52 Gildarts

The next month passed peacefully for the members of Fairytail. The excitement and adrenaline about Wendy's kidnapping had died out quickly with her safe return.

Days, and a couple of dates, after everything had calmed down, Alex and Mira had made their relationship public to the guild. Alex was met with dejected looks and good natured curses from the guys that were secretly in love with Mira, but the news was quickly accepted and celebrated by the guild.

Elfman, being the caring brother that he is, approached Alex after the announcement and 'threatened' him to never hurt Mira. Alex assured him he would do everything in his power to protect her.

A drinking contest broke out shortly after and this time Alex actually won. Cana had been drinking heavily beforehand and couldn't keep up. Alex knew his victory was cheap, but chose not to care in the moment.

Wendy, Liam and Romeo, were quickly making a name for themselves within the Wizarding world. They still wouldn't take on jobs that were too dangerous or took them too far away from the guild but they had formed a team and had a 100% completion rate. The fact that they at least tried to not destroy everything when they were out on quests also greatly helped, both their wallets and the guild reputation.

The guild had also sold out of the 'travel kits' Alex had made and Makarov had commissioned him to make some more.

He spent his Idle days creating gadgets and magical devices, ranging from the tents and flying packs (Liams Aera kit) to things that could change the world for both wizards and mundane' s, like medical beds and linked teleport pads.

The medical beds he had created by request from Porlyusica, she had told him she had been able to create something similar using her nature magic, though it wasn't efficient and needed her there. She wanted to see if a permanent Item could be made that could do the same thing without her, or another wizards assistance.

After she had shown him the rough copy she made with her magic, he had easily been able to reproduce it to start experimenting. The final product had taken a lot of enchanting, storage lacrimas and runes to build but he had a functional product that could effectively bring someone back from the brink of death, so long as they still had life.

Depending on the injury, it would take anywhere from a single day to one week to recover a person's full health.

He had figured out some of its limitations after the remains of a merchant convoy had made it to town one day. There were many injured with them and they had been all too happy to be 'test subjects'. Through his testing of the machine, he found it could not restore lost limbs but it did scar over the remains of said limb and seal the nerve endings. He wondered if it could reattach limbs but nobody had brought the dismembered body parts and he wasn't willing to risk testing it.

Instead, and as a thank you for being test subjects, he created artificial limbs for the two people who had lost them. He used their blood and the same tricks he had used in creating Ur's body to do it. It was a pretty gruesome sight having to re-cut the freshly healed parts of their missing limbs, but with magic, they didn't feel anything. Even if they had to endure the pain, Alex didn't doubt they would have accepted.

Porlyusica was fascinated by the ease he had recreated the limbs and also the fact that she couldn't tell it was fake, it didn't last long though as she herself could do something similar with Alchemy, though you could tell hers were prosthetics.

The linked teleport pads were quite a bit easier than the medical beds, he had already done something similar and just needed to increase the range by a massive amount and make it two way.

While he had told the guild about the medical beds and even gave the first one to them, he hadn't told anyone but Mira and the members of his household about the teleport pads. If used incorrectly it could be a major concern.

For now he made them only respond to his own magic until he could add in some sort of safety feature, he had thoughts of making them react only to fairytails guild mark and monopolizing their use, but for now just focused on making them.

Until he could figure out how to keep people from abusing them, he would use them only for his, and those he trusts, use. When he was bored and free one weekend, he had flown around Ishgar, placing a teleport pad near the capital Cities of every country. He had even made the trip to Alikitasia, though he didn't place it near the city there, he didn't even place it in the Alvarez Empire, just wanting a convenient way to cross the ocean without flying.

Alex had placed all the pads in their own underground caverns and enchanted the entrances to not only blend in, but compel people to stay away. He placed all the return pads in a massive underground area he had created outside of Magnolia in the forest. In addition to the compelling and concealing enchants, he added a detection one as well. It would alert him to anyone, without permission, entering the cave. Even if other people couldn't currently use the pads, it didn't want them to be destroyed.

Alex and Mira were having lunch at the guild, discussing music and the possibility of going on a job or adventure together, when the city bells started ringing wildly. Not having witnessed it before, Alex jumped up in a start and started sending pulses of magic out to check for threats.

He was pulled from this as Mira started chuckling at his reaction. "There isn't an enemy, this is just a warning that Gildarts is back" Mira said, a full blown smile on her face. Alex already knew of Gildarts from both lives, as he had come up in conversation with Mira before.

Before he could ask anything about the situation, Lucy had beat him to it. She questioned why everyone was so excited and even wanted to know what the hell a 'Magnolia Gildarts shift' was. Mira explained it to her before everyone went to the windows or doors to watch the city shift. It was truly a marvel of magic and engineering.

Alex gauged the reactions of everyone and was even getting infected by their excitement, this lasted until he caught a glimpse of Cana off in the corner alone. She looked to be trying to drown herself in wine as she drank directly from the barrel. He knew why she was like this and idly wondered what, if anything, he could do.

As Gildarts drew closer, an Idea was forming in Alex's head. Through his magically enhanced senses he could clearly tell Cana and Gildarts were related, he even gave a sideways glance at Natsu and wondered how in the hell he hadn't picked up on it before. Deciding he could probably play it off as Ignorance and It already being in his nature to mess with people, he made a decision.

Mira was with the group that greeted Gildarts at the door. Because the guild hall hadn't been completely destroyed during the phantom battle, Gildarts didn't need to ask where it was, though he still didn't recognize Mira. The rest of the greetings happened like In the Anime, Natsu getting thrown to the ceiling and Gildarts telling of his failure.

Alex did notice out of the corner of his eye that Gray was giving confused glances between Cana and Gildarts, though he didn't seem to know what he was sensing. 'Hmmm, I wonder if he is Just smarter than Natsu or if it's because all this is new to him' Alex mused as he wandered to the sulking Cana.

"Hey Cana!" Alex greeted cheerfully, 'Accidentally' loud enough for everyone to hear. "How come you never mentioned your Father was the 'Ace' of the guild?" He asked with a huge smile and a curious look in his eye.

Silence. The entire guild hall was drowned in silence, It seemed (like he had hoped) everyone had been listening to him. All the color drained from Cana's face as she froze, she just stared wide eyed at him. "What are you talking about, kid? I don't have a child." Gildarts broke the silence, having a thoroughly confused look on his face.

"Oh... Then I guess Brother? The blood is too similar to be anything else. It has to be a direct relation." Alex said, adopting his own confused look and appearing to be in thought. "What the heck are you talking about?" Gildarts asked again.

The rest of the guild looked equally as interested and Cana was still in stunned silence. "It's part of my magic to have super enhanced senses. I can tell that you two share the same bloodline and It's very close. Like direct descendants or siblings close." Alex answered honestly.

Gildarts was left pondering his words and their implications as he studied Cana. Alex turned back to Cana, "Are you alright?" he asked in genuine concern, her face was still white. "I-I uh.. I'm.." Cana blinked. She looked around at all the people looking at her before her face went beat red in embarrassment. She slinked to the ground as all the fight seemed to run out of her and she wrapped her arms around her knees before burying her face into her knees.

"I hate you! This isn't how it was supposed to go. Why?" she mumbled incoherently as she quietly sobbed. Alex was stunned for a moment, this wasn't exactly what he had planned. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to make you cry" he said softly as he crouched down near his friend.

"I know, I'm not mad at you. I should have told him sooner." she said into her knees. "Wait. You knew we were related?" Gildarts asked, having obviously heard her reply. "Yes. It's the reason I joined Fairytail to begin with." Cana said, regaining a bit of her energy. "Why didn't you tell me?" Gildarts asked, still very confused about the situation.

"I could just never find the right time." Cana said, before she started telling them her story. Starting with Joining the guild to find him, missing the opportunity to talk to him, convincing herself that she had to be S-class to confess and then all her bad luck during the S-class trials.

The guild was unnaturally silent as she spoke, nobody wanting to miss a single thing. There were a few suppressed giggles when Gildarts started asking about her mother and naming a list of girls he thought could be her mom. The giggles turned to full blown laughter when Cana flipped at him calling him a pervert and started berating him. It died down when Gildarts hugged her and started talking about her actual Mother, Cornelia.

They continued to talk quietly for a bit, many of the guild members openly shedding tears at the reunion while trying to stay as quiet as possible. The Silence was broken when Gildarts was helping Cana to her feet, "Your Arm! It's missing!" she shouted in shock.

None of the others had noticed how injured Gildarts had been because of his heavy cloak, but they all paid close attention to her words. "Not just his arm, his leg is wooden too!" Someone in the crowd shouted out. "I am fine! This is nothing." Gildarts said firmly, before chaos could erupt.

"Alright everyone! Break it up! Go on about your business." The master said loudly, shooing the crowd away. "Come to the back Gildarts, Cana. I need to show you something" he followed up. The Medical beds weren't a secret, but news of them wasn't common. Gildarts was about to refuse when he noticed the look in the masters eyes and decided to humor him.

Alex, Mira, Gray, Natsu and Wendy were all talking off to the side, Alex was explaining to them all how to use smell to identify people related to one another. Since Mira and Elfman were both in the guild, he used them as examples. It didn't take long for them to figure it out and after the discovery, Natsu was kicking himself for not figuring it out sooner.

Gray and Gajeel got annoyed at Natsu's complaining and they started a brawl amongst themselves. Mira, Wendy and Alex watched on in amusement before Alex started heading for the Infirmary. "What are you going to Do Alex?" Mira asked softly.

"Just going to see if there is anything I can do for his limbs, It's the least I can do for Cana after what I just put her through." He said in an equally soft voice. He wasn't upset with the outcome, in fact it had been what he hoped, with them acknowledging each other as family, though he didn't like to see Cana cry. He figured helping Gildarts get his limbs back would be a small price to pay for that little blunder.