A/N: And hello everybody! Welcome to the start of my newest story, God Hand! Which is just one part of a group project, called the Summit Project, between myself, MyDearWatson, Raiyane and Origm2012! So make sure you check out their stories as well since they're all part of the same universe and will all connect with each other. I'll go into more detail after the prologue, but in the meantime…

I don't own Fairy Tail!

I hope you enjoy the prologue!

Prologue: The Tafani Twins

August 15th, X799 – Evening

A train sped along the tracks, plumes of smoke coming out of its engine, mixing in with the dark clouds of dusk as the setting sun dipped below the horizon, the sky ablaze with orange and red. All around the train were wide open fields filled with wheat and barley, but ahead of the train was its destination, a stone settlement call Gladiolus Town, but behind the train, not far to the south, was the sprawling metropolis of Narcissus City, both of which were located in a region of northwestern Fiore called 'the Valley'. Gladiolus was the second largest city in the region, the only larger city being Narcissus, but Gladiolus itself was the home of the largest guild in the region, God Hand, and even from over a mile away, one can still see the massive clock tower that was the home of the guild.

The guild God Hand was not only the largest guild in the area with over two-hundred members, but it was also the oldest, having been founded in X658, one-hundred forty-one years ago. But such an old guild was not without problems, in recent years the status and popularity of the guild had begun to wane, many missions and new recruits going to God Hand's rival guild in Plumeria Port, Seahorse Crest, instead. But that had started to change when the newest Guild Master had taken charge and overthrew the previous Guild Master, a man named Egon Gott, and began to implement a series of changes and reformed the structure of the guild, causing it to enter into a revival that saw a renewed surge of missions and recruits come to the guild. These reforms made the guild seemingly more militaristic, as all mages were assigned a rank and these ranks insured that mages could accept missions suitable to their skill level and that the guild's resources were given out appropriately, as even the highest floors of the guild were restricted to the two highest ranks of mages.

There were a total of four ranks, the lowest being C-Class, which all mages start at upon joining the guild, regardless of how strong or famous they are. After acquiring a decent amount of experience and proving themselves capable, a mage would be promoted to B-Class, which consisted of the majority of mages in God Hand. The next rank was A-Class, which was reserved for the highly skilled, rising stars of the guild as only about twenty percent of mages in God Hand were A-Class. But the highest rank, S-Class, was reserved for the handful of elite mages in the guild. Mages were not restricted to their rank though, as they could rise and fall in them, but it was much easier to fall in rank than it was to rise in them, as mages were tested and had to pass an exam to enter into A-Class and S-Class, but a string of failed missions could cause a mage to fall in rank.

The man responsible for these changes was the Fifth Guild Master of God Hand, who was named Raniero Tafani, but has always gone by the name of Nero and he was currently a passenger on the train bound to Gladiolus Town, having returned from a meeting in Narcissus with the other Guild Masters who were a part of the legal guild alliance known as the Summit Alliance. Nero was a young man at the age of twenty-six and he stood at 5'10" with a fit runner's build and pale skin. He has slightly spiky, black hair that fell down to his shoulder blades in the back and was tied into a spiky pony tail at the nape of his neck while his bangs were cut much shorter so that they stayed out of his mischievous, slanted blue eyes and left his ears uncovered. He was a man that usually always had cocky smirk on his face too, so people often knew something was up if he had a serious look on his face. Nero was dressed in an open, double-breasted black coat that was worn over a red v-neck shirt that was tucked into a pair of black jeans that were held up with a black leather belt and fell over the tops of his black ankle boots. Nero's guild mark, while not visible usually, was on his left shoulder blade in black and the God Hand guild mark resembled an open hand with all fingers pointing straight up while an eye was located in the middle of the palm.

Nero looked out of the window from in his seat, a slightly bored expression on his face as he watched the scenery go by, although his thoughts were cut off by the sound of a woman's calm voice calling out to him.

"Nero," the woman said, catching Nero's attention as he turned to look at the woman sitting across from him.

"What is it, Ellie?" Nero asked in a droll tone.

"Are you certain it was a wise idea to allow Tik establish her new guild?" the woman, whose full name was Eliana Tafani, asked, "We have just finished restoring the guild to a point where missions and recruits are increasing each month, allowing a new guild to be established by one of our own members will only harm our efforts."

At this, Nero sat up all the way to face forward and look at his twin sister. They were of course not identical twins, but there was still a striking resemblance between the two of them. Eliana was shorter than Nero, only standing at 5'8", but she had an average sized bust and a thin frame that made one think that she wasn't nearly as physically strong as she actually was, the woman being one of the S-Class of God Hand. Her slightly spiky, black hair was tied up into a spiky bun while her bangs were swept across her forehead, her hair starkly contrasting with her pale skin, although her intelligent, slanted blue eyes really stood out, much like her brother's, although she was usually always wearing a pair of rectangular glasses that had black metal frames. And unlike her brother, who seemed to always have a smirk on his face, Eliana seemed to always be rather stone-faced, never showing much emotion. Eliana was wearing a burgundy colored blouse that fell down past her waist with sleeves that ended halfway down her forearms under a short, black leather jacket that ended just under her chest. She also wore a pair of black jeans that were held up by a brown leather belt while her jeans were tucked into a pair of brown leather boots. And like Nero's, Eliana's guild mark was not usually visible, but it was on her right shoulder blade in black, opposite of Nero's.

"Eliana," Nero said in response, "While it still irritates me that she left the guild, there's nothing I could do to stop it. So I did the next best thing and allowed her to start up her guild, but refused to give her any support at all besides agreeing to let Goblin Grin into Summit Alliance."

"I see. So she will either struggle and succeed, or fail and come crawling back to God Hand," Eliana responded.

"Exactly!" Nero chimed, a smirk now crossing his face, "And it will be a struggle for her with both God Hand and Seahorse Crest doing so well. After all, who would want to send missions to or join a tiny little guild in a hick town in the middle of nowhere when there are two powerful guilds nearby?" he explained, his smirk becoming more devious in appearance, "And besides, it'll be a good learning experience for Tik if her guild fails to take off."

At this, the twins fell into silence again as the train pulled into the station in the middle of Gladiolus Town, the twins making their exit as they stepped out into the middle of the Castle District in the center of Gladiolus. Gladiolus Town was separated into five districts in total, as the city was set up like an upside down pentagon. The central district was known as the Castle District, where the majority of government and law enforcement offices were located, but much of it had to be rebuilt after an attack on the town in X784. But the two most important structures in the district were the Gladiolus Keep, a military fort, and the Ledford Castle, which was the home of Noble House Ledford who ruled the town, the head of the family even holding the title of Count of Gladiolus. The southern district was the largest, being the Residential District where the majority of housing was located. The eastern side was known as the Merchant District, where a majority of retail stores and restaurants were located, but this district also managed the imported and exported trade that passed through town, so it was seemingly always busy. The western side was known as the Crafts District, where many workshops, blacksmiths and breweries were located. The Crafts District was where the majority of production in Gladiolus Town took place, but many of the workshops and smithies doubled as shops too. The northern district was the smallest, but one of the most important. It was known as the God Hand District and it was home of the God Hand guild hall, an ancient, forty story clock tower that was there long before Gladiolus Town was even built, the mage guild having renovated and studied it when they made it their guild hall over a hundred years ago, and it was also home to the male and female God Hand Dormitories, which flanked the main guild hall on both sides.

As Nero and Eliana walked the stone streets of Gladiolus Town they received several greetings and polite bows, even salutes from the guards. Everyone knew who the Tafani Twins were in Gladiolus. They were revolutionaries, reformers, heroes even for how they restored God Hand and how that had restored Gladiolus Town. But there were always those that thought of them as villains, who thought that they went too far and that Nero had the Count of Gladiolus twisted around his finger, though there was nothing they could do out in the open, but there was always a bit of truth in every rumor.

"How many this time?" Nero asked as he and Eliana entered into the God Hand District.

"Only three groups looked at us with disgust on our way through town," Eliana stated in an emotionless tone, "Significant improvement."

"Heh. Looks like we've nearly dealt with most of the dissidents in town then. That or they're just grouping up more and getting smarter," Nero chuckled, "It's a rather fun game of cat and mouse isn't it?"

"Nero," Eliana responded in a bit of a harsh tone, "You shouldn't treat this as a game."

"But if I think of it like a game I'll try harder so that I win, and you know that I always win in the end," Nero replied as his smirk crossed back onto his face, Eliana falling silent for a moment.

"Correct. You've yet to lose at anything important," she said with a nod.

"Ah this has been so much fun! Taking over and reforming the guild has been such a challenge with all of the little distractions and things to do on the side!" Nero said happily as he leapt up onto a stone bench and walked across it before hopping back down, "There's always so many challenging things to do! Dealing with nobility, messing with Harlow, dealing with dissidents, hunting down Ragnarok's Call! There's just so many fun things for me to do!"

"Well I'm pleased to hear that you've enjoyed the past three years then," Eliana replied as Nero began walking alongside her again as they stepped into a shadow cast by their guild hall, "But remember that such a large guild casts a giant shadow. There are many enemies hiding in it, waiting to undo all that we've accomplished."

"And that's the most fun part of it all," Nero responded as he stopped to look up at the clock tower in front of him, "We have so many enemies and some of them may even be hiding within our own walls. Some might see that as a problem, but I enjoy it. It certainly keeps me on my toes," he said as he continued to walk towards the massive doors that led into the guild hall.

Eliana watched Nero for a moment as he walked ahead of her, her brother eventually arriving at and entering the main doors, happily announcing his return, "And that's what sets you apart, Nero. Other's would see what you do as difficult, or even nefarious, but you approach it all with a smile, as if it were all a fun simulation game and everyone is either a potential pawn or enemy for you to use or fight. But you're my brother and I'll do whatever is necessary to see that you come out on top."

A/N: And there it is! Prologue complete! I hope you enjoyed it!

Credits:

Raniero "Nero" Tafani – Dreadburner94

Eliana Tafani – Dreadburner94

So first I'd like to say thanks to MyDearWatson, Raiyane and Origm2012 for working with me on this collaboration project. And since this is a collab, they each have stories in the same universe with the title Summit Project like mine does. Here are all of the stories in the project.

The Summit Project: God Hand by Dreadburner94

The Summit Project: Seahorse Crest by MyDearWatson

The Summit Project: Goblin Grin by Raiyane

The Summit Project: Ragnarok's Call by Origm2012

So be sure to read those too because you can currently only submit 2 main characters to the project as a whole right now, so make sure you try and get your characters submitted to the guild, or guilds, you want because each of our guilds are very different from each other! Also, we will all be looking over and have access to any character profiles submitted to the story because if you submit a character to one of our stories, there's a big chance that they will appear in the others as side characters and we all work together to organize and figure out the plotlines of the stories! Also, if you do submit 2 characters, we do highly prefer that they be in separate guilds unless they have a close relation to each other, but we only take so many sibling pairs or whatnot across all stories, so be sure to ask first!

And as a general rule across all four stories, WE WILL ONLY BE ACCEPTING OCS THROUGH PRIVATE MESSAGES! NO EXCEPTIONS! The reason for this is because posting your OC in the reviews leaves them out for everyone to see and it gives away all of their secrets and history. So please understand that if we refuse to accept an OC submitted through a review it is not because we dislike them or anything, but it's because we don't want to spoil anything for the other readers.

Another rule, and this is very important, is that you MUST use the OC Form provided on the profile of the author's story you wish to submit to. So if you want to submit a character to my story, you must use the OC Form on my profile and then submit them to me. If you want to submit a character to MyDearWatson's story, you must use the OC Form on her profile and submit the character to her. The reason for this is that all of the OC Forms are a bit different from each other and have different information in them pertaining to the specific story that they're for. Also, do be aware that we do want to try to avoid having too many characters that are really similar to each other, so we might end up asking for you to change something since all of the characters will have a chance to appear in the other stories.

Now then, for my story specifically, I will be accepting 30 OCs max, including Eliana. Out of them 5 will be S-Class, again, including Eliana, and they will be the only S-Class in the entire guild, which has over 200 members in it in case you missed that. I will be accepting 6 A-Class, 12 B-Class and 7 C-Class. The S-Class are of course just like you're all familiar with, but I do request that they be older than 21 because I want them to have a lot of experience and be fit for their rank. Also, if your OC is new to the guild (as in they've been in the guild for less than a year), they have to be a C-Class, regardless of how strong they are.

Now, regarding Slayers, I will only be accepting 2 of them and Dragon Slayers must be an artificial 2nd Generation Dragon Slayer because of the canon story. Also, I will only be accepting one of each type of Slayer. So as an example, I will accept a Dragon Slayer and then a God Slayer, but I will never accept 2 Dragon Slayers, make sense? But it also depends on what the Slayers are for the other stories. So if there are 2 Dragon Slayers in the other stories, I will not accept any Dragon Slayers, only God, Devil and original type Slayers!

Also, you may create establishments for Gladiolus Town, but be aware that you have to stay in the theme of the town, for instance everything is made of stone and most buildings are more than a few stories tall.

Now then, one more thing. When creating characters, be aware that we want only brand new characters! So you can't use an OC that is currently in another OC Guild Story!

In closing, there are more in depth rules on all of our profiles! SO MAKE SURE YOU READ THEM BEFORE SENDING IN YOUR OCS! IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE RULES, DO NOT EXPECT US TO ACCEPT YOUR CHARACTER! I know there are a lot of rules and that the OC Forms are very long, so don't be afraid to ask for a reservation!

So, thank you all for reading! Have fun creating your OCs!

Your host,

Dreadburner94.