Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything but Charlotte Phantomhive, Vulpecula, or Nick/Phoenix.

Warnings: same as in previous chapters.

Enjoy!


Lucy's eye twitched.

Silence.

She fidgeted slightly.

Silence.

"I'm sorry, okay?!" she groaned, feeling a little creeped out at Natsu's petulant stare.

The pinkette pouted. "Seriously, though?"

"I already said I was sorry." Lucy sighed, turning to him. "I found out during your guys' absence that Mira had a long-term plan to get us together, and she wouldn't give up even though Levy told her it wouldn't work out. I wanted to nip that idea in the bud just in case she tried to separate me and Laxus so she could get us together."

Natsu grimaced at the very idea, but wasn't sure that Mirajane wouldn't try that. She was rather known for being rather persistent when it came to the people she shipped together, after all.

"She-Demon." He sighed, resigned. "Still, did you have to throw me under the bus?"

"Better you than me." Lucy said with a shrug. "And it would've happened eventually. You were lucky that you managed to feign obliviousness for so long so she wouldn't target you sooner."

Natsu scowled, realizing that his nonexistent love-life would soon get a lot more eventful if Mirajane had anything to say about it.

"Though, I get why you don't want her interfering." Lucy said, leaning back against her chair as she stared up into the sky. "My father was always talking about choosing a husband for me, like I couldn't choose for myself, and the 'suitors' he chose were always people who would help him with the Konzern in some way or another. I'm glad I managed to avoid Mira's matchmaking schemes because though I love her dearly, I don't need anyone trying to manipulate that particular aspect of my life…"

Unbeknownst to the pair (Natsu because he was too bummed out to notice the scent), a certain white-haired barmaid and S-Class mage was right around the corner, listening to their conversation.

At first she had been annoyed that Natsu's oblivious act was apparently to trick her in particular, but then she heard Lucy's reasoning, and she had to smother a gasp of horror so that the Fire Dragon Slayer wouldn't realize that they had an audience.

She had known that Jude Heartfilia had hired Phantom Lord to bring Lucy back to him so that she would marry someone, but she hadn't even considered the fact that she herself had also been planning to more or less force Lucy into a relationship with Natsu.

She wouldn't have actually broken up Lucy and Laxus, of course, but admittedly she had been pretty sure that they would break up at some point and NaLu would prevail.

Until Natsu declared his own lack of romantic affection for the blonde Celestial Spirit mage.

…What a mess.

Her own guildmates, her friends, didn't trust her not to try and interfere with their lives, and she didn't blame them.

She took a deep breath, hearing Max's announcement that her battle with Erza would begin in five minutes, and continued on her way down to the arena to prepare for the fight.

But her mind wandered.

Maybe she should only actively try to help people's love lives along if they asked for it, instead of just doing it and assuming that they would thank her eventually.


"And now…for the event that many of us have been waiting for years to see…S-Class mages and old rivals Erza 'Titania' Scarlet against Mirajane 'She-Demon' Strauss!" Max screamed at the top of his lungs.

When the gong sounded, however, the Sand mage immediately ducked for cover.

Smart man.


The two women stared at each other, not moving a muscle.

Dark blue eyes met brown.

Mirajane smiled prettily, and Erza raised an eyebrow.

Very few in the crowd could follow what happened next.

One second they had been standing still at opposite ends of the arena, and the next they were locked in close combat, Erza in her Heaven's Wheel armor and Mirajane using her Satan Soul Takeover form.

As if the looks on the two beautiful women's faces weren't terrifying enough, the power behind the blows when one of them managed to land a hit made everyone cringe in sympathetic pain, hoping that they would never be hit by either woman (except Natsu, of course.)

And this was supposed to be a friendly battle, too.

Then again, Erza never had understood the concept of 'holding back,' as Lisanna and Juvia could attest, and Mirajane apparently had no issue matching her intensity.


Makarov whimpered pathetically as he watched the two most powerful women in Fairy Tail (or at least the two most powerful before the new members had joined up) duke it out at full-power.

Oh, the property damage…

His head slumped onto the railing. 'The paperwork…'


"This is going to end in a draw, isn't it?" Lucy murmured, watching the battle closely.

Both of her friends were heavily bruised and slightly bloody, as was to be expected. Both were rather determined to win, however, which was also expected.

"I believe it's time to finish this." Erza observed, changing into her Purgatory armor, which she considered her most powerful requip. She expertly wielded the huge spiked mace with one hand.

"Yes, let's." Mira agreed, glowing for a moment before appearing in her Satan Soul: Halphas form.

Her appearance was that of a demon with a light blue color scheme. Scales on her arms and legs that took the appearance of armored boots and gloves with fins, long horns with the ends causing her to have blue scales on her face. She wore a light and dark blue one-piece that exposed most of her belly, cleavage, and upper back, and two light blue angel-like wings.


"STOP THE FIGHT!" Makarov screamed in panic as they made to attack again.

The two girls paused in their movements, turning to look at the small man.

"What's wrong, Master?" Erza asked with a frown, ignoring Macao mutter to himself mutinously. "A winner has not yet been declared."

"There won't be anyone to declare a winner if you two keep this up!" Makarov cried. "There's a reason I banned Mirajane from using that Takeover. She destroyed an entire city in seconds. And pair that with your Purgatory armor…"

"Oh!" Mirajane gasped in a deeper than normal voice, suddenly transforming back into her normal Satan Soul form. "I apologize, Master. I got caught up in the battle."

Likewise, Erza changed into her Black Wing armor.

"May we continue?" the redhead asked hopefully.

"Um…maybe some other time." Makarov sweat-dropped as he took in the utterly destroyed battle grounds, though the stands at least had been warded so the audience wasn't in any danger. "I hope this place is insured."

"It is!" Wakaba called out. "We checked!"


Toph huffed in annoyance.

"What's wrong?" Rin asked curiously.

"I didn't get to see the match." She complained.

"You're blind, though." He pointed out, confused. "Isn't that kind of…expected?"

He yelped when Meredy punched his shoulder.

"She meant seeing using her magic, doofus." The pinkette explained, rolling her eyes. "Sorry, Toph. Most of it took place in the air…"

Toph sighed. "Story of my life."

Rin and Meredy glanced at each other in confusion at the strange comment, but decided not to ask.


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