My Own Way

by OuzoAthena11

Lisanna is back. And everything changes because Lucy goes on a mission by herself. No, she wasn't injured, everything went perfectly. In fact, so well she got a book that opened a bunch of new possibilities for her and her magic. She makes new firm friends along the way, and they all have their own troubled pasts.

20. Chapter 20: GMG, Days 6 and 7

A/n Chapter 19 is here! Two more completed to be posted over the next two Saturdays and then I have no idea when I'll have the next ones ready. I am really deep into Star Wars right now and writing for other projects is... difficult.

Lucy woke up the next day and was relieved that the pain had dulled overnight. She still had the burns, but it wasn't nearly as bad. She could live with that, even if she wasn't allowed to compete yet. She went through her morning routine, being careful in the shower and with getting dressed, and then woke up Wendy. Mira had already left, probably to make their lunch for the day. Lucy was just happy to be allowed to leave the room. She patted her keys on her hip and hummed a little to herself as she finished getting ready.

Then she headed out to go meet with Laxus. He had not woken in nearly so good a mood, which considering everything they had talked about the night before it made sense. She could feel his mood improving, and wondered if that was because she was so happy this morning. Laxus met her and smiled slightly.

"I was thinking just hitting the breakfast buffet here might be our best bet," he commented. "We don't know how much the city knows about what happened with the other night, and I'd rather not be getting stares or anything before the Games start."

Lucy nodded. "That works for me. As long as I get to eat, I'm getting pretty hungry after all."

"Good. I think Belle is going to join us, she's been pretty lonely while we're dealing with the games, even if Asuka likes playing with her."

"Works for me." Lucy nodded. "It's been good seeing Belle be more independent though."

"Yeah, I didn't want her to be quite like Happy who generally doesn't do anything without Natsu."

"Well, ready?"

Laxus nodded, and took her hand before they left the suite. They met up with Freed, Bixlow, and Evergreen at the buffet, and Belle happily hugged Laxus as they gathered their food for breakfast. All of them took quite a bit, ignoring the looks they were getting. People who didn't understand just how much mages, let alone dragon slayers could consume. And with the Games, it was always best to eat as much as possible so that they would have enough fuel to get through the day.

Eventually though, they had to head out. By then, Gajeel, Mira, Levy, Wendy, and even Erza and Gray had joined them for breakfast. It was a very nice, relaxed atmosphere, which definitely helped with any trepidation Lucy and Laxus were feeling after the previous day and how that had all gone down.

Lucy rolled her eyes when their friends followed, and casually walked in a group. A group that put Laxus and Lucy solidly in the middle, probably to help avoid any problems. It was a nice gesture, even if Laxus and Lucy could handle themselves just fine.

They settled into the box when they arrived, and were pleased to see that the Raven Tail team box and the guild box were empty, their guild seal no where in sight. They had been disqualified after all. That was a good feeling. And, Laxus relaxed, no longer nearly as tense as he had been all morning. He had been worried about having to face Raven Tail again after all.

They just had to wait a further thirty minutes for the stadium to fill up and the day to officially start. Lucy sighed and leaned on Laxus. This was always the most boring part of the morning. She did end up engaging in conversation with Mira about how the meeting with the princess went, though kept the details to herself as the princess had requested. Mira had pouted a little at that but relented.

Finally, however, the day was started. "Welcome to day 6 of the Grand Magic Games! I hope all our contestants are well rested after the break and able to show off once more! We do have some news. Raven Tail has come under investigation, and it was discovered that the guild leader had disguised himself as Alexei in order to compete, so they have been disqualified for that alone. We cannot speak about anything else about the investigation, however. And that changes up the standings a little..."

He rattled them off, though it really hadn't done much besides shift some teams up one rank compared to before. So it didn't matter that much. Lucy was just wondering how the battle portion of the day would work now that there were an odd number of teams.

"Today our event will be a team event- each team needs to send three of their members down to compete in this event. You will get more details once all teams are assembled."

"Wendy, Laxus, and Freed," Lucy suggested. "They've trained together and know how to work together, plus Wendy has some good healing tricks now." She was a little disappointed she wouldn't be able to participate, but that would still be a good team line up for them.

Gajeel grumbled, but conceded. "Only if I can compete tomorrow. I want to try one of these events some time."

"Okay, that's fair," Lucy sighed. "I just hope that it's one suited to you."

"I'll be fine." Gajeel waved it off.

Lucy gave Laxus a quick kiss before the three headed out to go join the teams in the arena. She noticed that Sabertooth had sent Rufus, Orga, and that woman who took Yukino's spot for the event. That was a bit surprising, she had heard that Sting and Rogue worked well together, but maybe Sabertooth was going for something different this time.

Erza, Cana, and Gray joined them. And then the Lamia Scale team went down, with Lyon, Cheria, and Toby. That was going to be an interesting combination, and would have Lyon and Gray facing off for the first time in the Games. She made note of the others, but it was getting hard for her to keep up with, aside from recognizing them. There were so many people down in the arena now for this event. Way too many, really. Fifteen teams, three from each, made forty five people down there for competing.

"Alright, now that everyone is ready, today's event is capture the flag. Only, each team will get a stash of little flags, and the goal is to collect as many from the other teams as possible in the next hour. However you may only collect one flag from a team at a time, and you must wait at least five minutes before trying to take another flag from that same team. You may choose any strategy to protect your flags as you'd like, you are just not allowed to carry them with you. You have ten minutes to come up with a strategy and get it set up somewhere in the arena." The arena changed to look like a town with a forest and river off to one side.

Lucy leaned forward in interest- Freed out there would mean they could set up some runes to lessen the likelihood of people collecting their flags, which would also mean they could just all go hunting for flags. Or maybe they would be going with a different strategy. She was looking forward to this. It would be entertaining to watch, that was for sure.

Freed started setting up runes around the two story house they selected while Wendy placed the flags throughout the house, not in one place. That was clever. Lucy nodded. That way even if one team found a flag and got away with it, they would have to find a different hiding spot next time they wanted a flag. This game would be a combination of how well could teams protect their flags and how well they could find and fight for the other flags.

Laxus put a couple on the roof while Wendy did that. Lucy turned her attention to the other teams. Gray was freezing groups of flags, no more than it looked like five to a group, and they were also hiding those flags. It was funny how every flag had the guild seal with the teams from the same guild having different colors. It looked like Lyon was just freezing all of them in one bunch. Interesting choices, to freeze the flags. That would make them harder to get to, since they'd have to melt or chip them to access the flags.

Lucy was looking forward to it by the time they had to gather again, having hidden their flags, and in order to hide where the flags were and who was going to be guarding them. Laxus and Freed seemed pretty relaxed and calm. Lucy could tell Laxus was amused by how they chose to hide their flags, plus the fact that Freed had been able to set up random rune traps over the town, with more closer to their stash.

"Now that your flags are ready, there is one more thing you need to be aware of. For every flag you get, you will receive one point, but for every flag of your own you lose you will lose one point. So you better be sure no one can take your flags or you might find yourselves in the negatives before you end the game if you can't make up with the rest of the flags you collect. Good luck. The countdown... 5. 4. 3. 2. 1." Everyone was chanting along and shouted "GO!" with the announcer.

Lucy flinched at the influx of noise but then watched in interest as Wendy, Freed, and Laxus split up. Wendy was going for the easy targets right away, while Laxus was tackling the harder ones, avoiding Fairy Tail to avoid Erza, Cana, and Gray because even Cana can be a bit difficult to fight. Especially depending on how sober she was.

Other teams set up different tactics. Usually one person guarding and two people collecting flags or collecting them separately. Minerva for Sabertooth (so that was her name) was guarding the flags for Sabertooth and it soon became apparent why. She was very vicious and anyone fighting her would have a hard time finding flags and escaping with one. Laxus made one attempt, barely managing to get away with a flag through teleportation and then he quickly informed Freed and Wendy, allowing Wendy to heal him before they went their separate ways once more.

Some teams were harder to get around than others, but even Wendy had a good chance against most of the guards on the flags. She also just kind of enjoyed collecting flags in general, it was a nice challenge. At one point, she reunited with Laxus and Freed to tackle one of the harder teams, hoping to loose them another point in order to get further ahead, and managed to sneak in an healing attack on Freed and Laxus from a distance when it looked like they were getting worn down. Other teams weren't doing so well, many were losing flags as fast as they were gaining them.

The funniest part was all the teams getting caught in the rune traps. Some couldn't use magic while in it, some had to battle others until they were the only ones left standing, others had to use magic in a certain way to get out, and then others just had to wait it out in the box until the timer ran out and the trap freed them on their own. It was hilarious watching their reaction to being trapped, especially if two or three of the same team were stuck in the traps on their own. In the traps with their own rules, they would release the competitors after seven minutes rather than five. Which was a good chunk of time considering they had sixty minutes total. Lucy snickered. Freed had stuck the traps everywhere, and had spent some of the opening time setting up more to trap people.

After discovering the first few, Gray and Erza were careful about triggering them and following the rules. Cana had stayed behind to protect the flags, which was a good choice. Her card magic was pretty good, and no one would expect it. She only lost a couple of flags in the time they had. The commentators had a hard time keeping up with all the action and figuring out who to comment on, which was hilarious the way they'd cut themselves off to talk about other more exciting fights.

As was becoming typical, the top eight teams did better in both areas compared to the rest of the teams. And before long, time was running out, giving some teams a panicked outlook as they frantically tried to pick up more flags from the other teams. But some teams just had their flags too well protected, while the weakest members of the weakest teams had a hard time even with the other weaker teams, making it hard for them to even pick up one flag. While they were losing flags pretty quickly, and it would've been faster if it weren't for the five minute rule, limiting the amount flags they could retrieve to twelve per team, and few went to that.

By the end, Freed, Laxus, and Wendy, were working together at trying to whittle down points for other teams, pretty confident in the amount they had collected. They were mostly looking to stay in the top three right now, not trying to get the most, besides whittling their biggest competition down was going to really help. In the last five minutes, they approached the Sabertooth A hideout.

After a whispered conversation, they entered and promptly started attacking Minerva, not giving her much opportunity to pull out any of her attacks Laxus had already seen. This was further enhanced by Wendy applying a spell through an attack that increased her speed while decreasing her defense, which basically resulted in her getting a little more banged up by overshooting her targets than normal. Then with Freed and Laxus keeping her attention, Wendy grabbed one of the flags, and ran out. She turned at the door and used a dragon roar to heal them as the signal that she was clear. Freed flew off after her and Laxus teleported away while Minerva screamed in rage.

Lucy snickered at the smug satisfaction Laxus was feeling at that result. They probably would be targeted more by Minerva now, but that wasn't exactly going to be anything they weren't expecting with Fairy Tail performing so well. It was just entertaining how much Minerva would hate them and want them destroyed now that they had pretty much humiliated her, and shown the best team work out of all the teams. Erza, Cana, and Gray were showing some pretty good teamwork, in how they hid the flags, and how well Erza and Gray worked together, and didn't seem to be in any rush about the potential to lose flags like other teams.

Blue Pegasus had pretty good teamwork, with Nichiya flying Ichiya around to collect flags while Ren protected theirs. Lamia Scale had the next best team work, with Toby guarding the flags, and doing okay since Lyon had frozen them, and Lyon and Cheria working well together. Quatro Cerberus, both teams, seemed to have surprisingly good teamwork but that might've just been because they had the same amount of enthusiasm, and with one of their team members (Semmes) out of the Games at least temporarily for how he'd been defeated on Day five, that meant that another guy was in there; Bacchus, and he was actually pretty strong, which was giving team A a better chance than they'd have.

Lucy wondered why he hadn't actually been on the team before, but then, given his drunken fist and palm magic, and the fact he seemed to like drinking alcohol, maybe he hadn't even wanted to be on the team at all and only agreed to be a substitute.

Shortly after Fairy Tail B secured a second flag from Sabertooth, time was announced, and everyone told to present their collected flags for tallying. After a few minutes, the announcer finally got ready to announce the results.

"Alright, let's start with how many flags each team lost. Noble Centaur, Twilight Ogre, and White Unicorn all lost eleven flags each. Golden Griffin lost nine flags. Phoenix Feather and Banshee Wail lost eight flags. Quatro Cerberus B and Quatro Cerberus A lost seven flags. Sabertooth B and Blue Pegasus lost five flags. Mermaid Heel lost three flags, while the remaining four teams- Fairy Tail A and B, Sabertooth A, and Lamia Scale each lost two flags."

Lucy blinked in surprise and wondered who got around the defenses for the other three teams, and the fact that her team was the only one able to steal a flag from Sabertooth A. That would surely get Minerva more on the warpath with their team. Oh well. It happened.

"Now, for how many flags each team acquired: Twilight Ogre got zero flags, Noble Centaur and White Unicorn each got one flag. Golden Griffin got two flags. Banshee Wail got three flags. Phoenix Feather and Quatro Cerberus B got five flags. Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth B got eight flags. Lamia Scale, and Quatro Cerberus A and Blue Pegasus got nine flags. Fairy Tail A got ten flags. Fairy Tail B got eleven flags. Sabertooth A got twelve flags."

Lucy nodded. Sabertooth being in the lead on this one wasn't a surprise, but at least it was only by one. All that was left was the standings. She hoped they turned out alright. They should, Sabertooth A had fallen behind, so two extra points to Fairy Tail's wasn't going to do much to put Sabertooth back on top, which was always a good thing.

"This means, that in the end, Twilight Ogre is in last place. Noble Centaur and White Unicorn is in thirteenth place. Golden Griffin is in twelfth place. Banshee Wail is in eleventh place. Phoenix Feather is in tenth place. Quatro Cerberus B is in ninth place. Quatro Cerberus A is in eighth place. Sabertooth B is in seventh place and Blue Pegasus is in sixth place. Mermaid Heel is in fifth place, Lamia Scale is in fourth place. Fairy Tail A is in third place, Fairy Tail B in second, and Sabertooth A is in first place!" The cheers were pretty deafening.

"Now, as you might recall, we normally pair up teams in the battle portion, only there's an odd number of teams. We told the teams who would most likely end up in last place after this event that whoever ends in last place today will be eliminated before the battle portion in order to make the teams even again, and make it easier on the organizers. So let's take a look at the standings now!"

"In last place with 19 points is Twilight Ogre! Noble Centaur is in fourteenth place with 20 points. White Unicorn is in thirteenth place with 29 points. Golden Griffin is in twelfth place with 40 points. Quatro Cerberus B is in eleventh place with 42 points. Banshee Wail is in tenth place with 47 points and Phoenix Feather is in ninth place with 49 points. In eighth place is Quatro Cerberus A with 73 points. Tied for sixth place is Blue Pegasus and Sabertooth B with 95 points. Then in fifth place we have Mermaid Heel with 118 points. In fourth place is Lamia Scale with 152 points! Then in third place is Fairy Tail A with 153 points! Second place is Sabertooth A with 154 points, while Fairy Tail B is in first place with 156 points!" There was a pause for the cheers. "Sorry, Twilight Ogre, it looks like you're out of the Grand Magic Games now."

Lucy grinned and looked over at Twilight Ogre. They looked very put out about it. A couple were banging at the wall and a few were yelling. And there were a few mages that looked suspiciously like they were trying to hide tears. The leader of the guild however was looking over to the Fairy Tail box solemnly, and he even gave Master Makarov a terse nod. That was an interesting change.

Wendy, Laxus, and Freed came up, all three looking pretty pleased with themselves. Laxus hugged Lucy quickly before sitting down and grabbing a sandwich. Mira had already set them out. Lucy giggled a bit as they ate quickly.

"That was pretty fun to watch," she commented. "You did good, and I'm pretty sure you're the only ones who got any flags from Sabertooth A."

Laxus smirked. "Good. Hopefully they learned a lesson about continuing to underestimate us."

"I can't believe that my runes didn't keep everyone out," Freed muttered after finishing his sandwich. He grabbed another. "They were pretty foolproof."

"Oh we all know you always leave some backdoor way out, not just to keep fights like this fair, but so that you have an out just in case."

Freed went a little pink. "Okay, that's true. I do like to play fair," he admitted. "But I still made them pretty obscure. Half the traps required them to not use magic at all."

"It was pretty brilliant!" Wendy exclaimed, still beaming. She had eaten just as much as Freed so far, but had slowed down.

"You looked like you were having fun," Lucy remarked as she grabbed a sandwich and leaned on Laxus.

"I was. I think this was the most fun game they've done so far," Wendy added thoughtfully as she wiped her mouth. She considered the cooler of sandwiches then decided to just drink some more water. "I hope the others are like this. I bet this was fun to watch too."

Lucy nodded. "Way more fun than the other games so far."

"I agree," Mira spoke up as she put everything away. She had been keeping track of how much was eaten, and with even Laxus having slowed down, thought it was safe to put away the food. "The others were entertaining, but there was something about the chaos of this one that was interesting to watch."

"They probably wanted to ensure the hardest and most entertaining ones were saved for later on in order to make the ending of the Games more entertaining," Freed suggested. He looked out over the arena and considered further. "I suppose that means that we need to be prepared for rather difficult ones in the future."

"As long as I get to do some fightin' I don't care," Gajeel grumbled. "It gets boring up here. But I guess it wasn't too bad watching ya with those flags."

Lucy snickered. "I think you're holding up better about the fighting than Natsu is."

"How do you know?" Mira queried, tilting her head.

"Because Natsu hates watching other people fight, and has no patience. Gajeel at least is patient enough compared to Natsu. It wouldn't surprise me if Natsu started picking fights just to release all that pent up energy."

"Then hopefully he has a match today before he can get himself in trouble," Laxus responded, shaking his head.

There was some more conversation after that, mostly talking strategy and discussing the different magics they had seen. Pretty much every magic had been seen at this point, aside from maybe the the substitutes of each team. And whether or not they needed to take those into consideration really depending on how injured their teammates got. So it wasn't really worth considering. Eventually, finally, the ten minute warning was given. The audience scrambled back to their seats while those still waiting in line for food groaned and grumbled about still being in line and possibly missing the start of the battles.

"Alright," Lucy stretched lightly. "Now for the battles... hopefully this goes well. I'd prefer us getting a team that isn't in the top eight, give us an easier battle and keep the pressure off."

Laxus nodded. "As boring as it would be, that is the ideal situation."

Gajeel had not been contributing after a while as he apparently was still reading the book on dragon slaying, though it looked like he was finally near the end. Lucy wondered when else he had been reading it, but figured probably in the hotel room where no one would notice, much like where they were now in their box.

"And welcome back! It's time for the Day 6 battles! First up is Mirajane Strauss of Fairy Tail B!" Whatever else was said was a little drowned out by all the excited cheers from the audience.

Mira stood up. "I can handle this," she smiled sweetly before heading down to meet her opponent.

The opponent was from Phoenix Feather, and like all mages from that guild he had magic to do with fire. Mira went with her Satan soul right away. It was rather fascinating how the other mage used his magic. It seemed that he could make ice, but only out of his fire. So he would cause fire around the arena, try to catch Mira on fire, and then it would turn to ice. It would likely work on most opponents. But Mira was S-Class and she was fast. He didn't stand much of a chance.

Their win was announced, and it was right into the next battle. White Unicorn versus Noble Centaur. Animal takeover magic versus wood make magic. It was interesting, but the animal takeover mage had strength on his side, and won that one.

Then it was Quatro Cerberus A versus Banshee Wail. Quatro Cerberus managed to pull of a win after over twenty minutes of fighting. Then, Natsu was called to battle a mage from Sabertooth B, the beast takeover if Lucy remembered correctly. She was proven correct almost immediately.

"Well, Natsu actually has an idea on how to fight beast takeover magic what with all those guild brawls..." Lucy commented. "I'd say he's probably going to win this."

Mira nodded. "He's not smart, but he does know a lot of the limitations Elfman has, which means he knows in general what some of the limitations of Beast takeover is. And he can counter that. Probably without even going all fancy with his moves, at that."

Lucy laughed. "Yeah, he does have some nice powerful moves... It'll be interesting to see how this plays out."

Meanwhile Natsu had been fighting and taunting his opponent, very happy to be fighting. So happy he wasn't even trying yet though it had already been nearly ten minutes of fighting. The other mage looked really frustrated. Likely because he had landed a few hits, but Natsu looked like he was barely touched by anything when he stood up again.

Natsu ramped up his attacks. The only reason the beast takeover mage stood any chance against Natsu was because Natsu didn't get as fast as others did, which made him easier to block. Except with his power, Natsu wasn't always the best person to try to block because he could break through armor if he had to. Not all armor, of course, but some.

The fight went on, flames were everywhere, and the beast takeover mage was starting to look more and more panicked. Finally, Natsu managed to land a blow to his head that got him down and out for good. He raised a fist of victory and waved happily at everyone. Then he offered a hand to the other mage who took it reluctantly. Afterwards, the two left.

"Hopefully that curbs Natsu's enthusiasm for a while," Freed remarked dryly. "He got out all that energy, now he just needs to not get in trouble. Or cause trouble."

"That might be too much to ask," Lucy giggled into her hand before shaking her head.

It was now Quatro Cerberus B versus Golden Griffin. It wasn't a fight they really needed to pay attention to, but knowing their magic and strategies would make things easier later on, especially if rumors were true. And there was a free for all type fight at the end. Even if not, they still had four days in which they could have to fight those opponents. The smoke mage from Golden Griffin won. Mermaid Heel's Kagura was called up next, fighting Jura of Lamia Scale.

"Ooh that's going to hurt," Wendy said, wincing at the thought. "Two powerful mages going up against each other?"

"And one of them is Jura. This is going to be an interesting fight. Kagura has been keeping a lot of her skill to herself, so now we can see what she really has up her sleeve."

"And Jura will get that challenge I'm sure he's been looking for," Laxus added.

"So let's see what happens," Lucy grinned and leaned forward as the two mages met in the arena.

Kagura had a stern frown on her face while Jura looked as calm and serene as ever. They shifted into fighting stances and waited until the announcer called the start of the battle. It was on. Kagura ran forward with her sword, but Jura just swept up a hand and blocked her with a pillar of rock. Which she promptly destroyed, continuing on to attack him.

Jura smiled and started fighting in earnest, watching her destroy every rock he pulled against her. She had yet to get near enough to attempt to land a strike on him. But she was certainly pulling off a good fight. The arena was alive with cheers and shouts, people calling out for their favorite to win. It was one of the few battles to really get the crowd going wild. They always participated, but now they were screaming themselves hoarse for their favorites, much like they did in the battles Sabertooth were in. It was thrilling.

"She's going to lose," Gajeel grunted gruffly. "She's not gaining any ground on him. She needs a better strategy against distance mages."

Lucy nodded. "I think you're right. Although I wouldn't call Jura a distance mage... he's more versatile than that. It's just that distance fighting has it's advantages, and I imagine saves him the energy if all he has to do is use magic rather than try to actively fight."

"It might be close," Laxus commented, leaning back with crossed arms. "He's certainly working himself hard, but her stamina is going to run out first. One of the requirements for the Wizard Saints isn't just to be powerful, but to demonstrate having strong reserves of magic above and beyond the average mage. Sometimes someone slips through the cracks because they make up for it but overall... It takes a lot of magic to keep going."

Kagura finally got close enough to attempt a strike on Jura, but he just swung his fist into her stomach. Then he used a well placed pillar of rock to send her across the arena. She stood up shakily, clearly too injured to continue, but refusing to give until he had her knocked out. He waited to see what she would do. Naturally, she tried to attack again. He gently used his next attack to knock her out and was declared the winner after twenty three minutes of intense fighting.

The crowd roared as he went over to help her out of the arena, to her embarrassment and anger. She tried to wiggle out of it, but Jura wasn't about to let her wobble all over the place on her way back to her team. It took several attempts before the announcer was able to announce the next battle.

Eve of Blue Pegasus versus Rogue of Sabertooth. Lucy winced.

"This is going to be brutal, I think. Eve is good, but not dragon slayer good. Sabertooth has a lot to prove right now with us in the lead."

"I think Eve will put up a good fight though," Mira put in. "He's gotten a lot stronger in the last six years, and he was never a pushover to begin with- and he was still pretty young when we disappeared. So he had the easiest time of improving compared to the others of the Trimens."

"And how do you know he's gotten stronger?" Wendy inquired.

"Well, I talk with Jenny Realight a lot and she does not know how to keep her mouth shut." Mira smiled sweetly. "It makes getting information on our enemies pretty easy, at least on the ones she knows. She was almost bragging about how far Blue Pegasus had come while we were missing in action, and how far his snow magic had come was one of the main bragging points."

Lucy nodded. "He would put up a good fight, I think. He was one of the most determined during the Oracion Seis debacle, even if ultimately he didn't get to help much."

The fight started. Eve started by covering the arena with snow. Rogue melted into shadows as Eve started properly trying to attack, which made it easy for him to avoid any attack that came his way. Eve paused and thought for a moment. Then he dropped even more snow on the arena to give himself more to work with in terms of snow and a better terrain for himself that would hopefully make it harder on his opponent. It was just too bad that Rogue's magic worked without there being any shadows already there at least for some techniques.

It became a game of cat and mouse, with Eve as the cat until Rogue flipped the script on him part way through and started actively attacking. Eve managed to get a good attack landed on him, one that looked like it left frostbite on Rogue. Lucy winced. Frostbite hurt, and this was a dragon slayer. All that would do was make him mad. And sure enough, Rogue started going overboard, not stopping until Eve was on the ground, nearly beaten to a pulp from the myriad of attacks thrown at him in a short space of time.

Rogue turned and walked away, shivering a little but trying to look as cool and unaffected as he normally did. There was silence for a moment, no one had expected to see Eve so brutally defeated, and then the cheering began again. Everyone was pretty excited by how that battle went. It was one of the more interesting battles even if it wasn't as intense as they wanted it to be.

"Poor Eve," Wendy gasped, staring at the Blue Pegasus mage.

"Don't worry Wendy," Laxus assured her, "he'll be fine. Look there's Ichiya and Nichiya going to help him get out of the arena. It willwork out okay. They might have to put in their reserve though."

Wendy took a deep breath and nodded. "I wish I could help him... but this is a competition and I can't waste my magic on our opponents." She sighed and sat down.

"I know. Don't worry about him, okay?" Lucy said reassuringly. "I'm sure he understands why he can't just get the best healer around."

Wendy giggled as the announcer started the end of the day wrap up.

"In last place we have Noble Centaur, then there is White Unicorn with 39 points, Quatro Cerberus B with 42, Banshee Wail with 47, and Phoenix Feather is in tenth place with 49 points. Golden Griffin is in ninth with 50 points. In eighth place with 83 points is Quatro Cerberus A, then tied for sixth place is Blue Pegasus and Sabertooth B with 95 points. Mermaid Heel is in fifth place with 118 points. Lamia Scale is in fourth place with 162 points. Fairy Tail A has 163 points in third place, Sabertooth A is in second place with 164 points, and finally, in the lead is Fairy Tail B with 166 points!"

At the end, they all sighed in relief. It took more time to go over the scores each day it felt like. But the next day was a new day, and all the better for trying to stay in the lead, especially without Raven Tail being there to cause trouble. Sabertooth was continuing to be a problem, and a bit of concern in how they treated their members. But there was nothing they could do about it during the Games themselves.

"I really wish we could get through the day without them listing off the scores three times in the day," Laxus grumbled. "We can see the dang scores, there's no need for recaps or updates during the day, just do the last one and be done with it."

Lucy nodded in agreement. "Agreed, it takes so long, and there's only so many ways that the scores can be phrased and made exciting and I'm pretty sure all of them have been exhausted so far."

Gajeel left with a nod to them as the crowds thinned. Mira took the cooler and left too, leaving Freed, Laxus, Lucy, and Wendy considering what they would like to do that day.

"I'm not sure I'm up for much," Lucy admitted. "But I would love to try a new restaurant today."

Wendy checked her over. "The burns are nearly healed up, I don't think you need me to do anymore healing on them, Lucy. Unless you're in pain, I won't do anymore healing. It's better to let things heal as naturally has possible sometimes."

Lucy smiled. "Don't worry, I've hardly felt any pain all day unless my movements affect the burns. I'll be okay. I should be back in order tomorrow," she added to Freed. "If you're okay with me being back in."

Freed shrugged. "That would be acceptable. Although I would suggest you avoid volunteering for the in the morning and hope you don't get called to battle yet anyways."

"Of course. It would be better if I had one more full day of healing but I'm sure I can handle it if necessary."

"Very well." Freed did seem a bit relieved. "While these Games are fun, I do not like my abilities being on display for so many people at once, all them. Not just the dragon slaying."

"I understand." Lucy nodded. "It's weird knowing there's so many people watching us and having high expectations of us."

"Well, we should get moving," Laxus stated, stretching out a bit.

"Oh, right." Lucy nodded. "Let's go."

They started walking. "We never did decide what we're doing..." Wendy observed.

"Let's wait for Bixlow and Ever to join us, they might have some ideas," Lucy suggested.

They waited for a few minutes before Bixlow and Evergreen joined them. Once those two had joined them, they started walking, talking idly about the games that day and anything they had noticed.

"Oh, did you see the reactions of some of the guilds when they found out that Raven Tail had been disqualified? Most of them looked relieved. Aside from Sabertooth." Evergreen smirked. "Apparently other guilds were uncomfortable with Raven Tail's behavior, even if they weren't on the receiving end of it like we were."

Bixlow nodded. "I heard a bunch of the audience talking about the rumors about what happened. They think Fairy Tail was involved, but none of them seem to know how. They do have accurate rumors that there was an attack of the whole guild against a small group and that the small group won though."

"Well, small group is better than two mages." Lucy was trying to be optimistic. "So what do you want to do today?"

"Take it easy, I guess," Evergreen replied promptly. "But I also want to get some shopping done, and to hang out in the park. I feel a bit crowded sometimes these days because of the lack of greenery around here. There's way more in Magnolia."

"Well, at least there is a park," Wendy said softly. "I don't know what I'd do if there wasn't and I've seen places like that..."

"Okay, some shopping and some time in the park it is... Why don't we get some food to go and make it a picnic for dinner?" Laxus suggested. "Keep people from staring too much, since we're Fairy Tail and we're heavily involved in those rumors."

"Good idea." Freed nodded. "We can keep their curiosity at bay if we're not in one place. What should we do for the shopping?"

Lucy grinned. "Leave it to Virgo, she has some good outfits we can change into that's not our usual so people won't notice anything about it. We'll just have to find a place to change... so we might as well start back from the hotel."

"I like it. Let's go!" Evergreen grabbed Lucy and Freed's arm as they were closest and started dragging them to the hotel. Wendy giggled and followed while Laxus and Bixlow glanced at each other, Laxus rolling his eyes, and Bixlow grinning widely.

Not too long after, they were shopping. The outfits weren't anything crazy, but they came with ways to block their most noticeable features if necessary. And Cancer insisted on doing Evergreen, Wendy, and Lucy's hair for them to help further. Freed reluctantly agreed to the same treatment, so long as it could be reversed. He also happened to look the most uncomfortable with what he was wearing, even though it was just as formal as his usual. It just happened to be a different style, a more common formal wear with different colors that did work well with his coloring.

Browsing was going well. Even the guys were finding things they were interested in this time around. Having been over a lot of the wares before, Lucy (and the others) were more comfortable buying this time now that they felt they had seen a good portion of what was available to buy. Nothing too crazy. Mostly clothes and knick-knacks. They also bought up some furniture (Laxus' house was a bit bare bones) that Virgo stored in the celestial world for them. Lucy paid special attention to the books, as she wanted to see if there were any treasures in there about celestial magic, dragon slaying magic, the soul mate thing, or just lost magic in general. She found a few promising books and bought those, though none quite what she was truly looking for.

She also checked for celestial keys as usual. Lucy didn't expect much, but she always had to try. She spotted Yukino at a magical item shop and joined her. Evergreen was looking at fans while Wendy helped her out. Bixlow was annoying Freed while Freed looked at books. Laxus had stopped and looked at a selection of lacrimas.

"Hey, see anything interesting?" Lucy asked Yukino softly.

"Not really..." Yukino sighed. "But there's never really much we can buy, is there?" She shook her head and continued browsing. "There is some good stuff here, but I either don't need it or already have it."

"I know that feeling." Lucy wandered further back in the stall. She gasped. "Yukino, there are keys here!" She discretely called out Loke as she noticed that there were no cards labeling the keys. In fact they were in a rather neglected part of the shop. In some ways, that made sense. Celestial mages were getting rarer and there were people who didn't even know what kind of magic that was. But shop owners tried to keep up with what magic items were in order to be able to help each mage and take care of the items the way they needed to be.

Yukino joined her and gasped. She picked up a key to look at it. "I don't recognize this one..."

"That one would be Phoenix," Loke spoke up. "There aren't many Phoenixes in existence, so it is lesser known."

Lucy nodded absently. "Well this one is Canis Major, and I think I see Ursa Major and Minor here..."

"You would be correct." Loke looked over the keys critically. "I'd suggest buying all of the keys they have, if you have the money because they're not in the greatest shape. It wouldn't be long before some of them will start degrading."

"Alright, I already know I want Canis Major." Lucy decided.

"I'll take Ursa Major and Minor..."

"Oh, I see there's a Lupus and a Canis Minor too... I already have one of each." Lucy passed them over to Yukino.

"Here is Orion..." Yukino held up the key, staring at it in surprise.

Lucy nodded. "And here's Heracles, and Pegasus, I believe."

"Um. If you don't mind, I'd like Orion and those two, you can have Phoenix... I assume Phoenix is a more fire based spirit?" Yukino looked over to Loke who nodded.

"Yes, indeed. Phoenix is fire based and has some healing abilities. You will be taking quite a few silver keys, can you handle that?"

Yukino nodded. "It will take a while to be able to interact with them, getting so many at once, but I think their skills are needed for me to grow as a mage."

"And I'm okay with only taking two keys," Lucy added. "It's not like I need more spirits right now, even if I always want friends. Yukino by comparison has very few to work with. I'd rather she be able to have a greater chance of being able to protect herself."

Loke nodded. "That is fair enough," he conceded. He looked over the display and frowned. He reached behind on of the cushions and pulled out two crystal keys. "What in the world were they doing back there?" he muttered, looking them over with a frown.

"Crystal keys?" Yukino gasped, hesitantly reaching for them but stopping herself last minute.

"Yes, the Crystal keys summon the planetary spirits- spirits that represent the other planets that orbit the sun. A concept that few have studied, but it does exist. They're a step up from silver keys in terms of strength," Loke explained. "And rare. They're like the Zodiac, only one key per type of spirit because there is only one of that spirit."

"Whereas most of the silver keys aside from a few specific have many," Yukino put in with an understanding nod. "I take it they too are not in good shape?"

"They are in better shape, unlike the silver keys they do not tarnish, and they are made to go a long time without being used."

"I can't believe that they were hiding back here... how did they get back here? How did no one realize what a treasure they had? The existence of keys besides the silver and gold keys has been lost to the years..." Lucy shook her head. "Is there any special requirement like the obsidian keys?"

Loke hesitated. "Yes..." he frowned as he tried to remember what it was. It had been centuries since he had to think about it, so it took him a minute to drag it up. "You need to have at least five contracts in order to make a contract with a crystal key. After you summon them the first time, they will talk to you, then disappear to the spirit world to interview your spirits to decide if it is a good fit. You'll have to call them out the next day to hear their decision. Once you have one of them in your possession, they can give you recommendations on which of the other crystal keys will be best to make the process easier in the future."

Lucy nodded decisively. She looked at the two keys. "Mars and Venus... A fighter and a healer, right?" She tilted her head, trying to remember the legends. At least she had remembered their symbols.

"Correct." Loke nodded.

She looked over to Yukino. "Which one do you want?"

"I think... I think I would like one that is not quite so violent, so Venus would be the better choice. I want to make sure I am on the right path and don't fall into bad habits." Yukino took the key with a shaking hand.

Lucy took the other key. "That makes three keys for me, and eight for you...?" She looked over at Yukino.

"Ursa Major and Minor, Pegasus, Lupus, Heracles, Orion, Canis Minor, and Venus... yes that's eight. And that means between the two of us we have all the keys here."

"Good." Lucy huffed. "They deserve better than to be gathering dust. You have enough to pay for all of them?"

"I should. I did earn a lot of money with Sabertooth." Yukino nodded.

They went up and paid. They exchanged looks when the crystal keys only cost 20,000 jewels. Lucy only had to pay 100,000 jewels for her three. Yukino had to pay 230,000 jewels. But it was worth it to both of them. They left quickly, both beaming with joy at having found new spirits to add to their friends.

"I bet the crystal keys cost less than the others because they don't look like they're worth as much as the silver ones. He clearly had no idea what he actually had." Loke had his hands in his pockets, but he was pleased to have gotten those keys out of there, not that he was showing it much.

Lucy nodded. "That makes sense to me."

"I'm going to go make contracts with a few of my new keys, and hopefully finish that up tomorrow." Yukino smiled at Lucy. "I'm glad we found them. And I'm glad you were with me. I will see you soon."

"I'm glad we got to hang out. I'll see you soon," Lucy promised, still beaming. She was bouncing a little in anticipation.

She looked at Loke once Yukino had walked away. "I suppose I should start with Mars, get that conversation over with, and then I'll make Phoenix's contract. Phoenix could be very helpful in the Games. If I still feel up for it after that, I'll call Canis Major," she decided firmly. Loke nodded, not seeing any problem with her choices. Laxus came up to her.

"I could feel your excitement from over block away, what did you find? More keys?" He wrapped an arm around her as they walked to meet up with the others to decide on food.

"You know me so well," Lucy laughed, "yes, I did find more keys. Yukino too. She picked up more than me, but then she has way less keys than I do so it works out better for her. Once we decide on food, I want to leave the others to picking it up so I can get started on contract making. I found a crystal key."

Laxus radiated amusement. "Which one is that?"

"A step above silver, and a step below granite, which is a step below gold," she responded promptly. "And they have special requirements, so I want to call out Mars first to get that out of the way."

Laxus frowned. "Why do the other keys have special requirements, but not the gold or silver keys?"

Loke sighed. "The silver and gold keys were created first, modeled off of the constellations." He looked away. "And it did not go well the first century. The Celestial king learned from his mistake, and he made sure the other keys had... failsafes, I guess you could say. To protect them better from the abuse. To give them better options so they weren't as... trapped. Things got better after that... and many have forgotten what it was like in that first century. I could never forget." Loke sounded haunted.

He shook his head and snapped out of it, the dark look disappearing. "But that is in the past and we can do nothing about that now. Between you and Yukino, Lucy, things are improving for the celestial spirits, and seeing you in action will hopefully improve things further, especially if you get an interview in Sorcerer's weekly where you can talk about that."

"Understood." Lucy knew she was short with her response, but now she was thinking about the history of the spirits. A very sparse and unknown history. They just showed up one day, and eventually handed out keys to others. They were good magic users but once their keys were out... people stopped thinking of them as human. But now she had a hint to their origin. Which made her wonder... Who was the Celestial Spirit King really? How was he able to create all those keys? And a pocket dimension?

Laxus gave her a knowing look while Loke looked surprised and almost hurt. Laxus noticed and sighed. "She's just... thinking. I can feel her concentration and almost confusion. If I had a guess? You gave her something to think about with celestial spirits, and there's pretty much nothing about your origin so she's very distracted."

Loke relaxed and sighed. "I should've known."

Laxus nodded shortly as they continued to walk. They were still planning on that picnic after all. Lucy didn't come out of thought for a while. They met up with their friends and found a place to set up their picnic before she did. She looked around with surprise. She looked at her new keys and decided on making the contracts after the lunch.

Conversation flowed easily for the next hour or so while they enjoyed their lunch. Well, some of them stayed silent, and it wasn't like they were always interested in what the others had to say. But it was still an enjoyable time. Finally though, Lucy found the opportunity to try summoning Mars.

She stood up excitedly and went through the motions, calling her magic through familiar paths. She smiled at the sound of a successful summoning and watched the spirit emerge. Mars was... female. She blinked in surprise. For all that she knew great female fighters (and they tended to be scarier than the men), she didn't expect Mars to be a woman.

"Hello Mars," Lucy greeted with a smile. She had decided to ruminate over it later. "I'm Lucy Heartfilia. It's nice to meet you."

Mars looked around, noting the picnic and Lucy's friends. They were respectfully keeping themselves occupied, though paying some attention to what was going on. Although, Laxus was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, listening both to his music and the conversation.

"I suppose it is nice to meet you too. So you expect me to fight for you? Expected a strong man? Your sweet exterior doesn't fool me. Anyone who looks that cute and innocent is hiding a dark secret. So what is it then?" she interrogated as she paced around Lucy, ignoring the others.

Lucy straightened up and glowered at Mars, crossing her arms. "I expect you to fight with me," she corrected. "I don't care if you are a man or woman. Some of the best mages I know are women. I didn't know I still look cute and innocent. I know I'm not. I've been tortured. I've faced many mages fighting for my friends and my guild. I have ten of the twelve Zodiac keys, and contracts with several silver keys. As well as one obsidian key. Have you not heard of me? Or is this just your way of testing me? I don't know that I have any dark secrets." Lucy shrugged.

"I have a temper, I can be impatient. I'm a dragon slayer which makes those issues worse. I would do anything for my friends- and I count all of my spirits among my friends. I used to be weak and struggle in fights, especially compared to my friends because they far outstripped me in power and experience. And even knowledge. But now I've caught up and can give them a good fight, even if I don't win."

Mars narrowed her eyes. "That's what you claim... but do you follow through? How do I know that you won't use me as a shield as all celestial mages do? How do I know you can handle me?"

Lucy glanced around, decided the clearing was big enough, and took up a fighting stance. "Then let's have a fight, and we'll see if I hold up to your standards. I don't appreciate you deciding who I am based on some bad experiences. I know those people were terrible. But not everyone is that abusive. Not everyone just sees you as tools. I love my spirits as family and I hope you are the same. But then, if you're questioning this much, maybe we aren't compatible and should part ways."

"Are you so certain of yourself? And your friends? Will they not interfere? Will they not treat me like I'm not around?" Mars was still circling her. Lucy didn't bother following her with her body or eyes, choosing to use her other senses.

Lucy shot a look at her friends. Laxus held up his hands, a small smirk on his face. "Yeah that's your spirit. I know better than to interfere with your friends."

She grinned and spun to block the first attack with nothing but her arms. She grunted under the power of the blow and pushed back until Mars jumped backwards, eyebrows raised. "Not bad. A normal celestial mage, particularly those who rely on their spirits to fight would never have the strength to hold up against a blow like that. Even some weaker mages who aren't celestial would have trouble."

Lucy bared her teeth. "I never said I was a normal celestial mage. As for my friends..." Lucy tapped her keys and summoned Virgo and Loke. Virgo, as she expected, had popcorn. Evergreen immediately stole some, commenting on how they were just in time for the show. Lucy shook her head in amusement as Mars started circling her. This time she joined in the circling. Loke leaned over to Freed to ask for an update on what had been established so far, mostly wondering how it had already come down to a fight.

"So your friends are comfortable with your spirits, and perfectly willing to see them as human."

Loke laughed. "It's pretty easy for that to happen with someone like Lucy. Besides, I was a part of their guild for three years before they knew I was a spirit!"

"I'm not sure if that helps my cause or not, Loke." Lucy sighed, dodging a punch and throwing a kick just after. Mars blocked it, eyes widening when it pushed her back a little.

"Okay, how about this? I was banished from the celestial world until she forcefully tried to send me back and argued with the Celestial Spirit King on my behalf."

Mars whipped around to stare at him. Lucy took that opportunity to pull out her whip and wrap it around the spirit's arm. She then pulled back, throwing Mars off-balance. Mars stumbled. Lucy then went into her favorite non-magic chain of kicks and punches, making it through three of the five before Mars recovered enough to block and attack.

"You have a whole day to interview my spirits, but only now to figure out what you think of me before then. So, can we focus back on the task at hand? I believe you wanted me to prove that I could fight alongside my spirits? A fight is the best way to do that. And since I don't want to hurt you I won't be summoning any spirits, Loke and Virgo are just here to watch and provide commentary for my friends."

"You summoned two gold spirits. For entertainment." Mars' deadpanned. She shook her head. "Well that proves that you're magically strong, since you're showing no sign of strain yet. But that also means that you're insane fighting with your bare hands and a magical whip. Do you know who I am?"

"You really shouldn't be underestimating my princess," Loke called smugly.

"You are Mars. One of the planetary keys. Which means you are the spirit that represents the planet of Mars, which was named after a god in a different country, which corresponds to our own Ares, god of war, even if you may or may not share the same traits and abilities. Being a crystal key, your strength is greater than the silver keys, but any other type of key is stronger than you. But that doesn't mean you are to be underestimated. No mage or spirit should be underestimated- even when strength is low, strategy can go a long way to winning a fight." They had continued exchanging blows with Lucy using her whip to keep Mars as off-balance as possible.

Mars tripped Lucy then called forth a spear to attack her with. Lucy grinned and countered with her whip. She felt like she was doing pretty good but Mars was holding back. Time to give her a reason to work harder for a victory. She shifted stances and put her whip away. Mars eyed her warily, keeping her distance. Perfect.

Lucy unleashed a dragon's roar, then started fighting with her magic. It put Mars on the defensive for a minute until she adjusted. Once she had the rhythm and they were fairly evenly matched once more, Mars smirked at her.

"Now this is more like it, you use celestial magic then? Dragon slaying magic at that. I hope you know plain celestial magic, though."

"Of course. What kind of celestial mage would I be if I couldn't use even the most basic of spells let alone one like Urano Metria. I prefer to use them more as a... last resort of sorts since dragon slaying does the job nicely most of the time, and uses less magic."

"Good strategy," Mars nodded in approval. She stepped back, releasing her weapons. "Good fight. I've seen what I needed, and heard what I needed from you. I will be interviewing your spirits now." She disappeared.

Lucy stretched, testing out the new bruises. "Well that was interesting. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't that."

"I think you impressed her," Loke remarked. "She likes the mages with fighting spirit. She doesn't expect them to be able to stand up in a fight with her, she usually relies on the spirits to confirm how the mages handle fighting with spirits, but you did well with her."

"It was easier than fighting Capricorn." Lucy shrugged. "And I'm sure she didn't show all of her fighting capabilities."

"You know, I thought Mars was a man." Bixlow spoke up into the silence that followed.

Loke winced. "Don't ever let her hear you say that. Ever. She hates that perception and gets rather violent to anyone who even hints she should be a man."

"Then how did the myths get mixed up?" Freed asked with interest leaning forward.

"It's just how Lucy said. The planetary keys came from myths, who were actual people at one point in a different country- I can't remember which one at the moment- and the country worshipped them as gods, much as Fiore has their own gods of myth even if they aren't worshipped so much anymore. And the people of the other country decided their gods had to have a counterpart- thereby changing Mars from female to male to match Ares as she was far too hot-blooded to match up with Athena."

Lucy nodded, then smirked. "Well, at least I know a lot of people I'll fight with her will stand no chance against her rage or at least be very surprised."

"You seem so certain you'll win her over," Evergreen teased.

"Well, I do seem to be good at gaining new spirits and making new friends out of them. And I know for a fact I hit all the points I'm looking for- and then some. Plus, my spirits seem to be making it a point to make me famous in the celestial spirit world."

Both Loke and Virgo were unrepentant. "We better get back for those interviews she wants to do." Loke sighed. "Those are always so boring."

"You've done them before?"

"On the rare times our paths have crossed over the centuries, yes. Only a handful of times."

"Well, good luck." Lucy waved to them as she took out Phoenix's key. She summoned the spirit quickly. No drain yet. She grinned to herself as the light started clearing. Increasing her magic strength so quickly made it weird not to have a drain but it was also very freeing.

When the light cleared, there was a gorgeous woman standing there with feathered wings. Multicolored feathered wings. There was feathers intermingled with her red hair. She held herself in a regal bearing, as if she were royalty. Lucy took a brief moment to take it all in; this was not what she was expecting. But Phoenix was beautiful with the colors and the feathers. That was without getting into her clothes and how well they complemented her coloring.

"Hello, Phoenix. I am Lucy Heartfilia."

"Hello, Lucy Heartfilia. It is nice to finally meet you. I have heard a lot about you from the other spirits, though much of it is now rumor rather than fact."

Lucy blushed lightly. She was getting more confident, but it was still a bit embarrassing learning she was basically a celebrity there. "I wanted to make a contract with you."

"I would love to make a contract with you. I currently do not wish for any days off, bu that may change as I adjust to being among other spirts again. I tend to be alone when I do not have a contract in place."

"That makes sense." Lucy nodded. "What can you do?"

"I can heal, though it is not as effective as the stories say. I can still heal poison and keep people from death's door, but the worst of injuries takes a lot, and so I cannot heal those injuries completely with most owners. I might be able to eventually, if you keep getting stronger."

Lucy nodded. "Healing is always useful. We have another healer on our team, that's Wendy over there. She uses sky dragon slaying magic," she pointed, "but she has a tendency to overdo it and exhaust herself. I am happy that she will not be alone."

Phoenix looked over at the girl. "It has been a while since I have seen a sky magic user. I will be happy to give you pointers to avoid exhaustion. It is all about where you direct the healing, and how precisely you direct your magic. The more fine control, the less magic is used." She turned back to Lucy. "I also have the ability to use fire, and once a time I am out, provided I am not at less than half of my magic reserve, I will regenerate instead of leaving this realm upon receiving too much damage."

"Oooh, fire, that is one I've been missing in my repertoire." Lucy grinned. "Having a variety to use always makes fights easier."

"That we can agree on." Phoneix nodded gracefully. "I look forward to working with you."

They talked a bit more about what Phoenix could do, and the final details of the contract. Then Lucy dismissed her and sighed. Phoenix was more of a drain than the average silver key, but she wasn't that drained. She just wasn't sure she wanted to summon another spirit. She wanted to take her time to get to know her spirits. To train with them. But they had the Games to finish, and while Phoenix and Mars would be good to have in a fight, she was not sure Canis Major would be. She wasn't even sure what kind of spirit Canis Major was. So Canis Major would have to wait. She put away the keys and then sat down.

She enjoyed a good conversation with her friends for the rest of the night. Then it was time to go back to the hotel, and eventually get to bed. It was nearly time for day 7 of the Games. Lucy was starting to feel ready for them to be done, as enjoyable as it was to be able to show off her skills.

.

Lucy leaned on the balcony of their box, looking down at the arena. She wasn't in the mood for talking, yet. Which was unusual, since she was a morning person. But she hadn't slept well. Nightmares had appeared about what had happened with Raven Tail. She was a bit embarrassed that Laxus had felt her feelings and met her in the common area to comfort her when she went for something to drink. She was used to nightmares, and could handle them on her own. She didn't really need Laxus to come to her rescue. So she was having a bit of a sulk about the fact that she can't hide feelings from him anymore. Laxus wisely stayed away, though she could tell from his feelings that he was alarmed by the realization of what sharing feelings meant. That if he had a nightmare she would know.

Mira approached Lucy, but was greeted with a glare. Mira was unfazed. She knew how to deal with a grumpy Lucy. She handed Lucy a shake she had procured on her way out upon noticing that Lucy was not her cheerful self and backed off. Lucy took it with a nod and started sipping it as they waited for the proceedings to finally begin.

She tuned out the reminder of the scores, and then tuned back in when they got ready to announce the game for the day. Everyone was waiting with anticipation.

"Today's theme is scavenger hunt. Much like those missions many of you guilds get to help find lost possessions. Choose the person competing wisely."

Lucy turned around and crossed her arms. Gajeel was already shaking his head. Wendy looked interested but not confident. Mira seemed like she didn't care either way. Laxus was definitely interested.

"I'll go," he volunteered. "I actually enjoy those type of missions."

Lucy nodded. "I don't think I'm in the right state of mind to actually compete today," she admitted. "Even if I am good at scavenger hunts myself."

Laxus smiled at her and gave her a kiss before heading down, joining Erza from the other team. Erza gave him a nod. She was a good choice, considering their other options. Plus there was a surprising amount of S-class missions that were essentially scavenger hunts. Mostly because the items in question were very expensive and they didn't want just any mage hunting them down, even if they were just lost and not stolen.

Lucy returned her attention to the arena and observed the people chosen from the other teams. Rufus was probably the best choice with his memory-make magic. From what Lucy had gathered since the Games started, that also gave him an incredible memory, near perfect. That was always useful. Yuka, he made sense, very intelligent from what she remembered of Galuna Island, and had observed so far. Hibiki was another good choice. He wasn't good at combat situations, but was very good at anything requiring information. Lucy wasn't entirely certain about any of the others, despite having seen them throughout the Games. None of them had really stood out. Well, Sol seemed intelligent enough but she never got to see him in action until the Games.

"How this game will work. Each of you will be getting a box with all the information you will need to succeed today. You will be recorded as you travel throughout the city, aiming to get everything on your lists. Some might require magic to get, some might not. As you will be outside the arena, any fighting will be in designated areas so as to allow the citizens who are still going about their daily life to avoid danger. And yes, you might have to fight for your items. Everyone has been given a different one of the thirty items to find first. Don't want to cause a bottleneck with the first one.

"It is now 10:30am. You have until 1:30pm, three hours, to get all thirty items and to place them in the box in your designated spot. Placing will be determined by the amount of items each person has at the end of the time, and in order of who arrived back first if mages have the same amount of items. Good luck."

Each competitor held their box and waited. The bell sounded. They opened the box and then it was off. Rufus barely glanced at his list before he left. Laxus read through carefully, being one of the last ones to leave the arena, but when he left, it was through his lightning teleportation.

Lucy watched with interest. Not just because she could tell what Laxus was feeling (and therefore have an idea of what he was thinking), but because teleportation would add a wrench in this. But then... Rufus with his memory-make magic could make it difficult, especially if he 'memorized' the teleportation in the first place. So far he hadn't used it, but it might just be a matter of time.

None of the others had such an easy way to get to their items. Erza was using her speed armor, Hibiki was typing into his Archive frantically, likely looking for the fastest routes, and Sol could travel in the earth which likely made it easier on him.

Rufus got to his first item when Laxus was on his third. He saw Erza, on her second, going for the same item, but too far away to fight for it. He smirked anyways, and activated his memory magic, teleporting away. Lucy really wanted to know how it worked- was it like a mimicking magic he used, or was he actually using the proper magic for each move? Either way, he quickly got up the momentum to beat Laxus to the arena, avoiding all fights completely while Laxus ended up having to waste time fighting against Yuka. He won, of course, and set Yuka back by the several minutes it took the Lamia Scale mage to recover.

Laxus teleported into the arena two minutes after Rufus and set the box down where they were directed to do so. Mostly so that some officials could make sure they did grab the right items, if the screens had missed something. Hibiki ran in, panting five minutes after that, sprinting for the table and nearly collapsing on the ground as Erza flew in right after.

Lucy was impressed. Hibiki really had found the fastest routes to each item, even in the order on the list. He managed to avoid a single fight, and barely beat Erza. He may not be good for fighting, but he was a resourceful mage and the sort a client would want on this sort of mission.

Sol popped up from the ground next. He was followed by Beth darting in, clutching the box to her chest after an intense bout with the illusion mage from Sabertooth B. Her plants had made it easier to target the real mage and she closed her eyes for the rest, leaving the mage behind, completely knocked out. It had mostly been luck, but Beth was smart, and used what she could.

Jager slid in next, followed by the mage of Sabertooth B bouncing on a bubble. The mages of White Unicorn and Golden Griffin stumbled in at near the same time, just before the timer went off. Wind magic just slightly beat out light magic. The remaining competitors were brought in.

Sabertooth B's illusion mage had the most items. Yuka had the next amount, looking very disgruntled. He'd had the worst luck with fighting. That left the two mages from Phoenix Feather and Noble Centuar, who had been fighting for a tie breaker item when the time was up.

"With that, that means that in last place, is Noble Centaur! In thirteenth is White Unicorn, then Quatro Cerberus B. In eleventh place we have Phoenix Feather! Then Golden Griffin in tenth! Then Banshee Wail. In eighth place is Quatro Cerberus! In seventh we have Sabertooth B, then in sixth is Blue Pepagsus. Mermaid heel is in fifth, then Lamia Scale is in fourth. In third we have Fairy Tail A. And once again tied for first is Fairy Tail B and Sabertooth A!"

Lucy groaned. "We're just going to keep trading first place with them, aren't we?" She huffed. "Unless someone has a low placing or a lost battle..."

"It sure seems that way," Mira agreed pleasantly with a smile. "But I'm sure we can manage. Laxus did well."

"He did. I'm wondering if there's anything Rufus can't do, and if there is any way to beat him without brute strength."

"There usually is some way," Wendy spoke up. "But I can't think of anything. Maybe being too fast for him to counter?"

"That could work. And he hasn't really shown how well he can copy magic done by spirits, so hopefully that would give me an edge."

"And my magic is takeover," Mira remarked. "I'm not sure what he could do against that if I used no spells after taking on my demon form."

"True." Lucy nodded. "We'll have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully none of us have to face him and figure it out."

Laxus joined them at that point and wrapped his arm around Lucy. "That wasn't even hard." he smiled slightly. "Annoyed that guy could copy me though."

Lucy nodded. "I know. It's weird how his magic works. It almost seems like he should win every battle with his ability but there has to be a weakness somewhere. Wendy suggested being too fast for him."

"That could probably work," Lauxs nodded. "From what we've seen he can undo magic and counter as well, but that doesn't mean much if he can't be fast enough to counter, layer on the attacks without break and he'll at least be off-balance enough to make a good effort at defeating him. I hope no one has to fight him though."

Gajeel then made himself known. "So, I did some digging at the older Grand Magic Games and Levy helped and we found that the Game usually ends with a big fight, where everyone, all teams, are fighting against the other teams. It's the finale and tends to be a way even those who really failed can catch up and place decently even if they have no chance of getting first place."

Lucy sighed. "Then I suppose we should start thinking about our strategies for that."

"I don't need strategies," Gajeel cackled. "I just need a good fight." he paused. "But I suppose figuring who who I should aim to fight would be pretty useful, yeah."

"Let's wait until day nine to worry about that," Mira suggested. "We'll need to know how much of a margin we have points wise before then. If we're still tied, that'll be one thing, if we're ahead by at least ten points, that'll make it easier."

"Right." Lucy nodded at Mira. "For now, we should probably eat," she added sheepishly, seeing that Mira had opened the cooler and was in the process of passing out the sandwiches.

Everyone agreed and they settled in. After the first sandwich, Laxus leaned over to Lucy. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah," Lucy nodded. She yawned. "Still wish I'd gotten more sleep, and that you know hadn't been a thing with the nightmare, but I guess I'm dealing with it."

"I was thinking," Laxus started, "while there's nothing about stopping it in the book, it does mention something about control and adjusting. Do you think that we could do something to... mute or block?"

"That's... possible..." Lucy mused slowly. "I think we need to consider it further, and I think that it'd be better for muting, rather than blocking. As... weird as it is, I'm not sure I want to completely stop what we have now, you know?"

"I know," Laxus agreed softly. "I find myself rather relieved I won't have to try to explain myself as much in the future. Trying to detail how I feel is a bit... difficult to articulate."

Lucy nodded. "Why don't we try meditating together later?" she suggested. "If the bond is magic, then maybe it'll show up when we look for our magic?"

"That's not a bad idea," Laxus agreed. He took another sandwich for himself and another for Lucy. After passing it over to her he started eating.

"Sorry about being so grumpy," Lucy sighed. Then she took a bite.

"It's okay, I understand. It's not like you lashed out in any way that actually hurt."

Lucy just nodded, still a bit embarrassed by her unusual show of temper. Well, unusual when not dealing with Natsu, Happy, or Gray. Or all three plus Erza. The two ate in relative silence for the rest of the break before they knew they would have to deal with the matches. That was going to be fun, once again. At least they didn't have to worry about Raven Tail, but Sabertooth was starting to seem like they were getting more and more agitated. That gave Lucy a thought.

She turned around to face Gajeel. "Did you and Levy see anything about how Sabertooth scored in the other Games?"

"They only appeared last year, but they were way ahead of everyone. They got first place in everything, from what we saw."

"Then they must be pretty pissed off right now." Laxus frowned.

Wendy frowned, glancing over at the Sabertooth booths again. The ones for the teams were absolutely quiet, no one talking. There even seemed to be divisions, leaving a few to sit on their own. The box with the guild in it was not as quiet but they all looked either a bit nervous or annoyed at something. Except for the guild leader who seemed pretty upset. Which was pretty weird considering they got first place in the morning games, and the battles hadn't occurred yet.

"People like that always pull out the craziest shit," Gajeel grumbled. "I would not be surprised if they toe the line or even go further to win. If they're that determined to win they'll stop at nothing to reach that goal. We best be prepared."

Lucy grimaced. "I was afraid of that. We'll be ready for anything. Fighting against crazies is what Fairy Tail does best after all."

Laxu had to laugh at that. "That we do," he agreed.

Idle chat now filled the time until the battles started. They were mostly still working out details on what they were going to do until if they won or lost with earning money and fitting back into daily life. Going to train had been easy when they were still so adrift, but it was time to get back to real life. Gajeel didn't have much to contribute, but then he was the sort that wasn't very social. Laxus contributed a bit, but he had enough saved up it wouldn't be a problem for a few months more.

"For our first battle, we have... oooh this is going to be a fun one! Sabertooth versus Sabertooth! Minerva!" The cheers were deafening. So much so they couldn't hear who the one from Sabertooth B was. It was one of the best, the one who used blood magic. Or rather, used their blood as their magic. Or other's blood.

"This is going to be vicious," Lucy murmured, leaning forward with interest. "She's not going to make this easy on him."

"Most definitely not," Mira agreed. "I hope she doesn't go too far."

The battle start. It was fast and furious from the beginning. Her opponent clearly knew what Minerva was capable of. He didn't hesitate to pull out two or three cuts to draw blood from immediately, but it wasn't enough. He lasted two minutes before she was breaking his blood weapons and slashing into him with her own sword, a maniacal grin on her face as she did so.

Everyone was stunned into silence when she kept doing it, despite his clear unconsciousness. The host and referee eventually got a hold of hand called an end to the match. Minerva kicked dust on her opponent and walked away with a scoff.

For a moment, no one moved. Even some of the biggest fans weren't sure how to react to it, but then Minerva stopped and smiled sweetly at the audience, waving a bloodstained hand.

"We're Sabertooth. We're here to win! And don't you forget it!" She yelled. Cheers erupted.

Wendy covered her mouth. "She..."

Lucy put a hand on her shoulder. "I know. This is just a new dimension to what we knew she would do already. She's not a good person, and I think, as a whole, neither is Sabertooth."

She looked to the booths once again, where most of them were cheering wildly at her win, though Sabertooth B just looked terrified. There were some among the guild who looked very uncomfortable, like they didn't want to be around her at all. It was... something.

The announcers recovered and announced the next battle: Ren of Blue Pegasus against Risely of Mermaid Heel.

"Wind against gravity," Mira said thoughtfully. "I wonder how well gravity will hold up. Wind doesn't exactly follow gravity."

Lucy nodded. "I was wondering the same thing."

It turns out, not that well. Risely adapted well and pulled out unexpected tricks. That dragged out the battle several minutes longer, but in the end she was rather easily defeated. Ren helped her up and then walked off after the pronouncement that he won.

The next battle turned out to be Mira against a member of Banshee Wail. Mira smiled pleasantly as she went down to meet her opponent. The opponent eyed her nervously, going pale when Mira's smile widened.

Then the fight was called to start. The other mage called up a wall of plants. An interesting opening ploy. Mira didn't move as she used takeover to use her default demon. It was effective, easy to control, and good against most opponents. The plant mage peered around the plant wall when no attack came to get a punch to the face.

Lucy winced. "Oof, that had to hurt. Mira's going to win."

"No doubt," Wendy agreed. "She certainly got the advantage quickly by not exploding into motion immediately. He was clearly expecting her to do that, not take her time."

A few punches later, the mage having no time to use his magic, and he was out for the count. Fairy Tail B had another solid victory under their belts.

Next was a swords mage from Golden Griffin against Nobarly of Quatro Cerberus A. It was a longer fight, but Nobarly won in the end.

Then it was a rainbow mage from White Unicorn against the fire to ice mage of Phoenix Feather. Rainbow magic was similar to rainbow fire magic, but without fire and with some slightly different but no less effective, uses.

"I do wonder how one learns fire to ice magic or how it even came to be," Lucy mused, watching as the Phoenix Feather mage set something on fire then froze it.

"Me too, it certainly has some interesting applications in a fight," Laxus agreed. "I think she's going to win that one. Rainbow mage isn't really adaptable. She should really know better with so many options."

"Some people are idiots," Gajeel grunted. "Nothing more to it than that."

Wendy giggled. "You could be nicer about it."

"She's not here to hear me, now is she? Now that would really be mean."

Wendy giggled harder.

Finally, the Phoenix Feather mage managed to get fire onto the other mage and froze it, freezing part of the other mage. This gave her all the advantage she needed to secure another win for Phoenix Feather. Everyone cheered. Even if the two guilds were at the lower end of the standings, they still gave a good fight that was very entertaining to watch.

Up next after that was Quatro Cerberus B, the animal balloon mage, against Jura of Lamia Scale. The whole arena collectively winced in sympathy for the poor Quatro Cerberus mage, who looked a bit pale and terrified to be going up against who was ranked as the top mage in the Games.

"Oof... I hope Jura goes easy on him." Wendy covered her eyes.

Laxus chuckled. "I think he will. He looks a bit worried. Probably doesn't want to hurt him too much."

The fight was over as soon as it began. Jura opened with a simple stone pillar... that the other mage ran headfirst into and was knocked out right away. Jura shook his head and picked up the mage, ignoring the shouting and laughter in the stands.

Then it was finally the last battle of the day. Gray looked pleased when he was called up, though he was up against one of the mages of Noble Centaur. Most of the ones lower in the standings put up good fights, but they could not stand up to the caliber of the upper half of the standings anyways.

That meant Gray would probably win an easy fight, and he, like many, was torn on if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Because like most Fairy Tail mages, he liked a good fight.

The poison mage tried to get a hit in quickly, making it clear he uses poison. Gray went with his ice decoy to avid being poisoned and then kept his distance. Some fancy ice makes later, and the poison mage was trapped. The referee made sure he was truly stuck before calling the match; another win for Fairy Tail A.

"And that concludes day seven of the Grand Magic Games. As for standings, in last place, we have Noble Centaur with 23 points, then White Unicorn with 45. Quatro Cerberus B has 50 points. Golden Griffin has 57, just short of Banshee Wail who has 59 points. Phoenix Feather is just ahead of them at 62 points, and Quatro Cerberus A has finally broken 100 with 102 points in eighth place. In seventh place is Sabertooth B with 110 place, then in sixth place is Blue Pegasus with 121 points. Mermaid Heel is in fifth place with 128 points. Lamia Scale is in fourth place with 176 points, while Fairy Tail B has 187 points in third. Sabertooth A and Fairy Tail B continue to be tied for first place, now with 194 points each. Who knows what the next three days will bring?"

Gajeel huffed. "Noble Centaur has absolutely no chance of catching up. Really, none under 100 points do."

Mira nodded serenely. "They're certainly trying their best though. They just keep getting the bad luck in battles of going up against the better teams instead of the equally weak teams."

"I think that's why Noble Centaur is in last. They might have won one of their battles so far," Lucy put in, shaking her head. "But it's still great they're here, for the publicity. Just because they can't stand up to us, doesn't mean they're not good mages. They still managed to beat a hundred other teams to make it here."

"I never realized just how elite Fairy Tail was," Wendy admitted. "But now I don't feel as bad for not being able to keep up as well."

Lucy nodded. "So, now the evening awaits. What does everyone want to do?"

After a few minutes of discussing, everyone decided to split up and relax for the evening. Lucy wanted to spend time with some of her spirits she hadn't had the chance to recently. She also needed to hear from Mars about the results of the interviews but she didn't expect there to be any issues. Just the usual working out of contracts.

Laxus decided to spend some one on one time with Belle, as they hadn't had enough time for that lately. Freed was going to spend time with Mira, and Evergreen with Elfman. Both were blushing at the knowing smirks on their friend's faces. Wendy decided on spending time with Carla. They were still rebuilding their friendship after what happened before the S-Class trials so long ago. Gajeel didn't say anything, just grumbled about nosy friends and walked out.

With that settled, they all split up to go do their separate things.

.

A young woman frowned as she wandered one of the parks of Crocus. Earlier that day she had a up close view of a fight- that lightning dragon slayer of Fairy Tail. It just brought into sharper focus the question she had been debating with herself for a long time, years, but only more seriously recently.

She needed help, and she thought the best help might come from a guild, but she wasn't sure she could handle being in a crowd, or if they could handle her problem. From watching the guilds, forgetting the lightning dragon slayer, Fairy Tail seemed like the most capable. Sabertooth would probably not handle it well at all. More likely to beat her for it.

As if emphasizing her point, a squirrel darting by startled her and a wave of hail and a flash of lightning, accompanied by wind and drops of water left her finger tips. She flinched back, but forced herself to breathe and look for any damage. The lighting singed a patch of grass, and some branches were on the ground. The hail was melting. She sighed. It wasn't as bad as it could be.

She needed to make her decision, and soon. She couldn't deal with this much longer.

A/n Oh look, a wild OC.

Hope you enjoyed!