**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Mashima owns those.

So here's the next chapter of Dragon Slayers of Fairy Tail. I will be updating Fiery Jade next, followed by Exploring the World with you and The Size of His Heart. I really want to close out Fiery Jade and The Size of His Heart so I can start work on the next story (which will be determined by the poll on my profile).

Read and Review please!**

"Has anyone found Lucy yet?" Mirajane asked worriedly. The pumpkin had just finished explaining the rules to the preliminary round, which would end when the first 8 teams reached Domus Flau.

Everyone shook their heads 'no' in response. Mira frowned. "Well, I really hate to do this, but get Elfman up here. We need five members to enter Domus Flau or we'll be disqualified."

Elfman quickly ran up and the group ascended their ramp into the maze. Just after they got inside the fighting started.

One of the first groups they ran into was an upstart guild in Magnolia called Twilight's Ogre. The guild started almost 6 years ago, but hadn't gone anywhere, probably because the master didn't have the brains to open up shop in a town that didn't have Fiore's biggest, most popular guild in it. Of course, rather than blame the guildmaster for their plight, the members blamed Fairy Tail.

"Oh look, the fairies are here to get their asses kicked." One member, a tall, heavyset man with a mohawk said.

"Too bad fairies. Guess we know who's not making it into the games this year," another, shorter man said.

"Yeah, guess so." Mirajane said, an evil aura emanating from her.

15 seconds later 5 mages could be seen falling from the sky labyrinth as the Fairy Tail mages dusted their hands off.

"You know, I've taken out the trash lots of times, but this is the first time it's tried to talk back to me." Elfman said as his beast arm reverted to normal, earning him a chuckle from the others.

"Alright, no time to waste. We need to get moving," Mirajane said, taking off and running deeper into the sky labyrinth.

There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the labyrinth. It was like a random jumble of stairs, walls, floors, ceilings… And then this strange bell started to ring.

"What's that about?" Elfman asked as everyone came to a stop, looking around them.

Before anyone could speculate on the reason for the bell, everything started to move. "Everyone grab onto something quick!" Instantly all but one of the Fairy Tail mages was holding onto something.

"GAH!" Gray yelled as he plummeted toward the depths below the sky labyrinth.

"Satan Soul!" In a flash, before Gray could hit the disqualification zone, Mirajane caught him and brought him back up to the rest of the group. The 5 then resumed their progress toward Domus Flau.

"So every time that bell goes off, everything's gonna' shift again." Elfman said, looking toward the ground. Mira sighed. What a silly thing for him do be depressed over. She was about to say something when he looked up, new energy in his eyes as he pumped his fist into the air. "The Sky Labyrinth is a MAN!"

Mira face-palmed. Ok. She should've seen that coming. "Let's just get to the center," she said with a sigh.

It was a long, hard trek, and they beat up several other guilds along the way. But finally, almost by accident, they fell into a very different part of the sky labyrinth. Unlike the endless winding staircases and passageways before, the place they had just fallen into was lush with vegetation, even water. With a long path running down the center of it. How could such a place even exist in this sky labyrinth? Yet it did.

Then suddenly it got even weirder. Elfman was the first to comment as the greenery around them came to an end, changing to a seemingly endless plane of blue. "The – the sea?!" He exclaimed.

"How can this happen? Are we even in the sky labyrinth? I mean, look at the sky!"

"No," Mira said. "If you look closely you can see that the sky is painted on." She could see small patches where the painting job wasn't perfect and gears or other metal pieces showed through.

"And we're almost there!" Gray shouted, taking off at a sprint down the path that led across the water. There was a door, barely visible at the top of the path. And no other teams were in sight!

Mira grinned. Not only did they find their destination, they must've beat all the competition out by a mile! They could get to the arena and take their time basking in the glory of being the first team through.

"Here we are!" She grinned as she came up to the door to find a short man wearing a pumpkin head standing by it.

"Mirajane Strauss, Gray Fullbuster, Juvia Lockser, Elfman Strauss, Cana Alberona. Congratulations, you have passed the elimination round."

"It was a breeze," Gray said with a grin.

"Of course we passed it. Fairy Tail is a man!" Elfman exclaimed.

"Are we the first team to make it?" Mirajane asked with confidence.

"Actually, you barely made it. You're the 8th team to pass."

Mirajane couldn't even come up with a response as the energy and confidence drained from her instantly. They came in 8th? After all that? Sure, they had a few setbacks, but she was sure they made good enough progress to come in better than 8th…

"WHAT?" The others shouted as their countenances also lost the vigor and confidence that they possessed but seconds earlier.

~~~~~~Time Skip: Opening Day~~~~~~

"I'm your Emcee, Chapati Rola, and next to me is ex-council member Yajima-san, who will provide commentary. I'd also like to introduce our special guest and the current Miss Fiore, Jenny Realight!"

Mira clenched her teeth at the name. Every time she met the young model the girl would talk shit to her about being overtaken as the #1 most desirable woman in Fiore. But now was the time. Along with the rest of her team, most of whom had done this at least once in the last couple years, she headed down to the end of the tunnel out into the open arena of Domus Flau.

"Finishing 8th in the elimination round, and this must come as quite a shock for the current number one guild in Fiore, Fairy Tail!"

The stadium around them erupted into cheers as the team came out. Juvia and Lucy blushed. Mirajane offered Jenny specifically a big smile and a 'friendly' wave. Elfman flexed. Gray just stood there and waved.

As the cheers died down, Chapati continued. "In 7th place we have the hounds of hell, Quatro Cerberus!" The cheering continued as the next guild came out, led by their ace Bacchus. Elfman growled as the ace of Quatro came out, and Mira just giggled. She knew her younger brother didn't like the fact that Bacchus would hit on her and Lisanna any chance he got.

"In sixth place the all female guild… Mermaid Heel!" Cheers erupted, especially loud from every male in the audience as Mermaid Heel came into the stadium. Mira was surprised to see Millianna among the Mermaid Heel wizards. So Erza's friend had decided to join a guild after all.

"In fifth place, are the blue wings in dark, Blue Pegasus!" The trimens and Ichiya appeared, all in their rather unique poses as the crowd continued to cheer.

"In fourth place the holy destroyer, Lamia Scale!" Cheers erupted as the Lamia Scale team took the field, led by Jura and Lyon.

"Why did you come in fourth you slackers?" Obaba yelled from the stands.

"I'm sorry Obaba, I messed up!" Chelia said just before tripping and falling to the ground.

"And now, finishing in third place…" Chapati's voice sounded again through the loudspeakers. "Oh my, this is a surprise, and on their first time participating in the Grand Magic Games…. Raven Tail!"

"And now, in second place, the guild that's always just a few points away from toppling the mighty Fairy Tail….. Sabertooth!"

Cheers erupted as Sabertooth's team came out on the field. Orga, Sting, and Rogue led the group out, with Yukino and Rufus trailing behind a little. The group acted cocky, pointing to the crowd, waving their hands in the air, and even giving the Fairy Tail group a thumbs down.

"And another shocker! In first place, just back from a 7 year time lapse at Tenrou Island…. It's Fairy Tail Team B!"

"NAAANNNIIIII!" The color drained from Mira's face as she watched Natsu and Laxus walk out, closely trailed by Gajeel, Erza, and Levy.

"That's not even fair…." Lucy cried.

Gray just glared at the other team, his smile gone.

"The only one I can hope to compete with is Levy…" Elfman said holding his head in his hands. "But as a man I can't lose!"

Just then Jenny's voice sounded in the loudspeakers. "Well, I don't know how they managed first in the elimination round, but with only one strong member I think B Team is just gonna' be for show. I mean, we all know how powerful Erza is, but those other 3 just got out of a seven year stasis, and everyone knows solid script users aren't very useful except as support. They're lucky they even made it through the preliminaries."

"Well, now we have Jenny's opinion, but what does Yajima-san think?" Chapati called over the loudspeakers.

"Hmmm…" Yajima stroked his chin. "Judging from the other Fairy Tail team's reaction, I'm guessing anyone who thinks along Jenny's lines is in for a big surprise. They may have been gone for seven years, but there may be more to the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail than meets the eye!"

[A/N – you all know what happens in the games, so I'm just going to focus on the things that will change…]

"Alright, for the first round… Everyone send a team member forward to compete. The name of this challenge is 'Hidden.'"

"Heh – I'll take care of this one," Gray smirked.

"Alright, you got it Gray." Mira said with her own smirk. "Just don't disappoint us."

Gray nodded as the other teams sent their choices forward. Nullpudding for Raven Tail, Rufus for Sabertooth, Lyon from Lamia Scale, Beth from Mermaid Heel, Eve from Blue Pegasus, Jager from Quatro Cerberus, and Gajeel from Fairy Tail B Team.

The rules of the game were simple enough. The objective was to land a hit on an opponent team member. Every hit would send the member back to their own starting point. However, there was a catch. There would be lots of clones of everyone walking around, and hitting a clone would cause you to lose a point. Additionally, suffering a hit and being sent to your team starting point would cause you to lose a point.

Gray had just started out and was looking for a target when he was attacked out of nowhere by Nullpudding, losing a point and being sent back to his starting area.

Eve cause the air to become cold to easily discern who the clones – who didn't breathe – were. This allowed him to find actual targets.

In the meantime Gajeel, whose battle instincts were heightened after 7 years of fighting for his life, noticed that someone had detached from the rest of them, taking to the roof. He looked up to see a lone figure in red and smirked. The man was watching, trying to ascertain everyone's position so he could attack from above.

"Not gonna' give you the time," he muttered as he leapt up to the rooftops, moving faster than Rufus could block, and landed an iron club on him. The red-clothed mage landed back in his own starting area.

Below him, he saw Nullpudding start to go after Gray, who was just turning to block him. With a smirk, Gajeel dove between them, hitting Gray with a foot and Nullpudding with his iron sword attack before either of them could attack the other. Fairy Tail B Team's count went up to 3.

He was heading off to find more prey when his nose told him Rufus was heading for the rooftops again. "Man, does he ever learn?" Gajeel smirked, heading up to finish Rufus off again.

This time the memory make mage was prepared, or so he thought, but Gajeel saw that he was ready and simply used a little more of his magic power and speed. He came in so fast that Rufus could barely see him, let alone memorize his attack, and again the Sabertooth mage was returned to his starting point.

By the time "Hidden" was over, Fairy Tail B was in the lead with 13 points, and Sabertooth had only achieved 3 after Rufus finally realized he had to give up on his strategy. Fairy Tail A managed to finish with 1 point, tying for last place with Quatro Cerberus.

~~~~~~Infirmary~~~~~~~

"Why would anyone do this?" Happy wondered aloud as the exceeds sat by Lucy's bed in the infirmary, much to the chagrin of the old healer who was tending her.

"I don't know," Carla said. "I would say a rival guild who wants to weaken us, but if that were the case wouldn't it make more sense to go after Erza?"

"Anyone but Lucy would make sense." Happy snickered.

"Happy, be nice!" Carla reprimanded. "Lucy is an S-Class mage now, you know."

"Yeah, yeah." Happy said. "You know I was just joking Carla. But seriously. What was the motivation?"

Just then Gajeel came in. "Happy, Carla. Surprised to see you here." Pantherlily came in behind him, currently in his small exceed form.

"We were just checking on Lucy and wondering why someone would target her," Happy said.

"Hmmm…" Pantherllily crossed his arms, looking at her. "Maybe someone wants to kidnap her and sell her on the slave market?"

"No way," Gajeel said with a little smirk. "If they were after slaves they would've gone for someone like Mira, or Jenny, who's up in the booth right now."

"Anyway, Porlyusica says she's gonna' recover," Happy said. "She said she got most of her magic drained very suddenly though."

"Most likely someone trying to send a message," Gajeel said, remembering with a slight shudder his days with Phantom Lord. "She was alone when this happened, making her an easy target. I'm guessing that whoever did this can only do it to one person at a time."

"Most likely, brat." The group turned to see Makarov coming into the room. "And if I had to guess, I can only think of one team here that would stoop that low. Too bad we don't have any evidence…"

Gajeel caught his meaning immediately, though sadly he hadn't been around for the last 7 years to act as a double (or maybe double-double?) agent for Fairy Tail. If Raven Tail was behind this, they could be disqualified from the games for attacking another team outside of the tournament. Now that he thought about it, there was a wizard in Raven Tail who was capable of this kind of magic when he left.

As more people from the guild came in to check on her, Gajeel slipped back out into the halls. He made his way to the B Team booth where Natsu was watching the games. Lucy's condition worried him, but he had something more pressing on his mind. He approached the other dragon slayer slowly, speaking in a whisper that he knew only dragon's ears would be able to pick up.

"Hey Natsu, I think there's something weird going on here."

"I'm listening," Natsu responded in similar tones that Gajeel knew were meant for him only.

"Two things that are weird," Gajeel replied quietly. "First, I followed a cloaked figure today because he had a… familiar scent. When I finally got a look at his face, he looked just like that Mystogan guy who's supposed to be in Edolas right now. The funny thing is, even though he smelled like Mystogan, he wasn't. The smell was close, but not the same, like a relative or something."

"Jellal…" Natsu muttered, his fists clenching at his sides.

"The one that's supposed to be in council prison?" Gajeel asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Natsu growled. "He must've escaped at some point. But that's hardly enough to be worrisome."

"Yeah," Gajeel said. "The other problem is a mystery wizard. He was also wearing a cloak, but it was different from anything I've ever felt before. The only time I've noticed something similar was when I felt a pulse of dark magic on Acnologia. When that guy attacked you and turned your scarf black."

"Oh yeah…" Natsu thought back to the island. The black-haired guy was important somehow. He had a famous name or something. "Something with a Z," he wondered aloud. "Zed… Zef… Zerf…"

"Zeref?" Gajeel asked, his eyes opening wide in shock.

"That's the one," Natsu confirmed. "But why would Zeref be here?"

"A better question is how would he be here?" Gajeel said quietly. "It seems impossible without the council noticing."

"Alright, keep your eyes and ears open." Natsu said with a shrug. "Right now there's nothing else we can do anyway. Let Wendy and Laxus know so we can all be alert. And be ready for anything."

Gajeel nodded and headed off to inform Laxus, and Wendy afterward.

After Gajeel left, Natsu turned his attention back to the battlefield. Chapati was announcing the first one-on-one battle of the day.

"Our first matchup is… Fairy Tail's Juvia Lockser vs. Raven Tail's Flare Corona!"

"Now this is an interesting match up," Yajima commented. "juvia Lockser, the rain woman and one of Fairy Tail's strongest S-class mages, against Flare Corona, who is known to use hair and fire magic. Will the water douse the flames? Or will the fire be strong enough to consume the water?"

"Well, we're about to find out!" Yajima exclaimed. "The match is starting now!"

As they called match start, Juvia made the first move with water slicer. Flare immediately whipped her hair in front of the attack, effectively blocking it and taking minimal damage. Her hair then shot out to attack Juvia, who gracefully avoided its attempts to snatch her.

"Water Nebula!" This attack hit Flare hard, knocking her back to the ground and many feet away. When Flare got up, scratched and bruised, Natsu saw fury in her eyes. Juvia moved into a defensive posture as the hair came forward again, prepared for whatever the fire mage might through at her.

Natsu couldn't see Flare's face, but he could see Juvia's. Juvia's features turned from cool readiness to shock and anger and then to resignation. Natsu quickly tuned his ear to the conversation.

"Say anything. Defend yourself. Try to alert your team. And she dies."

Natsu instantly scanned the stadium, finding the Fairy Tail booth. He focused on the spot, his enhanced dragon vision allowing him to see every little detail. Including a strand of red hair creeping out of the stonework right behind Asuka.

That bitch is threatening Asuka! Natsu thought as he quietly slipped from his team's booth. He didn't see what was happening in the battle as he raced to the Fairy Tail team booth. He didn't need to see it. He just needed to get to Asuka before that Raven Tail bitch… that coward, won the match. He got to the Fairy Tail booth quickly and grabbed Asuka, holding her above his head for Juvia to see.

"JUVIA!" He shouted as loudly as he could. He didn't care if she was on the opposing team. Nobody deserved to lose to a cheater. He saw Juvia look up at him and smile in relief.

"You…" Juvia said, now that she knew Asuka was safe. "You threaten a member of Juvia's guild who's not even in combat? A child no less? Cowards like you have no right to call yourselves mages." Juvia was so angry she was slipping in and out of third person. "Juvia will finish this now! Tsunami blade!"

The sound of rushing water filled the stadium like a waterfall, so that Natsu almost had to cover his sensitive ears to block out some of the sound. An enormous blade of water, at least 50 feet in length, formed over Juvia's head, the water swirling angrily along the blade and especially the tip. As soon as the blade was fully formed, it plunged toward Flare with blinding speed. The other girl sat there shaking in fear.

Then suddenly the attack disappeared. There was no impact. No deflection. It was just gone.

"It…. It can't be…" Juvia said, on her knees. Natsu surmised that between the beating she took before and the enormous power she put into that spell her magic reserves were depleted. But what had stopped the spell? It hadn't been Flare. Nor Juvia. Her magic was still as strong as ever till after the spell disappeared. That left only one possibility. Raven Tail cheated.

"Juvia is down, and that means Flare Corona wins this battle! 5 points go to Raven Tail. And they'll need it after Fairy Tail's early lead in the "hidden" game."

There were mixed reactions from the crowd. Some cheered, but many were just murmuring confusedly at what they'd seen. How had Flare won without even lifting a finger just when she was about to be utterly defeated?

Not bothering to watch the next match, since it wasn't going to have a Fairy Tail wizard in it, Natsu went to find Gajeel. Long ago he overheard the iron dragon slayer and Makarov talking about the guild Raven Tail. He knew Gajeel's involvement with the guild was supposed to be a secret, but if anyone could give him an explanation for what just happened, it was Gajeel.

He found him about halfway down the hall, coming from the Fairy Tail infirmary area where Wendy spent a lot of her time, and of course where Lucy was still recovering. Wendy said she would go out to watch Natsu battle, but had no interest in the other fights.

"Gajeel, I need your help with something." He told the iron dragon slayer.

"Gehe. The almighty Salamander needs my help?" Gajeel laughed.

Natsu then proceeded to explain what occurred during Juvia's battle with Flare, specifically the way her last attack was just suddenly nullified as though it hadn't happened. The entire time he watched Gajeel for a reaction, but as always the iron dragon slayer didn't let anything show as he talked.

"Anyway," he finished. "I need to know if anyone in Raven Tail has magic they could use to cancel her spell."

"How would I know anything about Raven Tail's wizards?"

"Because both you and gramps sometimes forget that you're not the only dragon slayer in the guild," Natsu replied. The iron dragon slayer's eyes widened a bit, but otherwise his expression didn't change. "But honestly, I don't need to know specifics. I just need to know if someone in Raven Tail could've interfered."

Gajeel sighed. "Yes, there is a wizard in Raven Tail that could have nullified her spell before it hit Flare. And I wouldn't put it past them to cheat like that. Though that was extremely bold, especially in front of a former magic council as well as the game referees. But from the sound of it, nobody suspected anything?"

"Well, it seemed as though Yajima thought it was strange," Natsu said, thinking about the former council member's reaction to the fight. "But I don't think he or anyone else actually saw what happened, so they couldn't do anything about it."

"Hmm…" Gajeel looked thoughtful for a few minutes, then just shrugged. "Eh well. It's not like they can keep doing it. One time might get passed over, but if it keeps happening somebody's bound to notice."

"I suppose," Natsu said quietly. "Well, we're going to keep an eye on them, at least. As to the other matter, have you informed Wendy and Laxus?"

"I did. But if I could ask a question, Salamander, why not inform Master Makarov?"

"We'll inform Makarov as soon as we're sure this is something worth his time. The old man already has a lot on his mind with Raven Tail's presence in the game, not to mention the appearance of First Master." Natsu nodded toward the exuberant, childlike figure sitting on the balcony with the Fairy Tail team.

"I suppose you're right." Gajeel said. "But now we need to get back to our booth. It seems the next fight is already over."

Natsu nodded, and he and Gajeel returned to the Fairy Tail B Team waiting area. They were just in time to hear the announcement.

"And for the next battle, we have the 4th ranked Wizard Saint pitted against the 5th ranked Wizard Saint. This will be a battle of epic proportions. People of Fiore, I give you Erza Scarlet vs. Jura Neekis!"

**And there's chapter 10. Next chapter: Erza vs. Jura, plus, when Gajeel and Laxus encounter the cloaked figure with Zeref-like magic, will they be able to unveil his or her identity? Find out in The Dragon Slayers of Fairy Tail: Chapter 11!

Oh, and don't forget to drop a review!**