➵

Silence always had a way of disturbing Dealana. In her time spent training under Arashi, she'd learned to stay on edge, especially when everything seemed calm. With the S-Class trials on Tenrou Island underway, the remaining members of Fairy Tail in Magnolia were treated to two whole days without someone picking a fight every two-seconds. While it felt relaxing, Dealana couldn't ignore the itching feeling beneath her skin.

It was the calm before the storm, Dealana just knew it. What really bothered her was the fact that she had no clue what the storm would be. For all she knew, it could end up being the Tenrou participants returning for a glorious celebration. On the other hand, it could be something much worse.

Try as she may, Dealana couldn't shake the sinking feeling from her mind.

Kinana had been the first to notice the way the sky-blunette was constantly on-edge and alert. Macao and Wakaba also noticed her behavior and they each asked about it, but Dealana shrugged off any concern.

To keep her mind off the tension rising within her, Dealana focused on filling in for MiraJane where she could. She made drinks and served food for the day, though no one could beat a Strauss' cooking.

Dealana couldn't bring herself to fall asleep that night either. Something in the air was different, she could feel it.

Wandering barefoot in the middle of the night, Dealana found herself standing at a cliff behind the guild hall. She gazed out over the lake in front of her. Lifting a hand in front of her, she conjured a cloud to sit on. The midnight breeze gently moved her twin braids as she closed her eyes, content to just listen to the sounds carried towards her through the winds.

Dealana didn't realize how long she'd been meditating until she heard Kinana's voice calling out to her carefully, saying, "Dealana? Have you been out here all night?"

The sky-blunette opened her eyes and found herself met with the first bright rays of sunlight. She turned to glance over her shoulder at the former Oración Seis companion.

"Sorry," she apologized, shrugging her shoulders. "I couldn't sleep last night so I came out here." Dealana said, stepping off her cloud. "You want to join me in making breakfast?"

Kinana's expression softened, looking at the girl concerned. "Are you sure you don't want to get some sleep? Everyone from Tenrou Island is coming back today, surely they're going to wanna throw a party."

Dealana smiled and shook her head. "Nah, I'm good."

➵

"So, Dealana, who do you think is going to be the next S-Class wizard?" Macao asked as she set plates of food in front of him and Wakaba.

"You're assuming they'll be able to get passed Erza, Mira, and Gildarts." Dealana smirked. "But to answer your question, my money's on Freed. I trained with him and Bickslow all week."

"You trained with Freed and Bickslow? That explains why we didn't see ya around the guild hall." Wakaba chuckled.

"Yep, though I wouldn't sell Elfman or Cana short either." Dealana shrugged. She went around serving other guild members that were starting to trickle inside. The sky-blunette and Kinana had just finished cleaning up from the breakfast rush when the doors opened.

Looking over, the members of Fairy Tail all looked in alarm as Lahar and Mest entered with more Magic Council guards behind them. Noticing how they sported numerous scratches and torn clothes, the air around Dealana crackled with static electricity.

Macao and Wakaba glanced at the storm dragon slayer worriedly before Lahar stepped forward to explain their appearance.

"If you're looking to blame us for something, I hate to have to tell you this, but all of the usual suspects aren't here." Dealana sneered with narrowed eyes. She completely missed the way Mest flinched at her words.

"Actually, we're here to talk about that," Lahar revealed. Everyone seemed keen on listening, most leaning in to hear. "I'm sorry to tell you, but Tenrou Island has been completely destroyed."

The aura of static around Dealana faded as silence fell over the guild hall, everyone absorbing the new information. Finally, after a moment to process everything, people began murmuring and whispering to one another. Only, Dealana couldn't hear any of it. All she could hear was Lahar's words on repeat in her head.

Tenrou Island was gone. Destroyed. She refused to believe that.

"You filthy liars." She snarled, her bangs hiding the dark look that crossed her face. Her fists clenched at her sides so tight, Kinana was worried they'd start to bleed.

"Dealana," Macao uttered softly in warning.

"You. Filthy. Liars!" Dealana growled louder lifting her gaze to meet Lahar and Mest's. Mest swallowed, both council representatives could've sworn there was a raging storm in her eyes. Her arms came to life as thunderstorms swirled around them.

"I wouldn't lie about something like this, there's no point." Lahar told her. "The Dark Guild Grimoire Heart attacked the island in search of the Black Wizard Zeref."

Dealana scoffed, her magic unrelenting. "Zeref is dead."

"That's what we thought at first too," Mest spoke up, unable to look Dealana directly in the eyes. "But he's alive and Acnologia completely wiped out the island. Everything's destroyed."

"Hey, Mest," Dealana said approaching him before all the participants got on the boat to Tenrou Island. "before you go, I need to tell you something."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"You better watch out for Wendy while you're taking the trial. She's not the best at fighting and these trials are incredibly difficult. If something happens to her, you'll be dealing with me, got it?"

Mest had only sweatdropped, scratching the back of his head. "Don't worry, I'll make sure she comes back safe and sound."

"Good." Dealana nodded and moved on to say goodbye with the young sky dragon slayer.

Dealana couldn't stop shaking in anger. "Stop lying!" She exclaimed.

"I... " Mest couldn't even finish what he was saying. Dealana, before she let herself do something that would get her in trouble, turned on her heel and stormed out the back entrance of the guild.

Grey clouds bursting with lightning and thunder moved over the once sunny Magnolia afternoon. With every step Dealana took, the sound of roaring thunder crashed causing the council pricks and the others of Fairy Tail to watch her with wide eyes before she finally disappeared out the door.

Dealana immediately conjured a cloud and hopped on, determined to surf as far as she could before Magnolia was plagued with a storm she couldn't control. Tears blurred her vision as they pooled at the corners of her eyes. She refused to believe a word the Magic Council said, not without searching for her own answers.

As she reached Hargeon Port in record time, Dealana set out over the waters. The wind whipped her hair as she surfed onwards, leaving a trail of dark clouds and brewing storms behind her.

Silence always had a way of disturbing Dealana. And in her hopeless endeavor, it only enraged her. It didn't take very long for her to reach where Tenrou Island should've been, having visited a couple times with Makarov. There wasn't a trace of the island, but Dealana began choking on the amount of Ethernano in the air.

As she struggled to breathe, Dealana doubled back to a minimum safe distance. The tears finally began to stream down her face and the young sky-blunette collapsed to her knees on her cloud platform.

The white coloring of her cloud began to shift to a dark black and rain poured down into the ocean. More clouds gathered around, storming alongside her, only dissipating completely when it came into contact with the immense Ethernano levels.

She didn't know how long she'd spent there over the ocean, sobbing until she had no more tears left, not even her clouds were able to produce anymore rain. Exhaustion from her grief and lack of sleep took hold of Dealana's body and her cloud dissipated.

The storm dragon slayer fell into the deep blue waters and merely floated on the surface, unable to process her emotions. Though a storm raged around her body, Dealana remained stuck in a world of her own grief as she let her body be shoved around by the waves. Time became irrelevant and for hours Dealana just drifted along the currents unable to bring herself to move.

She didn't even react when someone called her name over the roaring wind. It wasn't until she heard a splash followed by someone looping their arms around her waist that she realized someone had been stupid enough to sail into her storm after her. Both she and her apparent rescuer were lifted out of the water and pulled onto the wooden deck of a ship.

"Dealana! Are you okay?"

She had a faraway look in her eyes, unable to recognize the voice.

"Dealana, please respond! Let us know that you're okay?" They asked again.

"How can I be okay when they're all dead? They're all dead." Dealana whispered. "Of all the times for the Magic Council to be right about something, it's the death of my family." Silence followed her words, her savior not knowing how to respond.

Gradually, Dealana sat up, content to stare at the deck as the storm gradually began to calm. After a moment, she looked up to meet a familiar maroon gaze. Cress Roselyn knelt beside the sky-blunette, looking at her with sympathy and tears in her eyes.

"I wish I could do something to bring them back, to bring them all back, but I can't. And for that I'm sorry." She told Dealana gently placing her hands on the sky-blunette's shoulders. Dealana was confused as to why Cress was crying too, but couldn't bring herself to say anything.

"You should know, at some point while the S-Class trials were happening," Cress began, her voice on the verge of cracking. "Laxus had a bad feeling all of a sudden while he was training in the desert and traveled to Tenrou Island."

It felt like another crushing blow to Dealana as she learned that Laxus too was gone. The people she cared for the most in this world were gone forever and she wouldn't even be able to see them one last time. In a moment of grief, Dealana ripped her bracelets from her arms, including the ones from Edolas and threw them on the ground.

"What's the point?!" She yelled. "What's the point of making promises you aren't going to keep?! I don't–– I can't!" Dealana screamed before Cress suddenly brought the girl into a comforting embrace, allowing the girl to cry into her shoulders as a fresh wave of tears sprung forth.

Dealana cried on Cress' shoulder until she passed out completely from exhaustion. As she drifted into a dreamless slumber, the waters finally evened out and the storms faded. Cress scooped the dragon slayer into her arms and carried her into one of the ship's cabins, setting her on a cot.

Cress remerged back onto the main deck, where a young boy was waiting for her, perched like a cat on the ship's railing. He sported dark hair and a sort of headband with extra long flaps that covered his ears. His eyes resembled those of a cat, with a deep golden color that held a tinge of sadness.

"They're really gone?" He asked. Cress nodded solemnly, reaching up to wipe a few stray tears away as the boy leapt down from the banister to wrap the tavern owner into a hug.

"What are we going to do now?" He asked her.

"I'm not sure, Gavin. For now, we need to get Dealana back to land and make sure she'll be all right." Cress told him, pulling away to look at the now calm sea. "At least the storm has passed. The waters should be calm enough to sail back safely."

"I can see now why they call her the Tempest," the boy chuckled before looking down. "I just can't believe he's gone. Laxus is gone, Cress."

"I know, Gavin, I know." She answered, turning away to adjust the sails while simultaneously hiding her tears.

➵

Dealana woke up in the guild's infirmary. It took some time before she remembered what happened. Tenrou Island was destroyed by a dragon named Acnologia, no doubt it was the same dragon that Gildarts barely survived on his century quest. After hearing the news, she'd taken off to search for Tenrou Island herself only to find that it was completely gone along with so many of her family.

As the sky-blunette moved the thin blanket off of her body, she immediately noticed the lack of bracelets and began to panic. She'd ripped them off in her grief-stricken state and tossed them away. Looking around frantically, Dealana sighed in relief when she found them all neatly piled on the bedside table.

"Oh, you're awake."

Dealana looked up to see a boy with dark hair sitting cross-legged on the infirmary bed across from her. He appeared to be a few years older than her.

"Who the hell are you? How did I get back to the guild?" She questioned. Dealana suddenly winced, reaching up to place a hand over her heart. It felt like someone had ripped it right out of her chest.

"A few people call me Gavin." The boy answered. "I was... I knew Laxus for a bit."

"Oh," Dealana uttered, reaching out to grab the pink and yellow bracelets first. "really? I thought he spent his time sulking around. Guess not." She said slipping the bracelets onto her ankle before reaching out to grab the Thunder Legion ones. Once she had each of her bracelets on she looked back to Gavin, finding him staring at her with a curious expression. "What are you looking at?"

"You have a lot of bracelets. They look like the one Laxus wore." He shrugged.

"He wore it?" Dealana asked, her eyes wide. "I guess that's something."

"Hey, quit getting depressed, it's still raining outside."

Dealana glanced outside the window to see that it was indeed raining. Her expression merely dropped into a frown. "I think it's justified." She whispered.

"Nope, not when you hear what we have to offer." Gavin told her. Dealana lifted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Cress and I came from the Storm Talon Tribe when the Chief felt a shift in the air."

"The Storm Talon Tribe? You're a member?" Dealana asked, recalling the amount of times she'd been struck by the great Thunderbird in the first trial.

"Yep!" Gavin answered, lifting the sleeve of his long-sleeve shirt to reveal a singular ringlet marking on his upper arm. "I don't know how many times I got struck by lightning or hail, but I did it. Anyways, your storm dragon slayer magic is causing a bunch of crazy storms across Fiore. Chief Ruby said you need to get a better grip on your magic."

Dealana grimaced at the thought of her magic going haywire again. "I'm not sure I should be around anyone right now, including the tribe."

"Not true, the tribe is, like, the origin of Tempest magic, which is storms and stuff. If anyone can handle your power, it's the Storm Talon tribe." Gavin told her. "We plan to take you into the mountains to train for a while. What do you think? You in?"

Dealana looked at him, not having met anyone with that kind of personality before, and she was a member of Fairy Tail. Finally thinking about it, she realized it would probably be the best course of action. She didn't want to hurt anyone with her lack of control and the Storm Talon Tribe is the best when it came to storm magic.

'Maybe training will help distract me.' Dealana thought. She sighed and said to Gavin, "Yeah, I'm in."

And so, still in mourning for her lost family, Dealana left her crystal cavern. Adjusting the packed bag over her shoulder, she returned to the guild hall one last time. Dealana hugged Kinana and waved goodbye to Macao, Wakaba and the other remaining members that she actually cared about. She promised to return and help out once she reigned her magic back in.

The three figures disappeared into the rainy afternoon heading towards the Storm Talon Tribe. She wasn't sure how long she'd be gone. She wanted to be stronger. Fairy Tail would need it with their best wizards now gone.

Who knew that over the next seven years, she'd be reborn in the lightning and thunder. She had weathered many storms already in her life, but nothing was gonna be able to prepare people for who'd she become. She had the power of storms, the heart of a fairy and the will of a dragon, she would be the Tempest Reborn.

➵

I... I'm sad now. Dealana's grief is something I struggle to properly describe. It's probably the one thing she and I have in common; we bottle things up until they explode. Dealana's in denial and is bottling everything up. Pretty soon, she's gonna need to explode, hence Cress and Gavin entering the fray.

Also, I'm think about having this be the ending Little Fury and covering the next seven years and the arcs to follow in a second installment. There are a few reasons for this, but I'll likely explain in depth soon.

One last note, I'm going to be working primarily on Tornado of Roses after this update so I can get Cress, Laxus and Gavin up to date with everything going on now. Though if you have any little AU adventure ideas for Dealana and the Tribe, let me know so I can get inspired! There is seven years of Dealana development to fill from here on out so...