Laxus's POV

"I am never going to use that carriage service ever again! What complete idiots," Evergreen fumed as she stomped behind me on the forest path that would lead us to Crocus. I was used to walking everywhere I went, so I didn't think having the carriage throwing a wheel halfway through our trip was that big of a deal, but Ever liked her luxuries.

"You could fly if you are feeling tired, Ever," Freed said logically. Ever tsked in annoyance, proving that she had just been complaining to complain as usual.

"If you'd asked Elfman to come with us, I bet he would have carried you," Bickslow teased, sticking his tongue out as far as it would go to show off his fairy tail insignia and also to just annoy Ever.

"What does Elfman have to do with anything?" Ever asked, looking both affronted and slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, please. Don't tell us you don't have feelings for him after everything that's happened," Freed said with a world-weary sigh, as if he found Ever's denial tiring. Ever sputtered in speechlessness for several seconds before she growled. Glancing over my shoulder I saw her point an accusing finger towards Freed.

"Like you're one to talk! I've seen you ogling Mirajane," she said with a slightly devious look. This was news to me, and normally I didn't partake in my friends' squabbling but I had to admit, I was a little curious to see how Freed would react.

"Wh-what? You don't know what you're talking about, Ever. The only one who could possibly deserve someone as high a caliber as Mirajane would be our Laxus," Freed said, giving me one of his usual worship-filled expressions, but I could see a slight hesitation in the back of his eyes as he looked at me.

"Hey, don't bring me into this. Mirajane's not my type," I said, waving one of my hands in a gesture of dismissal. Both Freed and Ever's eyes filled with surprise at this and Freed gave me a confused look.

"But... you two have always been close..." Freed said, his voice getting a little more unsure as he trailed off.

"Sure, Mira is like a sister to me. But I don't have any interest in her romantically, so don't try to wimp out of asking her out just because you think we should be together," I said while quirking one of my eyebrows at him over my shoulder. Freed's cheeks colored slightly and he looked away from me, prompting Ever to begin teasing him mercilessly. I turned my attention to Bickslow, who was watching the two as if he'd never seen anything more entertaining.

"If Ever and Freed do end up with Elfman and Mira, then I guess that leaves you with Lisanna. Then all of my Raijinshuu would be dating one of the Strauss siblings," I said with a teasing smirk. Bickslow looked at me with surprise and then laughed.

"Yah right. A cute girl like Lisanna couldn't handle all of this," Bickslow said with his characteristic tongue sticking out as he spoke. I shrugged, not caring enough to pursue the subject.

A familiar, distressed yell reached my ears and I frowned. Glancing around and then up, my eyes finally fell onto the familiar pink hair of Natsu Dragneel. I watched in confusion for a few seconds as Natsu continued to tumble down from the sky, flipping end over end in an uncontrolled freefall.

Before I could even think of what to do though, something shimmering burst into existence right below Natsu's falling body. The shimmer was shaped loosely like a C and Natsu's body hit it perfectly, rolling down and then popping out. Now instead of falling straight towards the ground he was falling kind of sideways. I continued to watch and another angled shimmer popped into existence, halting his sideways trajectory and causing him to roll down at a more gentle angle towards the ground. This continued to happen until he finally fell on his back onto the ground with a small whump.

"What in the world?" Ever breathed out in confusion.

Ignoring her comment, I turned my attention back up to the sky. I was only slightly surprised to see another figure falling through the sky behind Natsu. It was obvious that this person was the one who created the shimmering walls because they were using them to create angled platforms for themself. I watched in fascination as the person created the platforms at a gentle enough engle to not break their legs when they hit it, but enough of an angle that they could push off from it and flip through the air until they got to the next platform.

I watched as the person, who appeared to be female as she got closer, continued to flip in a controlled manner from one shimmering platform to the other until she did a backflip and landed on the ground in front of Natsu. She was dressed from head to toe in black and her black hair was tied back in a braid that was then wrapped in a bun at the back of her head. Probably because of her fall from the sky, it seemed that the normally disciplined hairstyle had gotten quite disheveled, and I had to admit that it was kind of attractive.

The woman obviously hadn't noticed us because she walked over to Natsu and gently nudged him with her toe. A feeling of protectiveness rose up in me and I took a step forward, clearing my throat loudly. I was impressed when the girl whirled around instantly, dropping into a defensive position and holding out her hands in an easy fighting stance while her fists began to glow a bright yellow color. She had positioned herself to defend Natsu though, so I relaxed from my intimidating full height and gave her a small nod.

"Natsu is our guildmate," I said without preamble. The girl narrowed her ice-blue eyes at me and she swept them behind me, apparently taking in my friends and their more obvious Fairy Tail emblems. After a few seconds, the lights surrounding her fists dimmed and she stood up to her full height, which I guessed was around 5'8". She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a familiar, high-pitched voice interrupted her.

"NATSU!! Are you okay?" Craning my neck, I looked up to see that Happy was carrying Lucy swiftly through the air. Shararu was holding Wendy and flying right behind them and Erza was in one of her armor outfits that had false wings that allowed her the temporary ability to glide on the wind and she had her arms looped around Gray. Moving my gaze back to the mysterious woman I noticed with interest that her shoulders relaxed for a moment at the sight of Natsu's other team members, but then she stiffened once more and turned away from me and the Raijinshuu.

"Phaedra-san!" The woman halted immediately as she stepped over Natsu, who had begun to giggle crazily as if his mind was still spinning in circles. Slowly she turned and looked up at Wendy, who apparently had called out her name.

Phaedra, huh? That's a unique name, I thought to myself as everyone touched down. Lucy and Happy immediately went to Natsu, who still seemed pretty brain-addled, while the other three looked between Phaedra and me.

"Laxus? What are you doing here?" Erza asked in surprise. I shrugged, shifting the heavy coat draped over my shoulders a little bit.

"We're on our way to a job. Who is your friend? A new member?" I asked as Ever, Bickslow, and Freed all walked out from behind me and greeted Team Natsu easily.

I remembered back to when we four had caused a huge scene at Fairy Tail because I had gotten in my head too much and felt like I needed to prove my strength to my Grandpa, the current Master of Fairy Tail. I had worried that my friends, who called themselves the Raijinshuu, would be ostracized because of my actions, but instead, everyone had forgiven all of us and I had eventually been reinstated as a Fairy Tail member.

"No, not yet anyway," Erza said with a curious look over at Phaedra, who was smiling slightly down at Wendy and Shararu as they spun around her looking for any injuries. "Master allowed her to choose one of our jobs and she ended up picking one that Wendy had wanted, so she invited us to join her."

"Master allowed a non-guild member to take one of our job postings?" Freed asked, sounding shocked. Honestly, that didn't surprise me so much; the old man was always doing unorthodox things after all. But I was intrigued as to why she would have asked to take one of our jobs instead of just joining the guild. Fairy Tail accepted anyone who asked to join after all.

"Wait up, Phaedra-san! Don't you want to meet Laxus and the Raijinshuu?"

My eyes drifted up past Erza's shoulder to see that Phaedra was once again trying to escape. I couldn't help but be amused when Phaedra simply shook her head in response to Wendy's question and continued to walk down the path without looking back.

Anti-social, huh? I can respect that, I thought silently. Wendy scurried after her, holding onto one of her arms and talking to her too quietly for me to hear anymore.

"Forgive her, she doesn't seem to enjoy meeting new people," Erza said as she watched the exchange.

"Hmph, who wouldn't want to meet us?" Ever grumbled, her pride obviously having taken a small hit.

"It was pretty cool how she stopped Natsu from splatting on the ground. What kind of magic does she use?" Bickslow asked as his white-magic powered wooden dolls floated around him, repeating snippets of his sentences.

"Some form of light magic. She seems to avoid using it whenever she can though, so I'm not sure exactly what her skills are," Erza admitted with a curious expression as we both watched Phaedra pull her arm gently out of Wendy's grip.

"Laxus! Fight me!" I blinked slowly as Natsu suddenly jumped to his feet. I watched as he stepped towards me, calling flames to his fist, but as he swung he lost his balance and crashed to his side with a woozy groan.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried in shock and a small amount of annoyance as she went over to him and sighed as he wiggled helplessly on the ground.

"He was spinning like crazy when he fell, he's probably still dizzy," Freed commented, going over and inspecting Natsu with a calculating expression.

"Poor Natsu-san. Let me help you," Wendy said, walking over and placing her lightly glowing hands on the side of Natsu's face. Glancing back over at Phaedra, I saw her standing several feet down the trail with her arms crossed, observing Wendy silently.

"So, what's the job you're doing?" Gray asked, directing his question to Bickslow as we waited for Wendy's spell to kick in and help Natsu get back to normal.

"Apparently there is a Duke who lives in a city a few days from Crocus that has been acting like a real jerk to his people. The job asked us to come and knock some sense into him," Bickslow explained with an excited grin. Erza blinked in surprise and turned to look at me.

"I thought you disliked political squabbles," Erza commented. I shrugged in response and nodded towards Freed, who was watching Wendy carefully as she worked on Natsu.

"It was Freed's turn to pick a job," I said in way of explanation.

"We're headed to Crocus too, so why don't we all travel together?" Lucy suggested as Natsu suddenly sat up with a loud sigh of relief.

"Phew! Oy, Happy. Why didn't you catch me?" Natsu asked with a disillusioned frown. Happy jerked back with a shocked expression, then his eyes filled with tears. I watched in surprise as he ran over to Phaedra and grabbed onto her leg, causing her to take a step back with a surprised expression of her own.

"I did try to catch him! You saw me right, Phaedra?!" Happy cried with a loud, blubbering voice. Phaedra glanced between Happy and Natsu. A small chill went through me as Phaedra's icy blue eyes narrowed angrily at Natsu, causing him to stiffen slightly at the threatening glare.

"Don't be mean to Happy, Natsu. He crashed into a rock while trying to catch you," Phaedra said, her voice quiet but with a hard edge to it. For some reason, her voice didn't match what I had been expecting. It was mellow and seemed to flow as she stretched out her vowels more than normal, but it had an intensity to it that was made even more prominent thanks to her hard glare.

"Phaedra!" Happy sniffled, hugging her leg tightly and crying piteously. Natsu grimaced, looking slightly abashed before he mumbled an apology to Happy. Slowly Phaedra bent down so she could stroke Happy's ears hesitantly. He let go and she gave him a small smile before standing and beginning to walk down the forest path.

"Wait, Phaedra-san!" Wendy called after her. She sketched a quick bow to me and my friends before turning and jogging after Phaedra and Happy. Natsu grumbled but followed after them as well, prompting Lucy and Gray to fall into step with him.

"Would you like to join us?" Erza asked, looking between me and the Raijinshuu.

"Hmph. It's not like we have much of a choice," Ever complained, glaring after Phaedra's retreating back. I nodded silently in agreement and we all began following after the other members of Team Natsu.

My mind wandered slightly as Erza started an easy conversation with Freed and Ever. In my mind's eye, I watched Phaedra use her magic to slow Natsu's fall so he wouldn't die on impact with the ground. Then I went over how she had immediately put herself in between him and me as if she were prepared to defend him with her life if she had to. But then when Happy had turned his waterworks on her she had acted like she hated Natsu.

I wonder what her story is, I thought to myself as we walked. The strangest thing about the girl was that I could feel almost no magical energy coming from her. However, seeing her create those platforms and her hands glowing as she looked at me without any trace of fear, it was obvious she was a skilled mage. A small surge of excitement passed through me like an electric current and I wondered if Natsu and his team had just stumbled onto someone who might be worth calling a rival.

A/N Man, I am really not confident I am doing Laxus justice. If you have any pointers or constructive criticism please let me know!