Personal

I left the bar hugging Natsu's blood soaked scarf close to my chest. I would wash it before I gave the precious cloth back to him. Then he would be happy.

Gajeel and I were one step closer to bringing him home. My body hummed with barely concealed excitement at the thought of seeing him again. I couldn't wait. Couldn't wait to hold him.
Couldn't wait to see his warm smile.
Couldn't wait to hear his happy voice.
Couldn't wait to tell him how much I loved him.

Gajeel, who had been leaning on the brick wall next to the door, kicked off and came towards me.
"I heard yellin' and crashin' in there. I thought ya said this was gonna be quiet and easy." I cocked my head to the side, "When is it ever like that?"

He crossed his scarred arms over his chest, "You have a point there." His crimson eyes landed on the scarf that I held in my hands. He pointed at it, "Salamander's real scarf?" I nodded, "At least this trip wasn't a total waste." I muttered while walking off. "Did ya get anymore useful info?" Gajeel said, easily keeping pace with his long legged stride.

"Yes. I have found out where the man that works closely with the Dark Wizard Master is." Gajeel smirked, "Finally, I was startin' to get bored." I smiled and scoffed at him. Leave it to the Iron Dragon Slayer to call a rescue mission boring.
We were almost out of the parking lot when Gajeel laid his large hand on my shoulder to halt me.

"What is it?" I murmured as I craned my neck to look up at him. His stilted eyes had darted to the left where they laid rest on a darkened alley way. "Gajeel, what is it?" My blood was starting to sing in preparation for a battle. Without taking his eyes off the alleyway, he grunted out, "Someone's watching us."

That was the only warning I received.

Black tendrils of smoke shot out of the alley way and came straight for the two of us. Gajeel dodged to the left while I stood my ground. I watched the black tendrils get closer and closer to me with a calm expression on my face. "Freya! Move dammit!" I heard my Guild Member yell. I bent my head down and I smiled. I moved my head a fraction to the right and the tendrils raced passed.

I slowly lifted my head, cracked my neck, and stared into the darkness of the alley way. "Oi, you better come out of there and show yourself." I called out as my now glowing eyes bore into the darkness. "I would hate to send Gajeel in there after you." Gajeel did his signature laugh as he took a threatening step forward.

We didn't have to wait long.

A person emerged from the shadows and slowly walked toward us. It was a man from what I could tell. He was wearing a hood over his head and a brown cloak. Shielding his facial features from my view. I could sense powerful Magic radiating off of him in waves. However, his Magic seemed...off somehow. "Who are you?" I yelled out to him as I got into a defense stance.

"Tch, who cares, he chucked his Magic at me," Gajeel growled out with an annoyed look on his face. "I wanna pound 'em." I chuckled as I spared a glance at the tensed up Slayer, "Hold on, Gajeel. I want to know who he is," I turned my gaze back to the unidentified man. "Then you can have your fun." Gajeel smiled.

The cloaked Mage didn't move or say anything as he watched us from underneath his brown hood. He just stood there staring at us. At my side, Gajeel's body stiffened even more, "Little Fairy, I have a bad feelin' about this guy."

I blinked slowly, "He is very powerful. I can feel his Magic from here." This worried me a little. Sure, with Gajeel at my side, we were almost unstoppable. However, that didn't mean that we wouldn't walk away with some injuries.

This Magic that the man before me held felt familiar somehow. I took a breath before I closed my eyes to drink it in. I've felt this Magic before... But where?My eyes snapped open and I flew towards him.

I remember.

I lashed out and punched him square in the jaw enough to snap his jaw in half. He didn't move. I dropped low and kicked out. My foot connected with his stomach. Nothing. The man never once made a sound or moved. It was like...he was immune to pain.

"Freya!" Gajeel shouted out a warning. Quicker than I could track the man brought his hand up and slapped me across the face. I flew to the side with a choked cry and rolled across the dirt filled ground. When I stopped rolling I found that I had ended up a few feet away on my back. I lay there, staring up at the grey sky, watching the snow fall toward me lazily, as I lay frozen in shock.

What the hell?

That thought kept rolling around in my mind as I turned my head to see what was going on. Gajeel had already started to attack. He brought up his fist, which now was made out of iron, and brought his fist up. The man simply deflected the blow with his bare hand. I slowly got up and with a quick in take of breath shot forward. I grabbed Gajeel by his arm and with difficulty I managed to yank him back.

Away from the man and his devastatingly powerful Magic.

"What the hell, Freya! What are ya doin'!?" The Dragon Slayer yelled back at me. I was still gripping his arm when I said, "I don't want you to get hurt."

I couldn't loose another friend or let them get hurt because of me. I just...couldn't.

I stepped around Gajeel, much to his protest, and faced the man dead on. One side of my lips tipped up in a smile as I eyed him with hate.
"Me and you have an unresolved issue."

I clenched my teeth together and growled, "Your the bastard who killed Natsu Dragneel...or so I thought." My voice was deadly calm as I said those words. I slowly reached up to my throat and grabbed my necklace. Gajeel shifted beside me and I put an arm in front of him to stop him from going forward. "I got this, Gajeel."

"Hell no, Little Fairy. I ain't gonna let ya fight that guy alone." I glanced up at him and grinned, "Glad you care." Gajeel made a face at me that made me grin become bigger. I faced the man again as my necklace started to glow blue. "But, Gajeel..." In a flash of icy blue light my twin daggers landed in my open hands.
I took my stance with my daggers crossed in front of me in a protective X. I narrowed my glowing blue eyes at the silent man and whispered.

"This is personal."

Something in my voice made The Slayer pause for a moment. After a second of him looking at me through narrowed blood red eyes he finally gave me a stiff nod. "If ya need me-"

"I know, Gajeel." I told him with a wink. He 'tched' and moved to the side.
I stalked forward with my daggers posed at the ready at my side. "You know, you almost fooled me." I told the man as I circled him with my head hung down low. The Hunter was circling her soon to be dead Prey. "But, you're most dumbest mistake...?" I slowly lifted my head up, "Was that you didn't."

A low growl began to rumble in my throat as I stopped in front of him. "You know what you took away from me that day?" I muttered softly as I stared at my glowing daggers that seemed to pulse with my own anger. "You took away part of my heart. The other part died in me while the rest of the broken pieces went with him."

I chuckled darkly as I slowly lifted my head toward the man and titled my head toward the side. "That was your greatest mistake...taking him away from me..." I closed my eyes for a moment and when I reopened them, I could feel them glowing an icy blue.

"You will pay with you're life."

The man lifted his arm and before he could send his Dark Magic at me I flung my dagger. With barley a sound my dagger sank into the man's shoulder. Still, the man didn't make a sound but he did stagger.
I calmly walked over to him and narrowed my eyes at my dagger that was embedded in his shoulder.

"Twist."

My dagger obeyed.

He lifted his other hand, which was now shaking, and darkness surrounded his outstretched palm. I flung my second dagger and it lodged into his leg, bringing him to his knees. I sighed heavily and crouched down to his horrible level.

"Now, be a good little Dark Wizard, and tell. Me. Where. He. Is." I sang out. He lifted his head and spat in my face. I jerked back from the sudden cold spit that he had put on my face. I huffed out an annoyed breath and wiped it away. "That wasn't very nice, darling." My voice was back to that eerie calm tone.

"What? Got nothing to say to me?" I asked him softly as I blinked down at him. "You were so very talkative to me that night." I cocked an eyebrow at him lazily. "You do remember that night, don't you?" I wiggled my finger in his face. "When you ended you're own life when you failed to kill me?"

I backhanded him across the face. Hard. His head whipped to the side and blood flew from his mouth. He spat out more of the red liquid before he turned to look back at me again. I grabbed the front of his cloak and looked straight into his eyes as I told both my daggers to Twist in deeper.

He finally let lose a scream and his body started to shake. "Let's try this again. Shall we?" I muttered close to his ear. He visible swallowed and his next words chilled my blood.
"Your never going to make it in time...the Master is tired of playing with him...you won't make it...you won't."

Make it in time...

You won't make it...

Tired of playing...?

Playing?

You...won't.

You. Won't.

My eyes were like chips of blue fire as I leaned in closer to the man and snarled.

"Watch me, darling. Watch."

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I Dedicate this chapter to cherizle123
With Freya closing in on Natsu's location things are about to get deadly as she gets closer to finding her missing puzzle piece. However, the mysteries Dark Wizard Master has other plans for the former Assassin.