The Dragon Father

The Oración Seis

Erik was gone.

That was the simplest way to put it. The poison dragon slayer had just up an left. Everyone reassured themselves that he had gone on some job and had simply forgotten to tell Acnologia. Acnologia knew better; Erik never forgot.

Acnologia had narrowed it down... he was certain that on Erik's last job something had come up. Something significant about the dark guild he had exterminated. His second eldest drake had returned deathly pale and unusually silent and the following day had disappeared without a trace.

There was another problem on the horizon. Acnologia had been asked to assist in the destruction of a particularly strong dark guild that had consisted of a mere six members. Acnologia hadn't accepted the offer yet because he was certain that if he declined then the magic council would offer it to the other members in Fairy Tail... the idea appealed to Acnologia but it made him nervous at the same time... if the magic council asked for him specifically then the guild was a problem and would give Fairy Tail a hard time. Acnologia however had a missing child problem that he had to resolve as quickly as possible.

Acnologia gave the request to Makarov before leaving to search for Erik. Fairy Tail could deal with it, he had confidence in his guild.

His search for Erik took time and left Acnologia in poorer spirits. Wherever Erik had gone he was hiding it well. It wasn't until a week later that he was given a call from home; Natsu had called.

Acnologia was listening to the lacrima in front of him for a mere two minutes before he reassured Natsu of his coming and flew as fast as his wings could take him.

(A few hours later)

"Run it by me again, one more time," Acnologia sighed.

"Okay, we were sent to catch these bad guys," Natsu began.

"I know that part," Acnologia growled.

"Me and Natsu's gang have been tracking them for a few days," Laxus intervened.

"They met up with us on their travels and we joined them seeing as we are to work together. Meeennn," Ichiya nodded.

"AFTER THAT!" Acnologia snapped.

"We found their hideout-" Natsu began.

"But it was all wrecked and stuff!" Happy interjected.

"Yeah, it looked like some sort of cyclone went down, the place was a dump," Sherria sighed.

"Whoever got to those guys first did some real damage," Ren nodded.

"Blood, sweat, fear, the whole place reeked of it," Laxus said darkly.

"And of something else too," Natsu gritted.

"Erik," Acnologia finished.

"I can't tell whose blood is whose, the place is a war zone," Laxus explained.

"I don't understand why Erik would be here," Erza pondered.

"Yeah, didn't he go on a job or something like that?" Lucy asked.

"It isn't like him to act all alone like this," Gray pointed out.

Laxus looked down as if in thought. The room descended into silence.

"Laxus," Acnologia began, "Erik... he said he had friends when he was younger."

"Yeah," Laxus nodded, "but... there are thousands of dark guilds."

"It's possible I suppose," Acnologia pondered quietly.

"But he isn't that stupid, he would have-"