

Carla nodded. "Sounds pretty good." She said. "So you can lead us to her her?"

Levy shook her head. "Tracking spells for people are impossible to set up with the limited info we have." She said. "Even if by some chance I could do it, it would be inaccurate and most likely take us in the opposite direction. However. If I use a simple finders spell, I could find her home."

"Well what are you waiting for?" Natsu asked. "Let's get to it!"

Levy nodded and began the spell. As she continued, amagic circle appeared in her hands. Then there was a flash of light.

Once everybody could see again, they turned to Levy. Levy stood right where she was, her cupped hands out in front of her and hovering right above them was an orb of light. The orb was no bigger then Levy's fist. It flickered and dimmedas it bobbed up and down. In basic, it was quite underwealming.

"That's it?" Natsu said incredulously.

Levy blushed. "It was the best I could do with such limited information." She said. "If I'm right it should lead us to the place."

All of a sudden the orb shot out of her hand and down the street. The orb bobbed and shot over to one building then to the next before rushing down the street with the group in hot pursuit.

The orb maintained a pattern of shooting forward, pausing to investigate buildings, then shooting forward again.

This pattern was maintained for an hour before the orb landed on top of a tile roof and dissipated. The group, now out of breath stood in front of the building stareing at it. It was three story whitewash house with a red tile roof. The porch was a wrap around porch occupied by two wicker chairs, a table and a above the porch was an impressive balcony accessed by a pair of double doors.

As they approached the house, the group saw a children. Two of the older children sat at the table playing cards. While around them three of the younger kids ran up and down the porch squealing with delight as they played tag. A sixth sat in the hammock acting like it was a swing.

As they drew closer, one of the children (presumably the eldest) noticed them. Putting down her hand , she got up and turned to the door.

"Mom!" She called. "Somebody's here.!"

Suddenly, less then half a dozen eyes turned towards them and before anyone could react, they were practically tackled by five little ones.

"VISITORS!" They screamed like a battle cry.

"Wow your so tall."

"Why do you have metel in your skin?"

"LOOK! Kitties!"

"Kyaa! Let me pet it!"

"ME TOO!"

"KITTIES HAVE WINGS!" The children declared as the three exceeds pulled themselves out of the children's grasp by flying, an action that only served to excite them more as they all tried to jump up to catch the 'bird-cats'.

"Alright kids let's leave the 'bird-cats' alone." A kind voice said.

The children turned to the girl standing behind them. There was a corus of "awwwwwwwww's" as the children slunk back to the house. The girl stood there for a minute as she watched their retreat before turning back to her guests.

She was a relatively tall girl with a slim frame and pale skin. Her eyes were dark brown and her short hair was light brown.

The looked to the strangers and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." She said. "Their just over excitable."

"No not at all." Lucy said.

Carla sniffed. "Speak for yourself." She said. "Your not the one who almost got shredded by those things."

"Aye." Happy confirmed.

"Apologies miss...um." The girl said as she bowed.

"Carla." Came the reply. "The goofy one is Happy and the black one is Pantherlily."

The girl snorted.

Pantherlily raised and eyebrow. "Is something funny?" He said.

"Sorry." The girl said as she chuckled. "It's just that Pantherlily strikes me as a girls name. Not the Panther part. The Lily."

Pantherlily looked indignant. "I'll have you know Pantherlily is a warriors name." He said.

"Yes of course." The girl said, stifling her laughter. "And what of your friends names?"

"My name is Lucy." Came the reply. "These are my friends Natsu, Grey, Erza, Wendy, Gajeel and Levy."

The girl bowed once again. "Pleased to meet you all. My name is Megan. Those kids back there were my siblings."

"Hey are we playing cards or what?" Came a voice from being Megan, which made her jump. Behind her was a slightly shorter boy with darker hair and eyes then her wearing glasses.

"You scared the life out of me." Megan said to the newcomer.

The boy rolled his eyes. "Sorry to bug ya, but I really wanna finish the game. I think I'm winning."

Megan smiled impishly. "Not by a long shot." She said. "Come and let me introduce you." She then turn to face the guests. "Jack, this is Lucy, Natsu, Grey, Erza, Wendy, Gajeel and Levy. Guys, this is my little brother Jack."

"Only by by an hour." Jack stated before turning around to return to his seat on the porch, where four sets of eye peered out at the strangers. All of them zeroing in on the exceeds. Carla, Happy and Pantherlily shivered.

"Anyways," Megan continued. "What can we do for you."

"We're looking for somebody." Wendy answered.

Megan shrugged. "Sure." She said. "Maybe I can help."

"What do you know about somebody named Eveline." Gajeel asked.

Megan frowned and everyone felt that they'd breached a sensitive subject.

For a long time they all stood there, Megan staring at the ground and the group staring awkwardly at Megan wondering what to do. In the background the sqeals of children could be heard once more as the little ones started another game of tag.

After a full five minutes, Megan licked her lips and looked up at the group. "Can we talk about this in the house?" She asked hoarsely.

The house was very clean. Apart from the occasional toy, it was in a rocking chair in the living room was a tired women cradleing a little baby. As the group entered the room, she started to get up. In a few short strides, Megan crossed the room to the women and placed a hand on her arm.

"Mother you should be resting with Jane." She said to the woman.

The woman shook her head. "But what about the children?" She said. "And we have guests."

"Jack's watching the kids." Megan assured her mother. "And I'm taking care of the guests. You just get some rest. Okay."

The woman nodded. "Okay." She said. "But you know I'm not going to keep leaving everything to you two."

Megan grinned. "Of course you aren't."

Megan lead the group through the room and down a hall into a another room.

"Take a seat." She said.

They complied.

"Listen," She said. "I can honestly say that no one in this family knows where Eveline is."

"Can you tell us about her?" Erza asked.

"Not much." Megan answered. "I was only a little kid when she came. And she only stayed for so long. My dad died awhile ago when he got in a bar fight. I don't remember much about him except he smelled of alcohol and yelled at mom till she cried. A couple years after his death mom got remarried. Her current husband is nicer and a decent man. He goes to his job, works hard and comes home. He loves my mom and he also loves me and Jack. Besides my twin Jack, all of my siblings are my half siblings. But I love them anyways."

Megan cleared her throat.

"Anyways," She continued. "Even though my step dad is hard work, his work doesn't pay much. So my mom decided to rent out some rooms. That's when she came. Eveline was a kind person. She to not only rent a but a whole floor. Which the mony she gave us we let keep the room. Since then we've been okay, able to take care of ourselves on my dad's budget. Since then she became family. When she was at the guild or on a job, she would be here help out around the house. Doing chores and watching out for Jack and me.

"The day she disappeared had been like any other day. She came home and we had dinner. Dad even proposed a toast in her honor. Afterwards we sat a talked about our day. I rember I loved hearing about the many jobs she'd been on and the many people she'd met. And I often dreamed about going on adventures like that and helping people."

Megan then leaned forward. "I've even been practicing my magic."

Natsu grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "Great." He said.

"You know if you want to be a great wizard, you can always try Fairy Tail." Lucy said.

Megan's eyes brightened. "Really!?" She said excitedly.

"Anyways," She continued. "Afterwords we all we to bed the next morning Eveline didn't come down. We became worried and went up stairs. She was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere and we couldn't find one trace of her. She was simply gone. We went around town, asking around and looking for he in general. But she was just gone."

Everyone sat in silence as they digested this information. 'So she never even left the house.' Carla thought. "If what you say is true, then there must be some clue on her floor." She said out loud.

Megan nodded. "Makes sense." She said. "Come on I'll take you there."

The group walked up the stairs to the floor. Megan hadn't joined them as she had resposebilties to her half siblings and mother. So they on their own up here.

The group spit up and explored each room of the floor. Lucy explored the bedroom. There was much to say about the place. To one side was a large unkempt bed. The blankets, Lucy noted had been thrown off, either by Eveline or while the family was looking for her. One and a half of the walls were dominated by large bookshelves filled with every type of book imaginable. Particularly magic. Lucy walk over to one of the shelves and pulled a book of. 'The Beginners Handbook to Magic' she read. Then she saw on of the pages had been bookmarked. Flipping to the bookmarked page she read the first sentace.

'Magic Portals. Magic portals are tricky. Especially long distance ones. They are extremely rare and can only be performed by wizards of high power and expertise.' The rest of the page was dominated by a diagram of what Lucy assumed was a portal magic circle. 'High power and expertise' Lucy thought, remembering what Macao had said about her. 'She could complete an S-class job in week.' She thought to herself. 'Why not create a portal spell?' She paused. 'What if something went wrong?'

Lucy closed the book and replaced it. At it slid into place, Lucy heard a click. All of a sudden the bookcase shuddered and began to slide across the floor, revealing a secret room.

Once the case stopped moving, Lucy fell staring at the new doorway. "GUYS, I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING!" She screaming once she found her voice.

In an instant she was surrounded by everyone. Half of them looking ready for a fight.

"What is it? What happened Lucy?" Natsu asked.

All Lucy could do was point at the new room in front of her.

Everyone turned to look and let out a gasp.

Once Lucy calmed down she told everyone who she found it.

"Hmmmm." Carla said. "Quite clever. Using a a bookshelf to hide a mother room. Bravo."

"So should we go in?" Happy asked.

"I say we do!" Natsu declared, taking a step towards the door.

"Hold on." Erza said. Natsu froze. "We have no idea what could be in there. Perhaps some nasty creature or a trap."

"If there was a creature in there, don't you think it would've attacked us by now?" Carla asked. "Also I find in doubtful that anything could survive being in there for six or seven years."

Pantherlily nodded. "And as far as I know there aren't many spells that can last that long." He said.

"Well nothing ventured nothing gained." Gajeel said. "I'll go first."

Before anyone could say anything, Gajeel stepped into the room. For a minute all was quiet as everyone watched with baited breath. One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes...

"Hey guys it's not half bad in here." Gajeel called from the darkness.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and then decided to follow him in.

By the light of Natsu's flames, the group was able to see the room clearly. It was very big. Bout a third of the size of the previous room. It was made of smooth wood and was covered in thick dust.

Other then that there was nothing else to say about the room. Lucy was the last one in as something about that room gave her the creeps. As she looked around the room, something at her feet caught her eye. Squatting down, she rubbed off the dust covering it. It was a line.

"Guys, there's something on the floor." She said.

Everyone turned their attention to the floor. Then, working carefully, they all began to dust off whatever it was. When they finished, they looked down at what they had uncovered. It was a magic circle. A familiar magic circle.

"Guys." Lucy said. "This is the portal magic circle. But it looks different then the one I saw."

"Cool." Natsu said bending down get a closer look, almost touching the floor with his flameing hand.

"Hey! Watch it idiot!" Grey called to Natsu, who immediantly stood up. "One touch of your fire and we all go up in smoke!"

"Hey! You want me to come over there and pummel you!?" Natsu replied.

"Calm down." Levy said. "This is no place for a fight."

"I don't think we should be in here." Lucy said.

"Well then why don't you leave?" Carla said hautily.

"Because the doors stuck."

"Fasinateing." Erza murmmered to herself as examined the circle. "It seems as though the the circle is burned into the floor. Like a stain. I wonder what could do that?"

"I don't want to find out." Lucy cried. "I just want to get out of here."

"Surely the door can't be that stuck." Erza said as she walked towards the door. "Let me try."

In all the commotion no one noticed when a spark of Natsu's fire fell to the floor a landed on a line. No one noticed when the spark glowed and was absorbed by the circle. And nobody noticed when the glow spread across the entire circle and became activated until it was too late.

"What the...!" Erza said as light filled the room.

"Oh man." Lucy whimpered as she felt like fainting.

Everybody else was speechless as they watched the circle hum to life. The light then expanded beyond it's lines creating a circle of light. Suddenly everyone in the room felt a sort of tugging feeling, like being sucked into a vacuum only there was air. Only a force that dragged the to the circle. Many resisted, but it was futile. Soon enough they all fell through the circle of light. The last the fall was Natsu. Natsu could fell no ground in the empty blackness he saw. The second he went through he felt himself being pulled and stretched till it hurt. As he felt his consciousness drifting, he had a feeling that something was different. The last thing Natsu saw before passing out was a light.