The sun was beginning to peek over the roofs and mountain tops of Crocus, shining in gentle rays through the windows of Honeybone inn. The birds were chirping and small crowds of people walked the streets, either going out for an early breakfast or just a morning stroll. But like all things related to the guild, it was far from a peaceful morning.

"Lucy!" Someone shouted, "Wake up!" they repeated the phrase a couple of times, all the while shaking the poor celestial mage.

"W-what" she mumbled into her pillow, "Five more minutes...:"

Natsu, the screaming someone, pouted. He'd been trying to wake her for at least six minutes, and was considering lighting her hair on fire, but decided to go with the safer, less deadly, approach. "Fine, looks like we're doing this the hard way!" He declared before turning to his partner in crime, "Happy, carry her!"

"Aye, Sir!" The blue Exceed responded with a salute before grabbing the back of her shirt. "Uhh, so h-heavy" he complained for the thousandth time in his life.

"Oh shut it, cat!" Lucy shouted out of instinct, while picking up a pillow and prepared to chuck it at the intruders... of her shared room.

She lifted it above her head, ready to throw while she glared at the two angrily. Both because of the insult, and being awoken at such an early hour.

She was going to chew them out about it, but after seeing Natsu's overly excited face she sighed, having forgotten what they had planned the previous night, "What is it guys, why are you waking me up this early?" she asked as she sat up slowly, setting the pillow down behind her back.

Natsu grew a little more excited, "You said we can go see Sting and Rogue today!" He threw his fist into the air and Happy mimicked the action. He looked down, a little disappointment in his eyes, "How'd you forget anyway, lazy weirdo-"

"I'm not a weirdo!" she yelled as she surged forward, smacking the top of his head and leaving a small bump.

Despite the violence, he grinned and proceeded to yell at her to change so they could get going.

She had decided to wear a blue and white skirt with a navy blue bow in her hair. As well as some white gloves with embroidered gold fabric at the wrists, from Virgo of course.

The skirt reached just a few inches below her waist and went up to just over her collar bone. It had a gap exposing her stomach and a great portion of her back. It was one of her favorite outfits, but was horrible for the battlefield, so she found herself rarely wearing it. The real concern though, was not what she was wearing, but the fact Natsu watched it all happen.

"Okay... I think i'm ready to go." she said calmly as she smoothed out her skirt. But of course, 'calm' didn't last long.

She began screaming as Natsu yanked her arm, almost pulling it out of its socket, and began flying behind him as he jumped out the window and into the street below.

One thing was for certain, a morning at FairyTail was an interesting one.

After running through half of Crocus to reach the stadium, that days prior was filled with thousands of people to watch the games was, creepily, barren. Almost like a horror movie... almost. There were still a few people loitering around the stadium as it was still a tourist attraction and park even when it was out of season. The three wizards ran through the halls of the large stadium until they came to the door to the infirmary, where Natsu paused.

Lucy watched him warily from behind, he of course out ran her and she had to give chase for a couple city blocks.

She cleared her throat to get his attention, "Why aren't you... going in?" She asked worriedly, having expected him to kick down the door and barging in like a maniac, him pausing and looking confused was... confusing.

"Ohhhh... nothing," He shrugged and chuckled nervously, he ruffled the back of his hair, "it's just... I don't know what to say-" He began to explain before being interrupted.

"WHAT!" She yelled angrily, "YOU WOKE ME UP, AT SUNRISE, AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR GOING TO SAY!?"

Happy floated over to her, ready to 'explain' the definition of sunrise, "It was afte-". But he was quickly silenced by Lucy smacking her hand over his mouth.

"Well, I mean..." he continued as he eyed Happy's predicament with concern. "I was hoping to come up with what I was gonna say when we were walkin- err- running here." He made a movement with his fingers resembling a person running as he explained.

"Then, I thought i'll come up with it by the time we reach the door..." He pointed over his shoulder at the entryway. "And now i'm thinking you should tell me what to say..." He grinned a little, and pointed between her and himself as he spoke.

But instead of giving advice, she was fuming and steam was coming out of her ears. She had been pulled through the capital, forced up a mountain, and then had to run through the halls of a very large building, only for him to say he had no idea what he was going to say when he walked in. She walked forward, one hand still clasped around Happys face, and grabbed his hand. She kicked the door open and yanked him into the infirmary.

Startling to Sting and Rogue, Natsu and a very angry looking blond woman burst through their door and into the room. Initially they thought it might've been Master, or some other high ranking official from Sabertooth coming to yell at them. But it was still surprising, if not more, that it was Natsu who came in.

But for now, the room.

It wasn't that large and didn't have any too noticeable features. It had a few boring paintings on the walls, but a majority of the room was filled with beds, four to be exact, and some chairs.

The beds were covered with plain white sheets and if it wasn't for the two exceeds and their partners it could pass as uninhabited. Sting and Rogue were both covered in bandages, and a lot of burns.

They both looked at the Fire Dragon Slayer, who almost looked as shocked as the two of them, intently. They were wondering if he might attempt to attack them again for laughs... or maybe revenge. But before they could ask anything, Lucy growled and started to shake Natsu, even though it didn't show, she was a little embarrassed. She had not had the foresight to plan anything beyond the entrance.

"Well, say it!" She barked at him.

"Uhh-" He looked to the two he came to visit, and then turned back to Lucy, "What do you expect me to say!?" he asked. She released him from her death grip, and facepalmed as she mumbled something about him being incompetent.

Of course, the current inhabitants of the room were very confused. 'What are they doing here...' Sting wondered as he studied the two.

They continued bickering Infront of them, but had yet to interact with them directly. It was an awkward situation.

After scratching off a surprise attack he realized, 'It's kinda weird just sitting here...' He scratched the back of his head, 'might as well say som-' but alas, his thoughts were cut off as Rogue began to speak up.

"Umm- what are you doing here-" He began to ask, he then pointed at Lucy "and who are you?"

"Oh, It seems you don't remember me! Well then," she said with a smile but was obviously, as shown through her gritted teeth, a little ticked off. She was only the person who one of their guild mates had tortured... in front of them... during the games... only a couple of days ago, "Im Lucy Heartfilia, Fairytail's strongest celestial spirit wizard.". She felt a little pride from the statement, it was something she always wanted to try.

"Our only celestial spirit wizard-" Natsu began to 'correct' her, but was cut off by a smack across the head, again. "oOW!"

The three Exceeds began giggling, but stopped after being given separate death glares from the blond. Lector and Frosch hid behind the farthest bed, and Happy just hid outside the doorway.

Lucy flashed a gentle, 'friendly' smile "We're here because..." she started, but paused and then turned to the fire dragon slayer, "Wait, why are we here Natsu?" she whispered quickly.

Natsu began sweating vigorously, did she not remember anything from the previous night? This wasn't exactly a light subject, "Umm- well" he said nervously, and quietly, but stopped as he struggled to form the proper words.

She growled lowly. "Out with it Natsu!". She smacked his shoulder encouragingly and-

Never mind... she was angry. "You woke me up way too early for this to just mumble!" she yelled, frightening the Exceeds further... as well as the Twin Dragon Slayers, but not nearly as much as Natsu, who's face expressed what one would call 'pure terror'.

He panicked internally "Yeah, yeah!" He recollected himself quickly, "What was I gonna say-" he organized a few more thoughts before , "Well I know I wanted to say sorry for insulting Weisslogia, that was really uncool of me... oh, and scorching you alive, I went a little bit overboard." Lucy sighed as he began to giggle, but quickly grew a little more serious and apologetic, he knew the last reason was gonna be the worst. "And I'm sorry for getting..."

He looked up as he hesitated, only to see them staring at him, he gulped nervously. "For getting you kicked out of your guild..."

Both Sting and Rogue froze, confused for a moment before reality struck them like a hammer. With wide eyes they turned and looked at the letter they were putting off opening. Lector bent over and swiped it off the ground near his feet. It had blown over when the door was opened. He, along with Frosch, ran over and jumped up onto the beds.

Rogue stood up slowly and approached Sting's bed, where the Exceeds had run to, and sat down.

They opened it, almost ripping the letter inside in half. It read,

Dear, former, Twin Dragons of Sabertooth

It's come to my attention that you are no longer worthy of bearing the Sabertooth name, your performance in the GmG was shameful. It was physically ailing to watch that sorry excuse for a fight. When you were within our ranks you made it your mission to remind everyone that you were 'True Dragon Slayers'. You couldn't take down a single Dragon even after years of growth and training within our ranks, with reflection I even doubt your so-called 'victory' over your 'parents'. Honestly I'm glad that you've given me a reason to banish you from the guild. Sabertooth will be staying in Crocus for two more days from the time this should arrive, I recommend you don't show up at the inn until then. Erase your guild marks or so help me, I will rip them off. Skin and all. Don't contact me, or any of your previous employers, or share sensitive information(which you lack).

Sincerely, Sabertooth, Jiemma

Rogue fell off the side of the bed and stumbled over to his own after reading the parchment, Sting on the other hand looked frozen like one of Gray's ice sculptures. He didn't move, and even his chest stopped rising with his lungs. Froch and Lector, having no idea what to do to comfort their partners, ran around screaming like any great strategist.

Natsu was close to joining them in their panic, but decided to speak up, which might have been an even worse idea. "I mean it's not that ba-" he managed to get out before getting a hand smacked across his mouth and a glare that could make plants die from Lucy.

Sting snapped his head around and glared at him with watery eyes, "I-it's not t-t-tha-!?" He tried to squeak out before shoving his face into his pillow. His body shook as muffled sobs filled the room. He screwed up his last chance, and his opponent came to rub it in.

Natsu stared at him, then at Lucy who slowly approached Sting. Rogue, who was laying in his bed, shoved his own face into a pillow, but was quiet compared to his counterpart.

Lucy sat down next to the White Dragon Slayer and started to rub his back as he cried into the pillow. He flinched but relaxed at the soothing motion. She turned her head and gave a look to the Exceeds that communicated 'Get up there' as she looked between them and Rogue. They quickly followed her lead and started rubbing his back as he laid lifelessly still, but rarely a little tremor would go through his body.

Natsu just stood there dumbfounded, he had no idea what to do. He watched Lucy soothe Sting slowly and wondered if he should have to do the same.

He never thought he would have to comfort someone who got kicked out of their guild, only because he beat them in a fight. He turned to look for Happy but found him missing, 'Traitor!'

For a while he continued to stand near the door but eventually found some resolve, and walked over to Rogue and hesitated before he started to rub his back the same way Lucy rubbed Stings as he wept into the pillow. Rogue didn't react but slowly relaxed. He gave glances over to Lucy to see if he was doing it right.

It wasn't too long after that the Twin Dragon Slayers were fast asleep, tiring themselves to the point of passing out, but Natsu and Lucy decided to stay for a while, they weren't in the best place right now. They were silent for a majority of the time, and the Exceeds remained quiet. They often gave glances towards the door to look if Happy had returned, but he hadn't.

After another hour, Natsu's stomach growled, and asked if he should go and grab something to eat. Lector volunteered to come along. It was a challenge all in itself to find anything, since most of the vendors had left since the games ended. They passed stores of all types, and even ran into a few fans who wanted autographs from Natsu, and even a few were after Lector's.

Natsu's stomach growled again and he rubbed it, trying to sooth out the ache, "Uhh Happy I'm so hungry-" he complained.

Lector looked up at him, he never heard such bad grammar before. "Huh, you're happy?" The confused feline asked.

Natsu looked down and looked shocked for a moment before he remembered Happy deserted them at the door, "Ooh-er- Sorry," he apologized, "forgot that you were here instead of Happy, he's my partner, the blue Exceed." Natsu explained with a smile before continuing on forward.

"What's an Exc-eed?" The brown cat asked, struggling a bit with the foreign word. He'd never heard it before.

Natsu stumbled a bit, "What?!" He turned around "You mean you don't even know what you are?!".

"Of course I do," he continued "I'm a cat!" He pointed at himself with his thumb proudly.

Natsu practically fell over, and he waved his hands in front of him "No, no. You're an Exceed, a race of cat thing's... from Edolas!"

"Ed-o-las?" Lector questioned, he also never heard of it before.

"Yea, it's this other world... it's kinda like... next to ours! Me and the other wizards from Fairy Tail went there!" He spoke eagerly reliving the memory "They tried to suck up aaaaallllllll of Magnolia into this giant lacrima; but then we had to save them by hitting it with Dragon Slayer magic! We also took away all of their magic power too!"

Lector stepped back out of surprise, and looked a little repulsed, "You took away their magic!? That's awful! A bunch of people probably died from magic deficiency!"

Natsu held his hands up in a 'don't shoot' position and waved them. "No! They didn't have magic-well they did... but not like we do!" He explained quickly, "They had to use magic items like swords and stuff to do it. The only things there that could use magic, like we do," he pointed between himself and the brown mammal, "Are the Exceeds. And all of them got sucked up and spewed out here." He made a gesture to everything around him as he spoke..

"Wow-" Lector breathed, it was pretty incredible that somehow FairyTail beat an entire world and took their magic... even if it was a little grim, "that sounds... kinda cool!". He emphasized the 'kinda' since that wasn't exactly a nice thing to do.

"Yea! We had to fight the army, and their king in this giant dragon suit! We even had to stop this giant flying island from hitting another one that would've killed all the Exceeds and our friends!"

Natsu continued telling the tale and Lector listened with great interest. After a portion of it was told, Lector's opinion changed. It seemed that because of their limited magic, they were fighting for scraps. And it wasn't Fairy Tail who took it away, it was some man named Mystogen who sent it all to their world. Fairy Tail just got stuck in the middle of a war and had to save their friends.

Lector was a little jealous, not the whole friends nearly died part, but that they had that kind of venture. "I wish we got to go on adventures like that-" the cat complained quietly, "All Sting and Rogue do are jobs, jobs, and more jobs. Gets soooo boring, you know?"

Natsu nodded, he knew that going on the same old 'kill this', 'get rid of them', and 'bring me that' jobs got boring when done in rapid repetition. He'd probably have gone stir crazy if it wasn't for all the predicements they were thrown in, even if they were dangerous, they were a lot of fun. "Yeah, definitely! Even though they don't pay like jobs do, they're good experience!" He chuckled before realizing the grim truth about their 'payed' adventures, "Now that I think about it... half the time we do jobs we don't get paid and half the 'missions' we go on don't even have rewards to start with-" he started sulking as he continued walking, earning a laugh from Lector, but perked up when he smelled a delicious scent.

"Fooooooooooood!" He exclaimed, he sprinted in the direction of the smell and turned back and called to Lector as he waved his hand, "Come on, let's hurry!".

After returning to the stadium, and getting lost a few times, they finally reached the room that the now guildless Sting and Rogue were staying in. Both of them were asleep, and Lucy was cuddling with Froch who looked to be struggling to breathe. If you get the opportunity, you should definitely take it.

Both of the sleeping Dragon Slayers slowly arose from their nap as the smell of food reached their noses. After a couple minutes they stirred enough to speak, Sting released his hold on a pillow and sat up as he yawned, "Morning,".

He took a couple of sniffs as he looked for the source of the aroma. "What's that?" he pointed towards the bag's where the wonderful smell was coming from.

"Food!" The two cats yelled and jumped up, Frosch straight out of Lucy's arms, excitedly with watering mouths..

"Really?" Sting asked his leaping partner as he landed on the bed across from him.

"Yeah! Me and Natsu went out and got it" Lector said triumphantly with his hands on his hips in a heroic pose. "And you won't believe this! Did you think Natsu did a number on the arena?"

Sting shrugged, he hadn't seen anything outside since awakening in the infirmary, so he had no idea the state of the arena, "Maybe?"

Lector nodded a 'Yeah he did!' before continuing, "He destroyed an entire world called Edolas! How cool is that!?" As he spoke a malicious grin slowly grew on his face.

Natsu stumbled back before stammering, "N-no, I didn't!". He waved his hands in front of himself before pointing to the blond, "Lucy, Gray, and Erza helped! Plus, Gajeel and Wendy were there too,"