LRC's mum just got out of hospital. Sorry this is a day late.
Criticism welcome! Unless it is pointless hate that really isn't getting anywhere.
Lucy p.o.v. ~ Time Skip to after Sky Labyrinth
In the stands, high and opposing in they sky they were, the people cheering a chorus as though the cherubim of the Heavens. That labyrinth had not presented difficulty - Gani locating the exit of the moving walkways, and Laxus stringing us there on a flash of lightning. There were a few seconds spare when we waited in darkness before emerging on the coarse same of the arena, the stadium halting in its cheers for Sabertooth, who had entered the door seconds before we. Once the other contestants had appeared in the ring, the procession and ribbons thrown into the air, we were excused to return to our sleeping quarters. The street was dark, hidden in the shade crimson-yellow street lamps, and the hotel was full of bustle as both Teams of Fairy Tail walked along the path. Natsu was livid that no one had been notified that two Teams were participating, though the others did not seem to mind much. "Stupid Fairies, think they're so great."
"Fro thinks so too." Curved from a pitched voice, and turning on my heel, one hand raised to tease my hair behind my ear, I saw a foxy Exceed and one in a frog costume. Juvia was quick to broadcast, somewhere in the recesses of our minds, that she thought the small frog was cute. "Fro thinks he is so stupid." The frog squealed, paw raised flat at Happy, who was hidden in the shadows of the Fairy Tail Teams.
The brown Exceed stepped forward from the feet of a smirking Sting, his green waistcoat pulled tight with shaking paws. An insatiable need to prove ourselves had me summoning wind, the laughing chorus dancing through the air towards them as it stirred our hair. "I could take the weakling down." A shudder ran through me, a sort of trepidation of adrenaline as I looked into the eyes of the White Dragon Slayer, his Exceed almost an embodiment of confidence.
The Exceed, Lector if I remember after all these years, ran towards Happy, my comrade having stepped from between our feet and was shuffling forward. When it came time Happy snatched the other by his neck, his body flickering with Magic and with fire as he grew to his human form. "Listen here, brat." Happy snarled, teeth sharp as they were bared. "You are exceedingly weak. You are pathetic," Happy's thumb ran over the shaking brats chin, my friends eyes glowing as wisps of his hair flew forth. "Not worthy of our royal title of Exceed." The malice in that voice grew with each word, the words and voice his own, such was our corruption. "An Exceed who would climb on the back of others, doing nothing for himself, is not an Exceed."
"That's so odd, the bare truth being revealed and yet you look so hurt, Lector." Geni had been the one to speak, something having obviously caught her eye as she swung her hips leisurely. "Frosch appears to hold a sort of emotional support and stability. Pantherlily is a warrior. Carla is the intellectual type. Samuel is both a warrior and an intellectual. Happy himself, well, this one has an array of Magic." Geni looked over Happy's shoulder, our comrade lowering her shoulders to look into the eyes of the Exceed below. There was a fear there, tangible. Almost sacred in our lights. "All you can do is praise Sting. Geni, she uh, fails to see how that could be of use to anyone. Much less to an Exceed such as you." With a scoff my Spirit picked the Exceed into her hands, appraising him for a moment before dropping him at the feet of Sting, who shook with something that seemed a step between fear and anger. "You are more a hindrance than beneficial." Happy was quick to release his Magic hold on his form, resting himself close to Geni's side as she spoke. "Learn to do something, tom-cat. Or you may find that very soon, you shall be dead." With a wink Geni turned back to us, her hips moving in an arch as she walked.
That sort of violence between Guilds had been allowed by the rules of the Grand Magic Games as the Council appeared to view it as the same as trash talking. It was also unlikely that it would cause any damage to the Team as Lector was not competeing.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, bitch?" Geni turned her head, and I felt through our bound how her brow rose as she looked at Sting, the man shaking in anguish as his own Team stifled laughter. The Slayer threw himself at Geni, who skipped to the side to hover on the edge of the river-wall. When the Slayer threw a roar at her, such was his pain, I do not think I had it in me to make fun of him. Despite my hollow soul I laughed when rain tumbled from the sky to douse the Magic. Words were cried to the sky, as if it would give him pity.
Sting rose with the two fingers I placed under his chin, blue eyes defiant for some cause that sparked a sense of annoyance in me. "Save yourself for the Games, boy." It was with no amount of strength that I was able to fling him to the ground at the feet of his partner. "We have stayed clear of you, but you have chosen to come to us." One man, his name I have lost meaning to over the years, held a hand to a feather hat and opened his mouth as if to speak had I not interrupted him. "We know full well that your housing is the other side of Crocus. You have no business here." With a smile, red lipstick stretching over my lips, I walked into the inn nearby, where I could already hear the old man sending up a cheer, the others following in my steps.
Rufus p.o.v.
The thunder laughed as the rain fell harshly from the clouded night sky, my own Team mates turning their laughter to me, and I felt no worse for ware when I chuckled alongside then. Sting, as proud as he may have been, looked to utterly pathetic laying on the ground to protect Lector, but that poor idiot could not see that the Fairies never meant any harm. The words were true enough, something almost gleeful in their delivery - Lector was weak in a lot of ways, and only of use to Sting and himself. That was one thing of that night that I stored away was the name of that girl - of Geni who had seemed almost the reason why Lector was not throttled to death. We had watched with jest as the blonde girl picked our friend from the ground, two fingers all she needed to make him rise in a mimic of what he did to others. It was an action Sting often used, but never had it seemed to intimate than when it was him on his knees. "Save yourself for the Games, boy." It did not appear to be an act of belittling him, but rather friendly advice until she flung him, Lector in arms, to the feet of Rouge, whose stare - I remember - was full of mirth for the fallen comrade. The woman, Lucy I know, let her hands fall to rest on the straps cutting into her thighs; one held a whip and the other a ring of Keys. The thought that such a woman was a Celestial Mage was frightening, and silently we knew never to ask Yukino about it as it would make the woman seem weak. "We have stayed clear of you, but you have chosen to come to us." When I raised my hand to my hand, fingers feeling the coarse stitching the woman lent forward, perhaps unconsciously, to look under the lowered brim of my hat. "We know full well that your housing is the other side of Crocus. You have no business here." Many of her Guild left with her, entering an inn with joyous yells. One man remained, one with pink hair, flaming fists, and a hateful glare.
There was a chuckle, the woman I wished to remember playing with Frosch on the precipice of the river, her acts having gone unnoticed by us all. The woman stood, hands brushing lightly to remove invisible dust from her glowing skin. "You go in too, Natsu." She moved swiftly to hook one her arms into his, apparently oblivious, or indifferent, to the heat of the fire he spewed as she dragged that Slayer to the door of their shared quarters. That was something I found to last in my later memories, her mocking gesture as she relished his seeming disdain for her. Frosch daintily held a circular charm in his paws, the swirls almost rolling like a riptide in the emerging moonlight. As the girl disappeared through the wooden door of her inn, her ankle holding similar charms on a golden chain. "Good night, Sabertooth. Geni hopes you sleep well." Voice crisp, words sharp and eyes wondrous as the door closed.
Breathtaking.
When my attention turned to Sting, the poor man clinging for dear life to the Exceed who cries were muffled into his Slayer's chest. "You two really are pathetic." Minerva muttered as she dragged the two from the ground, a slap echoing in the streets through the rain. "You're Sabertooth Mages, sadly. If Master were to find out, oh my." Her lips curved, rain sliding down the side of her nose. "In a life or death situation Frosch is fucking adorable and therefore no threat." It was surprising, something I held in memories for a long time, that Minerva allowed Fairy Tail so much credit. "Patherlily, aight, I've seen him spar. He'd be fine. As would this Samuel, that freaky one to. Carla would likely predict it before anything happened." A brow was raised, and we turned from the women to look into the blinding yellow lamps. "But you would die. Not because you are not a threat, but simply because you are so fucking annoying."
We watched, silent despite the rowdy Guild inn close by, as Rouge tried to coax Frosch to give up the trinket in his paws, but he would not give it up. Even to Minerva, Frosch refused to give it up, shaking as he was in his suit. Frosch proudly clipped the charm to his collar - this, I know, caused much annoyance to Rouge. For the longest of times that shadow had tried to give the Exceed a tag, always to have it refused by the frog. "We should return to the hotel." Although the voice was dull and blank, his eyes sparked an aggravated red. "Master Jiemma will want a report."
There was little hesitance to our route, each of us jumping over the river to walk through the rotten streets of lower Crocus. Early in our trip Rouge had stopped attempting to rid the bauble from Frosch's neck, the Exceed had held onto it furiously as though it was something vitally precious. When we finally arrived to the hotel where the Master was shouting at some poor soul who was, a short time later, stripped and lost to the Guild. "Well?" Was all that came from the Master's mouth, his body hunched over a table.
Orga slumped onto the suite across from the Master, myself sitting by his side as though his sheer mass could hide me. "They knew we were following." The words rumbled with lightning. "Only some of them. Others appeared oblivious." Sometimes it did seem as though Orga was intelligent, but at other times he was a s stupid as the rock I am sure he crawled from. "We're still the strongest." As his paw beat at his chest the Master's irises seemed to emerge.
"Fro thinks the Fai-" The voice of Frosch was muffled by Rouge who stuffed his Exceed into the recesses of his clock, the Master unable to hear of it. There was a brief moment when I pondered what it was that had the Saber-loving Exceed pining after a Fairy. When I attempted to reach into Frosch's memories of the unusual Mage, I saw two small paws reaching for the anklet, the Mage not noticing for a moment but when the paws tugged at a charm the Fairy sank to the ground to pet what I supposed was the head of Frosch. Although her lips moved, something hazed the air and made it difficult to reach the words but I was still able to see as she plucked the pendant from her anklet, gold light flowing from her fingertips into the charm, the patterns swirling. From Frosch's memory I watched the emerald eyes turn blue and gold.
"Whatever the problem, we will win." Master threw a hand above his head, our Guild cheering for his words. "We are Sabertooth." Rang threw the din, my eyes glazed as I looked blankly around my Guild Mates, fear settling in me for the look in the girls eyes when they had changed. It was as though she was looking at me, staring through Frosch at me. With fear I preserved her, and with fear I remember her.
~ Next Day
My arms spread wide against the wind, standing on my toes in hope of being able to see my competitors. It was almost laughable how like night and day Fairy Tail was, one Teams succeeding whilst the other fell. Perhaps it was not as bad as Quatro Cerberus or Mermaid Heel, but it would seem the Ice Make Mage was failing. Raising my fingers to my temples, Magic spawning along my veins the Magic Circles appeared to seal the fate of whoever dared oppose me. "Memory Make," Darkness fell over the arena as I gathered light to myself, and I felt almost desperate as I rushed the Magic to track each contestant. "Night of the Fallen Stars." It was with satisfaction, and relief, that I watched the Magic hit each mark.
Except one. That woman from Fairy Tail, who was nowhere to be seen.
"That's the thing about your Magic, really." Whispered through the air behind me, as though on the wind that spun around the stadium. When I turned the woman was standing on one of the lower houses, eyes almost pitying as she regarded my form. "For a split second, just as you cast the spell," One of her hands raised, one eye closing as she targeted my chest with that porcelain sculpture of a hand. "You reveal your true body." From these fingers bent water poles, each entering my chest as I flew backwards, the after-image still casting the spell. Hurtling to land on the streets of the fake town below, though as I landed it turned to the sandy base of the arena, I, for a moment, caught the gaze that for years haunted my thoughts. A breath of false wind sucked me higher, the Water Mage walking past me to the exits as she muttered words that seemed redolent of pain and death. "Your Magic, we finds it offensively flashy." Time seemed to slow as the words dripped like poison from her berried lips.
Of the matches that came when I sat in the balcony, pondering my fate at Sabertooth, Flare of Raven Tail was no match for Orga. Hibiki of Blue Pegasus unable to fight against Yuka of Lamia Scale. Semmes of Quatro Cerberus presenting no difficulty, but rather a bore, to Gajeel of Fairy Tail A. And despite her incessant proclamations of never underestimating the chubby girl, Risley of Mermaid Heel lay scorched in the infirmary thanks to Laxus of Fairy Tail B.
Levy p.o.v.
From our balcony we cheered as Laxus defeated Risley, and as I stood by Wendy to watch the secret Fairy Tail Team we watched as Lucy sidled up to him, appearing more confident than I had ever known her to be. Laxus treated that knew girl to a pat on the head, her green eyes flaring as he mussed her hair with his paw, static causing it to rise with his hand. There was something of a shudder in me, and Cana reached for my hand to squeeze but as she did I saw the Death Card on the stones that separated us from them, and fate had never seemed so bleak as it had then despite all that told us life was well.
There were times when I caught the eye of another, someone who seemed to have picked up on the same feeling I had, but at later times it seemed as though forgotten by all but me, such was the joy that Team inspired.
Raven Tail - 0
Mermaid Heel - 1
Quatro Cerberus - 3
Blue Pegasus - 6
Fairy Tail A - 12
Lamia Scale - 14
Sabertooth - 18
Fairy Tail B - 20
