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Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?

Beta Reader: volfwildman

(Thief's POV)

Everything was ready. I had easily passed through the magical barrier that surrounded the property and escaped the notice of the stupid guards. All I had to do now was found the painting in one of these rooms and take with me and I would be set for life.

I made little noise as I crept through the mansion. Really this was far too easy. The idiot of a businessman that owned this place really should not have advertised that he had the priceless 'Lady of Mystery' painting in his home. Oh well, his loss is my gain.

That said I couldn't help the feeling in my gut right now. Like I was being watched but didn't see the one who was doing it. But that was stupid, I was a master of stealth and if someone was watching me, I would have known.

Just as I finished sweeping yet another room I stopped. A cold shiver went down my spine and I felt incredibly uneasy. Why? There was nothing here!

Before I could move though I heard it. A light chuckle in the air. Someone was here and they were laughing? I searched around me and found nothing, the chuckling had stopped at this point. Maybe I should ignore it and just move one.

"What you are doing there!" Said an incredibly nasally and high pitch voice from behind me. I spun around while pulling out my knife but when I looked nothing was behind me. 'What the hell' I thought as I looked around but still saw nothing. 'Goddammit, I need to find that painting and get out of here!'

With that thought and I turned to make my way to the next room but froze. Ahead of me at the end of the hallway was a clown. He was dressed in an old-looking gray jester's outfit; his hair was red and blown up into three points and his face was completely white with a red painted smile going from his lips passed his eyes and stopping on the sides of his forehead along with bright yellow eyes.

"What are you doing there? Playing Hide and Seek?" His voice was the same one I heard behind me seconds ago, it was very playful but had an edge to it I couldn't quite identify. I shook my head as I try and clear my thoughts and spoke to the weird clown.

"Ummm ya! Hide and Seek that what I'm doing here." I give the clown a nice smile as I get ready to rush and stab him but before I could he spoke. "Ohh that sounds like so much fun! Let's play it together!" I just found myself dumbly nodding at his words, too dumbfounded to really react.

"Well then I'll seek and you can hide! I'll count to ten and come find you! Now…HIDE."

What came next, I will never forget.

The Clown's goofy smile turn sinister as it widened and widened. Flesh gave way to a maw of razor-sharp teeth as his playful look turned into one of hunger.

"ONE"

Is voice being utterly demonic. Echoing and deep that it caused goosebumps all down my back.

"TWO"

I turned and ran as fast as I could. I didn't even care about making noise at this point. I just need to get out of here and away from that thing!

"THREE"

I came to a four-sided room. Each wall had a hall leading to it. I came from one and now had the choice of three different halls to escape into.

"FOUR"

Fuck! Ok, which one! Which one!

"FIVE"

Fuuuuuck! Ok, the one the right then.

"SIX"

I dash down the hall and turn the corner only to find a dead-end waiting for me.

"SEVEN"

FUCK WHY! What now!

"EIGHT"

I quickly start looking around for a way out. There! Just by the corner, I had passed a door.

"NINE"

I quickly move to the door and open it before frantically heading in and closing the door behind me.

"TEN. READY OR NOT. HERE I COME!"

I slowed my breathing as back up into the middle of the room. I do everything I can to make no noise. Pushing all my stealth skills to their limits as I stare at the door that leads into the room. Just waiting for It to come in.

After a few seconds of silence, I decided to look around the room, hoping there was a window to jump through or at least somewhere in here to hide. Just as I start looking, I stop. My eyes are frozen on a painting on one of the walls of the room. It was of a lady sitting on a chair. She was rather beautiful and had a mysterious smile on her face.

The Lady of Mystery. The reason I was here.

I couldn't help the smile that overcame my face as I stared at the thing that would make my life full of money. I move forward quietly as I reach out with my hands. All I had to do was take this painting and escape.

Just as I was about to take hold of the painting I stopped. Had...had she always been staring at me? I found her eyes locked onto me, eyes that were yellow despite being blue just a few seconds ago.

Before my very eyes, the smile on lady curved upwards. No longer kind and mysterious, now just cruel and dark. That smile soon split her face and revealed rows upon rows of sharp teeth. I quickly found myself backing away as the lady seems to stretch herself out of the painting.

The sides of the painting still clung onto her but she kept moving forward slowly as she reached out with her pointed fingers to me. I frantically look around but found no doors. The one I came in from seemed to have vanished completely. I soon found myself up against a wall as the lady fought against the clinging and stretching wall to get to me.

I found my hopes getting up when she seemed to get to a point where she couldn't move forward anymore. I let out a laugh as she fruitlessly clawed at me only to fall a foot or two shorts.

But before I could do anything, I felt something grab my wrist. I slowly looked down and saw a small child's hand stretching through the wall and grabbing my left wrist. Before I could react dozens upon dozens of hands stretched out from the wall and grab ahold of me.

As they start pulling me into the wall, I try my best to get free only to find my body refusing to listen to me. I couldn't even scream as my voice refused to say anything but letting out a low whimper as I sank further and further into the wall. As I was just about fully absorbed into the wall all I can do is look in horror at the viciously smile painting lady.

Before long, my vision was covered and I found myself suffocating. Slowly my mind starts to fade as I was slowly fading from consciousness. And just as I went, I heard one last thing. Three words.

"I FOUND YOU."

(Bishop's POV)

I let out a tired yawn as I stare out the train window. I had gotten up rather early this morning so I could get back to the guild as soon as possible. I had just spent the last two days on a mission. Some wealthy businessmen made the mistake of telling some people about a priceless painting he had. To be fair the guy instantly realized his mistake and started to get the painting moved to a safer location.

I was hired to watch over the painting for two days while everything was getting ready. Nothing had really happened; the only excitement was a thief who broke last night but he had been dealt with rather easily. And now I was on the first train in the morning heading back to the guild with a decent number of Jewels in pocket.

If I was right then Natsu and Lucy should be done with all their little questing and Erza would be back soon. Then I could get the little dark guild arc over with and move on to bigger fish.

It only took an hour for the train to get to Magnolia and then only a few minutes for me to get to the guildhall. Upon walking in, I was greeted by several of the members which I made a point to return the greetings with short and quick replies.

"You done with that job?" Asked a chipper Mira. "Ya, wasn't very interesting but money is money. You are looking a bit too happy right now. What happened?" Mira let out a little giggle at my words as her smile gain a sharper edge to it.

"Oh, nothing. Just finished up some fun little things this morning. Got some milk, pet some cute dogs, messed up a few people who really need to pay off their tabs. The master is at that guild conference so I had to do all of it. It's been a fun day." I simply roll my eyes at Mira's words as I finish up the job report. Her words would have usually made most guild members squirm in their seats, much to the bar maid's enjoyment, but I was far too used to her at this point.

I gave her the report and made to get up and leave before she stopped me. "You should stay in the guild for now. Erza sent word that she be back today and she wants to talk to you and your other sibling about something." I nodded to what she said and got up and looked around the guild.

I found what I was looking for in the form of Natsu, Gray, and Lucy sitting by the corner table I used. I as I made my way over there, I noted that Lucy and Gray seemed to be in a very active conversion while Natsu sat to the side of them looking bored with Happy next to him eating some fish.

Upon getting near them Natsu seemed to notice me and perked up. "Hey, Big Bro! Over here!" I decide to not state the fact I was already making my way over to him and just finish up the little trip by sitting next to them.

"How was your job Bro?" I just shrug my shoulders at his questions. "Nothing special. You go on any jobs recently?" Natsu let a grin split his face as he nodded his head. "Ya! Me and Lucy have done a few. Trying to help show her the ropes and all. Help Macao with a job and then went on a little job for a book. It was fun, Lucy even got a key out of it!"

I turn to said girl with a raised eyebrow. Lucy seemed to take a break from her conversation with Gray, which seemed to be about Gray's art and Lucy's writing and pull out a gold key from her pocket. "I'm a Celestial Wizard so I use keys to summon Celestial Spirits to fight with me. I ended up getting the key of Virgo in the last job. Now I have four golden keys!"

She said the last part rather happily. I let out a little hum at her words before turning back to Natsu. "Were you told to wait here too for Erza?" Natsu nodded his head, "Ya. Don't know what Big Sis wants but she wanted me, you, Gray and Pokerface to be her for something."

Natsu looked like he was about to say something else before he was stopped by someone else speaking. "Ya, what Lizard breath said. Little Sis needs us for something. Don't know what but I hope it's fun." Said a grinning Cana as she sat down beside me. Natsu grumbled under his breath an insult but Cana just seemed to ignore it.

"What say we play a game while we wait?" Natsu, Happy, Gray and even Lucy agreed to the game but I declined and instead opted to pull out a novel from my hammerspace and pass the time by reading instead of fueling Cana's gaming addiction.

We spent about an hour waiting with the card game becoming increasingly violent as both Cana and Natsu kept upping and upping the stakes and punishments for losing. Just as Natsu was about to shout something we started hearing loud footsteps get closer. Eventually, with a boom, the door to the guild swung open revealing Erza carrying a rather large and decorated horn.

She got several greetings which she quickly returned before swiftly finish up her job report and making her way over to us. "What's with the horn Erza?" Erza took a moment to set the large thing on the tables, which somehow didn't break under the horn's weight, before turning to me and speaking.

"It's from a monster I defeated on my job. The villagers decide to decorate it and give it to me. I graciously accepted." She tried to say all this with an air of poise but it was quickly ruined by what I said next. "You didn't know how to politely decline it did you?" I said with a deadpan face.

Erza look of elegance deflated as she slumped into one of the chairs at the table. "Ya, I didn't want to offend them. What am I going to do with a giant horn?!" Erza grumbled this out much to the rest of our amusement, even Lucy, who up until now was looking at Erza in slight fear, let out a little chuckle at Erza's words. A strong and powerful mage Ezra was but she was by no means an adept when it came to social interaction. It would be sad if it wasn't rather fun to watch.

Erza ended up shaking her head before putting on a serious look. "I need all of your help. Something bad is about to happen and I need help to prevent it." Things turned serious at her words, we all knew that Erza wouldn't e saying this if it wasn't a serious thing. Pretty much everyone nodded and agreed beside Lucy who awkwardly raised her hand and spoke. "Does that include me?"

Erza looked briefly surprised at seeing the blonde, she must have not noticed her before now. "And you are?" At Erza question Lucy perked up before speaking, "Lucy Heartfila. New Fairy Tail guild member. Natsu been showing me around and helping me."

Erza nodded her head in understanding and briefly gave a proud look to her younger brother, who looked just as happy to get said look, before looking back at the Celestial mage. "I don't see a problem with that. If you think you can help then please come. It would be very appreciated."

Lucy smiled and nodded her head to Erza's words, clearly happy to be helping. "When do we leave then?" Asked Cana as she reorganized and put up her cards.

"Now" was Erza's response.

When Erza said now she had truly meant it. Less than ten minutes later all of us were on a train heading out. We sat in a train car alone as this was the car that was reserved for guild mages to ride in, away from regular non-magic people.

"When is this train going to start moving? It's been like five minutes since it was supposed to go." Said an annoyed Lucy as she looked out the window. "It is moving. I just have an illusion over it to make it appear to not be. Natsu's motion sickness doesn't act up with the illusion up." I inform her as I continue to read my novel from before, waiting for an explanation from Erza.

Lucy gave me a look of surprise before looking over at the rather happy looking Natsu and nodded in understanding. "So, you're an Illusionist then?" Said the blond as she turned back to me. I nodded my head and what to see her response, it had been a while since I had someone insult me for my magic and I had no idea what Lucy would say my illusions.

Lucy however simply just smiled, "That's neat. Sounds useful." I blink in surprise at her words before simply going back to my novel. At least I didn't have to put up with any annoying magic superiority bullshit from her.

"Ok then. I'm sure you're all wondering why I asked you to come with me." At her words, most of us nodded our heads. "Well on my way back from my job I stopped to get something to eat. During that time, I overheard a group talking about something called Lullaby. Shortly after they left, I realized they had mentioned the name Erigor, who I remembered was the ace of the Dark Guild Eisenwald. They were a legal guild that specializes in assassination jobs until said assassinations were made illegal but the guild decided to keep doing them as a dark guild."

Everyone mumbled out replies as they milled over the info, "Does anyone know what this Lullaby is? What about you Bish? You're usually knowledgeable about magic lore." At Cana's words, I promptly put up my novel, she was right I had spent a fair amount of time looking into the history of Earthland and magic in general.

"If I remember correctly Lullaby is the name of a dark artifact. It was originally just some magic flute used in dark rituals but then Zeref got ahold of it and turned the thing into a demon flute. Supposedly if anyone hears the flute being played then they die." When I got down talking the other looked at me in disbelief.

"What would they do with something like that!?" Gray almost yelled. I shrug in response, "Don't know but it can't be anything good." After that, we sat in silence for a bit as everyone contemplated the stakes of the mission. Not too long after we finished talking, we heard a train whistle that signaled that we were arriving at a stop, the one where we should be getting off at.

Once the train came to a complete stop, I took down the illusion to reveal the city we had arrived in. Everyone started to filter out but before I could follow and get off the train Lucy stopped me.

"Hey, can I speak to you in private for a second?" I raised an eyebrow at her question but I did nod. When the others were out of the car Lucy spoke up. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry." At this point, my other eyebrow decides to join the first on the top of my face, "Sorry for what?"

Lucy looked to the side embarrassed before looking back to me, "I kinda thought you were creepy and weirdo when I first met you. But I asked around the guild and it just seems like you're a bit off but still a very respected person and it made me feel bad about thinking of you. Your nice when you're with your siblings. I'm just sorry about judging you so soon."

I was surprised when she said I was respected, I know I was on better relations with the other guild members now but I didn't think that they really respected me or anything. That was kinda nice to know.

I simply idly wave my hand at her words, "It's fine. Not like you said anything bad about me to my face. You're free to think what you want." Lucy smiled at my words for second before looking a bit sheepishly as she spoke up, "Still creepy though. Sorry, you're just a rather unnerving person." I just shrug at her words, she wasn't wrong.

Just as we finished up though we heard a whistle again and the train started moving, "Damn we took too long." I said as I start to move to where the emergency stop was, "Wait! Should we really pull that just to get off?"

I turn back to hear and speak, "We're mages on a mission to stop a Dark guild with a weapon that kills on mass. We shouldn't get in trouble for pulling it if we have a valid reason like that." Lucy seemed convinced by my words as she nodded her head to them.

Just as I turned around though someone entered the car from the side I was heading to. He wore a white collared shirt and a red undershirt with some blue pants. He had black hair that was tied into a spiky ponytail. On top of this, he had a rather arrogant smile on his face as he looked at me and Lucy.

"Well, well, well what do we have here?" he spoke while looking over at Lucy, to be more specific he looked at the guild symbol on her hand, "Some legal guild kitties. If it isn't my lucky day."

With a flare of magic shadows seemed to pull themselves from the floor and lazy wave around him, give the mage a dark aura, "How about we have some fun?"

AN: And so we begin canon. Decided to skip the Macao arc since I feel like that was just a little intro arc to show us, and Lucy, what the Fairy Tail guild is all about and wasn't all that important. Bishop just did that job from the beginning to pass time and then we went straight into Lullaby. Lullaby won't be taking long since it's not that big or important but I feel like it would be a good way of showing changes and how Bishop compares in canon.

Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. Once again thanks for all the reviews and for this chapter's shoutout, 0evomel for his review. good to see people from the beginning have stuck around and not gotten bored of this story.

Gather round little reader and let me tell you the tale of the undead fanfic author. He write atrocity after atrocity until people banded together and burned him at the stake. But his will to write was too great and he rose from the ashes as a zombie of ash and cringe. they say that if you see him he will show you a story of such horror that you'll die on the spot! The only way to defend against this fiend is to leave reviews on a good story. It weakens his power, now go and give reviews so that we can end this undead menace!

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