Dodging a Bullet

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.

July, x785.

After some time spent letting their emotions settle, Alfonzo, Elicia, Erza, and Marin were exploring the cave where the battle took place.

"What's up with all these animal bones?" Marin asked curiously as the quartet walked around the cave.

"I don't think these are just animal bones, Marin." Alfonzo said after putting his hands on one of the larger bones in the cave. "If I had to guess, these are dragon bones."

"Are you certain?" Erza asked, now looking at the bones with more interest.

"Not a hundred percent, but yea, I'm pretty sure." Alfonzo replied.

'Of course I'm a hundred percent sure these are dragon bones.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'This place looks identical to the place Gajeel found in the anime. But since I should have only ever seen one dragon, I have to act like I don't' know. *Sigh* I really hate lying to these girls. But speaking of Gajeel, I should probably bring the Dragon Slayers here to see this place before too long.'

"By the way." Elicia said while looking at the bones like the others. "We never saw that homunculus that was made from Org. What do you think happened to it?"

"Now that you mention it." Marin said, turning back to look at Elicia. "Do you think he's hiding somewhere around here and waiting to ambush us?"

"I doubt it." Erza replied while shaking her head. "If you remember the story Ultear told after her trip to Dublith, there was a homunculus named Greed there, too."

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with this?" Marin asked as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Yeah, it's not like they were the same person." Elicia added.

"How can you be so sure?" Erza asked. "For all we know, they really are the same person. Just without their memories."

Hearing that, Elicia and Marin stopped to think. While Marin was genuinely considering Erza's words, Elicia was surprised that Erza came up with the right answer.

'I mean, I already knew the two Greed's were the same because I watched FMA brotherhood and read the FMA manga.' Elicia thought to herself. 'But I doubt there had been enough time for Greed's memories to reawaken this time, though. Unless that little reptile chimera, whose name I can't remember, happened to find Greed already.'

"Either way, I don't think we need to worry about him. Not for now, anyway." Alfonzo said, bringing an end to this conversation. "Even if he was watching and waiting for a chance to do something, if he happened to see how easily we dealt with the others, I doubt he would try anything."

"I agree." Erza said with a nod. "We should just enjoy the day and celebrate our victory."

"Celebrate, huh?" Marin said with a smile. "I could think of some ways to celebrate after we get back to the hotel."

Hearing that, Elicia and Erza's eyes lit up. Then, their eyes fell on Alfonzo, who was smiling wryly.

"Not that I'm complaining, but I saw that coming from a mile away." Alfonzo said with a shrug.

"Now that things are going in that direction, I remember that you said you had a new idea of how to add your [Transformation Magic] into the fun, Marin." Erza said, her gaze shifting to Marin once again. "I believe it was after you were attacked by that female homunculus."

"Oh, now that you mention it…" Marin muttered as she twirled a lock of her hair around her right index finger. "I guess I forgot after Fonzie so ruthlessly rejected my seduction attempt."

As she spoke, Marin's contemplative expression morphed into a pout. Then, she turned her head away from Alfonzo because she was still curious about what kind of secret he was keeping.

"Are we really gonna open that can of worms again?" Alfonzo asked, his wry smile growing more pronounced.

"No, we're not." Elicia replied quickly while wrapping Marin in a hug. "Come on, Marin, you know Fonzie would never do anything to hurt any of us."

"Yeah, I know that." Marin said, pouting even harder. "But I'm so curious… I really wanna know!"

"You're so cute, Marin." Elicia squealed as she squeezed Marin even tighter.

"In any case, I believe after defeating the homunculus, this should make the moment special enough for you to reveal your new idea, should it not, Marin?" Erza asked.

"Yeah, I guess it does." Marin said, sounding a bit deflated. "I still wanna know what the surprise is, though."

"You'll find out soon enough, Marin." Alfonzo said as he started combing his fingers through Marin's hair.

"Anyway, let's get out of this dreary cave!" Elicia said excitedly as she started pulling Marin towards the cave Alfonzo and the others used to enter the Dragon Graveyard, excited to try something new in the bedroom. "We should go celebrate."

Seeing Elicia's excitement, Alfonzo could only shake his head with a wry smile. Meanwhile, Erza followed Elicia without a word, as she was also curious to find out what Marin's new idea was.

Eventually, Alfonzo was left standing alone as he took another look around the area.

"I should take some of these dragon bones." Alfonzo muttered to himself. "I can probably make something out of them. Besides, having a dragon specialized armor would be good for Erza when the dragons attack after the Grand Magic Games. If that even happens this time. I wonder what me and Lici's presence in this time line will do to Rogue's future."

"Come on, Fonzie!" Elicia shouted from the cave entrance. "What's taking so long?'

"I'm coming.!" Alfonzo shouted bac as he took one last look at all the dragon bones. "I'll come back here on my own one day and get some of the bones to experiment with later."

With that, Alfonzo jogged towards Elicia, Erza, and Marin as the four left the cave. Then, after two hours, the group of four e-entered the city. And when they did, they overheard many of the city's residents talking about the earthquakes that took place a couple of hours ago. However, the Fairy Tail wizards decided they would just go back to their hotel room without drawing too much attention to themselves.

To Alfonzo's, Elicia's, Erza's, and Marin's surprise, someone called out to them as they passed the Crocus train station.

"Lici? Alfonzo? Erza? Marin?" A familiar female voice called out in a disbelieving tone.

Turning to see who called them, Alfonzo and the girls saw Winry, Edward, and Alphonse exiting the train station with their luggage in hand.

"What are you guys doing here?' Winry asked curiously. "Don't tell me that quest you took was in Crocus."

"Winry, hi!" Elicia shouted energetically as she walked towards the group of three. "Yeah, there was a magical beast wreaking havoc nearby. So, we took the job to take it down."

Although that was not the real reason why Alfonzo, Elicia, Erza, and Marin came to Crocus, they did actually take a quest to subjugate an S-Class magical beast that was causing trouble in the mountains at the western-most edge of the city.

'Now that I think about it, wasn't the Domus Flau built around the area where that weird, bat-thing was acting up?' Alfonzo asked himself. 'But when we went over there, it hadn't been built yet. Maybe they wanted to start building over there. That's why the job for that thing's subjugation was posted. I guess the first Grand Magic Games will be on the way, soon.'

As Alfonzo surmised, after hearing about the Battle of Fairy Tail tournament, Toma thought it would be good to hold a team based magic festival to prove which guild was the strongest in Fiore. And he would have a large stadium built to house it in the near future.

However, when his people went to survey the area, to determine the best place to build the large stadium, they were attacked by a bat-type magical beast that no one had ever seen before.

At first, the kingdom sent in a squadron of Cherry Blossom Holy Knights to deal with the beast. Unfortunately, it proved too much for them to handle. So, in desperation, they commissioned a quest for the bat-type magical beast's subjugation. And that was the quest Alfonzo, Elicia, Erza, and Marin took as cover for their homunculus hunt.

"Really? There was a magical beast that strong in the city?" Winry asked in a shocked tone. "But how does something like that get into the city?"

"If I had to guess, it had been in those mountains for a longtime." Erza replied. "But since no one bothered it, it never showed itself. But when the kingdom surveyed the area for their new project, they most-likely disturbed it."

"Oh, I think I get it." Winry replied.

Meanwhile, Edward and Alphonse were looking at the group of four Fairy Tail wizards skeptically. After seeing them train for nearly a week, they had some idea of how strong the four in front of them were. So, they knew there was no point in all of them taking the quest to subdue a single S-Class magical beast together.

"Something about this seems fishy, Al." Edward whispered.

"Yeah." Alphonse replied in a whisper, as well. "Do you think they're here for the homunculi?"

"Probably." Edward answered. "But at the same time, they look too relaxed for that. I mean, do you remember the look on Alfonzo's face when he told us what they planned to do with the homunculi?"

"Yeah, he looked kinda unhinged." Alphonse replied. "Like he would have no problem destroying the whole city if it meant he could get rid of them."

"Exactly." Edward said. "But look at them now… They all look like a burden has been lifted off their shoulders. Especially Alfonzo, Lici, and Erza."

"Do you think they already fought them?" Alphonse asked.

"Who knows. But---" Edward replied before stopping when he heard the conversation of some nearby citizens.

"Hey, honey, I'm back." A man, appearing to be in his early thirties, said as he approached a pretty woman looking to be in her late twenties. "Man, that train ride was so long, I'm exhausted."

"Well, it's a good thing you didn't come back earlier." The pretty woman said with a smile. "About two and a half hours ago, the whole city was shaking. I think there was an earthquake."

"An earthquake, really?" The man asked in a surprised tone. "But I've never heard of an earthquake hitting Crocus before."

"Are you saying I'm lying?" The pretty woman asked, her tone sharpening as she did so.

"No, of course not, Honey.!" The man explained frantically. "I was just surprised that there was an earthquake here."

Overhearing that conversation, Edward and Alphonse exchanged glances. Then, they turned their attention back to Winry and the Fairy Tail wizards. And when they did, they happened to meet eyes with Alfonzo, who was smirking at them.

'They really did go take care of the homunculi.' Edward and Alphonse thought simultaneously.

'But I thought they said there was a good chance that a large part of the city would be destroyed.' Alphonse thought as he looked around the area. 'But from what I can see, there are no damaged buildings anywhere. On top of that, the people aren't even talking about a battle.'

'He tricked us.' Edward said to himself while gritting his teeth. 'He told us how dangerous it would be so we wouldn't try to get in the way of his revenge. And since we had seen him fight that Laxus guy earlier in the day, we believed him. Damn, he played us.'

As soon as Edward had that thought, Alfonzo's smirk widened into a full-blown, mischievous smile.

"So, do you guys wanna join us?" Elicia asked cheerfully. "We were just about to go have dinner before turning in our quest."

Instead of answering immediately, Winry turned back to seek Edward and Alphonse's opinion. After receiving a nod from Alphonse and an uncaring shrug from Edward, she turned back to Elicia with a smile.

"Sure." Winry said happily. "We'd love to."

With that, Alfonzo, Elicia, and the others made their way to the same restaurant, Sixth Sense Restaurant and Lounge, where Alfonzo and Elicia had dinner with Darkness before the execution.

When the group of seven arrived at the restaurant, they were surprised to see a pair of male knights with resigned looks on their faces carrying an unconscious, blonde, female knight, with a sloppy smile and an excited blush, out of the restaurant.

Seeing that spectacle, Winry was completely flabbergasted. Edward and Alphonse, who were part of and worked with the kingdom's military, respectively, had the same thought.

'So, that was the infamous Lady Dustiness, huh?' Edward and Alphonse thought to themselves as they watched the knights carry away their captain.

Meanwhile, Erza and Marin, after seeing Darkness being carried away, wiped a bead of sweat from their brows while thinking that they just dodged a bullet. Alfonzo and Elicia, on the other hand, had blank, distant gazes as they remembered their meal with Darkness in this very restaurant.

"Why does it look like no one is trying to help that woman who's being carried away by those men?" Winry asked in a concerned tone. "Instead, it looks like they've seen this happen too many times before."

"You really shouldn't worry about her, Winry." Edward said with a wry smile. "There are some rather weird rumors about her floating around the military. And she's got quite the… unique… personality. Trust me, she'll be fine."

"Really, like what?" Winry asked, her concerned tone turning into one filled with curiosity.

"We'll tell you about it after dinner." Alphonse chimed in. "Trust me, you really don't wanna hear about it while you're eating."

At the same time, Erza and Marin noticed the strange state Alfonzo and Elicia were in.

"Fonzie, Lici, are you two, okay?" Marin asked.

With Marin's question, Alfonzo and Elicia snapped back to their senses. Then, they exchanged glances before answering Marin's question.

"Yeah, we're fine." Alfonzo replied with a wry smile.

"That scene just reminded us of our last trip to Crocus." Elicia added.

"Ah, yes." Erza said. "If I'm not mistaken, something---"

Before Erza could finish, however, Elicia stepped forward and placed a finger on Erza's lips.

"Let's not talk about that right now, okay?" Elicia said with a wry smile. "It will ruin the mood."

In response, Erza nodded her head. Then, Elicia removed her finger from her lips.

"Anyway, let's go inside." Alfonzo said as he approached the restaurant's door. "The food here is great, and I'm starving."

Like that, the group of seven booked a table and enjoyed a nice dinner together while Elicia and Marin told Winry about the magical beast subjugation quest. Meanwhile, Edward glared at Alfonzo for being tricked.